Carney in UAE to find investors as Canadian investment flees...

Plus, those major projects, the retirement age is going up, and why the F-35 is the right plane.

Hot off meeting the Swedish Royal Family, who also filled in a Saab Gripen jet sales agents, Prime Minister Mark Carney is now in the United Arab Emirates. It’s part of a week long trip to try and attract investment and capital his office is telling CTV.

Good luck with that, when Canadian companies won’t invest in Canada due to our regulatory environment what do you think the chances are of foreign companies investing here.

If you haven’t heard, fertilizer giant Nutrien, based in Saskatoon, has just announced that they have selected a new location for their deep water port to service Asian markets. The company already uses ports in Vancouver, Saint John and Portland for their exports of potash but their new location for an export port is Longview, Washington.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail earlier this year while the search was on, Nutrien CEO Ken Seitz said regulations, taxes and approval timelines were key.

“I just want to make sure the downstream infrastructure and the associated regulatory environment continues to be one conducive to us,” he said.

Well, he looked at the regulatory environment in Canada, which is still anti-business and took his business stateside instead of expanding export operations in Vancouver or building out in Prince Rupert.

Meanwhile, auto parts giant Linamar has completed their purchase of a number of manufacturing facilities from Michigan based Aludyne North America. The deal is worth $300 million USD, not quite the $8.5 billion that Calgary based TC Energy is investing stateside, but it another example of investment flowing south.

This wouldn’t be a problem if there were also investments pouring into Canada, in a healthy economic environment, we invest at home and stateside and American companies invest at home and in Canada. We aren’t in a normal investment climate, we aren’t in a healthy economic environment, which is why the government is going around picking and choosing which projects to support.

About those major project announcements…

I was shocked last week when I was listening to Mark Carney release his second list of major projects in the national interest. If you listen to him, most of the time, if you just pay attention to the MSM, you might think that by virtue of these announcements that the projects are approved and moving forward.

Yet, there was Carney saying that they still need approvals and may not happen. Then on Monday, Dawn Farrell the head of the Major Projects Office was at the Commons Environment Committee and made comments that made my ears perk up.

In response to a question from Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy, yes, the guy who beat Pierre Poilievre, Farrell said only a few projects would be deemed in the national interest.

Unless I am misunderstanding something, and maybe I am, what is the point of Carney’s announcements?

When he makes them it sounds like he is laying hands upon them, giving them his prime ministerial blessing and telling them to go forth and multiply. But Farrell’s comments, and Carney’s comment in response to a question makes it sound like nothing has really changed.

Except financing, if they like your project they will put government money into it. That is worrying and something I will need to look into further.

The Saab argument is working on some it seems…

We have committed to buying 88 F-35 fighter jets and we should honour that commitment. It is the best plane for the Royal Canadian Air Force, it is what most of our allies are flying and it is best for jobs in Canada and the improvement of Canada’s industry.

Saab though is trying to entice us by promising that we can build their Gripen jet here in Canada and that will create 10,000 jobs. I demolished this argument using Saab’s own data from their own website as it relates to how many jobs Brazil is creating by building the Gripen in their country.

Sweden and Saab have arrived claiming that their proposal to allow Canada to assemble their Gripen fighter jets in conjunction with Bombardier will generate 10,000 jobs. That’s a laughable figure when Saab’s own website states that their co-production in Brazil with Embraer sees only about “200 employees are directly involved with 60 dedicated to the production.”

Based on those numbers, there is no way that assembling the jets in Canada will result in 10,000 new Canadian jobs. It’s a fallacy.

Still, many Canadians are buying it or just want to not have anything to do with the Americans.

“Industrial and Sovereignty Control: European suitors have been explicit: assemble here, train here, and give Canadian firms deeper access to upgrades over time,” writes reader Foster Swyer.

He goes on to complain about American control of the F-35, which could also apply to the higher end capabilities of the Gripen which relies on American tech, and claims that the F-35 can’t fly in the cold. Tell that to the Americans who have a base of nearly 60 F-35s in Fairbanks, Alaska operating year round.

Bottom line is many Canadians don’t want the F-35 because they hate Trump or are anti-American. We will be flying these things for 40 years, long after Trump is gone, so buy the best plane.

Anyway, don’t take my word for it, here is Billie Flynn, a Canadian fighter pilot who was one of the first Canadians to fly the CF-18 when we adopted that and is one of three Canadians to have flown the F-35.

Are we headed for an early election…

My bet is still on a spring election if the Carney Liberals can find the winning conditions. That could be a tall order and if the polling is in the same place as it is now, with the parties tight in national and regional support, the Liberals won’t want to go no matter what Poilievre’s personal numbers are.

Anyway, I had fun speculating about an election today in my Sun column.

In another one, I explained once again why the LCBO, Ontario government liquor monopoly is a disaster in need of serious fixing and leadership change.

No, the retirement age is not being raise to 66 or 67…

There is a claim floating online that the Carney government is raising the Canada Pension Plan retirement age to 67 from 65. This claim, which is completely bogus, is being pushed by some dodgy websites but don’t believe it.

I’ve had websites like the one in the image above sent to me. I’m providing the links because I don’t want to give them legitimacy or traffic. This particular website has several articles up claiming the change in retirement age was made in the budget but they provide no links, no details, no quotes from government documents.

If this were true, there is no way that it would have evaded the eyes of the hundreds of journalists who reviewed the budget, the various seniors advocacy groups who reviewed the budget or the average citizen.

This is an attempt a fear mongering and click bait and sadly it is working.

Quebec’s Liberals in a scandal about paying to vote…

The separatist Parti Quebecois is leading in the polls right now, their savvy leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is having a moment. The current government of Francois Legault and his CAQ party is on the ropes and unless something big happens won’t survive next year’s election - though lots can happen in a year, just ask Pierre Poilievre.

So that left many of us who were hoping for a federalist government looking to the Quebec Liberals and Pablo Rodriguez.

Maybe not now after the reporting of Le Journal de Montreal showing people talking about getting paid, paid in brownies as in $100 dollar bills, to vote for Rodriguez.

“And don’t forget, we only return the membership cards on May 8th in case something goes wrong. All that’s left is the voting process and they get a brownie for voting,” a text message read.

Rodriguez, a former Trudeau cabinet minister, is denying any wrong doing but it all looks pretty damning.

For those unfamiliar with Quebec politics, the Quebec Liberals aren’t quite the same as the federal Liberals. For a long time they were the only federalist option in provincial politics and you would see federal Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats work together to keep the separatists from power.

There is now a Quebec Conservative Party led by my old friend Eric Duheme and the CAQ is a somewhat conservative party mixed with a lot of nationalism, but Quebec politics remains different.

Will have to see what this does to the election.