Carney's bad plan needs revision as tariffs go up again...

Plus Ford is wrong on Trump, right on bike lanes and that horrible jobs report.

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At what point are we going to start realizing that Mark Carney’s plan isn’t working.

If you missed the news, the U.S. Department of Commerce just boosted tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber to 35.19%. A year ago, those same duties were at 8.05% before a series of moves saw both the Biden and Trump administrations boost them.

So, to sum up, since Carney came to office tariffs have only gone up, we have no trade deal, unemployment is rising and Trump won’t return Carney’s calls.

I summarize all of this in my latest column for the Toronto Sun. The sad part is, the Elbows Up crowd will love this.

They take any hint that things are going badly with Trump as a sign of success, a badge of honour. Sure, the jobs of everyday people are on the line here, but the biggest backers of Carney and his failing strategy are either in the laptop class or are retired and don’t have to worry about losing their jobs.

Spoke about this with Adrienne Batra and Warren Kinsella the other day.

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Speaking of jobs…

The jobs report out on Friday was abysmal.

The unemployment rate stayed the same, but all the underlying factors are looking bad for Canada’s economy as I pointed out in yesterday’s column.

A year ago, Canada’s unemployment rate was at 5.5%, by October of last year before Trump was re-elected it had risen to 6.5%, and it now sits at 6.9%. The only reason it isn’t higher is that many people have given up looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed.

We have added more than 1.2 million people to the labour force over the last year, primarily through immigration and work permits for foreign students. In that same time, the labour participation rate fell while the number of people who are registered as unemployed grew to 1.56 million – 379,000 higher than a year ago.

I went on in that piece to explain that a way to fix this is for Carney to start stealing more of Pierre Poilievre’s ideas.

Poilievre unveiled the Conservative plan for the fall this week. He said his party will introduce the Canadian Sovereignty Act later this year with calls such as repealing Bill C-69, the West coast tanker ban, the cap on the oil and gas sector and more.

As I explain in my piece, this is Carney’s chance to live up to his promise to, “think big and act bigger.”

He could really unleash Canada’s economy by passing Poilievre’s bill or stealing his ideas. Sadly, Carney is beholden to a caucus and party that still holds a very Quebec view of natural resource extraction.

Namely, leave it in the ground.

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Can Doug Ford avoid American TV please…

There was a time when having Ontario Premier Doug Ford go on American TV to sell Canada’s message was a good thing. Now, he’s showing a bitter and personal tone towards Trump that won’t help in getting a deal.

As I detailed in the Sun, Republicans in Washington told me back in February that they didn’t mind Ford’s rhetoric on Trump and the tariffs. At that point it was focused on the policy and not personal.

This week it changed and Ford went personal. He should pick up his old copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.

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Ford is right on bike lanes…

So while I think Ford is being too harsh, or too personal anyway, with Trump, I’d say he hasn’t been harsh enough on Justice Paul Schabas.

You’ve likely heard about the crazy court decision that declared a constitutional right to bike lanes based on section 7’s guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person. It’s a horribly written decision and entirely political.

Justice Schabas, as I detail here is a huge champagne socialist activist and it’s no wonder he denied Jordan Peterson his freedom of expression rights in his fight against the College.

Watch my rant on Ford below.