Carney is giving Canada all the wrong energy in talks with Trump...

Plus, Ford goes off on a judge over bike lanes, hostages and Canada's shifting position and Howard Stern all washed up.

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It’s the energy in the room.

That’s what American ambassador Pete Hoekstra was saying on CBC when asked why Canada wasn’t getting a tariff exemption and Mexico was. If you have the time to watch the full 13 minute interview, give it a go.

Here is a sample courtesy of CBC Watcher on X.

Hoekstra plays it carefully, diplomatically, you might say but he does let some news out.

Specifically that Canada isn’t getting a deal or an extension like Mexico because the Americans don’t think we are negotiating seriously. That matches up with a lot of what I have been hearing and reporting both here and in my columns at the Toronto Sun.

Seems Trump and Carney just aren’t getting along.

I’m being called a traitor on a daily basis because I dare to suggest that we may not have the best strategy or the best players on the team. Let me be clear, I’m cheering for Canada to win and I care about making sure that we are doing the right things to secure a deal because I worry about people losing their jobs which leads to a whole lot of heartache.

So, criticism of how Carney is handling this isn’t being a traitor, it is standing up for Canada and Canadian workers.

On Monday, I pointed out that despite saying he knew Trump, that he understood the President and had worked with him and knew how to negotiate, that Mark Carney had not delivered. That’s not even a debatable point, we are the only G7 country not covered by a deal with the Americans.

And when Canadian officials were in Washington last week, I pointed out that we weren’t even meeting with the top American officials. The top guys were all busy meeting with other countries that they consider a priority.

We went from top of the list, as I explain the column, to almost having a deal in early June, to not getting your calls returned in August.

Now, Carney is in Mexico trying to drum up more trade.

Canada’s two-way trade with the United States is over $1 trillion per year. The total trade between Mexico and Canada is a bit over $50 billion per year. As I pointed out in a Tuesday column, Canada dramatically increased the number of free trade agreements we had under Stephen Harper and still 75% of our exports went to the the United States.

In key industries like steel, aluminum and lumber the U.S. accounts for more than 90% of our exports in those sectors.

Our exports to the United States account for nearly 20% of our economy, their exports to Canada amount to less than 2% of their economy. The idea that we can bring them to their knees with counter tariffs is laughable, they could stop trading with us tomorrow and while some businesses might notice, as a country, they wouldn’t bat an eye.

We need to be realistic and I don’t think our political leadership has that mindset. I get wanting to fight, I’m from Hamilton, it is what we do, but you have to know when to go all in and when to pull back and I don’t think Carney or Ford understand that.

If these leaders make the wrong move, Canadians will lose jobs even if the leaders in this country do not.

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Ford, the judge and bike lanes…

I remember being cautioned on radio once not to be too critical of judges and their decisions.

“They could haul you up on contempt of court charges,” the host said.

“Good! I hold them in contempt!” was my reply.

That was well over a decade ago and despite my frequent criticisms of judges, I’ve never been charged or held in contempt of court. To be clear, I still hold many, but not all judges in contempt for their idiotic decisions.

Which brings me to our poster child for people who shouldn’t be on the bench, Justice Paul Schabas.

Schabas lives in a lovely part of Toronto, where homes are priced in the millions and he donates to the NDP and occasionally the Liberals.

This guy is a champagne socialist and a political activist.

None of that would be a problem if he wasn’t also a judge and inventing new Charter rights, like the right to bike lanes, out of whole cloth. Justice Schabas though is doing all of those things so it was good to see Ontario Premier Doug Ford unload on the guy over his idiotic bike lanes decision.

The only bad thing I can say about Ford’s reaction is that he wasn’t harsh enough with Justice Schabas. Yes, he was harsh and Schabas won’t be happy and Ford will face some criticism, but this judge has gone well beyond the pale and must be called out at every turn.

Read my column where I really call the guy out and link it back to some decisions you will know.

Great Canadian books that have been or will be profiled soon on Full Comment.

Hostages and who Canada supports…

I watched the videos of the hostages that were released last week and it took me days to write about. On the one hand, they are horrifying and I want nothing to do with them, on the other I was trying to take some down time over a holiday weekend.

That may seem shallow when talking and writing about someone being held hostage in a terror tunnel, but as the images of Evyatar David came in Friday night, I simply couldn’t watch or write on it.

As I stated in my Sun column, I’ve seen lots of horrific things in my career. More than most really, it’s a hazard of the job, and yet I couldn’t watch or write on this because it was simply too much.

Eventually, I did get to it and assessed that between the videos and Hamas thanking Canada, Mark Carney has put us on the wrong side of history.

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A podcast stitched together…

Most of the time the Full Comment Podcast is an interview with one or two people who speak as experts on a given subject. The most recent episode was stitched together quickly after Prime Minister Mark Carney upended decades of Canadian foreign policy to announce that we would recognize a Palestinian State this September at the United Nations.

I was quickly able to pull some favours and have chats with Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed, a former official spokesperson for the Israeli government and now a social media force Eylon Levy and Conservative MP and foreign affairs expert Shuvaloy Majumdar.

Give the episode a listen, I’m not trying to be balanced here, I’ve chosen a side.

The right one.

Howard Stern all washed up…

I was never a Howard Stern fan when he was an offensive shock jock. I’m an old talk radio guy, for those that don’t know my career, it’s where I got my start, but I was never on the Stern bandwagon.

Over the past several years though, I’ve become a fan of his celebrity interviews. He brings something out in people that we all think we know and makes it pop.

My wife and I have spent way too much time watching clips of Stern interviewing our favourite musical acts.

But is he about to be flushed by Sirius XM?

Seems his contract is up soon and the satellite radio network isn’t sure that he is worth the massive cost. Given how Sirius XM works, I don’t really know how to judge that. It’s not like ratings in traditional radio and keeping track of listeners is harder.

Anyway, a man who has been front and centre of the North American landscape for more than 40 years, could soon see forced retirement.

Will that mean Stern is done? Don’t count on it.

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