“The Liberal government plans to use its buying power to spur the development of data centres in Canada, but won’t yet commit significant sums to fund projects itself.” Lots to unpack here, including many questions that probably should’ve been answered before Carney decided on his AI strategy.

I'm not sure the Marshall Plan is the best analogy (and not sure what a good parallel would be offhand), but the intention is clear - to expand the US AI stack so that others are dependent ("addicted" in the words of Howard Lutnick) on the technology

Most of the discussion around America's AI strategy abroad has focused on the AI Action Plan - but perhaps more important was the Executive Order on exporting the AI stack. 🧵

"even when response times are under five minutes, the birds are often ‘gone about their business’ by the time officers arrive, a reminder that wild turkeys are fast, agile and yes, they can fly.”" Well played, St. Catharines Standard. Well played.

I wrote about this too. Why isn’t Ontario hitting the barricades in rage? We’ve so little lake access. Entirely privatized shorelines. You could give the province away to oligarchs & people would be meh. Thx to Fatima for calling this early on. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

UK government project using AI to find benefit fraud resulted in: - A 46% false fraud rate - Anguish for families who were wrongly accused of fraud and had benefits stopped - Months of additional work for government, setting up a hotline, correcting false fraud www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

See also: Robodebt (Australia). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robodeb...

Excited to see AI's results in the Canadian government!

"The question now is whether democratic societies can recognize this formation for what it is—and build alternatives before the infrastructure of control becomes too deeply embedded to dislodge."

« Europe faces an existential choice: build genuine technological sovereignty now, or accept governance by platforms whose architects view democracy as an obsolete operating system. »

I see people treating "economist" & "economics" as if they're singular things, not a discipline covering a huge range of issues & theories. Finance/banking is only a single, specialized part. Those interested should read Mariana Mazzucato (King's College London). Start w/ The Entrepreneurial State.

To get him over the $3K mark, I just supported amazing DJ Trevor Walker’s "Friday Drive" for CKCU Funding Drive 2025! Today's the last day of the drive, responsible for at least 1/3 of their annual budget! To support @ckcufm.bsky.social like me, head here! 👇 www.canadahelps.org/en/charities...

I've donated! Everyone who values freedom of the press in Canada should be donating what they can.

It's a sign of a strong argument when you have to buy an editorial position, right?

What’s it going to take to get an immigration policy that’s not focused solely on a numbers game but on fairness, integration, and opportunity for the newcomers Canada still desperately needs? www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

“recent research suggests that when a government is trying to stimulate the development of new industries, as Canada needs to do, high-risk investment needs to be taken on by the public sector.” And that’s exactly what Carney is *not* doing.

AI companies should go under and financially wipe out VCs. exec's should go to prison for putting systems into the world that were instrumental in numerous suicides without any consideration for those risks. there should be consequences for experimenting on the public on roads and in social settings

Canadians shouldn’t have to resort to guessing about the main element of Mark Carney’s entire policy agenda. It is fundamentally offensive, and antithetical to good governance and sound policymaking, that Carney is leaving everyone to guess why he’s doing what he’s doing.

Excellent op-ed. Federalism seems almost just like a minor inconvenience rather than a constituent element of effective policy-making for the long-term. And an element in dire need for reform, I would add.

Great piece by @theturner.bsky.social. "There might be a moment, nearer at hand than many expect, when a revolution too cheap to contain and too big to ignore forces Canada to choose more conclusively which side of the divide will best fuel its future." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

GIFT LINK - My Toronto Star op-ed on the federal budget, and the failure to account for provincial action on post-secondary education. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

The pain experienced in key Canadian sectors (incl. auto, primary metals, forestry) due to Trump is massive. But the national economy is more resilient than often thought. And the more time goes by, the worse things get in America--economically & politically. Canada wise not to rush into a bad deal.

The budget detailed $140 billion in new funding over five years including $2.3 billion for clean water and $1 billion for Arctic transportation infrastructure.

Three missed opportunities in Canada's federal budget: 1) "Sacrifice"—but not asked of the wealthy; 2) Bold rhetoric but weak action on housing; 3) Productivity drive that misses key low-hanging fruit; Some reflections for @bcpolicy.bsky.social bcpolicy.ca/2025/11/07/c...

ICYMI, @mattgalloway.bsky.social set up @trevortombe.bsky.social and I for a rich "two sides" convo about Tuesday's budget and what matters. We follow @armstrongcbc.bsky.social's excellent Econ101 explanation of the meaning of deficits and debts. www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

I come by my “ethics of refusal” honestly: the way I feel about AI now is the way my Dad understood the problematics of the now largely abandoned fuel-ethanol industry. It’s bad science, bad policy, and bad faith all around.

Data colonialism in the most literal sense

I’m a broken record on this, but Peter Drahos predicted this outcome in his 2021 book Survival Governance: The US (Canada even moreso) are simply too embedded in a carbon economy to resist the all-encompassing political and economic pressures. And so we get short-sighted policies and politicians.

“It’s disappointing to see that there isn’t a strong emphasis by the government on estimating the expecting emissions from each tax credit, and as well estimating the value for money for Canadians in these large-scale subsidies” www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

100% @bhaggart.bsky.social & I have been arguing this point for years too (see our open-access book The New Knowledge with Bloomsbury)! Regulating platforms without addressing their business models is doomed to fail. Maybe now we can finally talk about how to restructure their business models?

It's way past the time we understand that Carney's book was simply about brand-building and prime ministerial ambition. Nothing more. Value(s): Building a Better World for All "A bold and urgent argument by the Prime Minister of Canada and former bank governor on the radical, foundational change"

Concordia defers sabbaticals, offers retirement program due to foreign student drop

ChatGPT is pedagogically harmful. Increasingly evident, its cognitively not useful at the least. It also clearly seems to have profoundly dangerous mental health consequences for vulnerable people. And I feel like Im in the Twilight Zone trying to get people to hear me on this.

This feels like a fundamental realignment in Canadian politics. The Conservatives are completing their regression, begun in the 2015 “barbaric cultural practices” election, to their Reform Party roots. The Liberals now resemble not the Mulroney PCs but the Harper Conservatives. And the NDP is MIA.

As the dust settles on Carney’s first budget, it’s become increasingly clear which Canadians he thinks need to make “sacrifices.” Hint: it’s not the ultra-wealthy. In fact, it’s clear why someone who still considers himself a conservative feels at home in this Liberal government:

Number 40, from the UK and all parts in between, the dance soundtrack to the end of the world (2022). "Run to the hills, 'cause the end is near." #best100 #MusicSky youtu.be/qJa-VFwPpYA?...

G&M: "David MacNaughton was the Canadian ambassador to the United States from 2016 to 2019." For op-eds like this, *always* google the writer. It's also noteworthy that he was a strategy consultant & chairman of StrategyCorp, a public affairs consulting firm. Dude knows the value of an op-ed.

Meanwhile in Canada, half of the country lives in provinces ruled by people who think solar is Evil and Unmanly, and the federal government is run by a man lacking both imagination and conviction when it comes to energy and climate policy.

We're just a collective of Cassandras, knowing how this ends, and that it's going to be on the backs of working people, Black and brown people, and folks who are already being choked and parched by data center development.

An update on my column: Parliamentary committee drops most contentious parts of its demand for data on research funding. It now wants aggregated, not disaggregated data. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

How many Radiohead references can you count?

Précisément : This is the Carney government in Canada. Even members of his insider “AI” Task Force are alarmed. I’ve been party to dozens of rush consultations in Canada and Holland. The shortest ones for narrow policy ranges were 60–90 days. This dangerous, wide-ranging area was given 30 days.

Happy to have signed this open letter.

Actually, we didn't even try, that was just well-known harms off top of one's head, and reached 10 categories! Would have never finished the first draft if actually tried to capture all. Which makes a 30-day rush to consult on a "national AI strategy" even more ill-advised, and frankly, insulting.

Ukraine relies on Canada's International spending. 26% of our spend goes directly to Ukraine, in fact. Ukraine gets three main mentions in the budget - some military spend, some ability to tap loans, and $35m to NATO If Canada cuts aid by 10-30%, what happens to Ukraine?

There are very real people who rely on Canada’s global health spending for their daily HIV medications, for contraception, for the midwife that delivers their baby, for food aid that keeps their kids alive It is callous to say we’re cutting lots of this but can’t say where, how much, why or when

Canada deliberately spent 15 years building expertise in global health. A wide network of researchers, private sector and NGOs. Deep knowledge and international credibility. We leveraged this on the international scene to Canada’s benefit Now in a single sentence, that was all a waste

We don’t have basic information on cuts to Canada’s international spend What baseline are you using? Dunno. What will the budget be next year? Also dunno. What was last year’s spend? Can’t say. Where will the cuts fall? Also dunno It feels lazy, dismissive and callous. It’s not thought out

I don’t object to cuts to Canada’s international spending per se I object to the capricious, callous and dismissive way it’s being done I get this is feminized, wooly stuff. Not like hard, tangible economics, or hanging out with private equity talking billion dollar deals

Distributing a fake nude of your spouse is ‘morally reprehensible’ — but not a crime under Canadian law, Ontario judge warns