Carney's Liberal Party drama, the EV mandate strikes back, no new oil pipeline and Carney is laughing...
Plus a special Remembrance Day post.
By the time you read this, On Your Side, this little newsletter that I started back in May will have hit a milestone - 10,000 subscribers. Thank you to all of you who read this labour of love, it means the world to me.
I know many of you read it on the website, brianlilley.com or follow links from social media, but please consider subscribing. It’s free, though you can join the ranks of paid if you want to and that is growing by the day in terms of numbers and what is on offer.
Please read to the end for today’s special Remembrance Day video.
Drama, drama, drama…
We’ve been hearing all about the drama inside the Conservative Party and as I’ve said, a lot of this is part of a destabilization plan by the Carney Liberals. They are playing up and exaggerating problems within the Conservative Party to undermine Pierre Poilievre and weaken his leadership ahead of January’s review.
Why would they do that?
Because Poilievre is still a threat to them. Despite all the claims that no one likes him, no one will vote for him, that his popularity is tanking, he’s holding his own in the polls.
Philippe J. Fournier over at 338Canada.com puts his average of polls at 43% for the Liberals, 40% for the Conservatives.
That’s enough support for the Conservatives to keep Carney and his team to a minority in the event of a snap election. There are Liberals advocating for the party to push for an election this spring, but if the focus is on affordability instead of Trump, that’s an election Poilievre could win.
Better for the Liberals to undermine Poilievre, force him out, force the Conservatives into a leadership race and provoke that spring election. Did you note that Bruce Anderson, who has tight ties to the Liberals, has a poll out showing that almost half of “those on the right” want the CPC to find a new leader - shocking!
Meanwhile, as I’m reporting at TorontoSun.com today, Carney has his own internal party drama and you are going to pay for it with bad policy. In order to keep the green zealots in his party happy and inside the tent, Carney is going to keep the EV mandate.
This is the plan to force all new vehicles sold by 2035 to be zero emission vehicles. It was supposed to take effect on January 1, but Carney paused it in the face of objections from the auto sector and the Americans dropping their plan to go the same route.
It was a horrible policy and Carney should have killed it or drastically changed it, instead he’s keeping the program and just delaying it slightly. You can read about it in my column and get all the details of who is being a problem for Carney - it’s real.
But what about Nate…
One MP I didn’t mention in my column but who is a clear problem is Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. If you haven’t seen Nate, as he likes to be called, is out there causing problems for Mark Carney critiquing his budget in a big way.
Here’s a taste of his budget critique from his own video.
Nate was one of those MPs who said he wasn’t running in the last election so he could spend more time with his family. Then Justin Trudeau resigned, Mark Carney became leader and PM and suddenly Nate was back in the fold.
He was even in cabinet for a hot second and then dropped as soon as the election was over. Now he’s back to being a pain in the ass of his leader.
He may leave soon to try and run, once again, to become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party after Bonnie Crombie resigned.
My real takeaway from Nate over the years is that he’s not a team player, which is a problem if you want to be a party leader.
How can you lead a caucus when you can’t be in one?
Nate is smart, he has some charisma, but Ontario Liberals would be crazy to elect this man to be their leader. Which means they just might do it.
Something about Chris…
It’s wild the information that I’ve been picking up about Chris d’Entremont over the past few days. I’m not even looking for it, but it’s coming to me and as I get one more nugget I confirm it and get another.
Look for a new piece on d’Entremont and his background in the next day or two.
Shocking that CBC has Carney’s list of projects…
Mark Carney will produce a new list of projects in the national interest on Thursday and if you faithfully read this newsletter, then you know about one of them. Just based off of a few of Carney’s comments - his broad support for LNG and his call for people to join him at the announcement in Prince Rupert - I deduced that it was a long planned but not functional LNG export terminal in B.C.
Now, CBC has the full list of projects two days early. Isn’t it amazing that CBC always gets the Carney government leaks? I trust that their reporters work hard, but when the government wants something out early, it always goes to CBC.
According to this story, the projects will be…
The Sisson Mine, for critical minerals, in New Brunswick.
The Crawford Nickel project in Ontario.
The Ksi Lisims liquified natural gas project in British Columbia.
It’s an interesting list.
There’s no oil pipeline. The Crawford Nickel project isn’t one that was on Doug Ford’s list of Ontario priorities and it is nowhere near the ring of fire.
As for the Ksi Lisims LNG project, the main thing you need to know is that the project is self-contained within British Columbia. It will take natural gas from fields in the Northeastern part of B.C. to an export terminal in Prince Rupert and not a drop or Saskatchewan or Alberta gas will be transported.
The reason this matters is that Carney wouldn’t have the support of B.C. Premier David Eby if this were a project that transported any Alberta or Sask oil or LNG. But Eby needs the money from the royalties on this project to pay for his out of control spending, so he will back it.
These are all fine projects, but once again Mark Carney is not living up to his promise to think big, act bigger and move at speeds not seen in generations. This is another list of projects that just should have been on the move already instead of being bogged down.
Which reminds me of yesterday’s column where I detailed how Carney is putting politics ahead of good policy - kinda like today with the RV mandate.
Remembering the fallen on Remembrance Day…
The Canada Remembers Guide is a labour of love for my friend Kim Walker. It’s her attempt to make it easier for Canadians to visit battle sites and war cemeteries for Canada’s fallen in Europe.
Kim spent several years living in Europe, Brussels to be exact, and would tell visitors what to go and see and how to get there. A few years ago she started to chart these trips and publish them, it’s her project, not a government one, and I think it’s truly special.
After documenting so may First and Second World War sites in France, Belgium and Holland , this year she went to Italy. Those itineraries aren’t out yet, but they will be up soon.
We took time to chat about this project, why she’s doing it and why you should go.
Hope you enjoy the chat.
Perfect I am glad as my premier Danelle smith with hopefully tell the rest of Canada we sick and tired of being screwed around by Ottawa and we’re leaving Canada yaaaa then when the rest of Canada see’s how good we’re doing with proper leadership and beg to join us I pray she will say screw off we’re doing very well on our own we don’t want nothing to with you guys . This is what I hope happens
The Liberals are taking Stellantis to court over the automakers shuffling of production from Ontario to the United States.
The Liberals are also keeping the EV mandates, despite the reasoned pleadings of Stellantis and other automakers that the mandates are not achievable and costing them billions of dollars to produce cars that people are reluctant to buy.
If someone knows how to reconcile that mess please let me know because it certainly points to an intellectual void around the Cabinet table in Ottawa.