Not that you will hear much about that in the mainstream media which will mostly push his valid criticisms such as this.

“We do not need more costly illusions from Mr. Carney. We need real world results at your grocery store, your gas pump and in your bank account,” he said. “We must be affordable at home, safe at home and strong at home, so that we can have unbreakable leverage abroad.”

Here’s a lengthy passage from Poilievre’s speech where he lays out what Canada could be doing now, without having to turn to, rely on or negotiate with Donald Trump.

“We cannot control what the US does to be fair, but we can control what we do to make Canada affordable and autonomous here at home. Our conservative plan for affordable energy will unlock our potential.

We will eliminate all carbon taxes, hidden visible. We would end all gas and diesel taxes for the rest of the year. We would permit rapid oil and gas and electricity projects to boost our dollar and its purchasing power.

We would cancel EV rebates and mandates that largely subsidize foreign automobiles. And instead, let’s take the sales tax off vehicles made here in Canada. We must unblock the most tariff industry of all, home building, by cutting red tape and taxes on construction that will create tariff proof jobs and restore home ownership to our youth.

The federal government should also grant six-month approval times, repeal anti-development laws like C69 and 48, and adopt a one project, one approval rule, as did Prime Minister Harper during the global financial crisis.”

Poilievre also went on to say that under his plan, Canada would use the oil and gas beneath our feet as well as the critical minerals we have as leverage to secure a tariff free deal with the Americans.

For some reason, the Liberals portray Poilievre’s position as a negative one, capitulating to Trump and much of the media goes along with that.

Is Carney trying to set the stage for CUSMA to fail…

I’ve written about Carney’s video here and here.

In the video below I detail how Carney, a man who is warning us about the Americans is fully invested in the United States and how it appears he is using his own video to set us up to accept CUSMA’s failure.

We could sum up what I want from Carney by quoting an Elvis song - a little less conversation and a little more action.

Yes, I’m still defending Doug Ford on the plane issue…

My position on Doug Ford and the Challenger jet he bought and is now selling isn’t a popular one, but it is the right one because I’m dealing in facts and not emotion.

I know I’m supposed to join everyone in being angry and should be screaming about this being a waste of money.

Sorry, won’t do it.

And I’ll guarantee you this, if Kathleen Wynne had bought this plane or any future Liberal buys this plane, I’d have the same argument. Read my column in the Sun, listen to the facts in the video below.

The price of this plane, $28.9 million is just one tenth of one percentage point of the provincial budget of more than $244 billion. Health spending is up $10 billion to more than $101 billion over the past two years and education spending is up $2.5 billion in that same time.

Nothing is being cut to fund this plane.

The great saying that facts don’t care about your feelings doesn’t just apply when arguing with liberals.

The facts back buying the plane even if Ford has reversed his decision.

This was part political theatre, part infomercial, but all of it designed to remind voters that the United States is bad and he’s here to protect us.

“I know from experience that outside forces can sometimes seem overwhelming,” Carney said at the start of his video.

“In my previous jobs at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, part of my duties to make regular public reports on what we were doing to manage the economy. And I remember during the financial crisis, when there was a real risk of panic, I developed a practice called Forward Guidance.”

From there, Carney said that he would speak directly to Canadians in the future with more Forward Guidance, also the name of his YouTube video.

Mostly, the video was a rundown of how the Americans have changed and he’s going to respond.

“The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses; weaknesses that we must correct,” Carney said.

“The US has changed and we must respond.”

More words, no action, but a dose of hypocrisy...

Now, I have a few problems with this video and how it has been presented, starting with the fact that Carney doesn’t add anything new. This is the same sort of thing he’s been saying for a year, but where is the action.

Just like with his investment summit that Carney announced last week, he’s good at make promises or pronouncements, bad at delivering results.

Secondly, why is Carney calling for less reliance on the United States while using all American platforms to get his message out?

This video was posted to Carney’s personal YouTube channel which has 54,000 subscribers and as I write, the video has been seen 160,000 times and growing. After he posted the video to YouTube, he then went on X, Facebook and LinkedIn where he posted a short teaser video with a message that everyone should go to watch the full video on YouTube.

Not to belabour the point, but all of these platforms are American owned and American based.

I have no problem using these platforms, and I do use them, but I’m not the one saying we need to rely less on the Americans and build Canada strong for Canadians.

Carney’s constant talk of breaking with the Americans...

For a man who was elected promising that he would get us a good deal with the Americans, that he knew Donald Trump and how to deal with him, Carney likes to talk a lot about rupture.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said in his Davos speech back in January.

It’s a theme he’s returned to again and again and it’s one that informed his video address on Sunday. When he speaks of rupture, he’s talking about his desire to break away from the United States.

He’s no longer trying to secure a new trade deal with the US, there have been no serious talks in five months, and as Mexico moves ahead with their CUSMA review, we remain frozen out.

Which is exactly how Carney likes it. He’s no longer looking out for what is best for Canada’s economy, he’s looking out for what is best politically for him and the Liberal Party.

Carney knows that fighting with the Americans will gin up his voting base even if it hurts us economically.

Yet, remember less than a year ago when he released a single mandate letter for his cabinet?

The top priority was working to get a new relationship with the United States, not break up with them.

“Establishing a new economic and security relationship with the United States and strengthening our collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world,” the mandate letter reads.

Poilievre rightly blasts Carney...

In response to the Carney video, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre posted his own thoughts on social media. In it, he rightly detailed that despite claims otherwise, Canada’s economy is failing and Carney is making things worse by fighting with the Americans.

The Carney Liberals have given us the worst food inflation, the worst household debt, the worst housing costs, and the only shrinking economy in the G7. He has not repealed a single anti-development law, approved a single pipeline, and housing construction is actually falling.

To top it all off, he’s doubled the deficit Justin Trudeau left behind.

These are all Liberal-made problems that Carney made worse.

And as for the U.S., Mark Carney’s talk of a rupture with the customer that buys two-thirds of our goods is not a plan. He has not negotiated a single new Free Trade Agreement with any country on earth.

The meetings, photo ops, and non-binding memoranda are all an illusion.

In his video, Carney made it sound like the Conservatives didn’t want to do anything in response to Trump’s tariffs and other changes, that is emphatically not true. Time and again Poilievre has laid out plans to strengthen Canada by unleashing our economy.

He did so again in his response to Carney.

If we want to be affordable at home, safe at home, and strong at home we must make real change at home.

That’s why Conservatives are fighting for an end to wasteful Liberal spending. Let us cut corporate welfare, consultants, foreign aid, and handouts to fake refugees.

Unblock our resources.

Unleash our entrepreneurs.

Approve pipelines and major projects today.

Incentivize municipalities to build homes.

Cut the gas taxes on farmers, truckers, and steelmakers.

Stop the money-printing and inflationary deficits that drive up the cost of everything.

That’s the only way we will be strong at home and unbreakable abroad.

These are all changes that Carney could make that would strengthen our economy, unleash our entrepreneurs and none of them rely on Donald Trump or working with the Americans.

Also, in response to Carney the Conservatives issued a video response from Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman.

We have an economy that is underperforming and not just due to Trump and tariffs.

Mark Carney could be acting to change that now, he’s more interested in politics than economics though and that is hurting us all.

I know many of you reading this in other parts of the country have no love for this city. I get it, I was born and raised in Hamilton, spent about 20 years in Ottawa, have travelled across the country and if there is one thing that unites Canadians it is hating Toronto.

But this city matters, it is the economic engine of Canada and when it struggles, the country struggles.

That’s why I believe we need new leadership at Toronto City Hall, not just a new mayor but as slate of new councillors and once they are in place new bureaucrats at the top.

Thankfully we are seeing some signs that voters, at least in some parts of the city are waking up to the fact that things aren’t working as they should here. If we voted based on job performance for things like basic city services then Mayor Olivia Chow would definitely be shown the door later this year.

Brad Bradford is the only declared candidate at this point having announced his plan to take on Chow last October. He’s been in campaign mode ever since hitting up community events, delivering his stump speech and trying to raise his profile.

A pair of new polls would show it’s working.

On Friday, Liaison Strategies released a poll showing Chow with 46% support citywide and Bradford at 35%, the poll also included Anthony Furey - who doesn’t appear to be running - at 11% and 8% said they would vote for someone else.

In suburban Etobicoke, Bradford took 43% voter support to Chow’s 32%. Chow dominates downtown with 49% of the vote to Bradford’s 35%, right now Chow is winning in North York and Scarborough which needs to change for Bradford to win.

In the 2023 Mayoral byelection that saw Chow replace John Tory after his resignation, Chow won with just 37% of the vote in a crowded race. She took the downtown wards, the Beaches and Scarborough but lost in Etobicoke and North York.

For Bradford to win, he’s got to dominate in all the suburban areas, not just Etobicoke.

“Mayor Chow continues to dominate in the downtown core and among older residents, but Brad Bradford has effectively tied her among voters aged 18-34 and holds a lead in Etobicoke,” Liaison Principal David Valentin told my Toronto Sun colleague Bryan Passifiume.

In another poll that shows just a head to head race between Chow and Bradford, no Anthony Furey in the mix, the race appears tighter.

Jodi Shanoff at JS Insights shows Chow in the lead with 37%, Bradford at 36% and 27% undecided. Among those who say they will definitely vote in the next election, 41% say they will back Chow and 39% say they would support Bradford with 20% undecided.

From Shanoff’s note.

The statistical tie between candidates persists among those residents who report they will definitely vote in the next municipal election (71% of all survey respondents). In this case, Chow obtains 41% of decided vote, while Bradford sees 39% (undecided drops to 20%).

Once again, women lean towards Chow’s candidacy (43%), while a plurality of men prefer Bradford (43%). Given the close tie between candidates, there are currently few other demographic differences between voting pools.

Both polls show that support for Bradford has increased since John Tory announced that he would not run in October’s election.

Given that Bradford isn’t as well known as Chow and he’s still in striking distance that means he has room to grow between now and October. Chow, having spent the last three years as mayor, having spent years at city council before that and then serving as a Toronto MP, is a much more well known commodity and while she retains popularity, her negatives are also high.

The Liaison poll was conducted via phone between April 12 and 13th, 2026 using IVR (Interactive Voice Recording) and reached 1,000 people. It’s margin of error is considered +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The JS Insights poll was conducted via an online panel between April 3-7, 2026 and reached 517 Toronto residents based on postal code data. Online polls don’t have margins of error but an equivalent telephone poll would be consider to be accurate within +/- 4.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

twenty.

Doug Ford wants to replace Pierre Poilievre.

That’s the rumour.

Here’s why I think that’s very unlikely to happen.

Every time that there is speculation that Pierre Poilievre might be in trouble or that someone might be trying to push him out as leader of the Federal Conservative Party, speculation turns to Doug Ford, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative premier.

Plenty of people think Doug Ford wants to be prime minister and maybe he does.

Who doesn’t like to be flattered with being told you’re going to be prime minister or you’d be great at being prime minister?

Most politicians would blush and say, “No, no, I couldn’t.”

But inside they’re thinking, yes, I’d love to.

The problem for Doug Ford is that his moment for this has passed.

Now, was there ever a real possibility that could happen?

There’s a couple of reasons why I have always said I don’t think it’s a good idea. One, Doug Ford doesn’t like leaving Etobicoke, the western suburb of Toronto that he lives in.

You can’t be prime minister living in Etobicoke. You’re not going to move the legislature to the suburbs of Toronto. So that’s one strike against him.

Two, he doesn’t really like the list of policies that the federal government is in charge of. That’s not his wheelhouse. He’s more interested in very local things. Some have even said he’s too focused on Toronto and wants to be mayor of Toronto.

Thirdly, he doesn’t speak French and that is a problem.

Sure, I’ve spoken with some Francophones from Quebec who say, no, no, no, we could, we could sell Doug Ford to Quebecers. That is up for debate since we haven’t had a unilingual PM since Diefenbaker and even he could put together a little French.

But here’s the real problem with Doug Ford trying to replace Pierre Poilievre right now.

First off, the job’s not open and I don’t think that Poilievre is going anywhere any time soon.

Does he have troubles at the moment? Absolutely. He’s lost four MPs who crossed over to the Liberals. He could be losing more and his polling numbers have dropped. That is a real problem for him. He’s got the summer to try and figure that out.

If he doesn’t turn things around then you could see somebody inside or outside of the party try to push him out.

But will it be Doug Ford?

Doug Ford just won another massive majority government just over a year ago. Why would he leave that to go and become opposition for at least three years? Why would you sit as leader of the opposition when you could be premier of the largest province in Canada?

Additionally, Doug Ford has been praising Mark Carney. How does he turn around and say, Mark Carney’s doing a great job, and then become opposition leader and start saying, this guy’s awful, he has to go?

Maybe when Justin Trudeau was in power, if Poilievre had lost and Trudeau had won maybe Ford would have taken a run at it. But right now, it just isn’t in the cards.

It’s unforeseeable how this could possibly happen.

Also, does anyone see Ford securing a large number of votes west of the Ontario-Manitoba border?

I certainly don’t.

But because of the online world, rumors continue to swirl, speculation is rampant, and bad ideas continue to float around.

What are your thoughts?

The truth lies somewhere in the middle, but in a sign that something is moving in the right direction - at least according to the markets - the price of oil has dropped.

A week ago West Texas Intermediate was trading at $112.95, today as I write it sits at $91.66 a drop of $21,29 a barrel or a 19% cut in a week. Of course, that is still much higher than the $57 a barrel we started the year with, but it a clear sign the markets see something moving in the right direction.

Mark Carney has his majority, what does this mean for Pierre Poilievre…

I’ve written a couple of pieces for the Toronto Sun on Mark Carney getting his majority government including this piece where I look at what Carney will do with his majority. Carney’s Liberals are a party with such a big tent now that the tent has no walls and they don’t know what they stand for.

As I point out in my column, the Liberals who passed a law protecting kids changing their gender at 12 or 13 have now decided that kids under 16 shouldn’t have any social media account.

Make that make sense.

My Sun colleague Lorne Gunter takes a look at what Carney’s game plan will be.

Are the Conservatives in trouble…

Don’t dismiss the idea that there will be more floor crossers. I’ve dismissed this idea in the past after hearing claims that didn’t appear to come true.

Of course, now those claims have come true. Which makes me believe that the current claims of the Liberals looking to bring over 7-8 more Conservative MPs is worth paying attention to.

For this column, I spent days reaching out to MPs and insiders in both parties. What’s fascinating is the Conservatives know the Liberals are trying to recruit their members, they don’t deny it and even have noticed patterns.

As I detail in the piece that is worth reading, the Liberals are offering special advisory roles, hinting at cabinet posts, even floating the idea of judicial appointments.

An “expert” who opposes prison comments on prison…

If you are an academic activist who doesn’t believe prisons should even exist should you be one of the media’s go to experts on prisons?

Probably not.

Justin Piché is a prof in the criminology department at the University of Ottawa. Asking a criminologist who studies prisons for comment on the government’s prison policy sounds like a good idea and normally would be.

The problem with Piché is that he’s an activist as much as an academic and he doesn’t believe that prisons should exist. Your eyes will roll if you read his comments that I quote extensively in my column on the issue.

Talking food with The Food Professor…

I always love talking to Sylvain Charlebois, AKA The Food Professor. We’ve been chatting for years going back to my days at 580 CFRA in Ottawa.

In this chat we talk about fake maple syrup, bringing South American beef into Canada and the government buying your groceries for you.

I did an Ask Me Anything on Sunday and tried to answer as many questions as I could but it turns out that I missed some and that is what I tried to address tonight.

For the Toronto Sun today, a column on some much needed changes to Ontario’s education system. It’s not as in your face as what Alberta is doing but it is deep in terms of changes.

Tomorrow, a look at what Mark Carney will do with his majority.

Also, thanks for all the support following the long and in-depth post on the rift between Pierre Poilievre and Doug Ford.

I’ll have a full update on the world of politics later today, but first wanted to share the latest Full Comment Podcast episode. It’s on the issue of Canada’s defence spending, our NATO commitments and what to expect going forward.

Lots of armchair generals out there, but I spoke with two well regarded experts in the field - David Perry, president of the Global Affairs Institute, and Christian Leuprecht from the Royal Military College of Canada. It’s a great conversation that goes beyond the surface discussion and it gets more interesting because they don’t agree on every point.

Sit back and enjoy.

From the official show notes.

It’s not actually official that Canada’s defence budget meets NATO’s two per cent of GDP target, despite the press releases claiming so. Yes, spending has been going up, but what is it really meant for? This is Brian’s discussion this week with David Perry, president of the Global Affairs Institute, and Christian Leuprecht from the Royal Military College of Canada. They explain how the government still can’t figure out if it wants to project power or sit on the sidelines and criticize those who do, and whether it wants excellent equipment or just the grandest job-creation promises. We might suddenly think we’ve become serious about defence, but our allies and our enemies have reason to question how serious we really are. (Recorded April 2, 2026)

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Maybe you want to ask me about Eric Swalwell, the Democrat from California who many in his party hoped would be the next Governor of California to replace Gavin Newsom. Well, Swalwell is now facing sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape allegations.

His own party wants him out. I just got back from California and it’s quite the story down there.

Of course, you could ask me about the Liberal convention as well and Mark Carney’s big speech filled once again with lots of words. Sadly, despite all the words, he doesn’t have much to show for it.

The Ask Me Anything livestream is for paid subscribers only. Most content on this site is wide open, but I do owe it to the paid subscribers who support this site to give them something extra.

If you aren’t a paid subscriber yet, it’s not too late.

Speaking of that Liberal convention…

I have friends who were in Montreal over the weekend for the convention, both journalistic types and politicos. One friend who is a former Liberal staffer kept trying to convince me to go to the convention.

As much as I love Montreal, the answer was no.

At the Conservative convention in Calgary this past January, there was at least the pretence of friction, that someone or some group might try to oppose Poilievre in his leadership review. That didn’t happen, it was an uneventful convention and he passed his review with flying colours.

In Montreal, there was no leadership review, it was just Liberals gathering to be arrogant and self-congratulatory which you can witness by talking to any Liberal voter at your local coffee shop.

Besides, California has better weather this time of year and Palm Springs was beckoning.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t pay attention. I heard Mark Carney say that the plane load of Canadians flying back with me on Saturday were bad Canadians for heading south. Oh, and we shouldn’t drink bourbon or California wine.

Here was my reply to Carney on X as I was flying at about 35,000 feet in the air somewhere over the American midwest.

I’m not rediscovering our country, I never stopped exploring it.

In the last 12 months I’ve been to Halifax, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Quebec City, Calgary, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Fredericton, London and too many small towns across Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta to name. I’ve travelled to nine of ten provinces and over the years I’ve vacationed in St. Gabriel de Brandon, Waskesiu, La Baie and Kenaston.

I don’t need to stop visiting the United States because of a dispute with the current president. I’ve covered politics long enough to know that politicians come and go. I’m not going to base my vacation plans on their whims.

In another response to Carney’s speech, I pointed out that his anti-Americanism is why I was saying on the Full Comment Podcast last week that he pushes a populist narrative as well. His whole anti-American/anti-Trump schtick is pure populism.

Remember when that word was bad? Now all three major leaders for English Canada are populists in their own way.

If you haven’t listened to the latest Full Comment Podcast, now is your time to do it. It’s basically me talking to smart friends who are plugged in politically for the three main parties - Jenni Byrne, Kim Wright and Warren Kinsella.

Those floor crossers were all the rage at the Liberal convention…

Marylin Gladu, the Sarnia MP who is now pretending to be a Liberal was introduced on stage by someone who spent years occupying powerful positions in Canada’s broadcast industry while pretending not to be a Liberal. Evan Solomon, my former CFRA and Bell Media colleague, now Mark Carney’s minister of AI, was the one to introduce Gladu on stage at the Montreal convention.

Apparently these two became friends after Gladu went on Solomon’s old CTV show and she spoke out against vaccines during COVID.

Now, he’s hugging her on stage.

She supported the Freedom Convoy, Evan railed against it.

There is little these two have in common beyond wanting to be near power.

Speaking of Chris D’Entremont, he also spoke at the Liberal convention. This is the first time in decades that pro-lifers, that’s anti-abortion in Liberal speak, the first time in decades that the Liberals have welcomed two pro-lifers to their convention - D’Entremont and Gladu.

Liberals couldn’t clap hard enough.

Remember, this man who claims he is a recovering Conservative or a Liberal who didn’t know it, jumped into federal politics under Andrew Scheer.

D’Entremont had been an MLA starting in 2003 and minister in Nova Scotia under the PC governments of John Hamm and Rodney MacDonald. He served in positions such as Minister of Health and Minister of Agriculture.

The government was so popular that in 2009, they went from government to third place and D’Entremont spent nearly a decade on the opposition benches.

When Tim Houston won the leadership of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party in 2018, D’Entremont didn’t like the idea. Houston was too middle of the road for him, so he approached Andrew Scheer and the federal Conservatives and asked about running for them.

Yes, the guy who found Tim Houston too moderate, thought Andrew Scheer - a fellow pro-lifer and strong Conservative was just right - is now singing the praises of Mark Carney and his Liberal Party.

Doug Ford can’t help himself…

Further proof that there is still no relationship between Doug Ford and Pierre Poilievre are Ford’s comments on Friday. On Thursday, I finally got out my much hyped, much awaited piece on the rift between Ford and Poilievre.

If you haven’t read it, give it a try, it is a really deep dive - it would be a whole chapter in a book it is that long. I tried to be fair to both men, each of whom I’ve known for a very long time, but also tried to explain the rift.

In my view, and I explain this in depth, this doesn’t start with Ford and if there were serious attempts to fix it, then Ford wouldn’t be making comments like he did on Friday. But there is no relationship and for Conservatives to win that has to change.

So, on Friday, Ford was asked about the possibility of a Carney majority - I predict the Liberals win all three by-elections on Monday and at this point they only need one for a majority.

Here’s Ford’s answer.

Now, Ford is a consummate politician. He knows he needs to work with Mark Carney because Carney is the PM for the foreseeable future.

But he said he’ll work with the NDP Mayor of Toronto. That would be Olivia Chow who is seeking re-election this fall.

Yes, Ford and Chow have a good personal relationship, but he’d still like her to be replaced, he’s said so publicly. I have a good personal relationship with Olivia Chow, we chat when we see each other, we respect each other, she’s known for 20 years that I oppose her policies.

Ford says he will work with Carney, and he does. Would he prefer a more conservative government that would cut red tape, speed up approval times and boost the economy - absolutely.

Which is why Poilievre should be trying to build a relationship with Ford. Carney has clearly put in the effort with Ford and Poilievre can’t be bothered to meet him for a coffee.

I’ll take questions from the audience in the live group chat and will try and get to most of them. You can also email questions in advance to brian@brianlilley.com and I can use those to kick start the conversation.

So, if you want to ask about floor crossers or my latest piece on the rift between Pierre Poilievre and Doug Ford, this will be your chance.

About that Notwithstanding Clause…

I posted the full interview with Bruce Pardy on the Notwithstanding Clause a couple of weeks ago. It was a very good episode of the Full Comment Podcast and I was able to get some video clips pulled and posted this week while I was away.

There is a push to claim that the Notwithstanding Clause can’t be used over and over again.

As I discussed with Pardy, a law professor and constitutional expert, that’s not the case.

We also discussed how Section 1 of the Charter allows judges to override rights but unlike Section 33, the Notwithstanding Clause, there are no checks and balances on that override.

The next episode of the Full Comment Podcast drops on Monday morning. It will feature a discussion of Canada’s defence needs, whether we are actually spending 2% of our GDP on defence, how we can get to 5% and of course the ongoing debate about buying the F-35.

Check it out.

This was long before Marilyn Gladu decided she was done being a social conservative, Mark Carney hating, Freedom Caucus loving Conservative MP and wanted to become a Liberal MP. Perhaps more importantly, it was before Katy Merrifield, Pierre Poilievre’s Director of Communications left under less than stellar circumstances.

While Gladu’s floor crossing is rightfully getting headlines, Merrifield’s departure from Poilievre’s staff is significant. She’s the comms staffer who has been helping Poilievre take a new tone and style with the media, she’s been central to changing how the message is delivered.

Now, like Gladu, Merrifield is gone.

All of this comes against the backdrop of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre having good European and American tours. His appearances on the Triggernometry Podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience and the Diary of a CEO Podcast were all good and well received and then he came home and things went south for him.

As with the main story that I am about to tell, the relationship, or lack thereof, between Poilievre and the most successful and powerful conservative politician in Canada - Ontario Premier Doug Ford - the fault lies with Poilievre.

Some of you will balk at that, will say that Ford is just a Liberal and isn’t a conservative in any way shape or form. I can actually argue both sides in that debate and I have. Those who follow me closely will know that I have been highly critical of Ford on these fronts.

Yet, at the end of the day, he does lead a conservative leaning party and is instinctively a conservative. It might shock some, especially in Western Canada, that Ford spends less per capita than Danielle Smith’s government.

But that isn’t the purpose of this post.

Today, I want to explain the rift between Ford and Poilievre and why it started long before the last federal election campaign. This isn’t a defence of Ford, it is an explanation of how we ended up where we are.

Perhaps the events of the last few days spell the end of Poilievre’s time as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada - that is a very real possibility now and one I will explore later. For now, let’s look at how we ended up where we are and how a national conservative movement pushes forward.

Reaching out and reaching in as Sarah McLachaln said…

Steve Outhouse, the still fairly newly minted campaign manager for the Conservative Party of Canada has been trying to build bridges with provincial parties. This is a good thing, though let me tell you that the detachment between the federal party and say the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t be fixed overnight.

As I have written many times since the last election, if the Conservatives want to win, they need all parts of their coalition working together. In politics you win by addition, not subtraction; you need to grow your base and your coalition, and that means you lean on friends.

Doug Ford’s recent comments to the Toronto Star that seemed to imply he was cheering for a Carney majority shows there is still work to be done.

“It’s no different than the federal government. They have three byelections, and if they win them, then they’ll have a majority. And again, a magical word in both countries is everyone wants certainty. Everyone wants to move forward,” said Ford.

===

“I just believe in majority governments,” said Ford.

In some respects, this is simply Ford acknowledging reality. Of the three by-elections, two are in Liberal strongholds in Toronto and the third is near Montreal where the Liberals are spending a fortune. They will get a majority by winning just two of the three seats, but they are likely to win all three.

Still, Ford’s comments show the work that needs to be done to heal the rift between the Conservatives in Ottawa and the PCs at Queen’s Park and elsewhere. If there was a blossoming relationship between Ford and Poilievre, it’s doubtful Ontario’s premier would have said those words.

Instead, there remains no relationship. None at all.

There is a bizarre belief out there that this rift between Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the federal Conservative Party started in the last election when Kory Teneycke, Ford’s campaign manager, publicly criticized Poilievre and his campaign.

It’s simply not true.

I’ll be honest and say that I don’t know every single detail, but I do know many of them, more than most people. I’ve been saying that I would share this for some time, and it’s taken a while to put this together, so here goes.

It’s a long one, so grab a coffee and settle in.

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Those who haven’t heard the news yet are asking who Marilyn Gladu is, those of you who have heard the news have already Googled her to find out.

I was spending the morning enjoying the nice weather on the patio when the news broke, so I just soaked up more sun and posted excerpts from her weird, self-published memoir from 2020 called Tales of the Globe Trot. I’ll post those excerpts below, but suffice to say it is a weird book with tales of hanging out in a Thai bordello with 14 year-old prostitutes, her tale of being enthralled with meeting a “burly black man” with really white teeth, her comments about her friend’s 17 year-old daughter “with curves in all the right places,” her admission of driving drunk and more.

See those excerpts below, but first…

Carney’s tent is now big enough to include Marilyn Gladu, a woman who actively supported the Freedom Convoy, opposed vaccine mandates and was critical of vaccines generally, who has denounced the Liberal government for plans to introduce a digital ID and who is generally considered a social conservative.

You can support all of these views, you can oppose all of these views, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that these views run counter to the views of Mark Carney. In fact, I’d say they run counter to the views of 99% of Liberal MPs and voters, but Gladu helps with the majority.

The Liberals now have 171 seats in the House of Commons while the opposition hold 172 seats. After next Monday’s three by-elections, where I predict the Liberals will win all three, they will have 174 seats, meaning a majority plus two seats.

And of course the Liberals say they will be looking bring more floor crossers.

Gladu once denounced the person that she is now…

Way back in the day, way back when, like all the way back in January, Marylin Gladu was going around saying that floor crossers should have to face the voters before being allowed to change parties. This wasn’t a view held in her youth, many years ago or even a year ago, it was what she told her local media outlets less than three months ago.

Here are her comments published by the Independent on January 11, 2026.

“Really, the whole point of being an MP is to represent your constituents. So, if they’re voting you in under one platform, for you to switch for whatever reasons, just seems to me to not be representing what you’re supposed to be there to represent. We elected you under this banner, and if you don’t want to be under that banner, then we deserve a chance to have a redo.”

Oh well, the folly of youth I suppose!

Now, a year ago, she had plenty to say about Mark Carney and it wasn’t nice.

All of that is water under the bridge, Gladu is a Liberal now.

That oh so very weird book…

In November 2020, Gladu self-published her book Tales from the Globe Trot. It told her story of being a single, female business executive and then MP travelling the world on her own.

The book is awkward and poorly written.

Back in 2021 Liberals and others in Ottawa were pitching it around due to the weird content. In the middle of a global pandemic where lockdowns, vaccines and mandates were dominating the news, this book didn’t matter much.

Now that she’s joined the Liberals, it’s worth looking at the text to see how she fits in with her new team.

In this section, Gladu writes about hanging out with a guy in a Thai brothel filled with 14 year-old hookers.

Here, Gladu comments on the body of a 17 year-old daughter of a friend.

Gladu also wrote about meeting, and then going on a date with a “burly black man” with really white teeth named Issac Washington.

Not many MPs will admit to drunk driving without being charged but Gladu did.

As early as 26, Gladu had resigned herself to spinsterhood. She wrote about being so desperate that she was even willing to date, (gasp) a guy with a Jewish sounding name. Like I said, this book is weird.

Gladu may help Mark Carney secure a bigger majority than expected but this former Conservative leadership hopeful, freedom caucus champion, vaccine mandate opponent and so-con pro-lifer is an odd fit for the Liberal caucus.

Perhaps the thing she has in common with Carney and all Liberals is that apparently, she is quite flexible about her principles if power is on the line.

The NDP has a new leader in Avi Lewis, Mark Carney is about to get his majority and Pierre Poilievre has the support of the party, but no where to go for three years.

As the official title states, Mark Carney is about to get hammered left and right by populism.

By these guys of course.

This isn’t the standard kind of panel you see on TV, I called up three people who are all friends of mine and who are all smart people and we had a real conversation.

We could have called it, Brian speaks to his friends!

Hope you enjoy and leave a comment below.

From the official show notes:

Canada’s two national opposition parties, the Conservatives and NDP — now under Avi Lewis — are relentlessly focused on affordability and dismantling a system they say screws non-elites. As this week’s panel discusses, both Lewis and Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre clearly stand for something, which raises questions about what Prime Minister Mark Carney stands for … besides fighting President Donald Trump. Brian is joined by former Conservative campaign director Jenni Byrne, longtime NDP strategist Kim Wright, and former Liberal adviser Warren Kinsella. They break down how the new NDP leader, unlike the last one, will make life more difficult for the Liberals. They also consider the likelihood Carney will prorogue Parliament after securing a majority, and how much it will (or won’t) help him. (Recorded April 1, 2026)

For the first part of the flight, I was working on the long promised but yet to be delivered post on the rift between Pierre Poilievre and Doug Ford. It’s close to done now and will be out for paid subscribers in the next few days, it just needs an edit and polish to make sure it’s ready.

What surprised me was how much there was to say.

When I started writing the post, I figured it would take 1,000 to 1,500 words. It’s now approaching 3,000 words which means it’s about the length of a chapter in a non-fiction book.

Will this be the start of a book?

Maybe, I’ve thought about writing a book about conservative politics in Canada, maybe this will be the start of something.

Taking a short break...

You may have noted that I haven’t been writing for the Toronto Sun for the last few days. They force me to take vacation now and again and to be honest I’ve needed the break and some rest from the usual pace of producing columns, videos, along with radio and TV appearances.

So that means I’ve dropped that for the week, but will still post here. How much once I land in the hot and sunny desert is yet to be determined.

That means I haven’t been paying as much attention to the news for the last few days. Obviously, I’ve been keeping an eye on Iran, including watching Trump trash talk Iran while standing next to the Easter Bunny.

I’ll be anxious to see what happens tonight when Trump’s deadline passes.

The commentariat class is already saying that Trump has failed in this war, which they didn’t believe in from the start. I’ll be honest and say that I’m not sure what is going on or what will happen.

The military achievements thus far have been impressive. The rescue mission over Easter was truly remarkable.

The fact that the regime is holding on though is pause for concern.

If you want a view that is different from what you get on most of the news channels or even most of the online pundits, give John Spencer a follow on X. He was a guest of mine on the Full Comment Podcast recently to discuss the war in Gaza and he is incredibly knowledgeable.

Canada’s immigration system is a dumpster fire...

One of the stars of the federal Conservative caucus is Michelle Rempel Garner, or as I have nicknamed her, The Notorious MRG. This woman is a force of nature on Parliament Hill, and she is doing great work in holding the government to account on the immigration file.

Last week, before I departed Toronto, I had a chance to catch up with The Notorious MRG to discuss the recent report from the Auditor General on the foreign student program and a number of other issues on this file.

Fast choo choo trains are suddenly all the rage...

When I started seeing people posting and arguing over the HSR on X, I wondered why the Hamilton Street Railway was suddenly hot again. No, they weren’t arguing over Steeltown’s city bus service – yes, it is still called a street railway – they were arguing over high-speed rail.

Last week Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called the plan for a high-speed train from Quebec City to Windsor a $90 billion boondoggle. He wants it cancelled and the money put in part towards giving Canadians tax relief by cutting gas taxes as people struggle with the price at the pump.

We’ve been talking about a high-speed rail line along this route for decades. Dozens of studies have been conducted, some estimates say that cumulatively we’ve spent $1 billion on these studies, and yet there is still no rail line.

The latest twist is that Franky Bubbles, François-Philippe Champagne, Mark Carney’s finance minister, is in hot water over this project. Turns out that Champagne’s partner, Anne-Marie Gaudet, is vice-president of environment for the firm Alto which has been tapped by the federal government to spearhead the project.

She’s been in this job since August and just last November, Champagne’s budget – which he voted for – allotted $100 million to Alto for HSR.

Champagne says he followed all the rules and has recused himself from this file – the budget and vote notwithstanding I suppose – but no one can find any proof of this. On Monday, Carney was defending his minister saying that Franky Bubbles followed all the rules.

It’s just that none of us, not even CBC, can find evidence to back up this claim.

Suddenly though, Liberal supporters are all up in arms over any opposition to HSR. They are all instant high-speed rail experts AND if you don’t support high-speed rail then it’s because you don’t love Canada.

The first time I ever covered this issue was about 25 years ago as a young reporter in Montreal when I interviewed Jean Chretien’s then transportation minister David Collenette. We sat in a rail car in Montreal’s Central Station and discussed the idea.

It’s been studied to death since then and still nothing.

One last point, this is a supposed nation building project but would only benefit a certain sliver of the country and population. Of course, it is the one where the Laurentian Elite live.

Canadians are comfortable with being told lies and the big one that keeps being repeated is that our economic problems all stem from Donald Trump, his tariffs and our economic uncertainty. We get this lie told to us by our political leaders, our media and by ourselves in coffee shops and bars across the country.

This past weekend, we heard Bob Fife, one of Canada’s most accomplished journalists and well respected by all parties, repeat this lie on CTV’s Question Period.

While Trump’s tariffs are a problem, the reality is, our economic problems go much deeper and are mostly due to self-inflicted wounds. It’s why I cheered on Mark Carney last year saying things like we will think big, act bigger and move at speeds not seen in generations.

If we had followed that mindset, we would be digging ourselves out of the economic hole that we put ourselves in. Unfortunately, Carney’s rhetoric has met reality and we aren’t thinking big, we aren’t acting bigger and we are moving at Ottawa speeds.

Let’s take a look at the facts…

Our unemployment rate is 6.7% according to the Labour Force Survey for February released by Statistics Canada. A year earlier, our unemployment rate was 6.6% and it has been over 6% for two years now.

That isn’t due to Trump, in fact we were headed in the wrong direction long before it became clear that he would win the 2024 American Presidential election. So, the unemployment rate is not his fault, that’s on us.

Now, let’s consider our lacklustre economic growth.

According to Our World in Data, between 2014 and 2024, Canada’s GDP grew by 18.8% which sounds great until you compare us to the Americans who grew their GDP in the same time frame by 28.2%. If you look at the chart below, which is expressed in real international dollars adjusted for inflation.

When we look at GDP per capita things are much worse for Canada. We saw GDP per capita grow by 1.7% between 2014 and 2024 compared to 19.8% growth for the Americans over the same time.

Note in this chart that Canada’s GDP per capita was going down starting in 2022, which was long before Donald Trump was elected and started imposing tariffs.

Our labour productivity is well behind the United States, a trend that also predates Trump’s return to The White House. As for business investment and capital per worker, that is something that has also declined over the past decade which hurts labour productivity further.

Our ability to attract foreign direct investment, a key builder of the Canadian economy, has been middling at best over the same time period.

It may feel good to blame everything on Donald Trump, but it’s not accurate.

It’s simply the kind of sweet little lies that soothes the souls of too many Canadians.

We’d be better off to acknowledge some hard truths and work on fixing them.

Even if you don’t celebrate Easter and the Risen Christ as a religious obsevance, you are surrounded by the cultural expressions of the holidy. Right about now, some of you might be asking what chocolates and bunnies have to do with Easter.

It’s a question I get just about every year.

The answer, if you understand theology, and perhaps if you were trying to impart this Christian theology to an illiterate people, say 1,000 to 1,500 years ago, is everything. The origins of Easter eggs, according to some, goes much deeper, back to the earliest Christians in Mesopotamia - which would mostly include modern day Iraq but also parts of Turkey, Syria and Iran.

Christians in these areas, as early as the 2nd century AD would dye eggs, hide eggs and use them to explain the resurrection of Christ.

A hollow egg and an empty tomb…

Think of how you used to make Easter eggs as a kid or the kind of chocolate Easter eggs you would get years ago.

They were hollow, they were empty.

Why?

Because Christ’s tomb was empty on Easter.

Think of dyeing eggs as a kid. You would poke holes in them and blow out the insides before dying them. I’m not sure many kids still do that today, but the reason you did that as a child, whether you knew it or not, was to represent Christ’s empty tomb.

These were traditions, ways of teaching, that were developed to explain the Gospel message to an illiterate populace.

Eggs, like rabbits - AKA the Easter Bunny - also symbolize new life which is something on offer from Christ after his resurrection.

Connecting pancake Tuesday to those Easter eggs and all the chocolate…

There is less of a theological connection between giving chocolate at Easter and more of a cultural one - though a cultural one based in theology.

Few people today think about, or make the connection, between the the day before Ash Wednesday and giving of chocolate on Easter Sunday.

It should be as clear as…dark, muddy chocolate.

The day before Ash Wednesday has many names. You can call it Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday or any other myriad of names.

Historically, for Christians, the end goal was the same, to use up the fat and tasty foods you had in your pantry ahead of 40 days of fasting during Lent.

One thing that Christians of past centuries would not have eaten during Lent was choclate. Which is why, after a 40 day fast of avoiding sweet and fatty foods that the custom of giving choclates emerged.

Eventually, the feasting on chocolate to celebrate the end of the fast merged with the tradition of the eggs and we got the hollow chocolate eggs.

Many of the cultural traditions we have around religious holidays see disconnected from the holidya itself. That’s often because we have lost the meaning, the original intent, not because there isn’t a connection.

Christus resurréxit!

Vere resurréxit!

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has recently, and perhaps reluctantly, begun to open up about the fact that his daughter Valentina is on the autism spectrum and is non-verbal.

Talking about family is difficult…

I stopped talking about and posting about my own family in any meaningful way more than a decade ago. It happened after I posted a funny video of one of my kids doing something they thought was hilarious and it brought out the haters on all sides.

So, I just stopped. It was nothing traumatic, I just didn’t want to deal with people attacking my family for their own personal political gain, so I stopped.

I’d been careful not to post personal details of my kids, I tried to protect their privacy. One of them did something funny, completely unrelated to politics and a massive argument errupted online about Harper and Trudeau and who was at fault and how my kid related to it.

To this day, I’m still careful.

I’ve been through a divorce that was painful, I’ve since remarried, but I don’t say much about it.

Why do I tell you this now?

To explain why Pierre Poilievre might have been reluctant to talk about his daugther Valentina in public. It’s not that he’s ashamed of her, it is that he has been protecting her and his family.

Valentina, if you haven’t heard, is Poilievre’s oldest child. She is autistic and non-verbal, which means there are extra challenges.

Extra joys as well, but extra challenges.

Autistic children bring joys and challenges…

Autistic kids are different. I say that as the father of two children living with autism though on different parts of the spectrum than Valentina - all of my children were verbal - but that didn’t mean communication was always easy.

Parents of children with autism want their kids to be “normal” in terms of being able to function in society, but they also know that these kids function and communicate in very different ways. At times it is frustrating and at times it is wonderful and beautiful.

I’ve never talked about this with Poilievre, perhaps I should. He met all my kids when they were younger, he was one of the local MPs that we would see at community events, but like most parents, I didn’t open up with here’s so and so and they are X.

It’s just part of who they are.

Pierre and his wife Ana are dealing with an extra layer in the fact that Valentina is non-verbal. As you will see in this clip from the Diary of a CEO podcast, he’s thinking about how to make sure she is looked after well after he is gone.

That’s what parents do.

A couple of days ago, Pierre posted an 8 minute clip from his two hour interview with Steven Bartlett from the Diary of a CEO Podcast - an interview that has been viewed1.3 million times just on YouTube.

The 8 minute clips was simply titled - This is Valentina.

Be prepared to be moved and to reach for a Kleenex.

First off, I’ll say private liquor stores in Sask, like the ones run by Sobey’s or Co-Op are generally quite nice. It’s proof that you can have private liquor stores, the province won’t fall apart and consumers can get their products in a nice, clean, friendly environment.

You can also buy booze here that is forbidden in Ontario.

But holy crap is beer expensive here!

The largest pack of Stella Artois they had at the store we stopped in sold for $56.99 for an 18 pack plus $1.80 bottle deposit making the final price $58.79.

Compare that to Ontario where a 24 pack of Stella at The Beer Store will set you back $56.62 all in or Quebec where Stella is on sale at $30.66 a 24 pack plus tax and deposit meaning a total price of $37.65 as part of a three day sale.

The combined federal and provincial tax rate for Quebec is about 31.5%, Ontario’s is 43% and Sakatchewan’s are the highest in the country at 49.4%.

While beer is more expensive in Sask, Ontario made liquor is cheaper here…

Why is it that in Saskatoon I can buy a bottle of Wiser’s whiskey, made in Windsor, Ontario, for about $10 cheaper than I can at the LCBO, Ontario’s government run liquor stores?

The same bottle seen here in a Saskatoon Co-Op store sells for $21.99 on sale. At the LCBO right now, this same bottle - made in Ontario - costs $31.45 which is a sale from their regular price of $32.95.

Just below these bottles you can see Gibson’s Finest which is selling for $26.99 in Saskatoon compared to $35.95 at the LCBO. Gibson’s is also made in Windsor, Ontario but is cheaper after being trucked more than 3,000 kilometres.

In Saskatchewan, consumers can choose what to buy…

Ontario has had a ban on the sale of American alcohol products via the LCBO since March 2025. In Saskatchewan, as in Alberta, you can choose whether to buy your Kentucky bourbon or California wine.

So far, Alberta and Saskatchewan are alone in allowing the regular sale of American alcohol. Consumers who want to boycott here can and I’m sure many do. I hear plenty of anti-Trump/anti-American attittudes here so sales are likely lower than they were pre-tariff.

That said, you are an adult and can buy Yankee hooch if you want to.

That won’t be happening in Ontario anytime soon. In his interview with the Toronto Star that I profiled earlier, Premier Doug Ford said he was keeping American booze off the shelves.

The premier said the prime minister has pointed out to him that Ontario’s ban on American spirits, wine and beer from LCBO shelves is a problem for U.S. trade negotiators.

“He’s mentioned it. But there’s irritants on both sides. Both sides have a few irritants that we will get out of the way,” he said, expressing hope Trump removes the punishing tariffs on Canadian auto parts, steel, aluminum, lumber and other goods.

Ford said “as soon as we have CUSMA” renewed he would look at lifting the retaliatory measures that have kept California wine and Kentucky bourbon out of LCBO stories across the province since March 2025.

“It’s no different than the tariffs they put on auto, steel, lumber,” he said, pointing out the booze ban is “a kitchen table issue” that reminds Ontarians of the trade war Trump started.

It’s enough to make me cry in my beer, but here in Saskatchewan, that’s simply too expensive.

Benzie was travelling for Ford this past week as Ontario’s premier did a swing through Texas. Ford was meeting with politicians and business executives making the case for Ontario and for Canada.

We need more of these kinds of missions and not just when there is a crisis. Talk to any of the people who have worked in diplomacy in the United States and many of them, if they are being honest, will tell you we got lazy long ago.

Canada doesn’t have enough staff from the federal side in enough offices in the United States. We don’t do enough trade missions, we don’t do enough relationship building and that didn’t just start with the advent of Trump.

It’s been going on a long time and has helped allow the attitudes of those around Trump, that Canada is a problem, to go unchecked.

But back to Benzie and his piece in The Star talking about Carney being more conservative than Ford. These comments came about because Ford’s team granted Benzie an interview to him and other travelling journalists and the premier just opened up about his first meeting with Carney.

“I’ll never forget when I met him the first time, the first words out of his mouth: ‘I’m more conservative than you.’ And I said: ‘well that sounds good.’”

Matched with Ford’s comments last week at a joint news conference where he asked if drinking from Carney’s water glass would turn him Liberal, Ford is in for a lot of ribbing.

Here’s that clip.

Vibes versus reality…

Is Mark Carney really more conservative than Doug Ford?

Let’s set aside claims that Ford is a Liberals in a blue tie for a moment and think about Carney. Is Mark Carney really a blue Liberal or running an old-school Progressive Conservative government?

If your guideline is what we saw out of Ottawa over the last century, then no. If you want to judge the PC claim by what we saw out of Queen’s Park, the Ontario government, over the last century - Mike Harris notwithstanding - then maybe but not really.

But don’t claim that Mark Carney is a conservative in the way that Stephen Harper or Brian Mulroney were. Sure, old journalists, pundits and the like who hated Mulroney when he was in office and thought he was a far-right facist now wax poetic about how he ran a middle of the road government.

It’s not what they said about him at the time.

Now, you are being fed the lie that Carney is a conservative of sorts.

What has he really built other than a bigger bureaucracy? We have a major projects office that is not moving major projects forward and a Build Canada Homes office that is doing everything but making sure homes are built.

For Carney and his team, it is all about vibes and not results.

He stands up to Trump, so many Canadians love him.

He isn’t Justin Trudeau, so he must be an improvement.

He talks to other world leaders, so he must be taken seriously.

On those fronts, Carney has no deal with Donald Trump and tariffs on Canada have only gone up since he took office. He may not be Trudeau in that he’s not an arrogant ass in meetings with premiers but are the policies all that different?

And as for talking to world leaders, he called for a pulling together of middle powers during his speech at Davos and so far, he has no takers.

Mark Carney presents well, he claimed he was good in a crisis, but so far we haven’t seen evidence of that.

Conservative in what way…

Mark Carney took over a federal government that promised to spend less than the Trudeau government.

“Day-to-day government spending, the government’s operating budget, has been growing by an unsustainable 9% every year,” Carney told the House of Commons in May of last year.

Yet, when it came time for his own government’s budget, spending didn’t actually go down as I pointed out at the time, it went up. Carney it seems likes to promise big things but not deliver.

Consider that Carney promised spending reductions in departments of 7.5% this year and 15% cumulative by year three, and instead, total spending went up by 7.2%. The budget document is still promising 15% savings across all departments over the next three years, even as total spending goes up.

As for Carney’s promise to reduce spending in coming years, but not this year, I’ve been listening to politicians say that for 25 years. It’s a nice way to put off hard decisions that voters may not like.

Beyond showing that he’s not a fiscal conservative, Carney is also keeping a number of Trudeau era policies that are foolish and will continue to hurt our economy.

The industrial carbon tax just went up on April 1, he is pushing ahead with stricter methane regulations on our oil and gas sector, he is determined to ensure that we have a decarbonized oil that none of our customers are asking for to compete against oil that wouldn’t meet Canadian environmental standards of ten years ago.

He may have delayed and slightly weakend Canada’s EV mandate, but he hasn’t gotten rid of it. And on gun control, he’s still putting all the emphasis on Trudeau’s failed gun “buyback” program that I wrote about here rather than going after criminals who continue to shoot up our streets.

Time to face reality…

If you like Mark Carney and think he’s doing a great job then knock yourself out, you clearly prefer vibes over reality. Don’t however claim that he’s doing a great job or that he’s running a conservative or PC government.

He’s running a high spending, left-leaning Liberal government that is overseeing a higher unemployment rate, high food inflation and a staggering economy.

That’s the reality.

I’ll deal with Doug Ford another time.

This is especially true starting around 3 pm, “the hour” and usually lasts well into Saturday.

Blame my Catholic upbringing.

On Good Friday, we mark the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ while on Easter Sunday – which technically and theologically starts at Sunday down on Saturday – we mark his resurrection.

That time in between, at least in the Catholic tradition, is marked by the absence of Christ. The Tabernacle is emptied, the Altar is stripped bare, no Mass is celebrated, there are no bells or music.

Christ is in the tomb, and we spend time waiting and reflecting on a world without Christ.

The waiting is broken at sundown with the peeling of the bells, the lighting of candles, the singing of hymns and the refrain, “He is Risen, Truly He is Risen!”

I don’t tell you any of this to convert anyone.

Religion and politics do mix...

They say that religion and politics don’t mix, and those are the two things you shouldn’t discuss in public. I find them the most interesting things to discuss and without both of them we would have a very strange world.

I don’t want to talk about partisan politics today, but I do want to discuss the intersection of religion and politics in Canada.

This country was built upon a Judeo-Christian tradition. It has shaped our laws, our institutions; it built our first schools, hospitals, and our social safety net.

If you are a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, of any other religion at all or no religion this shouldn’t bother you. Accepting that you live in a country founded on Judeo-Christian values and traditions doesn’t require you to convert or change, it is simply an acceptance of fact.

Look at the coins in your pocket.

Pull out a Loonie or Toonnie and look at the back. If it is an older coin, it will say D.G. Regina which is Latin for Dei Gratia Regina, or in English By the Grace of God, Queen.

Our national motto is A Mari Usque Ad Mare, which means From Sea to Sea. This isn’t just to denote that Canada is bounded by oceans, it comes from the Bible, Psalm 72:8.

“He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”

Our Judeo-Christian heritage may be getting pushed aside, we might be running on fumes, but it is there still and on a day like today, a national holiday on one of the most sombre and important Christian holidays, I’m thinking about it.

The naked public square...

For decades though there has been a push to force religion out of public life. This has been particularly true about Quebec since the Quiet Revolution, but it applies to the rest of the country as well.

This isn’t just about trying to stop people from saying Merry Christmas or Happy Easter.

Far too many Canadians view religiously motivated Canadians with suspicion. Those on the left are obsessed that having elected officials who are grounded in faith means one thing – people trying to ban abortion.

Do they not realize that the push to have universal health coverage in this country – flawed as it is in the administration – was driven by a Baptist pastor named Tommy Douglas? Canada’s decision to do away with the death penalty was driven mostly by politicians appealing to their Christian faith.

We could go further back and look at the abolition of slavery, driven almost entirely by devout Christians.

If we never had Christians working in the public square, would we still have the society we have today?

Hardly.

Be not afraid...

Last week, both Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre both spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and spoke about faith.

Both men are steeped in faith, neither one shares it publicly very often. I’d like to see this happen more, not in a false way, not to win votes, but in an expression of their true and authentic selves.

I thought it worth sharing their speeches here.

In the video below you can find Carney’s speech just after the 53-minute mark and Poilievre’s shortly after the 1-hour mark.

You can also read the text of Carney’s speech below.

The text of Carney’s speech…

Good morning.

Thank you, Richard Bragdon, Speaker of the House Francis Scarpaleggia, Speaker of the Senate Raymonde Gagné, and distinguished guests.

I will begin with a short reading from the Gospel of Matthew 1:23.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call him Immanuel,” which means “God with us”.

This verse marks the fulfilment of the Prophet Isaiah, and the generosity of God incarnate.

I will organise my brief remarks around generosity in part because generosity is one of the distinguishing features of Canadians. Canadians take care of each other.

I underscore this because we, as parliamentarians, are often called to channel the generosity of those we serve, while balancing it with fiscal realities and the principles of liberty.

The Christian tradition holds that generosity is not an original act. We give because we have first received.

In the original Greek, charis precedes charisma. Grace before gift.

We parliamentarians are only in this room because we have received abundantly. Certainly, a determination that does not recognise obstacles. Probably, an intelligence that is restless. And, one hopes, discernment to see what truly matters.

And what of forgetfulness? Forgetfulness is not something one normally associates with politicians.

But Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, teaches us that when we give, our left hand should not know what our right hand is doing.

Generosity, at its noblest, does not keep accounts.

Let our generosity be quiet and without witnesses.

And may it be reflected both personally and institutionally.

For generosity is also about being present. It’s giving not only to causes, but to people – to our families, our friends, our colleagues, and to one another.

It’s giving time.

Attention.

Mercy.

Giving time, attention, mercy can be our most lasting legacy.

I once heard a sermon in which the Reverend addressed different perspectives on immortality. Noting the presence of some secularly important churchgoers in the front pew, he challenged us over how many of their distinguished predecessors we could name.

He admitted that he could only manage seven of his own without cheating.

People who went to the horizon of their death feeling like they were the heroes of their own story.

Then, drawing on scripture, he set our transience in two opposing perspectives.

First, from Isaiah and St. Paul, there’s that of “let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die”.

If you set the horizon for your performance review at the moment you die, life is short and pressured, and that pressure degrades selflessness and the service of others.

However, if the horizon goes beyond the grave, and goes beyond for immortal amounts of time, and without all the corruption of death that blights the world, then there is a horizon that puts our lives here into the right perspective.

That’s a life not easily moved by the day-to-day “crises” of work. It’s a life of purpose that can achieve lasting benefit. A life that seeks to advance the trinity of distributive justice, equality of opportunity, and fairness across generations.

And even if those efforts fail, it is a life which recognises that in pursuing virtue we help build it in ourselves and in others.

We expand its practice and give it life.

I know there are some Stoics in the room, so I will close by channelling Marcus Aurelius: Arise for the work of humankind. Be humble. However grand you are today or may become tomorrow, you too will be forgotten. With the centuries, our names will become puzzles.

But our generosity can live on as examples that multiply through values in the service of others. A worthy past sedimented into a better future.

So may we give thanks for the generosity we have each received and which we are now called to pass on.