Today's News: Alberta says Never Mind!

I guess Alberta premier Danielle Smith is the Emily Litella of Canadian politics.  

Cole Bennett provides an excellent summary of the whole mess with Alberta's school library book weeding list: 

Cole Bennett / Cole.notcole

SMITH’S BOOK BAN BACKFIRES AS UCP UNRAVELS
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party government have been forced to backtrack on their controversial order to remove “sexually explicit” books from school libraries after overwhelming public opposition, including criticism from Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood, whose The Handmaid’s Tale appeared on one of the removal lists.
The UCP’s education minister originally framed the directive as a way to keep pornographic material out of schools. But the actual order was far broader, prompting Edmonton Public Schools to list more than 200 titles as unacceptable in order to remain compliant. The list included Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, both internationally celebrated works studied in classrooms for decades. [To see the list, click here]
The government’s attempt to sell the policy as child protection quickly collapsed once it became clear that the scope of the ban extended far beyond what was publicly claimed. Critics say the move was less about protecting children and more about appeasing ideological lobby groups that had pressed the government to impose restrictions.
Pushback against the order snowballed over the weekend, with Atwood publicly criticizing the government twice on Twitter/X. Educators, parents, and community leaders also condemned the measure as censorship that undermines public education.
By Tuesday, the government announced the directive would be paused. While Smith has tried to cast blame on school boards for “mismanaging” the rollout, the reversal underscores the growing perception that her government is increasingly out of touch with the everyday concerns of Albertans.
....With teachers on the brink of striking and Albertans facing rising costs of living, many are asking why the province’s leadership is preoccupied with censorship and culture wars instead of solving the problems that matter most.

When we told you you to ban all the books, we like totally didn't mean to _ban all the books_, sheesh #AbPoli #AbLeg

— Victor L. McConought (@vic4alberta.bsky.social) September 2, 2025 at 3:44 PM

Today's News: Our peaceful time is over

The peace and quiet was great while it lasted.

Canada has been enjoying a mostly-Poilievre-free summer. 

But its over now. 

Already we're getting inarticulate and inaccurate Poilievre blasts about how awful Canada is. 

And already our media are trying to turn back the mis-information tide with articles like this one: 

Campbell Clark / The Globe and Mail (gift link)

There is no flood of newcomers anymore, Mr. Poilievre
...Now net immigration is pretty much zero.
...The statement issued by Mr. Poilievre last week blasted the government for supposedly blowing through the 2025 targets for new arrivals of temporary workers only halfway through the year. It was repeated by the National Citizens Coalition lobby group and picked up by some pundits who chimed in. But they misinterpreted the statistics
Mr. Poilievre’s statement said that 105,000 new temporary foreign workers had come in the first half of 2025, when the government had set a target of 82,000 new arrivals. But the 105,000 figure included work-permit renewals. Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship Canada reported there were 33,722 new arrivals.
Similarly, the Conservatives charged that the 302,000 work permits issued from January to June under the separate International Mobility Program exceed the target of 285,000. But again, many of the permits were renewals, and in this case, postgraduate work permits. According to IRCC, there were 85,512 new arrivals to Canada under IMP.
Postgraduate work permits and extensions are important if you want to understand what’s going on in Canada’s immigration system right now.
The big surge of temporary residents earlier in the decade came when Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals failed to realize colleges were recruiting vast numbers of international students. Many came with a guarantee that when they graduated they would get a three-year work permit. So international students who arrived in 2023 might be eligible for work permits through 2028 or 2030.
Now Ottawa has embarked on a process of reducing the numbers of temporary residents. One part is reducing new arrivals. The IRCC reports there were 214,000 fewer new arrivals of temporary workers and international students in the first half of 2025 than in the same period the year before.
But another part is an effort to turn temporary residents into permanent residents. Many of the 395,000 people to get permanent resident status in 2025 were already here.
In total, the immigration plan calls for slightly more people to leave in 2025 than arrive. Already, population growth in the first quarter of 2025, according to Statistics Canada, was 0.0 per cent.
The Liberals certainly deserve mountains of blame for the failures of 2021 to 2024, but Mr. Poilievre has no business pretending the number of immigrants is still going up.
... there is no flood of newcomers. Rapid population growth has stopped. There are other things to fix.

I find all of these numbers to be mind-numbing detail, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to deal with the Poilievre Three-Word Slogan approach to politics. Basically, all of these articles should just start with "Poilievre. Is. Wrong. Again." 

Sunday Funday: Lots of TrumpWatch, plus Newsom's Canada plane, other funny stuff and Animal Crackers

Time for my Sunday column and I've been looking forward to sharing all the TrumpWatch posts this week. 

"TrumpWatch" is what I call posts about the world's most anticipated event, and this week we reached a fever pitch.

Usually Trump never shuts up but he just about disappeared from Wednesday to Saturday - very unusual for him - and even the Saturday sighting was at a distance, without media chit-chat. 

The internet finally saw some Trump posts on Truth Social on Saturday, but they didn't sound Trumpy - no spelling errors, for one thing. 

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, fingers crossed!

View on Threads

The most surprising thing about his congestive heart failure is the presence of an actual heart.

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) August 25, 2025

i don't think it's happening yet, but no one in the press corpse having seen trump for two days and him not even playing golf this weekend is... a little exciting

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM

Notes from the American Resistance: Hanging on by their fingernails

I realized today how prescient our Canadian leaders have been. 

Months ago, both Trudeau and Carney told us that Trump has turned the United States into an unworthy and untrustworthy ally. 

Now the rest of the world has realized how right they were. 

Trudeau in February: "You can't take our country and you can't take our game." 

Trudeau in March: “What Trump wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us." 

Carney in March: "Canada's old relationship with the United States is over. The US is no longer a reliable partner." 

Carney in May: "Canada won't be for sale. Ever."

Now, everyone sees what is happening.
And the whole world is backpedalling away from the United States as fast as they can.

The American constitution and rule of law: hanging on by their fingernails.

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

Today's News: The tariff wars are getting real and its going to be a shitstorm

As a non-economist, I have found the constant on-again off-again tariff battles of the last seven months to be very confusing. 

But it seems like Trump's so-called tariff strategy has finally reached deadline velocity, and his tariffs are finally all happening. Mostly.
The Toronto Star is tracking what’s active, what’s coming and how Canada has responded

It’s a complex, tangled picture. Here’s a look at what tariffs are currently in place and why, what more is being threatened, and how Canada has reacted to the trade war so far:
Active U.S. tariffs against Canada
• 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., because of an alleged threat to American security. This tariff originally came in at 25 per cent on March 12, but Trump increased it to 50 per cent on June 4.
• 25 per cent tariff on auto parts imported into the U.S. kicked in May 3, except for those that comply with the 2018 Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the current North American free trade deal. Trump also imposed a 25 per cent tariff on all cars and light trucks not made in the U.S., including from Canada, which took effect April 3. Trump justified the tariffs again for national security reasons.
• 35 per cent tariff on Canadian goods that don’t comply with CUSMA, and a 10 per cent tariff on energy products from Canada, which was first announced in February and came into effect March 4 at a lower 25 per cent rate on goods. On Aug. 1 the U.S. hiked goods tariffs to 35 per cent. Trump has tied these so-called border tariffs to claims of a national emergency over fentanyl and migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally from Canada. On March 7, Canada won an exemption to these tariffs for all goods that comply with CUSMA. RBC Economics estimated in an April report that, because of this exemption, about 86 per cent of Canadian exports could still cross the border without tariffs.
• 20.56 per cent tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, over alleged “dumping” of cheaper products into the U.S. market. The Trump administration increased the tariff in late July from 7.66 per cent.
• 50 per cent tariff on some copper imports as of Aug. 1.
Retaliatory Canadian tariffs
• 25 per cent tariffs on $29.8 billion worth of steel and aluminum products from the U.S., implemented March 13 in response to Trump’s tariffs on the same goods from Canada.
• 25 per cent tariff on fully assembled vehicles that don’t comply with CUSMA since they are made with less than 75 per cent North American content. This counter-tariff took effect April 9. Components of compliant cars that aren’t made in Canada or Mexico are subject to the 25 per cent tariff. The tariff targets about $35 billion worth of American vehicles brought into Canada.
Other Canadian actions
• Canada abandoned its long-planned Digital Services Tax on June 29, after Trump said he would walk away from trade talks over the tax that would hit American online giants.
• Canada removed its 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on American goods that comply with CUSMA, effective Sept. 1. The measure was initially implemented March 4 in response to Trump’s border tariffs.
Threatened U.S. tariffs
• Trump has threatened a “very high” tariff on pharmaceutical imports, possibly as high as 200 per cent.
• The U.S. is considering tariffs on semiconductors and critical minerals as part of national security reviews.

It still makes my brain hurt to try to understand this.

Today's News: Poilievre is just an embarrassment, isn't he

What a goof!

First the Crowfoot boy Poilievre is complaining about how Carney makes "big promises without any action" and he picks the Port of Churchill development as an example:

Asked about developing the Port of Churchill  vt.tiktok.com/ZSAa7WK92/

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— Jeff's Fact Checker (@thunderbayed.bsky.social) August 27, 2025 at 8:26 AM

Today's news: Standing athwart dictatorship, yelling "stop!"

Today's topic is finding leaders who will try to stop dictatorship - I think we are doing it now.

Carney, for one -- he is rocketing around Europe now, lining up allies for Canada and for Ukraine, and he appears to be very effective. 

Shankar Narayan / The Concis

Canada's Checkmate: Why Putin's Betting on Western Collapse Just Failed
Canada finally has a leader. So does the world.
... Carney was clear and precise. He told Ukraine exactly what they would get, and when. No need to read between the lines.
Carney and President Zelensky signed a deal on drone co-production worth $680 million, set to begin next month. Canada also joined the PURL scheme — a funding pool where allies contribute money, Ukraine prepares a weapons list, and the U.S. supplies them.
More importantly, Carney declared that Canada will not rule out sending troops to Ukraine after a peace agreement. He didn't hedge. His words carried the weight of intent:

"In Canada's judgement, it is not realistic that the only security guarantee could be the strength of the Ukrainian armed forces in the medium term. So that needs to be buttressed. It needs to be addressed."

This wasn't vague diplomatic language. It was a signal to every NATO strategist in Europe: Canada is ready to move....
By declaring Canada's readiness to join a peacekeeping force, Carney cut through the diplomatic fog. He wasn't making a suggestion—he was staking out a position. NATO strategists in Brussels now have a concrete framework to build around. Berlin, which has been cautious about postwar commitments, suddenly has political cover to move forward. Paris, which has talked about troops but wavered on details, now has an ally willing to share the burden. London, wobbling under domestic pressure, has been handed a lifeline.
The signal to Moscow was equally clear: there will be no victory through waiting. Putin's calculation has always been that Western resolve would crack, that domestic politics would eventually force Ukraine's allies to abandon ship. Carney's declaration shattered that hope. A peacekeeping force backed by Canada, Britain, and France—with German support—isn't a negotiating position Putin can simply outlast. It's a permanent commitment he'll have to live with.
This is how leadership works in wartime: not through grand speeches, but through irreversible commitments that force everyone else to choose sides.
...If Putin once dreamed that Western support would dry up, those dreams are over....

Carney's other stops are also showing how Carney intends to connect Canada with Europe:

RIGA – Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will keep troops in Latvia through to 2029, as part of a mission to deter Russian aggression in Europe.

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— Winnipeg Free Press (@winnipegfreepress.com) August 26, 2025 at 11:04 AM

Today's News: Poilievre's humble pie, Carney's strategic approach to tariffs, plus some apt comments about America

Now that Pierre Poilievre has his job back, for the next several months at least, he is desperately trying return to his usual schtick of slamming the Liberals about everything all the time. 

I think Canadians are sick of it.

Poilievre’s problem isn’t just that Carney is well-liked - it’s that Poilievre isn’t. Simply waiting for Carney to shed popularity is more like a hope than a strategy for the Conservatives. bruce728.substack.com/p/let-pierre...

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— Diane (@dianeellison.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 8:55 AM

Sunday Funday: What a crazy week, plus TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

What a crazy week 

We saw Poilievre return to the Commons and the Liberals must be delighted:

- Kier Atkinson 🇨🇦

Read on Substack

We saw even more examples of how Trump and MAGA think they can tell everybody what to do 

And the more trivial the issue, the more hysterical MAGA gets. So Trump thinks he can extort universities about what they teach, and tell Coke to change their formula, and tell the Smithsonian to revise their exhibits. 

Then MAGA thinks they can tell Cracker Barrel to keep their old logo, and tell the Minnesota Vikings football team not to have male cheerleaders. 

And meanwhile Trump is so pathetically obsessed with getting a Nobel Peace Prize like Obama did that he keeps boasting about how resolved six wars, or maybe it was 10 and nobody knows what he's babbling about.

The internet we need

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— Seth Abramson (@sethabramson.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM

1) declared war on paper straws, he won that one. 2) declared war on Coca Cola, won that one 3) declares a war on golf fashion 4) declared war on public health, won that along with Gravely Jacked McBrainworm. 5) declared war on trade, winning-at our expense. 6) War on decor with gaudy gold.

— Roy Kent's Niece (@tedlassofangirl.bsky.social) August 19, 2025 at 5:34 PM

Commentary: Carney's tariff news; Trump's Washington takeover; and a thread about the German Military Cemetery at Normandy

About Carney's tariff news:

Pragmatism in action. We’re so fortunate to have such a qualified person leading us. Imagine slimeball Poilievre bunging everything up, stumbling out of Diagalon trailers dishevelled and making decisions based on dated right wing populist ideology and punitive grievance.

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— Stephano Barberis 🍁 (@hellostephano.bsky.social) August 22, 2025 at 2:47 PM

Tariffs are like shooting yourself and hoping the other country bleeds. Go ahead, drop them, we don't have to buy their shit Their liquor industry found out there's worse things than tariffs: exclusion. Keep up the #BoycottUSA hurt them hard. Hurt them often. #Elbowsup www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

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— L Bennett 🇨🇦 🇪🇺🇺🇦✌🏻#TeamCanada #ElbowsUp (@thatgenxwidower.bsky.social) August 22, 2025 at 12:26 PM

Today's News: Americans reacting to ICE Gestapo

Many seem to be shocked and horrified at how quickly and easily Trump is pushing Americans around, his masked gangs grabbing anyone brown and disappearing them. 

But I'm not - I remember how easy it was in 2002 for George Bush to get Americans to follow him gleefully into a completely unjustified war against Iraq.
It was just a few weeks after 911 when Bush said "you're either with us or with the terrorists". Only a few Americans were concerned about this framing at the time, and when Americans held marches to protest the Bush administration's push for war with Iraq, the media hardly covered it - didn't want to be "disloyal".
We are seeing the same dynamic now, a rogue administration hell-bent on warping American values. At least this time, there is social media to communicate what the Resistance is doing.

And I'm no economist, but at some point, its going to come crashing down -- as the US economy slows because of deportations and tariffs and reduced sales of everything from ovens to industrial machinery; as the US government runs out of money because they are wasting billions on concentration camps and detention centres and national guard deployments in their own cities; as social services and hospitals close because government medicare isn't functioning anymore; as life in the United States becomes more nasty, brutish and short...

I think its going to get much worse before it gets better:

Gift Link to Washington Post story: https://wapo.st/3UIueJI

Poilievre is back, still awful

 CPC leader Pierre Poilievre won his byelection so he's back, older but no wiser - determined to ignore Canada's pressing issues, like wildfires and economic growth, while obsessing about imaginary electric vehicle mandates.

Second verse, same as the first.

Listened to 5 minutes of Poilievre's press conference today. He hasn't learned a thing from his experience. Same tired lies and slogans that got him nowhere last election. It just underlines how much we haven't missed him and how much the country has moved on. #cdnpoli

— Stephen Lautens (@stephenlautens.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 1:32 PM

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Today's News: updates on Trump's Gestapo plans and Gavin Newsom's trolling, plus Marc Elias writes about Hope

You know, if I lived in the United States now, I might think twice about blogging. 

I know my little blog would never be considered to be a marshalling point for the Resistance anyway. 

But the way things are going down south, anyone who speaks out may find themselves at risk. The Department of Justice has been weaponized against anyone Trump considers to be an "enemy" and on Tuesday three dozen national security leaders who worked for the Obama administration lost their security clearances.

Its scary.  Trump's Gestapo plans are scary too:

Exclusive: An internal planning road map obtained by The Post shows the strategy behind ICE’s breakneck expansion, a chaotic effort that has already triggered lawsuits and accusations of cruelty. wapo.st/41FWkck

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) August 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM

You realize, don’t you, that this era will be remembered as the time when the country with the world’s strongest economy and largest military rapidly went insane.

— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) August 17, 2025 at 6:32 PM

Today's News: a weekend roundup of news about the Air Canada flight attendants strike, the Poilievre byelection, and the Europe-Zelenskyy-Trump meeting

Its hard to keep up with all the news just now, isn't it -- I don't do much news in my "funday" posts on Saturday nights, and I usually don't put together a post on Sunday at all. So I have a news gap from Friday night until Monday night -- and these days, there seems to be a lot happening even over the weekends. 

So let's just plunge ahead: 

Air Canada flight attendants strike

It always annoys me when media focus their coverage of Canadian labour issues almost entirely on the public inconvenienced by labour action -- in this case, tales of woe from stranded people trying to book flights on other airlines. 

We usually don't get media coverage about the strikers, which would put pressure on the company or the government to address the actual issues. But this time CUPE has done a great job marshalling support for why the flight attendants are angry - I saw a statistic that said almost nine out of ten Canadians support the flight attendants, and that is outstanding because I didn't think we could ever get nine out of ten Canadians to agree on anything.

The Carney government stepped on a rake when they immediately used Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to order binding arbitration to get the strike-lockout ended without passing actual back-to-work legislation - which I suspect would not be easy for Carney's minority government to do.
You know, I myself have been involved in several strikes over the years, sometimes in my own union and sometimes in other unions at my workplaces. And every single time my bosses and the HR negotiators sincerely but wrongly believed that the strikers "didn't really want to be on stike" and would be "really happy to be back at work" but had been "misinformed by rabble-rousing dastardly union leaders".
So I suspect that's what Air Canada also told Patty Hajdu, and now it has blown up in their faces.

Sunday Funday: Poilievre's last chance, let's dance, some oddball sports, random funny stuff, NSFW cartoons, Elbows Up!, TrumpWatch (special Alaska edition), and Animal Crackers

Poilievre's last chance is the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection is Monday and I'm NOT looking forward to Tuesday.

Poilievre promises Battle River-Crowfoot if elected they will never see him again

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— The Beaverton (@thebeaverton.com) August 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM

A natural mistake:

Someone asked me today about my plans for “the fall” and it took me a moment to realize they meant Autumn and not the collapse of civilization.

- Gary Trujillo

Read on Substack