Tariff = tax. Like all taxes, the revenue goes to the government and comes out of the pockets of consumers and businesses. Too many Americans do not understand this, even though they are the ones paying the tax.

This article presents a fairly clear-eyed assessment of where we are. There are plenty of risks and uncertainty in our economy and the government's budget and intervention is bold. Will we weather this storm well and if so, at what cost? Let's hope we get this right. www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

Maybe Democrats had few options after Trump demanded the GOP gerrymander Texas districts but the blatant anti-democratic corruption of fair elections is now steaming ahead from both sides. The US is a corrupted democracy, more so every day. www.cnn.com/politics/sta...

As you probably know, CBS News succumbed to a RW takeover of their editor-in-chief position. Sundays's 60 minutes provided a platform for Trump to spread 18 more lies, according to CNN's Daniel Dale. Trump has won the asymmetrical war against truth. www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/p...

Fact for today: Canada has climbed from 4th to 2nd in the latest international reputation rankings. The US has dropped dramatically, from 30th to 48th among the 60 top economies. Switzerland ranks first, Russia last. The rankings are often a factor in country investment decisions.

What a great World Series.

How about this Yesavage kid? #BlueJays

I have for years been concerned about Doug Ford's desire to limit and deke around the democratic protections in Ontario. Here he is again chipping away at our foundation, in a way that looks a lot like the Trumpian/MAGA efforts to tilt elections and stay in power. #ontario #onpoli

Whether a feature or a bug of the Trump admin, the effect of Trump's erratic behaviour has the net effect of sustaining a higher level of uncertainty for businesses investing in Canada. This weakens our country's economy every day, something I forewarned earlier this year. The US is our adversary.

Trump and GOP: Repeating various claims that the 2020 US election was rigged. Fact check: ❌ FALSE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: "No evidence for systematic voter fraud: A guide to statistical claims about the 2020 election" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Amazing. The whole stadium sung O Canada. We are proud to be Canadian. #Canada 🇨🇦 x.com/BenVerlander...

How about those Blue Jays? Not bad for "David vs Goliath".

Is there anything that rings more symbolic than Trump's destruction of part of the White House, the icon of American democracy, to pave way for a gilded ballroom fit for royalty? www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Anyone else concerned about the billionaire class funding the military in a democracy? www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...

Claim: Trump claims the Ontario government ad showing Ronald Reagan strongly opposing tariffs was "FAKE". Fact check: ❌ FALSE. The Ontario ad was 100% accurate. Every word of the Ontario ad can be found in Reagan's radio address on "Free and Fair Trade". www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/spe...

So the justice policy of Trump's version of the far right seems to be "Go to jail if I don't like you, get out of jail if I do." Sounds a lot like corrupt authoritarians throughout history.

Trivia: Right whales remain endangered. But their name tells you why they almost disappeared. Whalers named them the "right whales" to hunt because they were slow, docile, swam near the coast, and importantly, their increased blubber meant they floated after being killed so they could be harvested.

How about those Blue Jays?

Noubar Afeyan tells #STATSummit that political moves to replace facts with opinions won't stop with mRNA vaccines. "It’s going to go to every medicine." www.statnews.com/2025/10/20/m...

How about those Blue Jays?

In a world full of misinformation and myths it is important that we communicate credible scientific evidence and facts. One topic under siege these days is climate change. How do we know more CO2 is causing warming? skepticalscience.com/empirical-ev...

I can only speak for myself but I have zero appetite to buy an American built car that is pumped up by Trump's threats and tariffs against Canada. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The New York Yankees remind me a lot of the American healthcare system: they spend a lot more than the Canadian side but they don't see it in the results.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate the one that is held when the weather is nice and isn't commercialized to the hilt. 🇨🇦

My opinion: The regional leaders and Trump deserve credit for helping to bring this conflict to an end (assuming it lasts). But the leader of Israel deserves no credit, nor does Hamas. They should be facing justice in international courts although that's unlikely with the weakened world order.

2.1 million lived in Gaza. The scale of civilian destruction can never be defended. "Out of every 10 people, one has been killed or injured in an Israeli strike. Out of every 10 buildings that stood in Gaza prewar, eight are either damaged or flattened." www.npr.org/2025/10/07/g...

While we need to keep a weather eye focused on international trends, Ontario Canada's current covid risk level remains low. But the smart move remains the same too, get vaccinated for covid (and flu/RSV), the shots work to reduce illness severity. Graphic from PHO:

Healthy debate starting on Canada's federal budget and sustainability of financing. Budgets are about choices and the critical timing of investments. During times of great economic uncertainty most economists would support increased spending and short-term deficits. But getting it right is not easy.

After a long pause, I've just done another England Covid & NHS update as we head into the autumn/winter season. TLDR: we're in a significant Covid wave now, the NHS is stretched, get boosted if you're eligible. christinapagel.substack.com/p/england-is...

I am fortunate to live in a country with a reputable Public Health agency. I invite American citizens and health professionals to use this site in place of less credible US government sites. www.canada.ca/en/public-he...

I'm open to industry and engineering experts explaining carbon capture potential to me but at this point, I see it as capturing a small proportion of harmful emissions. The analogy that comes to mind is cigarette makers who claimed filters would make cigarettes safe. (They didn't, millions died.)

If you trust health officials, doctors and scientists based on their politics, you're doing it wrong.

State of the world: There are a lot of people lying to you, your family, and your neighbours. Be careful in what you choose to believe.

The anti-science and populist Alberta government being in charge of ending a teachers’ strike is sort of like an arsonist being in charge of ending a firemen’s strike.

I’m not a fascist but if I was I would send the military into cities to squash protests against my authority. In my more revealing moments I might even call them anti-fascists. But all this is just hypothetical …

This struck a chord.

After 9 months I can say with a degree of confidence that MAHA is the opposite of what it says is. It can now join Big Brother’s “War is Peace” and “2+2=5” in the pantheon of Big Lies and DoubleThink.

RFK Jr. just fired Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo — a dedicated ID physician & researcher who has served this country with integrity & compassion — for defending evidence-based vaccine research. She was silenced, placed on leave, filed a whistleblower complaint, and terminated. www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...

President Macron: “We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...

No reason for this to be happening in 2025. In my view, those who have helped promote vaccine hesitancy shoulder part of the blame. Measles is not safe for mothers or their babies. The vaccine is safe and it works. Fact.

Let me remind you what a weird populist conservative politician sounds like. They will not reject a debunked conspiracy theory if their constituents believe it. This is part of the problem with the far-right, they nurture "popular" disinformation instead of stamp it out. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

What has become routine reporting on the anti-science dogma of the Alberta UCP government. (This is behind a paywall.) There's a reason why Alberta leads in measles: persistent political resistance to masking and vaccination efforts, even in epicentre hospitals. archive.ph/j5JXu/again?...

I remember a time when the LA Times, The Washington Post, and CBS News stood for journalistic integrity and were independent from government pressure. Now they are just sad proof of how easily America's "Freedom of the Press" bends to the corrupt power of Trump and his billionaire bros.

Science covers an almost limitless number of areas not fully understood. Jane Goodall studied her one area of interest meticulously and with grace, and made the world a little bit better for it.

Just gonna keep tapping the sign* *𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦

At our recent @lshtm.bsky.social event on misinformation, Chris Whitty gave some useful reflections on common causes and some important considerations for handling it. Full event: www.youtube.com/live/H_nClQ2...

My experience today with ChatGPT. I gave it a moderately challenging logical problem that needed to be solved by a script in a coding language I don’t know. It handed me a script, gave me options. I tested the script, its solution was missing one thing. I told it and it fixed it within seconds. Hmm

New development: Trump is sending the military to Portland, Oregon. He intends to "provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland." and is "authorizing Full Force, if necessary" to handle "domestic terrorists". More in this CBC article: www.cbc.ca/news/world/t...

PSA: Ontario #Covid vaccines available for high risk/priority individuals starting w/o Sept 22 (now) (Flu shots Oct 14). Free flu and covid shots will be available to the general public Oct 27. More in link, including pharmacy locations. *Website may change over time* www.ontario.ca/vaccine-loca...

This scenario is entirely plausible. Tik Tok is used by many younger Canadians and can influence their evolving political thinking and ideas about what is true. The far-right has a lot of assets and they are winning control of the "social media airwaves", not just in the US but in Canada as well.