On the 'move faster' file, can someone mention the irony of the department of defense planning on guerrilla resistance in the same week I am getting emails from the government to hand in my semi auto rifles?
Carney is not in the slightest bit serious about strengthening Canada in any way. He won't remigrate the millions of unskilled foreigners Trudeau let in. He won't deregulate Canadian business. He won't cut spending on NGO parasites. He won't replace military DEI with actual standards and warfighting. He certainly doesn't want an armed civilian population.
He was elected specifically to preserve the status quo in all the ways that matter to those who benefit from it while announcing (and in most cases *only* announcing) just enough changes to gaslight the population into believing things have improved.
The key points in your comment: "... announcing (and in most cases *only* announcing) ..." and "... to gaslight the population into believing things have improved."
How exactly do you propose to “remigrate” 1-2 million people without using tactics like Trump‘s ICE, which are close to provoking an outright civil war in the United States?
You can’t, of course. To seriously deport all those people, you’re talking about rooting people out block by block, neighbours ratting out neighbours, etc.
I am 100% confident that Carney knows this. I don’t think he would’ve let those people in in the first place, but he knows we’re stuck with them now, because there’s no way to get rid of them without tearing the country apart. (Your fantasies notwithstanding.)
The right question is how to most successfully immigrate and integrate all those people. Turn them into Canadian patriots — hell, we’re going to need a half million people to join the military, right? Traditionally that’s been a fasttrack to citizenship in many countries around the world. Why not here?
The continuation of that program is a massive data point that this isn't the "serious" government it continues to brand itself as. Even the NDP has apparently turned against it now.
Yeah a lot of what he said is pretty obvious and has been for a long time. Still, no other leader here or abroad has ever actually said it out loud. Nice that someone finally did and yeah, I'd love to see some action to back it up.
Agreed: it was the saying it that was important. Everybody's known it for a long time (and thanks be to The Line for saying it when a lot of people weren't yet ready to accept the reality).
Good piece. I wish Jen had a column every morning. But I'm a bit more optimistic. I believe Carney can deliver. Huge thing in his favour is that he's dealt with Trump like figures all his professional life. He knows how to keep his cool and how to talk to Trump, better, I think than any other western leader. The danger is that people expect things to happen, like, now. It will take some time for Canada to extricate itself from America. Meantime, like it or not, there is a trade treaty to be negotiated.
Me, I want things to happen now, at least in the government's relations with Canadians here at home. I think it's vital for morale. At the very least, can we not develop some civil defence infrastructure? Emergency preparedness material would be helpful, as a start. People want to do things.
Yes and we can arm the civil defense groupswith the evil looking plastic stocked groundhog guns that the Governnent is confiscating at great expense. The same ones offered to the Ukrainians who rejected them as unsuitable. 😆😆😆
I'm not talking about guns right now, although there are undoubtedly plenty of .22s and 30.30s in civilian hands that could be useful (people can also be really stupid with guns, as our neighbour to the south has shown ad infinitum). I'm talking about basic civil preparedness. Communications redundancy (the first thing likely to be disrupted), establishing civilian networks, capacity-building, Getting people to do basic preps. Yes, anyone rural or who has lived through a major storm, flood or similar disruption knows this and probably can handle a few days or weeks without power, but tons of folks don't know how to do it.
It's not that any of these things is a big deal in and of itself. But the psychology of it is crucial. Help people develop a sense of capacity and they can be surprisingly resourceful, and ready to stand up, even after decades of complacency and complaint
Hmm. It's possible you are responding here to the wrong comment. If you are responding to me, nobody I've seen post here sees it as an either/or question. By some accounts there are more than 12 million civilian-owned firearms in Canada, which makes us slightly better armed than Finns on a per capita basis (whose civil defence model, incidentally, we would do well to emulate). Weapons are an obvious part of civil defence -- nobody here has suggested otherwise.
But civil defence is about much more than just weapons, and we need to be prepared for emergencies guns aren't going to help us with in the immediate sense -- communications networks being severed, supply chain interruptions, sabotage to electrical and water infrastructure, and actions that undermine civilian morale. There are plenty of ways to be a civil defender -- we need to build up these capacities urgently.
Presumably she thinks the Americans would carpet bomb Toronto rather than just driving up to Queens park and parliament in Ottawa and saying "we're in charge now, thanks for your service"
The best people to be a part of that have been ostracized by the government (and most non-gun owners) for decades. I imagine most have very little desire to defend the country that has treated them like shit.
Well, the budget was released approximately three months ago. Did that look like a crisis budget to you? It looked like a please, dear God may we keep the status quo budget to me.
Opinions vary. I appreciate them all. I can’t see myself supporting a country that arbitrarily imposes the values of a totally alien minority culture (French Quebec) to the majority freedom loving culture of Canada. Gun confiscation by secret order in council being just the latest abomination. The upcoming banning of personal prayer in public is next. This reflects my life experience and your mileage may vary.
“A Canada that really knows this is a Canada that is willing to have a serious conversation about seemingly taboo subjects, like supply management, and health-care delivery. It’s a Canada that treats military procurement as more than just a regional investment opportunity.”
Testify! And to that I would add, “It’s also a Canada that actually extracts its abundant natural resources from the ground”, another file on which, as far as I can tell, zero tangible progress has been made since Trump’s most recent election.
And while I totally agree that the stark contrast between Carney and Junior is a relief/joy to see, to digress to another part of his speech, I am sure Vaclav Havel would have been rolling over in his grave if he heard Carney invoke his name.
That this guy, THIS GUY, is dissing authoritarian measures is galling. He was one of the main cheerleaders for invoking the Emergencies Act an invocation which thankfully could not have been denounced in stronger terms than was done by the Federal Court of Appeal last week. Seriously, I highly recommend reading the entire decision - it was absolutely glorious and restored a glimmer of hope that the rule of law will prevail in this country.
It is certainly the case that the Prime Minister’s soaring rhetoric, based as it was on good sense and unimpeachable principles, must be followed by swift and sustained actions.
Among other things, I would argue that we must have plans for:
* a decision regarding fighter jets; I doubt that many, besides some at DND (sigh) and former RCAF personnel who’ve long since been abed with Lockheed-Martin would argue that buying the expensive (and already middle-aged) F-35 is still a good idea;
* greatly heightened border security—not to keep out (or keep in) irregular migrants, but to deter Donald Trump;
* ditto for our Arctic archipelago and the Yukon border with Alaska;
* an invitation to French, British, German, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish and other European troops (in their hundreds, or even thousands) to various bases in Canada (again with deterring Trump in mind;
* greatly stepped up border inspections of goods coming into Canada;
* stepped up intelligence gathering on Canadian groups receiving money from US sources who wish to foment separatist sentiment—something that Chantal Hébert, Bruce Anderson and other pundits have reported on; and
* a major shakeup of our Department of National Defence, with a view to pushing out senior officials who still seem to believe that “keeping the Americans close” makes any sense now.
Oh, and BTW, we should stump up for actions by our European allies to deploy troops close to (or even in) Ukraine.
The fighter buy is a real problem, and there's no good short term solution. First problem: the Canadian fighter force is worn out. Governments have to do something NOW or there won't BE a Canadian fighter force.
Second problem: the F-35 is still clearly better than any of the available alternatives. The Saab Gripen is an inferior aircraft, too small and based on an outdated '70s design paradigm.
The third problem: reliance on US technology is risky based on the change in US behavior. The F-35 is more dependent on US technology, but the Gripen *also* uses US technology (especially the US-built engine.)
Here's the deal: if the US is actually a threat to Canada, we're screwed with either the F-35 or Gripen. The US might be able to disable the F-35 fleet either through a hidden "kill switch" or simply cutting off support. They can do the same with the Gripen parts supply, or they can just mop the inferior Gripen from the skies with *their* F-35 and F-22 fleets. There is no good solution here, certainly nothing in the timeframe where the CF-18 fleet MUST be replaced.
Canada needs to look at the longer term, and probably the best option is joining the British/Japanese/Italian Global Combat Air Program aimed at producing a next-generation combat aircraft. It'll be competitive with US and Chinese aircraft, but independent of US technology. It's just not going to be a solution for at least 10 years.
If we get into a shooting war with the US it doesn't matter what planes we are equipped with. The obvious decision is to buy the F-35 but it is not politically palatable at this point, which is the real conundrum. Better they stay disabled on the ground than blown to bits with swarms of AIM-120's.
It is worse than that. We need permission from the US to buy Gripens. Without a US export license Saab can’t sell them to us. I’m sorry to say, the worse things get the more we are stuck with the F-35.
Unless you think we can say no to the F-35 and then turn around and get Trump to approve us buying from someone else.
Saabs are cheaper and they will be provided with local assembly work in Canada. I'm not sure that GE would be happy with the Trump administration if the latter did not approve export of the F-414.
I did not say that GE would carry the day. However, as we just saw at Davos, when Trump sees that things are not going his way, he does recalibrate, however clumsily.
Jen, you made some good points, but let's not forget that the reason we're in this mess is almost entirely self-inflicted, given how much we've allowed the CCP to embed itself in Canadian society and fuck with us at every turn. And that's not even touching on the drug cartels, Indian extrajudicial murders, etc.
Let's not cut our nose to spite our face and blame it on our neighbours. No one is entirely blameless, but the fecklessness of our politicians is astounding.
So if we run into China warm and open embrace (for now), who can tell me how the americans might respond to that??? Anyone?
One fairly simple act Mr Carney could do to show his concern about Chinese interference is to enact the foreign agent registry, the legislation for which was passed over a year ago. I’m stopped holding my breath a while ago.
Something tells me he will continue the rape and pillage, but for different reasons and with different benefactors - neither of which will involve regular Canadians. I do not trust Carney and I am not comforted by his words.
Carney is in it for Brookfield's. I don't trust him either. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but can't anymore. And any Prime Minister who is so gung-ho on a gun boondoggle can't be one who is serious about fiscal management. He's like all the other Liberals: throw money at what polls well and gets votes from Quebec.
After reading your comment, I re-read my own. I believe you disagree with what I said, but not what I meant. As is often the case, I wasn’t clear. I agree with your statement. Cheers.
All of this nonsense is going on and at no point has the Parti Quebecois reconsidered their stand about holding a referendum. Everyone in the media keeps harping about Alberta damaging confederation with their separation talk while giving Quebec a pass (specifically looking at you Chantal Hebert) but the separatists in Alberta have no chance of forming a government.
There are no signs that supply management is being reconsidered, even though it is a massive Trade hinderance with the markets we need to expand into without the United States.
I keep hearing about how our current Prime Minister gets it and then I look around and I see no actions consistent with the idea that he gets it.
The last 70 years of Canadian federal leadership has fucked us as an independent and responsible nation and turning to the CCP regime as if a solution now to US bullying is the worst possible alternative. Canadians are so unaware of the real world that many think this is actually a good idea. But having given up sovereignty of vast swaths of the country to tribal rule including fee simple private property to vague and disputed treaty lands, I honestly don't see how we can avoid national disintegration... and we aren't. But it's a two step process as Hemmingway pointed out: slowly at first and then all at once. Canada as a federal state doesn't even have legal sovereignty over the lands within the national boundary. The lunatics - all very smart, well dressed, articulate and politically connected, I'll grant you - are running the asylum. And so we're fixing nothing by pretending we are suddenly now able to be economically independent of the US. We're just choosing a different master for this crumbling house without grasping just how hostile an act that is to our immediate neighbour. But we will find out.
Yes, that 1:45 rambling press conference he delivered yesterday about mental institutions and becoming a professional baseball player was our first clue. JG
No, it's strictly Jen who insists that anyone who grants any credit to Trump's actions automatically means a fringe (extreme?) population believes Trump is playing 4D chess. She does it over and over. Not the readership. What she misses just as often is how effective Trump's actions are addressing a problem compared with and contrasted to any other presidency over the past 50 years. He is a disruptor. However, like most talking heads, Jen seems utterly convinced to think not only is Trump stupid (okay, drunk in this case) but he's also intellectually contemptible. A guy who won the presidency twice. And, like most who share this belief, they think themselves smarter. Much, much smarter. That may be true, but it's not Jen getting the world to focus on Greenland and talk about the strategic role of Nuuk while a US carrier group assembles to take action against the Iranian regime. She's way too smart to fall for that diversion... as are all these European and Canadian 'leadership' busy, busy, busy doing nothing while giving Davos speeches and congratulating each other on their very smart words. Whatever happened to understanding that what Trump does matters more than what Trump says (Remember this? Don't take him literally, take him seriously. Not both. Not neither.) And, for God's sake, stop calling that seriousness equivalent to belief that Trump always plays "4D chess." You don't need to be that smart to get why the difference matters. But you do need to drop the hubris.
Federalists need the diversion Mr. trump provides. The national values Ms. Gerson mentioned are never articulated, because they don't exist. Canalot is a fictional state.
The country has morphed into something that is not Canada, doesn't feel like Canada, doesn't maintain anything that fosters a sense of Canadian that is sharable by those who inhabit it. I recommend people to read Carney's book about the vital role of shared values needed for Canada to remain a viable independent nation and then judge for themselves how well or poorly he is living up to his very articulate words.
"Nor can we trust the Canadian people to rise up against tyranny in any great numbers: we are not who we think we are, and far short of what we once were. Canadians as a people today are unequal to their nation’s history and to their own sense of greatness. This is being demonstrated to us, every single day, in the clearest possible terms."
To whit: Remember the two-middle fingered guy during the last election? There's your fucking poster child for your median Canadian. And I mean this in the politest way possible.
The Bradford Boomer would expect every Canadian under 30 to go over the top of the trench lines while he sits comfortably sipping tea by the dock at his second cottage.
1. Yes, The Line has been saying "The United States is not your friend." for some time. With respect, however, saying it as a journalist on a Substack is qualitatively different than saying it as the leader of a nation to the world's elite at Davos.
2. Essentially, Carney's excellent speech boiled down to "Wake up, smell the coffee and stop pretending it's perfume. Get on with change." Again with respect, this is advice many of The Line's commenters could use. Trudeau 2 is no longer relevant and time spent re-litigating his many errors is time wasted.
3. Importantly, Carney's been practicing what he's just preached since he was elected--a fact that inexplicably keeps going unremarked upon: cementing ties with Britain and Europe, then flouting recent convention and creating new trading relationships with China and the UAE because it's the pragmatic thing to do. Put another way, he's modeling what he's recommending: it's not just hot air.
4. A very smart Prime Minister would now come home and get to work. The public service is in the process of being streamlined; a new broom needs to sweep away most of the bureaucratic nonsense gumming up the works. Do I think this one is gutsy enough to take on supply management? Yes I do.
Nope. Carney is still the Liberal Party. The rhetoric has improved, but nothing else has. And he's basically blown any fiscal cred he had by going forth heavy-handedly, I might add, on the gun confiscation boondoggle. Nice speech, tho. People are gaga over it, so as a pre-election rally cry it worked.
To be sure that speech was as much for domestic politics as for the world. I wonder if the usual so-called “middle power” leaders had a chat and agreed Carney could best pull off “the” speech as the others, Starmer, Macron, Scholz, et al are struggling with their popularity at home - “Let’s do it. Carney, you’re elected.”
This is what really jump out at me from Carney's speech: "And on AI, we’re cooperating with like-minded democracies to ensure we won’t be forced to choose between hegemons and hyperscalers." Is that what we're calling China these days? A like-minded democracy?
I cannot get past the sheer hypocrisy of him signing a trade deal with a definitive hegemonic power who also happen to be one of the world's biggest bullies - and then almost immediately giving a speech decrying doing deals with hegemons and bullies.
Trump is these guys' best possible friend. Some will go down anyway (probably especially Starmer) but DJT is the main thing stopping a much needed widespread right-wing populist-nationalist reset in the West at the moment and keeping the technocratic globalist nitwit class clinging to power. He's a demented funhouse mirror parody of the kind of correction that needs to happen, much to our collective detriment.
I appreciate your point of view. Mine: the guy can walk and chew gum at the same time, but I don't think he can do it while juggling. To put it another way, Carney exists within the federal government which didn't come into existence upon his election. You're absolutely right--the gun collection was a fiasco. However, this fiasco pre-dated him and perhaps didn't make the top of his agenda of things to be fixed because, you know, existential crisis. In any event, see my #4, to which I might add: I don't believe he intends to spend the rest of his life in government (thus, supply management is do-able).
He didn't need to fix it. He could have just walked away from it. That he chose not to is telling. He had the easiest way out available to him, and he chose not to take it. You're right. He absolutely does not intend to spend more time in government (he can barely bring himself to show up in parliament as it is). When he's done what he can for his stock portfolio and his personal pet projects, he'll be gone.
The most low-effort way to abandon the gun confiscation plan would be to just extend the amnesty forever and advise that there isn't enough money for compensation "because of Trump and the economy and stuff", so they are shutting that part down leaving owners in permanent limbo of mostly unregistered quasi-grandfathering (what we have now effectively). They could do that with an email.
Unfortunately they have already spent so much on administration and hired Government Workers to run it and we can't fire them or leave them with nothing to do, so they have to waste more money running what will be effectively a fake program doomed to fail.
Recent messaging on how most owners probably won't be compensated and deeply offensive attempts to pressure people to "declare" their firearms (again with explicitly NO guarantee of compensation) signal that the government actively does not want this program to work and seemingly does not want people to comply with it.
You’re right. They don’t want it to work. They enjoy trotting out the topic every December for fundraising purposes and every so often as a campaign wedge. There’s nothing it in for them, if they scrap it. But they need to spare us the “fight for your country” bullshit, especially to those betrayed by their country.
Anyone affected by this shitshow has been alienated to the point of radicalization by 6+ years of abuse (in addition to everything else in that period). At this point I would probably greet the US tanks with an American flag and a "that way to Ottawa" sign.
Jen, your last line was bang on. If you want to talk the talk, you better damn well walk the walk. I liked him bragging about Canada and Canadians, but this is the nostalgia he spoke of. Get going NOW. The FTA with NZ and UK can be signed NOW, if you you eschew Supply Management.
The old saying, "The best lies are wrapped around a core of truth", applies here, unfortunately. Yes, we, (the so-called West), squandered the peace dividend brought about by the end of the Cold War. Yes, we assumed that we didn't need to maintain defence spending because the US would shield all of us at their cost. Yes, we far overdid the assimilation thing, assuming that whoever popped up on our shores shared our values. Yes, we kept bad-mouthing the US when it was still our ally over 80 years since 1945. And, yes, we assumed that the US would not resent all this and never elect a leader who did not address US frustrations. And, finally, we never expected that American frustrations would be expressed to the point that they elect a senile loon with no remaining internal mental filters. So, to an extent, Trump is the result of our vanities since 1945.
Carney has said it, and now I hope our elected parliamentarians, and our “national media” feel the earthquake- truly this would be a miracle. Let’s get this sh**t started!
Actually doing things is where this will go sideways:
1) Announce a $7B budget to unite middle powers;
2) Establish a bureaucracy to manage that budget, and
3) Spend the budget planning how to unite middle powers.
I had a laugh this morning at the announcement that the bureaucracy with the $4B budget to plan the high-speed rail had, after 11 months, decided to look at a second route.
Eyes glazed when I realized that I was reading an attempt to justify the repetition of old conclusions, current cliches, by pointing at them. The rest was interesting.
On the 'move faster' file, can someone mention the irony of the department of defense planning on guerrilla resistance in the same week I am getting emails from the government to hand in my semi auto rifles?
MATT GURNEY'S MOMENT HAS ARRIVED. JG
I need like another six hours, tops. It's mostly written. I'm just letting it simmer.
(Posted 9 hours ago) haha
Get this one right, it’ll be read in Ottawa for sure
This moment is so "Gurney" it hurts🤣
I think he is.
Carney is not in the slightest bit serious about strengthening Canada in any way. He won't remigrate the millions of unskilled foreigners Trudeau let in. He won't deregulate Canadian business. He won't cut spending on NGO parasites. He won't replace military DEI with actual standards and warfighting. He certainly doesn't want an armed civilian population.
He just wants to retain power by trolling Trump.
And to give our money to Liberal clients.
He was elected specifically to preserve the status quo in all the ways that matter to those who benefit from it while announcing (and in most cases *only* announcing) just enough changes to gaslight the population into believing things have improved.
The key points in your comment: "... announcing (and in most cases *only* announcing) ..." and "... to gaslight the population into believing things have improved."
Spot on, KRM.
remigrate, lol?
to clarify, is it your thought that women are too delicate and precious for fighting?
Have high, gender neutral, fitness and strength standards and we will find out, won't we?
project 2025 author? lol
How exactly do you propose to “remigrate” 1-2 million people without using tactics like Trump‘s ICE, which are close to provoking an outright civil war in the United States?
You can’t, of course. To seriously deport all those people, you’re talking about rooting people out block by block, neighbours ratting out neighbours, etc.
I am 100% confident that Carney knows this. I don’t think he would’ve let those people in in the first place, but he knows we’re stuck with them now, because there’s no way to get rid of them without tearing the country apart. (Your fantasies notwithstanding.)
The right question is how to most successfully immigrate and integrate all those people. Turn them into Canadian patriots — hell, we’re going to need a half million people to join the military, right? Traditionally that’s been a fasttrack to citizenship in many countries around the world. Why not here?
The continuation of that program is a massive data point that this isn't the "serious" government it continues to brand itself as. Even the NDP has apparently turned against it now.
Its their latest military procurement strategy.
Yeah a lot of what he said is pretty obvious and has been for a long time. Still, no other leader here or abroad has ever actually said it out loud. Nice that someone finally did and yeah, I'd love to see some action to back it up.
Agreed: it was the saying it that was important. Everybody's known it for a long time (and thanks be to The Line for saying it when a lot of people weren't yet ready to accept the reality).
But also: let's get on it. The hour is so late.
I agree, but, as you said, it doesn't count if he doesn't walk the walk, too. And that hasn't been his forte.
Good piece. I wish Jen had a column every morning. But I'm a bit more optimistic. I believe Carney can deliver. Huge thing in his favour is that he's dealt with Trump like figures all his professional life. He knows how to keep his cool and how to talk to Trump, better, I think than any other western leader. The danger is that people expect things to happen, like, now. It will take some time for Canada to extricate itself from America. Meantime, like it or not, there is a trade treaty to be negotiated.
Me, I want things to happen now, at least in the government's relations with Canadians here at home. I think it's vital for morale. At the very least, can we not develop some civil defence infrastructure? Emergency preparedness material would be helpful, as a start. People want to do things.
Yes and we can arm the civil defense groupswith the evil looking plastic stocked groundhog guns that the Governnent is confiscating at great expense. The same ones offered to the Ukrainians who rejected them as unsuitable. 😆😆😆
I'm not talking about guns right now, although there are undoubtedly plenty of .22s and 30.30s in civilian hands that could be useful (people can also be really stupid with guns, as our neighbour to the south has shown ad infinitum). I'm talking about basic civil preparedness. Communications redundancy (the first thing likely to be disrupted), establishing civilian networks, capacity-building, Getting people to do basic preps. Yes, anyone rural or who has lived through a major storm, flood or similar disruption knows this and probably can handle a few days or weeks without power, but tons of folks don't know how to do it.
It's not that any of these things is a big deal in and of itself. But the psychology of it is crucial. Help people develop a sense of capacity and they can be surprisingly resourceful, and ready to stand up, even after decades of complacency and complaint
Huh!
So, civil defense does NOT include being able to defend oneself. Note that I said "include" and did not say "composed entirely."
Who knew?
Hmm. It's possible you are responding here to the wrong comment. If you are responding to me, nobody I've seen post here sees it as an either/or question. By some accounts there are more than 12 million civilian-owned firearms in Canada, which makes us slightly better armed than Finns on a per capita basis (whose civil defence model, incidentally, we would do well to emulate). Weapons are an obvious part of civil defence -- nobody here has suggested otherwise.
But civil defence is about much more than just weapons, and we need to be prepared for emergencies guns aren't going to help us with in the immediate sense -- communications networks being severed, supply chain interruptions, sabotage to electrical and water infrastructure, and actions that undermine civilian morale. There are plenty of ways to be a civil defender -- we need to build up these capacities urgently.
Presumably she thinks the Americans would carpet bomb Toronto rather than just driving up to Queens park and parliament in Ottawa and saying "we're in charge now, thanks for your service"
Well, it's TORONTO that they carpet bomb that would be okay.
Actually, they wouldn't need to drive up to QP or Parliament: they could cycle, given the Canadian propensity for damned bike lanes.
The best people to be a part of that have been ostracized by the government (and most non-gun owners) for decades. I imagine most have very little desire to defend the country that has treated them like shit.
As someone who first got her FAC at the age of 18 or so, I disagree, and suspect the reported 1/4+ of Canadian households who still have guns do too.
Okay
Well, the budget was released approximately three months ago. Did that look like a crisis budget to you? It looked like a please, dear God may we keep the status quo budget to me.
Opinions vary. I appreciate them all. I can’t see myself supporting a country that arbitrarily imposes the values of a totally alien minority culture (French Quebec) to the majority freedom loving culture of Canada. Gun confiscation by secret order in council being just the latest abomination. The upcoming banning of personal prayer in public is next. This reflects my life experience and your mileage may vary.
“A Canada that really knows this is a Canada that is willing to have a serious conversation about seemingly taboo subjects, like supply management, and health-care delivery. It’s a Canada that treats military procurement as more than just a regional investment opportunity.”
Testify! And to that I would add, “It’s also a Canada that actually extracts its abundant natural resources from the ground”, another file on which, as far as I can tell, zero tangible progress has been made since Trump’s most recent election.
And while I totally agree that the stark contrast between Carney and Junior is a relief/joy to see, to digress to another part of his speech, I am sure Vaclav Havel would have been rolling over in his grave if he heard Carney invoke his name.
That this guy, THIS GUY, is dissing authoritarian measures is galling. He was one of the main cheerleaders for invoking the Emergencies Act an invocation which thankfully could not have been denounced in stronger terms than was done by the Federal Court of Appeal last week. Seriously, I highly recommend reading the entire decision - it was absolutely glorious and restored a glimmer of hope that the rule of law will prevail in this country.
A very good op-ed, Jen Gerson.
It is certainly the case that the Prime Minister’s soaring rhetoric, based as it was on good sense and unimpeachable principles, must be followed by swift and sustained actions.
Among other things, I would argue that we must have plans for:
* a decision regarding fighter jets; I doubt that many, besides some at DND (sigh) and former RCAF personnel who’ve long since been abed with Lockheed-Martin would argue that buying the expensive (and already middle-aged) F-35 is still a good idea;
* greatly heightened border security—not to keep out (or keep in) irregular migrants, but to deter Donald Trump;
* ditto for our Arctic archipelago and the Yukon border with Alaska;
* an invitation to French, British, German, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish and other European troops (in their hundreds, or even thousands) to various bases in Canada (again with deterring Trump in mind;
* greatly stepped up border inspections of goods coming into Canada;
* stepped up intelligence gathering on Canadian groups receiving money from US sources who wish to foment separatist sentiment—something that Chantal Hébert, Bruce Anderson and other pundits have reported on; and
* a major shakeup of our Department of National Defence, with a view to pushing out senior officials who still seem to believe that “keeping the Americans close” makes any sense now.
Oh, and BTW, we should stump up for actions by our European allies to deploy troops close to (or even in) Ukraine.
Maybe in stepping up border inspections, we'll find the handguns that Carney's assault rifle buyback are ignoring.
The fighter buy is a real problem, and there's no good short term solution. First problem: the Canadian fighter force is worn out. Governments have to do something NOW or there won't BE a Canadian fighter force.
Second problem: the F-35 is still clearly better than any of the available alternatives. The Saab Gripen is an inferior aircraft, too small and based on an outdated '70s design paradigm.
The third problem: reliance on US technology is risky based on the change in US behavior. The F-35 is more dependent on US technology, but the Gripen *also* uses US technology (especially the US-built engine.)
Here's the deal: if the US is actually a threat to Canada, we're screwed with either the F-35 or Gripen. The US might be able to disable the F-35 fleet either through a hidden "kill switch" or simply cutting off support. They can do the same with the Gripen parts supply, or they can just mop the inferior Gripen from the skies with *their* F-35 and F-22 fleets. There is no good solution here, certainly nothing in the timeframe where the CF-18 fleet MUST be replaced.
Canada needs to look at the longer term, and probably the best option is joining the British/Japanese/Italian Global Combat Air Program aimed at producing a next-generation combat aircraft. It'll be competitive with US and Chinese aircraft, but independent of US technology. It's just not going to be a solution for at least 10 years.
So, buy something now and get on with it.
If we get into a shooting war with the US it doesn't matter what planes we are equipped with. The obvious decision is to buy the F-35 but it is not politically palatable at this point, which is the real conundrum. Better they stay disabled on the ground than blown to bits with swarms of AIM-120's.
It is worse than that. We need permission from the US to buy Gripens. Without a US export license Saab can’t sell them to us. I’m sorry to say, the worse things get the more we are stuck with the F-35.
Unless you think we can say no to the F-35 and then turn around and get Trump to approve us buying from someone else.
Saabs are cheaper and they will be provided with local assembly work in Canada. I'm not sure that GE would be happy with the Trump administration if the latter did not approve export of the F-414.
Ah well no problem then. Trump would never do anything that makes GE sad.
I did not say that GE would carry the day. However, as we just saw at Davos, when Trump sees that things are not going his way, he does recalibrate, however clumsily.
Like the foreign troop involvement in Greenland? A dozen at a time?
Jen, you made some good points, but let's not forget that the reason we're in this mess is almost entirely self-inflicted, given how much we've allowed the CCP to embed itself in Canadian society and fuck with us at every turn. And that's not even touching on the drug cartels, Indian extrajudicial murders, etc.
Let's not cut our nose to spite our face and blame it on our neighbours. No one is entirely blameless, but the fecklessness of our politicians is astounding.
So if we run into China warm and open embrace (for now), who can tell me how the americans might respond to that??? Anyone?
Trudeau fucked us. We can only try to fix it now. JG
I don't think Carney is going to fix things.
One fairly simple act Mr Carney could do to show his concern about Chinese interference is to enact the foreign agent registry, the legislation for which was passed over a year ago. I’m stopped holding my breath a while ago.
That will never happen. China wanted Carney to win.
Something tells me he will continue the rape and pillage, but for different reasons and with different benefactors - neither of which will involve regular Canadians. I do not trust Carney and I am not comforted by his words.
Carney is in it for Brookfield's. I don't trust him either. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but can't anymore. And any Prime Minister who is so gung-ho on a gun boondoggle can't be one who is serious about fiscal management. He's like all the other Liberals: throw money at what polls well and gets votes from Quebec.
Well said!
Penny, I respectfully disagree.
The (continuing) rape and pillage will definitely involve regular Canadians - as victims both long and short term victims.
After reading your comment, I re-read my own. I believe you disagree with what I said, but not what I meant. As is often the case, I wasn’t clear. I agree with your statement. Cheers.
It may not be fixable.
All of this nonsense is going on and at no point has the Parti Quebecois reconsidered their stand about holding a referendum. Everyone in the media keeps harping about Alberta damaging confederation with their separation talk while giving Quebec a pass (specifically looking at you Chantal Hebert) but the separatists in Alberta have no chance of forming a government.
There are no signs that supply management is being reconsidered, even though it is a massive Trade hinderance with the markets we need to expand into without the United States.
I keep hearing about how our current Prime Minister gets it and then I look around and I see no actions consistent with the idea that he gets it.
The last 70 years of Canadian federal leadership has fucked us as an independent and responsible nation and turning to the CCP regime as if a solution now to US bullying is the worst possible alternative. Canadians are so unaware of the real world that many think this is actually a good idea. But having given up sovereignty of vast swaths of the country to tribal rule including fee simple private property to vague and disputed treaty lands, I honestly don't see how we can avoid national disintegration... and we aren't. But it's a two step process as Hemmingway pointed out: slowly at first and then all at once. Canada as a federal state doesn't even have legal sovereignty over the lands within the national boundary. The lunatics - all very smart, well dressed, articulate and politically connected, I'll grant you - are running the asylum. And so we're fixing nothing by pretending we are suddenly now able to be economically independent of the US. We're just choosing a different master for this crumbling house without grasping just how hostile an act that is to our immediate neighbour. But we will find out.
Sorry Jen but I was assured by esteemed The Line readers that this man is actually playing 4d chess.
Yes, that 1:45 rambling press conference he delivered yesterday about mental institutions and becoming a professional baseball player was our first clue. JG
If your uncle was talking like this, you’d would be taking sharp objects away from him and getting him help.
Kings have been removed and regencies put in place for less lunatic behaviour.
ICE is Trump's praetorian guard. And maybe some generals who won't mind obeying illegal orders.
Who's left to remove Trump?
ICE recruiting...
"Military too scary? Can't pass the police fitness or aptitude tests? Take a look at ICE! We're shooting white libs now!"
No disagreement from me. The vaunted “checks and balances” have failed spectacularly.
No, it's strictly Jen who insists that anyone who grants any credit to Trump's actions automatically means a fringe (extreme?) population believes Trump is playing 4D chess. She does it over and over. Not the readership. What she misses just as often is how effective Trump's actions are addressing a problem compared with and contrasted to any other presidency over the past 50 years. He is a disruptor. However, like most talking heads, Jen seems utterly convinced to think not only is Trump stupid (okay, drunk in this case) but he's also intellectually contemptible. A guy who won the presidency twice. And, like most who share this belief, they think themselves smarter. Much, much smarter. That may be true, but it's not Jen getting the world to focus on Greenland and talk about the strategic role of Nuuk while a US carrier group assembles to take action against the Iranian regime. She's way too smart to fall for that diversion... as are all these European and Canadian 'leadership' busy, busy, busy doing nothing while giving Davos speeches and congratulating each other on their very smart words. Whatever happened to understanding that what Trump does matters more than what Trump says (Remember this? Don't take him literally, take him seriously. Not both. Not neither.) And, for God's sake, stop calling that seriousness equivalent to belief that Trump always plays "4D chess." You don't need to be that smart to get why the difference matters. But you do need to drop the hubris.
Federalists need the diversion Mr. trump provides. The national values Ms. Gerson mentioned are never articulated, because they don't exist. Canalot is a fictional state.
The country has morphed into something that is not Canada, doesn't feel like Canada, doesn't maintain anything that fosters a sense of Canadian that is sharable by those who inhabit it. I recommend people to read Carney's book about the vital role of shared values needed for Canada to remain a viable independent nation and then judge for themselves how well or poorly he is living up to his very articulate words.
I will.
Couple of edits:
"Nor can we trust the Canadian people to rise up against tyranny in any great numbers: we are not who we think we are, and far short of what we once were. Canadians as a people today are unequal to their nation’s history and to their own sense of greatness. This is being demonstrated to us, every single day, in the clearest possible terms."
To whit: Remember the two-middle fingered guy during the last election? There's your fucking poster child for your median Canadian. And I mean this in the politest way possible.
I haven't really held back in my criticisms of Canadians. We're going to have to get a lot smarter a lot faster. JG
Except that Canadians will not do that.
The Bradford Boomer would expect every Canadian under 30 to go over the top of the trench lines while he sits comfortably sipping tea by the dock at his second cottage.
Quite right. Legends in their own minds.
No hyphenated, dual-citizen will raise a finger, except to hail a cab to the airport.
lol...
the nihilists, and cia pond excrement will wail
Thanks for this, Jen. A few things in response:
1. Yes, The Line has been saying "The United States is not your friend." for some time. With respect, however, saying it as a journalist on a Substack is qualitatively different than saying it as the leader of a nation to the world's elite at Davos.
2. Essentially, Carney's excellent speech boiled down to "Wake up, smell the coffee and stop pretending it's perfume. Get on with change." Again with respect, this is advice many of The Line's commenters could use. Trudeau 2 is no longer relevant and time spent re-litigating his many errors is time wasted.
3. Importantly, Carney's been practicing what he's just preached since he was elected--a fact that inexplicably keeps going unremarked upon: cementing ties with Britain and Europe, then flouting recent convention and creating new trading relationships with China and the UAE because it's the pragmatic thing to do. Put another way, he's modeling what he's recommending: it's not just hot air.
4. A very smart Prime Minister would now come home and get to work. The public service is in the process of being streamlined; a new broom needs to sweep away most of the bureaucratic nonsense gumming up the works. Do I think this one is gutsy enough to take on supply management? Yes I do.
Nope. Carney is still the Liberal Party. The rhetoric has improved, but nothing else has. And he's basically blown any fiscal cred he had by going forth heavy-handedly, I might add, on the gun confiscation boondoggle. Nice speech, tho. People are gaga over it, so as a pre-election rally cry it worked.
To be sure that speech was as much for domestic politics as for the world. I wonder if the usual so-called “middle power” leaders had a chat and agreed Carney could best pull off “the” speech as the others, Starmer, Macron, Scholz, et al are struggling with their popularity at home - “Let’s do it. Carney, you’re elected.”
This is what really jump out at me from Carney's speech: "And on AI, we’re cooperating with like-minded democracies to ensure we won’t be forced to choose between hegemons and hyperscalers." Is that what we're calling China these days? A like-minded democracy?
I cannot get past the sheer hypocrisy of him signing a trade deal with a definitive hegemonic power who also happen to be one of the world's biggest bullies - and then almost immediately giving a speech decrying doing deals with hegemons and bullies.
We seem to have a few stars or unicorns in those eyes that Joly says are [wide] open.
Trump is these guys' best possible friend. Some will go down anyway (probably especially Starmer) but DJT is the main thing stopping a much needed widespread right-wing populist-nationalist reset in the West at the moment and keeping the technocratic globalist nitwit class clinging to power. He's a demented funhouse mirror parody of the kind of correction that needs to happen, much to our collective detriment.
Trust me, is is not my intention to defend DJT.
I appreciate your point of view. Mine: the guy can walk and chew gum at the same time, but I don't think he can do it while juggling. To put it another way, Carney exists within the federal government which didn't come into existence upon his election. You're absolutely right--the gun collection was a fiasco. However, this fiasco pre-dated him and perhaps didn't make the top of his agenda of things to be fixed because, you know, existential crisis. In any event, see my #4, to which I might add: I don't believe he intends to spend the rest of his life in government (thus, supply management is do-able).
He didn't need to fix it. He could have just walked away from it. That he chose not to is telling. He had the easiest way out available to him, and he chose not to take it. You're right. He absolutely does not intend to spend more time in government (he can barely bring himself to show up in parliament as it is). When he's done what he can for his stock portfolio and his personal pet projects, he'll be gone.
The most low-effort way to abandon the gun confiscation plan would be to just extend the amnesty forever and advise that there isn't enough money for compensation "because of Trump and the economy and stuff", so they are shutting that part down leaving owners in permanent limbo of mostly unregistered quasi-grandfathering (what we have now effectively). They could do that with an email.
Unfortunately they have already spent so much on administration and hired Government Workers to run it and we can't fire them or leave them with nothing to do, so they have to waste more money running what will be effectively a fake program doomed to fail.
Recent messaging on how most owners probably won't be compensated and deeply offensive attempts to pressure people to "declare" their firearms (again with explicitly NO guarantee of compensation) signal that the government actively does not want this program to work and seemingly does not want people to comply with it.
You’re right. They don’t want it to work. They enjoy trotting out the topic every December for fundraising purposes and every so often as a campaign wedge. There’s nothing it in for them, if they scrap it. But they need to spare us the “fight for your country” bullshit, especially to those betrayed by their country.
Anyone affected by this shitshow has been alienated to the point of radicalization by 6+ years of abuse (in addition to everything else in that period). At this point I would probably greet the US tanks with an American flag and a "that way to Ottawa" sign.
We seem to have a few stars or unicorns, or maybe even pandas in those eyes that Joly says are [wide] open.
Jen, your last line was bang on. If you want to talk the talk, you better damn well walk the walk. I liked him bragging about Canada and Canadians, but this is the nostalgia he spoke of. Get going NOW. The FTA with NZ and UK can be signed NOW, if you you eschew Supply Management.
Kevin, two points:
First, MC will NOT abandon supply management; he is a Liberal, after all.
Second, Canadians have always talked the talk but not since WWII have we walked the walk and that will not change now.
Will we also be strong enough to withstand Chinas “crazy bullshit”?
of course. we're looking for customers now, not friends.
They have been customers for a while now. But that still led to two Michaels, election interference, overseas police stations, tariffs.
yah. we have troubles with lots of our customers, don't we. no moral hierarchy any more, which makes it all easier doesn't it, lol.
So.... including customers who set up "police stations" in your neighborhood?
see above, lol
The old saying, "The best lies are wrapped around a core of truth", applies here, unfortunately. Yes, we, (the so-called West), squandered the peace dividend brought about by the end of the Cold War. Yes, we assumed that we didn't need to maintain defence spending because the US would shield all of us at their cost. Yes, we far overdid the assimilation thing, assuming that whoever popped up on our shores shared our values. Yes, we kept bad-mouthing the US when it was still our ally over 80 years since 1945. And, yes, we assumed that the US would not resent all this and never elect a leader who did not address US frustrations. And, finally, we never expected that American frustrations would be expressed to the point that they elect a senile loon with no remaining internal mental filters. So, to an extent, Trump is the result of our vanities since 1945.
More irony: Trump wants Hamas to disarm but says that it’ll be difficult because ‘they’re born with a gun in their hands’. Second Amendment, anyone?
Carney has said it, and now I hope our elected parliamentarians, and our “national media” feel the earthquake- truly this would be a miracle. Let’s get this sh**t started!
Actually doing things is where this will go sideways:
1) Announce a $7B budget to unite middle powers;
2) Establish a bureaucracy to manage that budget, and
3) Spend the budget planning how to unite middle powers.
I had a laugh this morning at the announcement that the bureaucracy with the $4B budget to plan the high-speed rail had, after 11 months, decided to look at a second route.
Eyes glazed when I realized that I was reading an attempt to justify the repetition of old conclusions, current cliches, by pointing at them. The rest was interesting.
To shamelessly borrow from Hamlet - “American empire or Celestial Empire - that is the question”.
I get by in English, French, and Spanish. But I think Chinese will be too much of a challenge.