Today's commentary: the F-35 v Gripen decision, and Carney's role in the world now

First up tonight, the fighter jet decision - F-35 v. Gripen - has become a Canadian loyalty test and rightfully so. The idea of spending our millions on American jets right now just sticks in Canada's craw.

Sweden's Gripen is a mostly-viable alternative. 

That Trump will be furious is a feature, not a bug, as far as Canadians are concerned -- though of course our government cannot be so cavalier about the decision when US tariffs are affecting the livelihoods of so many.
Here are some tweets about the issues, and some interesting commentary about the pros and cons of the purchase decision.

Looks like Trump's loss may become another win for #Sweden as more allies shun the F-35 for SAAB Gripens & Eurofighters. The #TrumpRegime is losing on Trade and in Military Contracts Canada "didn't get enough" out of F-35 deals with Lockheed Martin, looking at Saab's Gripen: Joly search.app/339kk

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— Prairiesunshine (@scottishox2.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 1:59 PM

Of course the American ambassador Pete Hoekstra has to stick his nose into it and start issuing threats:

Looks who's back? MAGA Pete Hoekstra. Working with the Swedes on building Gripen fighter jets looks better all the time. BTW Pete could you tell us if you have any knowledge of the $500 Mil slush fund offered to Alberta separatists? #foreigninterference www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

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— Charlie Angus (@charlieangus104.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 3:44 PM

Which is enough to make every red-blooded Canadian want to give the entire contract to Sweden immediately.
And personally, I don't think Carney would have invited such a large Swedish delegation to Canada and entertained them at a state dinner, if Canada ultimately intends to stiff them.

#Sweden and #Canada signed a major security and trade deal yesterday. Have you noticed any far-right idiots attacking Canada's Prime Minister, Carney, or the Swedish King? No? That's the difference: countries that sticks to sound values and openly turn away from the cesspool that the MAGA US is.

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— julibluesky (@julibluesky.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM

And Sweden says it doesn't threaten people into a deal.

There's Meat On Them Swedish Meatballs Dept. #Saab #Gripen

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— Scott in Montreal🇨🇦 (@scottinmontreal.ca) November 19, 2025 at 9:12 PM

Today on "Christ, what an asshole!": Danielle Smith, Poilievre, Trump, Epstein, and the ICE gestapo guys

I haven't done a "Christ what an asshole!" roundup for a while. So I thought I would do one tonight, just to keep up with all the assholes we've been seeing lately.

First up, Alberta premier Danielle Smith is using the Notwithstanding clause to discriminate against trans youth. And its Trans Awareness Week. The Toronto Star writes:

...The limits passed last fall are some of the most restrictive changes to policies for transgender youth in the country. New rules banned puberty blockers for those younger than 16, gender-reassignment surgery for those under 18 and required parental consent when a student under 16 wished to use a different name or pronoun at school.
Amateur sport organizations were also required to limit participation in women’s and girls’ sports to athletes who were born female.

This anti-trans law is opposed by: - the Canadian Medical Association - Alberta teachers - Civil rights groups - the Canadian legal system - roughly half of the polling public in Alberta It is supported by: - Danielle Smith - the "Danielle Smith can do what she wants" loophole

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— ℳatt (@matttomic.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM

Today's News: Whew!

Had our Covid and flu shots today so I'm not feeling energetic right now. 

So here's a few items I found about Monday's budget news:

Artwork by Dave Davies

#CanadaBudgetVote Thanks to these five MPs, Canada won't be having a Christmas election! In favour - Green Elizabeth May Abstaining - Tories Matt Jeneroux & Shannon Stubbs + NDPers Gord Johns & Lori Idlout www.ipolitics.ca/2025/11/17/l...

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— Cathie from Canada🍁 (@cathiecanada.bsky.social) November 17, 2025 at 11:34 PM

In The Time Before Last Summer -- like on May 1 -- I said the minority Liberals were simply NOT going to lose a vote on their budget:

And here's news: the Liberals don't actually need another party to vote with them!
The Liberals have 169 seats while the Conservatives and the Bloc have 166 seats in total. Therefore the Liberals actually do have enough seats to pass budgets and laws on their own, even if the Cons and the Bloc vote against them, provided the NDP and Elizabeth May abstain. So ha ha!!!

The seat totals are slightly different now but still, the only thing Carney needed was a few abstentions. I'm glad May voted with the Liberals, so the budget got a little more than just a bare majority.

Saskatchewan Roughriders Win!

I usually don't do a post on Sunday nights, but today was so great I just had to put this one together.

Earlier today our son said that after the year we had -- Canada didn't win the Stanley Cup nor did we win the World Series -- he was trying to prepare himself for disappointment again tonight.
I pointed out that at least this time a Canadian team would win the Grey Cup - but it wasn't actually very funny, was it.
Anyway, I think the whole province was feeling the same way -- hopeful, but a little worried too.
In the end, no need - the Riders won definitively!

Riders win! #GreyCup

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— Saskboy from Saskatchewan (@saskboy.bsky.social) November 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM

The Grey Cup is our Canadian game, and maybe never more than when Saskatchewan wins it. I’m still unsure how the rule changes will affect the league, but this was a good example of how the CFL works, and should work. www.thestar.com/sports/footb...

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— Bruce Arthur (@brucearthur.bsky.social) November 16, 2025 at 11:49 PM

Bruce Arthur / Toronto Star

The Saskatchewan Roughriders win the last Grey Cup of its kind. It couldn’t have been more Canadian
...Sunday night, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-17 in the 112th Grey Cup in Winnipeg. The CFL matters so much in Saskatchewan, and the rarity of Roughriders success only makes the wins mean more. Any Riders fan could name the Grey Cup years, which shine like little towns dotting the emptiest part of the Prairies: 1966, 1989, 2007, and 2013 at home in the last Grey Cup at Taylor Field. The Riders hadn’t been back to the big game since.
Now 2025 will be added to the Saskatchewan’s sainted list....
...Saskatchewan won, with Riders legend Ron Lancaster’s grandson, Marc Mueller, as their offensive co-ordinator. Riders offensive lineman and Melville, Sask. native Logan Ferland fought back tears with TSN’s Claire Hanna and said: “We’re forever champs. We’re forever champs.” In Saskatchewan, that’s more true than anywhere else in Canada.
...This was the last CFL game before the rule changes [league commissioner] Johnston has pushed through for 2026 and 2027. Next season, the rouge will be all but eliminated and the play clock, which is the source of so many only-in-the-CFL comebacks in the final three minutes, will be changed to a 35-second play clock, rather than the discretionary 20-second clock that only starts when the officials are ready.
In 2027, the field will be reduced from 110 to 100 yards, with goalposts moved to the back of a slightly shallower end zone. The commissioner spent the week re-emphasizing that the league will remain robustly Canadian despite the changes, which tells you he has gotten some feedback.
And then came the game, and it was Canadian all right. It was the kind of game that starts with a rouge, where the final three minutes still mattered, where a lifer CFL quarterback wins his first Grey Cup, and where Saskatchewan finally wins again under a Prairie sky. It’s still our big Canadian football game. That won’t change.

I think this was the play of the game -- the Alouettes had momentum and were coming back strong, but they couldn't get the touchdown, they dropped the ball, and the Riders recovered it just inside the end zone (so we would start back down the field at the 25, not the 1) - you could almost feel the Als go pfffft!

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Finally, I thought this was hilarious:

well at least the sun will explode one day and none of this will matter

— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) November 17, 2025

But they're not bitter, oh no....

Sunday Funday: TrumpWorld is falling apart, Canada is OK, Winter is coming, Random funny stuff, TrumpWatch, and Animal Crackers

Here is my usual Sunday collection of random pieces plus some funny stuff. Enjoy!

TrumpWorld is falling apart
Rogan and Musk decide Trump's "assassination attempt" in Butler PA in July was staged:

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America is running away from Trump and the world is running away from America:
Alaen

The Quiet Global Retreat from America
The world’s former gravitational center is discovering what happens when its influence quietly weakens.
For decades, the United States was the world’s natural hub. Influence, investment, and travelers flowed toward it without effort. America did not need to chase global interest; the interest simply arrived. Today, something different is happening. Countries that once depended on the U.S. for stability are choosing distance. They are not making loud statements or grand political speeches. They are simply changing their behavior. They are booking fewer flights, canceling business trips, redirecting students, and shifting investments. This change signals a historic reversal of influence in the modern era.
What started as political tough talk has grown into something much bigger. It looks and feels like a silent, worldwide retreat from the United States....
...The country’s once reliable travel trade surplus has flipped into a massive deficit. While America struggles with shrinking inbound traffic, countries in Europe and Asia are breaking tourism records. Travelers who once saved for a dream trip to America are choosing destinations that feel easier, safer, more affordable, and, most importantly, more welcoming. The world is starting to see the U.S. as unpredictable, expensive, politically tense, and emotionally exhausting.
No global leader announced a boycott. No anti-US pact was formed. Instead, a powerful trend of quiet separation is changing everything. This shift is a reflection of a deeper issue that every powerful nation eventually faces. When confidence turns into complacency and leadership turns into isolation, influence fades. Global trust is not something any nation can demand. It is something that must be earned, sustained, and protected every single day.
The real question is whether the United States truly understands why it lost its magnetic global pull in the first place.

Trump just posted a rant about how he no longer supports MTG and then goes on to list dozens of his so-called achievements, all lies, but the biggest lie was this: "…being RESPECTED by every country in the world (as opposed to being the laughingstock that we were just 12 months ago!)…" As an Aussie, I can 100% confirm that Donald Trump is a laughingstock here.

- Joe Thomas

Read on Substack

Today's News: Opinions about Carney's Major Projects from the At Issue panel and other Canadians, plus other projects and a good Carney interview

Prime Minister Carney announced another group of Major Projects today - here's a gift link to the Globe and Mail Project Map page. 

And here's what the CBC At Issue panel said about it:

I found it a little nit-picky for the journalists to complain that some of the projects have already been planned before Carney announced them -- well, of course they were! 

Carney isn't going to announce something that is pie-in-the-sky speculation, wish-lists that haven't been costed yet. 

But the announcement signals to Canadians and to business that the Carney government is serious about making commitments to strengthen Canada.

Today's News: Shooting themselves in the foot - Poilievre, the NDP, Danielle Smith, Chuck Schumer, Trump, and a robot

Today I saw several stories about people - mostly politicians - shooting themselves in the foot by doing something stupid and then wondering why they were limping. Enjoy!

Poilievre

He is incapable of self-reflection. He prides himself on being the exact same person he was at age 17.

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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) November 12, 2025 at 1:40 PM

The NDP

NDP about to commit political suicide. I say: “DO IT” ❤️🍁🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦🍁❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦VIVE LE CANADA🇨🇦🍁❤️

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) November 12, 2025 at 2:42 PM

Roundup: CPC deals with the Crossing. And its not their finest hour....

Have you been watching Poilievre and his caucus loyalists as they huff and puff and fling insults far and wide? 

I thought this was the gang who were trying to convince Canadians to give them the keys to the Prime Minister office someday soon. But if this is how they deal with a crisis, well ..... this week hasn't been a good look for them.

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Susan Delacourt in the Toronto Star:

...“Quite honestly, a lot of times I felt it was part of a frat house rather than a serious political party,” d’Entremont said. “It was about who was friends with who,” he said, rattling off the ways in which the Poilievre team went for the low road. “How could you end up beating up on someone else?”
That drew a swift response from the Conservative office in question, which, sorry, kind of proved d’Entremont’s point.
“Chris d’Entremont, who established himself a liar after wilfully deceiving his voters, friends and colleagues because he was upset he didn’t get his coveted deputy speaker role, is now spinning more lies after crossing the floor. He will fit in perfectly in the Liberal caucus,” said the statement, attributed only to a spokesman for the opposition leader’s office.
There was lots more in that interview about what would push a Conservative MP to leave the fold, but this one glimpse doesn’t do anything to make political life look attractive to outsiders. Sure, it’s often more sport than seriousness, especially in question period, but it’s also a workplace, and this is the picture of a toxic one.
Now, it should be said that no party holds a monopoly on virtue in this regard. Heckling and insults fly both ways in the Commons. But d’Entremont was describing the enthusiasm with which his old team has embraced the jugular. Any casual look at the social media feeds of Poilievre’s most ardent minions knows well what he is describing....

Robin Urback in the Globe and Mail:

...Are the Conservatives OK? Do they need a Snickers bar? A hug?
Days after Mr. d’Entremont crossed the floor, Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux, who was rumoured to be crossing the floor as well, announced his resignation from Parliament. His statement opened with a plea to leave his family alone, which is the type of thing someone leaving the Mafia might say, instead of someone leaving a political party. Maybe Mr. Jeneroux is trembling out of excitement for his post-political life? We’ll never know. The Conservatives released their own statement about Mr. Jeneroux’s resignation, claiming that it was “always his intention to leave politics to spend more time with his family.” If the Conservatives had paused for a breath before releasing that statement, they might have realized that claiming that one of their candidates always planned to leave politics six months after an election isn’t a clever form of damage control.
The Conservatives can be angry and smart about their shrinking caucus or they can just be angry. They can knock down doors and brand their former colleague a “liar,” feeding into the worst perceptions that some Canadians have about the party, or they can try to show up as adults. Instead of “Check out this Brutus!” the Conservatives might have tried “We are disappointed Mr. d’Entremont has decided to join the party he recently said was ignoring the cost-of-living concerns of regular Canadians. While Mr. d’Entremont and his new colleagues pile on record debt, the Conservatives remain focused on making life more affordable for the Canadians forced to pay for that debt.” They can try to form unlikely but strategic partnerships with MPs across the aisle (for example, with B.C. NDP MP Gord Johns, whose riding has a sizable Conservative-voting population) and they can demonstrate a relentless focus on the issues, not just their issues.
Perhaps that starts with a snack and a good night’s sleep.

"Remembrance Day is not about us — it’s about them"

I found these great drawings by Alex Colville here, on a website called Courage Remembered which is very much worth exploring.

And here is Leonard Cohen reading In Flanders Fields:

I remember reading something once about how you only really die when your descendants no longer remember your name.
In that sense, I guess most of Canada's World War One war dead really are gone now. The direct descendants of our World War Two veterans are old now too, like me. Our children do still remember that their paternal grandfather was a bomber pilot in the RCAF, and their maternal grandmother was a Navy petty officer, and their great aunt was a war nurse in Italy. But Canada's next generation will not remember their names.
So it goes.
At least we will always have November 11 to remember the millions of Canadians who served their country and the 118,000 Canadians who died in war in the last 140 years.

"Touchdown Riders!" plus Sunday Funday posts -- Funny stuff, Trump Watch, Animal Crackers

The greatest call in sports is "Touchdown Riders!"

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are going to the Grey Cup next Sunday, to face the Alouettes in Winnipeg! 

It's the first time in 12 years that the Riders won the Western Final. And their third time facing Montreal (and Saskatchewan will never forget the 13th-man fiasco!)

Here's a summary of Saturday's game:

#Riders lost that game at least three times. But they got four chances. Amazing. #CFLWestFinal

— Steve Burgess (@steveburgess53.bsky.social) November 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM

I thought this was pretty good too:

This AI stuff may not work out very well...

Let's see... I have lived through the 1973 oil crisis, the 1980 crisis in the BC forest industry, Black Monday in 1987, the dot com bubble of 2000, the mortgage crash of 2008, the COVID pandemic supply chain disruption of 2020, and those are just the ones I remember. It seems to me that many of these rapid decompression events happened when American and/or Canadian financial and investment gurus started to think they were smarter than the economy writ large, so the "old" economic rules no longer applied to them. 

They were wrong. Ordinary people paid the price.

Now I'm afraid its happening again, with unrealistic hype and ultra-massive investments in AI. The AI bubble has been credited with keeping world stock markets high even in spite of Trump's tariff  shenanigans. 

But I'm reading more about how this AI bubble could pop, and sooner rather than later.

The press probably should have made a bigger deal of the president promising to take the U.S. economy back to the 1800s.

— Sam Youngman (@samyoungman.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 2:56 PM

Short answer? Malfeasance! “Harvard economist Jason Furman recently said that AI investments accounted for nearly 92% of U.S. GDP growth in the first half of 2025. Basically, the entire American economy put its eggs in one algorithmic basket.”

— Waylon Jennings-Yutani (@ontopic.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 7:02 PM

Today's News: More talk about Poilievre - "he was inevitable and invincible but now he's neither" Plus Sandwich Guy is acquitted

I'll bet Poilievre cannot believe how quickly he has fallen and he can't get up.

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The CBC At Issue panel describes Poilievre's leadership as "toxic" and his supporters as ideological and punitive. I guess the beatings will continue even though morale isn't going to improve.

Today's News: Yes, there's going to be a vote of non-confidence ... against Poilievre

I loved this artwork from Dean Blundell. 

Ostensibly, the d'Entremont floor crossing was about Carney's budget, but in reality it will be Poilievre's leadership that is the most affected.

That time a Canadian Prime Minister turned a budget vote into a non-confidence vote in the Leader of the Opposition. Patterns repeat. Only the players change. The D'Entremont defection wasn't some random event — it was scheduled. The timing lined up perfectly with the release of the budget. One simple act of choreography and suddenly the "government on the brink" story became the "Opposition in disarray" story. An incredible reversal of narrative that came only weeks after the CPC commanded media attention following Poilievre's RCMP fiasco. The Conservatives were already leaking rumours of dissent before the budget was even tabled. Now they're stuck watching their own discipline crack in real time. Meanwhile, the Liberals aren't sweating it. Elizabeth May will back the budget — she's not looking for an election, and the budget policy math is solid. The rest is just arithmetic: one defection, one abstention, one flu case on the Conservative or NDP benches, and the budget holds. And of course the quiet part nobody wants to say out loud: nobody's got money to campaign right now. Not the NDP. Not the CPC. And the Greens? Not even close — and that says nothing about the Canadian public's patience for a Christmas election called not six months from the last. Besides, the ridings are starting to feel what government spending actually looks like and, given the uncertainty of the times, they want it to keep coming. So Carney flipped the script. He turned a confidence vote on the government into a confidence test for Pierre Poilievre himself. It's no longer "Can the Liberals survive?" It's "Can Poilievre keep his caucus from imploding before the budget passes?"

- Northern Variables

Read on Substack

"I crossed the floor because I wanted to build Canada, not knock it down." - Chris d’Entremont, MP. ❤️🍁🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦🍁❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦VIVE LE CANADA 🇨🇦🍁

— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 12:35 AM

I don't normally have much time for floor crossers but I have a lot of respect for MP Chris d'Entremont. He was one of the few non-toxic members of Poilievre's Conservatives. He was by far the best speaker in last session's toxic parliament. Good for you Chris. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

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— Charlie Angus (@charlieangus104.bsky.social) November 4, 2025 at 4:17 PM

Busy Tuesday: Carney budget shows his low-key pizzazz; Democrat Mamdani shows his stuff in New York

I was searching around for some worthwhile comments on the Canadian budget to share tonight, and mostly I found shallow "takes" about d'Entremont crossing the floor and about how dull the budget was. What, from Carney they expected bread and circuses? 

It was low-key pizzazz. really. 

But this summary by CBC business reporter Peter Armstrong was good:

And I did find this good column by Justin Ling: 

Justin Ling / Toronto Star(gift link)

Make no mistake, this is Mark Carney’s Trump budget. It’s also missing one big thing
...The budget, tabled Tuesday, takes Trump’s big beautiful bill head-on with a plan to make Canada a better investment destination than the United States. One part of the plan even has an appropriately Trumpian name: the “Productivity Super-Deduction.”
It may be wonky tax policy, but it is the opening salvo of active economic competition between Canada and America.
....this budget is fundamentally about America and the very strong likelihood that things are going to get worse. Canada has a very short runway to boost productivity, lift up domestic industry, find new trading partners and entice investment before we face the possibility of a much deeper decoupling.
Next year, Washington and Ottawa will meet to talk about our Free Trade Agreement — negotiations that the budget charitably calls “a likely complex review.” Left unsaid is that Trump is determined to force sectoral tariffs into that agreement, meant to protect American manufacturing, and that he may exit the deal if he doesn’t get his way. Either way, the demise of our big, beautiful trade deal could unravel supply chains and drive economic degrowth in a way that we have not seen in quite some time.
With that in mind, every page of this budget fits into the context of this looming threat...
....In many ways, Carney has many of the same objectives as Trump — reboot manufacturing, recapitalize our military, reverse declining productivity, win strategic competition, master new technologies, and so on. Trump wants to achieve these things by shaking down his investors and kneecapping his competitors. We want to do it through playing by the rules.
It’s the right strategy in the long term. Trump’s gangster economics will eventually lose their lustre, and Canada should play the altruistic foil. But in the short term, Trump will probably succeed. And missing from this budget is an acknowledgment of that fact.
As the eternally-cheery Champagne wrapped up his remarks, he offered a bit of analysis that seems at odds with the state of the world. “We’re going to be OK,” he proclaimed. He then repeated it again as he tried to convince the country — and perhaps himself. “We’re going to be OK.”

Today's News: Budget angst, Trump angst, Blue Jay angst

Tuesday is Budget Day
...and Canada can expect a shitshow -- screeds about imaginary taxes, tales of woe, gasps of horror, hand-wringing, pearl-clutching...

The Conservatives' budgetary demands include fiction. There are no "hidden taxes" on food. The industrial carbon price doesn't apply to agriculture. There is no "food packaging tax," and plastic regulations largely exempt food packaging. The clean fuel standard "17¢" was one scenario over time. 1/2

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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) November 3, 2025 at 8:31 AM

And most egregious of all, nobody is printing money to pay for deficits. Nobody. There isn't even quantitative easing happening as there was during the height of the pandemic, and the Bank of Canada has been on quantitative tightening since. These are all lies that the Liberals just let fester. 2/2

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) November 3, 2025 at 8:31 AM

The Conservatives are never, ever going to support a budget so long as they're the official opposition. Can we please stop this constant hand-wringing about it?

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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) November 2, 2025 at 9:29 PM

I'm not sure how much actual news we will get about what is actually in the budget; instead, we'll just see endless speculation about whether Carney's minority government will fall.
My prediction? Not a chance. Carney doesn't actually need any NDP votes, he just needs a few abstentions. And he will get them.