Canada
Then there were five: Liberal race narrows with Carney the choice of caucus
One of those remaining candidates vows to deport 500,000 “illegal immigrants”; another would halve the size of cabinet; another would cut the GST while raising corporate taxes; just about all seemed prepared to bail on the consumer carbon tax while one — the perceived leader in the race — has been noticeably silent and media-shy. 🆕 from me.
Carney says he would scrap Trudeau’s consumer carbon price
In a policy statement provided to the Star, Carney said he would “immediately” scrap the current Liberal government’s consumer carbon levy, which is “divisive” and “isn’t working.” In its place, he would create a system of incentives to “reward” people for actions like purchasing an electric car, an energy-efficient appliance, or improved home insulation, the statement said. He would also “have big polluters pay Canadians to make their green choices” and ensure industrial emitters pay their “fair share,” the statement said, without providing further details. Carney is expected to outline this climate policy vision at an event in Nova Scotia on Friday.
Why Hogue thinks disinformation is democracy’s greatest threat
Foreign interference in Canadian affairs is not new, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue says, but the scale of disinformation being fed to Canadians is.
LeBlanc sent video to Trump commerce pick showing border security efforts
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc's office confirmed the video was texted to Howard Lutnick Wednesday evening after Lutnick discussed tariffs on Canada at his confirmation hearing.
NDP will support ‘whatever works’ to blunt tariff effect, says Singh
“If you’re serious about supporting workers, I’m demanding that the Liberal government call back Parliament. Let’s put before Parliament a package to protect workers. Support workers that are impacted by these tariffs, and support communities,” Singh told reporters.
Poilievre’s Vancouver Synagogue Visit Is Raising Concerns
The planned speech and photo op leaves some members troubled by the leader’s refusal to take questions.
Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin says online hate helped push her out of federal politics
Jenica Atwin is leaving federal politics for the "time being" in part because of the online hate she receives, saying the level of toxicity she's had to face has been surprising.
Release of the Canadian Cycling Network Database
The municipalities with the largest network of high comfort bikeways are Montréal (360 km), Vancouver (246 km), Edmonton (226 km), and Québec (190 km). When accounting for population, the urban centres with the largest amount of high comfort bikeways per 100,000 population are the Sherbrooke (63 km), Victoria (38 km) and Vancouver (37 km) census subdivisions. A full breakdown of length per municipality for each Can-BICS category is included in the Canadian Cycling Network Database download folder.
The Provinces
N.B. braces for thousands of job losses as feds prepare tariff support options, premier says
A universal 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods going to the U.S. would cost the province 4,000-6,000 jobs, Holt said, but it's hard to know just how much federal and provincial cash would be needed to respond.
Meet the combative Quebec minister in charge of Canadian relations
“We will not apologize for defending who we are, and we will not apologize for ensuring that Quebec obtains gains within the Canadian federation in order to ensure its autonomy,” he added. The message to Ottawa is clear: Jolin-Barrette, 37, means business.
Elsewhere
Trump says Canada tariffs coming Saturday, ‘may not’ include oil
Trump said he would likely decide by the end of the day Thursday whether to put a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian oil imports that would take effect on Saturday.
Rubio says Trump’s interest in Greenland and Panama Canal is driven by China concerns
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland and retake control of the Panama Canal is driven by legitimate national security interests stemming from growing concerns about Chinese activity in the Arctic and in Latin America.
Media
Departing the New York Times
Paul Krugman: As many people reading this know, last month I retired from my position as an opinion writer at the New York Times—a job I had done for 25 years. Despite the encomiums issued by the Times, it was not a happy departure. If you check out my Substack, you will see that I have by no means run out of energy or topics to write about. But from my perspective, the nature of my relationship with the Times had degenerated to a point where I couldn’t stay.
White House Receives Over 7,400 New Media Requests Within 24 Hours
The thousands of new media requests came in after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that the White House is making room for “new media” in the press room, allowing nontraditional, news-related content producers to directly question the press secretary and other administration officials.
Reader Notes
Update from Patreon
The other day I asked Patreon if contributions my Canadian subscribers were making on their credit cards to my Patreon account would show up on their bill as a charge from "Ayden Canada". The answer from Patreon customer support is:
"Yes! Aydan Canada is a payment processor that we sometimes use to process payments made for memberships. This can include payments made in different currencies, or sometimes a payment is routed through Ayden Canada in general.
If they have any additional questions or start running into issues with their payments, we recommend having them reach out to our Member Support team for additional assistance."
Science and tech
This quantum computer built on server racks paves the way to bigger machines
A Canadian startup called Xanadu has built a photon-based quantum computer it says should easily scale up.
Using gganimate and ggflags to look at democratic progress
Some R code with a project: * How many countries switched from democracies to non-democracies? Did any of them keep their democratically elected leader after the switch? * Which of those countries switched back to democracies? How long did it take?
The Calendar
- Toronto - PM Trudeau meets with the Council on Canada-US Relations.
- 830 ET: Truro, NS - Mental Health Min Ya'ara Saks makes a funding announcement
- 900 ET: Porters Lake, NS - LPC MP Darrell Samson makes a funding announcement
- 900 ET: Halifax - LPC MP Sean Fraser and Kody Blois attend a Liberal leadership announcement from Mark Carney.
- 1000 ET: 135B West Block - The Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada speaks about tariff policy.
- 1030 ET: 135B West Block - NDP MP Charlie Angus speaks about tariff policy.
- 1030 ET: Sherbrooke, QC - Revenue Min Elisabeth Briere makes a funding announcement
- 1100 ET: Surrey, BC - PACIFICCan Min Harjit Sajjan makes a funding announcement
- 1230 ET: Regina, SK - PrairiesCan Min Terry Duguid makes a funding announcement
