Really valuable book — in particular, I think, for showing how some of the narratives we think of as very modern (eg. multiculturalism) are much more long-standing. bsky.app/profile/writ...

The kids, as they often are, are all right

As a general rule, the opposition calling for a minister to be fired tends to decrease the odds that said minister will be fired. Let's see what Carney does.

I can't claim to be a CFL fan — I'll watch the Grey Cup and maybe a couple games each year — but the commissioner has sure chosen an interesting social-political moment to make changes that would reduce the Canadianness of the league. bsky.app/profile/bruc...

On Thursday, the Climate Institute reported the decline in Canada's GHG emissions had stalled and our 2030 target was no longer reachable. In the two sessions of Question Period that followed, a total of 82 questions were asked. Just 3 of those q's — 2 from BQ, 1 from NDP — were about the report.

You guys, so many Romance girlies are reading "On Tyranny" that they've broken the Goodreads recommendations algorithm. 10/10; no notes. #romancelandia

I think it's probably tempting to think that a democracy ends when elections are cancelled. @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social's writing has been really valuable (for my own thinking) in showing how much more there is to think about and watch out for. www.vox.com/politics/462...

Surely some day we'll stop treating the existence or size of a deficit as the primary criteria for judging the federal budget. Right?

Canadian opinion about the U.S. is at the lowest point since @pewresearch.org started asking in 2002. 34% of Canadians have a positive view of the United States, down 20 points since last year. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

To compare question period to a bear pit would be an insult to bears. And pits.

Our latest early estimate of national emissions shows Canada’s progress flatlined in 2024, putting the 2030 target out of reach. Canada is at a fork in the road: the country needs a policy reboot from all governments to get emissions back on track. www.cbc.ca/news/science...

Today would be a good day to support independent media -- ideally, the company that employs me -- but failing that, another of your choice www.vox.com/support-now

Whether or how Canada should tariff Chinese EVs is an interesting question on which people can reasonably agree. But it feels like Ford's position on tariffing Chinese EVs (in favour!) rests uncomfortable beside Ford's position on consumer EV rebates (against!). www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Checked Hansard to see how many references to "wildfire" there were in the two days Parliament has been back. There appear to be two: openparliament.ca/debates/2025... openparliament.ca/debates/2025... Reminder: This was Canada's second-worst wildfire season on record. www.cbc.ca/news/climate...

Love this dataviz (and hate the trend it shows) on smoke days in Calgary from @robsonfletcher.com. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Three quarters of the news stories studied were shared without clicking and reading the article - something I’m guilty of myself all too often. But it’s not good practice! “virality of political content on social media (including misinfo) is driven by superficial processing of headlines and blurbs”

3-month food price inflation exceeded 5% at annual rates from Jan 2022 to Jun 2023 before dropping to much lower rates until Feb 2025. It was even substantially negative between Dec 2024 and Feb 2025. But it soared to double-digit rates between Mar and May before falling to 4-5% recently. #cdnecon

hot take: Proposed update to TIER that allows companies to count on site investments as payments is not good policy. 1. It's hard to set the BAU against which these investments count 2. It is double counting, thats the whole point of a carbon tax 1/ www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?...

I am once again confused as to why question period is focused on food prices. Repealing the carbon tax solved that problem.

I still periodically see different numbers bouncing around about how much the Carney government is looking to cut from federal spending. So here's the explanation I got from the office of the Treasury Board president in July.

Chrystia Freeland: Helped breathe life into the Trudeau era, then ended it. Probably the most important non-PM cabinet minister since Paul Martin. I look forward to her memoirs. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

When the question is the answer.

New from me. On Carney v. Poilievre and the first day of the fall sitting. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Ahh, the "first real test". A "first" all Prime Ministers must face at least 30 or 40 times. I put the collage below together for fun a year into Trudeau's mandate. The "first test" headlines continued for many years afterwards.

Use of the word "evil" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party

From Pierre Poilievre's remarks to Conservative MPs yesterday, in reference to Mark Carney. I am once again confused as to why cancelling the carbon tax didn't take care of this problem.

This book title sounds like something an old Newfoundlander would say as profanity

This is indeed what we have been advocating for It is the first national energy efficiency program accessible to all low-income Canadians in decades Next step is a national framework to eliminate energy poverty to direct and stabilize a program like this

Whodunnit? Rebecca Campbell 2014

I'll defer to @brhaley.bsky.social on the detailed analysis, but on first glance this new federal program for targeted retrofits... natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-effic... ... seems to look a lot like what a group of experts proposed in 2023. irpp.org/research-stu...

Big day for the word "tranche."

Sovereign Cloud is my new band name.

I re-read this every year. May his memory, & those of all we lost on that day, be a blessing.

Just putting this here for anyone who might like to hear Bobby Kennedy's remarks to a predominantly black audience in Indianapolis on the evening of April 4, 1968, after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kW...

You don’t have to post your opinion about anything.

In fairness, it's hard to move forward on a pipeline if no one is proposing to build a pipeline. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

As Shawn notes, the camera debate is particularly interesting when everyone is otherwise concerned about crime and eager to get tough on it. Feels like we just normalized one specific crime (a certain level of speeding) and don't like that being disrupted. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Every time I see one of these stories, I’m tempted to point out that if this sort of demand signal were all that was needed, we wouldn’t have already pretty much given up on the green hydrogen play that the Germans were ostensibly clamouring for a couple of years ago. www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

🥳Two years of The Numbers! 📊Discussing polls & politics with @ericgrenier.bsky.social every week has been a blast, and it’s your support that makes it possible. Thank you for listening, watching, and for being part of this journey. 🎧Sign up here → www.patreon.com/cw/thenumber...

I think both Justin Trudeau and left-wing ideologues would be surprised to learn Justin Trudeau was a left-wing ideologue.

Valuable advice.

Ken Dryden lived what was surely one of the most remarkable lives in Canadian history and he was never not thoughtful on the occasions I got to interview him...

New from me. On yesterday's ZEV mandate pause. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Pierre Poilievre's plan for the next election seems aimed at winning the votes of Seinfeld fans.

Canada’s review of the electric vehicle mandate—and other climate policies—must be swift and grounded in evidence. Read our full statement on today’s announcement ⬇️ climateinstitute.ca/news/canadas...

It turns out you can't claim the USMCA/CUSMA carve-out on packages being shipped through Canada Post, which is a big problem now that Trump ended the 'de minimis' exemption. More from @lauraosman.bsky.social for @thelogic.co thelogic.co/news/canada-... #TradeSky

Purely in the name of fun, here's a chart of all countries that were at 3-4% EV share in 2019 in IEA's database: www.iea.org/data-and-sta...

I do think the 2026 EV target needs to be pushed back at this point. But it’s increasingly obvious that, even as Canadians may be eager to distance themselves from Trump’s America, we’re increasingly at risk of being on an island with that country when it comes to EV adoption.

Carney says the government will soon release a "climate competitiveness strategy." Pretty sure that's the first I've heard of that.

If you wanted to defend Carney's move on the ZEV mandate, you might point out that a Labour government adjusted the UK's ZEV mandate this spring. (Granted, the Starmer government might not be a government one wants to compare oneself at present.) www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...