So Trump inherited an economy with lots of new investment in manufacturing, claimed manufacturing was in fact drying up, launched a series of trade wars to bring it back, and has achieved…somewhat less new investment in manufacturing. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/b...

This sounds very loose, but Korea is by far the most obvious target among automaking countries that don’t currently have a presence here, so any momentum would be good. www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Indeed. This is not “Trump’s attempt to remake the world order” or whatever. It’s an unusually spoiled and malevolent toddler somehow entrusted with the world’s most powerful military and economy lashing out.

My story from Mexico this week. It’s part of a package of reports in the Globe this weekend from places particularly feeling the Trump threat post-Venezuela, all of which I think are worth your time. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Opening up to Chinese EVs felt inevitable at some point. I’m a little surprised, though, that it didn’t come with a more explicit commitment to establishing some manufacturing operations in Canada.

Anyone with a decent-sized following on a social media platform is both a customer and a product for that platform’s owners. Regardless of whether the former Twitter is banned in Canada, I don’t know how federal ministers can in good conscience be either.

This is a really good interview. paulwells.substack.com/p/i-dont-wan...

What are the odds that by 2028, Trump has declared January 6 a national holiday?

I get that, for Canada, U.S. belligerence is incentive to try to further diversify oil exports to overseas markets. But at some point we may need to take into account that the geopolitical situation is also incentive for most countries to try to accelerate their shift away from oil reliance.

Interesting choice for a would-be Canadian prime minister to be cheering what Trump is framing as the start of an effort to assert U.S. dominance across the Western hemisphere.

Aw, man. We all love The Wire but highly recommend watching 25th Hour to see the origin of his signature line reading. (It also might be my favourite movie.) deadline.com/2025/12/isia...

Post a criminally underrated song from the 90s. Challenge points for songs that never charted in the U.S. but should have. m.youtube.com/watch?v=yXs8...

Per Carney: “Elements of the MOU were changed consistent with (Guilbeault’s) views." This seems weird to me, since by most accounts PMO/PCO kept details of MOU talks to a very small circle, but now I’m curious what else they possibly could’ve been conceding. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Tim Hodgson is the most influential member of Mark Carney’s cabinet, and he epitomizes the shift in governing styles and priorities this year. So I spent some time trying to understand how he approaches his job and how it’s going so far. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

I'm catching up to it because I'm working on something else this week, but the new federal Buy Canadian procurement policies actually go a bit further than I thought they would based on attempts in the last month or two to understand where this was going. www.canada.ca/en/public-se...

If another MP crosses the floor and the Liberals get the slimmest possible majority, how much pressure is there on Carney to appease any caucus member who threatens to resign over anything, from policy disputes to not being in cabinet?

If I were a proponent of new fossil-fuel investment in Alberta, I’d be pretty angry with Poilievre for this goofy episode, in which he tried to undermine what seems to be an emerging consensus in the name of scoring a few political points. www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

If you’re against industrial pricing - or not in favour of strengthening it - you’re against Pathways. Note that, at last check, this included Pathways members.

Weird if the Conservatives are trying to score political points by highlighting divisions around a policy goal that their party would mostly support. I mean, probably not weird if you're inside Ottawa, but out in the real world. nationalnewswatch.com/2025/12/05/c...

As I understand it, this is follow-through on the softening of Alberta's industrial carbon pricing system that it announced a couple of months ago. climateinstitute.ca/news/alberta...

You can't really blame Canadian commentators and chattering classes for going off what appeared to be the best available data to proclaim a productivity crisis, but maybe next time we could resist self-flagellating quite so enthusiastically.

Climate scientist Simon Donner has resigned as co-chair of the federal government’s Net Zero Advisory Body. www.linkedin.com/posts/simon-...

The CEOs of both Ford and Stellantis, who are there to celebrate the rollback of vehicle emissions standards (which will drive climate change), are standing right behind Trump as he makes these racist comments.

I don’t totally agree with everything in this @acoyne.bsky.social column, but kudos for correctly explaining the effective carbon price, CCfDs, etc. - which has clearly (and understandably) been tricky for most people who don’t cover this stuff all the time. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Not sure I'd be so dismissive toward elected representatives confused by a shift not just from Trudeau but from what they campaigned on 8 months ago, but that's just me. (I also couldn't/wouldn't hang a story on an unnamed source this way, but that's another story.) www.ipolitics.ca/2025/12/02/t...

Hearing the too-small-to-matter argument more and more in Canada lately, including from some now in federal government, so this column from overseas seems timely. www.irishtimes.com/environment/....

Has any prime minister ever gotten less political value out of a giant investment than Justin Trudeau got from TMX? Obviously environmental groups/voters were never going to like it, and most everyone else just pretends it never happened because it complicates the narrative.

With all respect to my colleague, the Canada-as-Norway dream would hold up better if Ottawa hadn’t spent this year scrapping or suspending policies (consumer-facing carbon price, ZEV mandate, Clean Electricity Regulations) targeting domestic consumption. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

This kind of free-floating cynicism & lack of trust is deeply, deeply corrosive.

I made a very poor choice about which Raptors game to carve out time to watch.

The Raptors are halfway to a 10th straight win, and it should be said: Masai Ujiri built this, and while Bobby Webster is more than capable, the firing of Masai looks worse every day: www.thestar.com/sports/rapto...

Apropos the UCP reaction to the Ottawa-Alberta deal: I guess you have to hope that Carney agreed to scale back federal environmental policy more because he thinks it’s the right thing to do under current economic circumstances, and less because he thinks it will buy peace.

I hate, hate, hate this kind of stuff. www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/...

For posterity, here's the interview I did with Steven Guilbeault back when he was starting out as environment minister four years ago. www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

Here’s my take on the policy substance of today’s events. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

The main thing I’ve taken away from a pipeline (which will probably never get built) dominating the discourse again, in a year that was supposed to be all about Canada doing things differently from in the past, is that federal politics is a flat circle.

Feeling a little cranky and cynical today, but the place where I’m grabbing a much-needed burger is playing an all-Oasis soundtrack, so that’s helping.

The pipeline stuff will get the most attention, but the bottom line of the Ottawa-Alberta MOU policy-wise is that Carney is scrapping or softening most Trudeau-era climate-related regulations in favour of putting (almost) all his eggs in the industrial carbon pricing basket.

If I were Guibeault, or other environmentally focused Liberal cabinet members, I think I'd be less worried about the pipeline (which is a longshot regardless of what's said tomorrow) than the possible gutting of other climate policies put in place under Trudeau. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Hesitant to pass too much judgment without seeing the actual text, but what’s floating around about the Alberta-Ottawa MOU is raising some questions about the PM’s negotiating skills.

This is pretty big news. The Carney government has spent much of 2025 trying to speed project approvals by reinventing the wheel (through C-5, etc), but getting more equivalency agreements like the one with B.C. was an existing path that made the most sense. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

I feel the need to repeat this, even as suggesting that we not focus so heavily on the pipeline positioning in the imminent MOU feels like an increasingly lonely argument. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Yes, that too. I say this particularly as a CFL fan who can’t help but wonder: If athletes exponentially more money in other leagues have been corrupted, how tempting could it be for CFL players earning middle-class salaries with little job security?

I could not agree more strongly with this. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

A weekend column from me. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

I’m starting to get the impression that Mark Carney’s approach to federal-provincial relations is a little messy. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Firing Masai Ujiri looks even dumber now than it did at the time.

Happy Grey Cup Sunday to all who celebrate.

Danielle Smith has a muted reaction to a pipeline not being on the major projects list, as do the oil sands players. So an undeterred National Post goes down the list until it finds someone it can use to manufacture a grievance story to lead its site. nationalpost.com/news/western...

It’s striking, to me, that even people like the head of the chamber of commerce still seem under the impression that being referred to the Major Projects Office means bypassing usual regulatory processes - yet to be the case for any referred projects. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...