We the North: Carney walks it forward, not back

So the Power and Politics discussion panel was complaining today that Carney hadn't 

produced a read-out about the conversation with Trump.

And they mostly agreed that US treasury secretary Bessent got the jump on us when he ran to Fox News after the call to talk about how Carney had walked back on his Davos speech.

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Hmmm.
Three things -- first, Trump called Carney, not the other way around.
Second, isn't it insulting that the Conservatives always take whatever Trump says as gospel while disrespecting everything Carney says.
Third, I would think Carney would not want to get into a "he said-he said" pissing contest with Trump or with any of his people about supposedly apologizing for what he said in Davos. 

But Carney told reporters "To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president. I meant what I said in Davos".

Today's News: Carney shows courage, Poilievre attempts survival, Trump knuckles under, Toronto digs out

Carney's courage 

In the week after PM Carney's Davos speech, I think the world is responding to Carney's challenge to show courage and deal with reality.

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This weekend in the New York Times, Ezra Klein wrote about Carney's courage (gift link)

....Trumpism does not hide behind the facade of something high. Part of Trump’s appeal is that he offers his venality as a thuggish honesty: This is what everyone is doing. I’m the only guy willing to admit it. Voters believe that politicians are corrupt. Trump proves them right by flaunting his own corruption; his success confirms their disgust with the system and the need for a champion who has mastered its rules.
This is both a lie and a weakness. It is a lie because Trump’s worldview is not universally shared. Relatively few people are as nakedly transactional or thoroughly corrupt as Trump. And it is a weakness because it creates a hunger for its opposite.
There is a reason Carney’s speech lit such a fire: Carney was, himself, taking a risk. He was, himself, acting against self-interest. He was, himself, showing that he intended to do something more with his power than profit off it. It was a bracing speech, but more than that, it was a brave act. It was the kind of act that Trumpism suggests does not exist, the kind of act that rebuts Trumpism by simply existing.
I am not saying this will go well or easily for Carney — or for other world leaders who choose to take down their signs. Trump is vengeful, and he is right that America can inflict terrible harm on any country it chooses.
But Carney is right that America’s power is, in part, dependent on the willingness of other countries to be entwined with our might. “Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships,” Carney warned, “Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty. They’ll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty — sovereignty that was once grounded in rules, but will be increasingly anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.” This is the path Canada is already following, in part through seeking closer ties with China and Qatar.
The world is built on relationships, not leverage, and relationships are built on reciprocity and respect. It is not Trump’s genius to recognize America’s unused strength; it is his blindness to see that our strength was a function of our restraint.

“This is not just strange and hard to understand. It borders on the unthinkable, and that’s why you’re seeing a different response from Europe than before Greenland was center stage.” Trump has radically weakened the U.S. and we won't recover anytime soon, if ever. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

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— William Snyder (@profsnyder.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 12:34 AM

Some dark news, plus some Sunday Funday to bring the light in

*by Australian cartoonist David Pope.

Oh, things are getting dark now.
Trump posting crazy stuff today about Carney and tariffs, plus an ICU nurse shot by the ICE Gestapo in Minneapolis, and Governor Walz calling out the National Guard to protect his people.

 
First, about that new tariff threat from President TACO:

We cannot back down after getting threats like these. “Governor Carney”. Go to hell. (and Ford and the CPC better get on board - now)

- Black Cloud Six

Read on Substack

Following up on the week - Poilievre, Canada, America

I have run out of time to do much of a blog tonight, so here are just a few follow-ups on this week's many stories.

First, some good columns to ponder:

Scrimshaw Unscripted - Evan Scrimshaw
Carney’s Speeches A Political Dagger To Poilievre
On Davos, Quebec City, And Poilievre

Routine Proceedings - Dale Smith Roundup: The domestic speech and the response
The Line -Matt Gurney
We should probably stop disarming our future armed resistance
We cannot confiscate civilian firearms and plan a guerilla campaign at the same time. Pick a lane.

Wesley Wark’s National Security and Intelligence Newsletter
Trump’s lowest depths
Or, have you no sense of decency

Doomsday Scenario - Garrett Graff
Watching A Superpower Die By Suicide
This is one of the wildest moments in all of the modern 400-year history of nation-states and geopolitics.

Need to Know by David Rothkopf
Davos Was the Beginning of the End for Trump
It's all downhill for here for the America's aging mad king

Two from The Concis - Shankar Narayan:
The Mother of All Trump U-Turns
The Davos snub, Starmer’s defiance, Operation Arctic Endurance — and a few more.
and
Why the West Walked Away from Trump’s Board of Peace
Because This Was Never a Board of Peace

Today's News: Suffer the little children in Minneapolis, updating that Board of Peace, and the Poilievre response to Carney's Davos speech

As we watch the ICE Gestapo losing their minds in the US, I thought of these three photos that changed politics:

Alan Kurdi from Syria drowned on a Greek beach in 2015, along with his brother, when his family tried to escape Syria by boat. It turned out that the Harper government had refused to let his aunt in Canada take them in as refugees.  Harper lost the Canadian election to Trudeau two months later.

Yanela Sanchez from Honduras arrived at the US border in 2018 with her mother after a month on the road and a trip by raft across the Rio Grande. They were immediately taken into custody. This photo of that poor crying exhausted baby became the face of Trump's cruel zero tolerance family separation policy. Trump lost the US election two years later.

Finally, this one: arriving home from pre-school on Tuesday, 5-year-old Liam Ramos from Ecuador was used as bait by the ICE Gestapo in Minnesota, so that his family would open their doors. Liam and his father were admitted to the US in 2024 as refugees but both were arrested on Tuesday, nobody knows why, and are now in ICE detention in Texas, nobody knows why. 

OMG, and it looks to me like Liam is wearing a Spiderman bullet-proof backpack that parents in the US now buy their children to keep them safe from school shooters. 

But against America's ICE Gestapo, they don't work.

Today's News: Thinking about the Unthinkable - could Trump invade Canada?

Everybody is talking about the Globe and Mail articles about planning for an American invasion.

A headline like this has not appeared in a Canadian newspaper for 100 years.

- Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

Carney at Davos "The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just. "

Carney at Davos gave a brilliant speech.
 

Paul Wells reprints the whole speech here: The Carney doctrine

As I was listening to Carney, I was reminded again of Leonard Cohen's lines - which Carney used in speaking to the UN last fall:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Once again, I think, that is what Carney is telling the world - our old order is cracked and its not coming back, but the light will get in for a new world order that is stronger and more just. 

Today's News: The Northern Lights are shining bright above Greenland tonight!

So this hit the news on Sunday night:

Trump. Is. Insane.

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) January 19, 2026 at 7:53 AM

Americans - the whole western world, really - just couldn't believe it. And what does Norway have to do with Greenland anyway? 
But of course Trump actually did say all this. 

Sunday Funday: Canada proud, laughing at those gold "prizes", some random funny stuff, plus TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers

More rumours of wars this weekend, but I think everybody needs a Sunday Funday post now.

First, yes -- I'm proud of Canada

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Nothing beats the 🥅🏒⛸️🧊🧊🧊 (h/t swaggyp_63 on IG)

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) January 17, 2026 at 5:44 PM

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Today's News: Canadians resetting with China, and Americans resisting fascism. #Courage

Canada update:

Carney's trip to China was a resounding success (Doug Ford excepted).

“We’re recalibrating Canada’s relationship with China — strategically, pragmatically, and decisively — to the benefit of the people of both our nations.” — Mark Carney Canada’s Prime Minister 🇨🇦 / via 𝕏 ❤️🍁🇨🇦TEAM CANADA FOREVER🇨🇦🍁❤️ ❤️🍁🇨🇦VIVE LE CANADA🇨🇦🍁❤️

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 2:42 PM

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Today's News: "He's an idiot"

I just had to share these words from Ruben Gallego, senator from Arizona - "He's an idiot":

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Trump is mad at NATO because he didn't get that Nobel Peace Prize - what a toddler:

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Today's News: Trump's Greenland flapdoodle

I've been gathering some of the comments and posts about Greenland defending itself from Trump's idiotic invasion plans.

For some, it is just a distraction:

And here we are: the entire transatlantic alliance is now talking about Greenland, instead of talking about ending the war in Ukraine.

- Anne Applebaum

Read on Substack

But for most, it is terrifyingly real - instead of dignifying Trump's national security strategy with a name like The Donroe Doctrine, we should start calling this Greenland takeover attempt what it is - a poorly conceived flapdoodle of paranoid hysteria.

🇬🇱 “We’re not going to sell our soul.” 'Greenlanders don't want to be colonized by a new outside power...only a small minority has even the faintest flicker of interest in joining the US.' 🇬🇱 Their message to the world: “Stand with us.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/w...

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— DCminx 🕊🌍🔥🌱 (@dcminx.bsky.social) January 14, 2026 at 8:34 AM

Today's News: "And those winds sure can blow cold way out there"

Hey, I'm not talking about Saskatchewan - our weather this week is great right now. But starting this weekend, its going to be 15 to 20 below (C) in Minneapolis, and the cold snap will last for the next two weeks.

For once, Minnesotans are looking forward to it:

Just saying....

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— Sister Golden Bear (@sistergoldenbear.bsky.social) January 13, 2026 at 7:49 PM

post text: "To any ICE agents reading this who are from down south — you have never experienced anything like this cold. Our European climate equivalent is literally Stalingrad. It will hurt to breathe. You will be outside in it. So will we, but we are used to it. Next week is what will break you."

Today's News: Comment Roundup on Minneapolis, disinformation, Alberta separatism, Canadian progress, Greenland, Venezuela, Mid-Terms and more

On days like these, where there are so many things going on around the Internets, I want to highlight a few of the comments and commentaries that help us keep up with what's going on. 

First, a few shorter observations, to which I can only respond "Wow!":

i hope all the people resisting ICE on the ground know how fucking inspiring they are. minneapolis right now, and chicago and LA and charlotte and DC and portland before them, you’re setting the blueprint for the future battles sure to come. thank you.

— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 7:54 PM

Premier Wab Kinew expressed solidarity with Minnesotans Monday, following days of protests in the U.S. state where a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman in the head last week.

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— Winnipeg Free Press (@winnipegfreepress.com) January 12, 2026 at 3:52 PM

Kim: I was having a conversation with someone within his administration, we were talking about something we disagreed with the president on. And they were just like, “Let’s just not talk about this and keep it quiet, and maybe he’ll forget about it.” Literally—someone on his own team was saying this

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 11:17 AM

A reason I get sort of annoyed by the “this is part of a plan” stuff—besides these guys lacking enough foresight to find their own dicks—is that they are so totally disconnected from reality that any plan they could actually make would be useless

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— Vituperative Erb (@vituperativeerb.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 3:03 PM

There is no attitude for which legacy journalists are more often rewarded by their bosses than "Everybody needs to calm down." It is a preening announcement that you are the adult in the room, immune from emotion or overreaction or "hysteria." And it is the worst imaginable priority for this era. >

— Mark Harris (@markharris.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 11:23 AM

What more proof do you need that they are Nazis !!! ???

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— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 5:03 PM

Sunday Funday: Comments on the passing scene, plus funny-odd and funny-ha ha, and of course Trump Watch and Animal Crackers

Well, our times are officially "interesting" now aren't they, so we really need a Funday. (And does everyone get the joke in the wombat cartoon?)

I still have to start with a few comments on the passing scene, because its getting crazier by the day. But I'm also sharing the funny-odd and funny-haha posts I've found over the last couple of weeks. 

Comments on the passing scene:

I appreciate America trying to make me feel at home, but heavily armed men in masks demanding papers is going a bit too far!

- Garry Kasparov

Read on Substack