Do we want to reach for the stars or play small ball with our economy...

Here's how we can reach for the stars, plus stopping lower criminal sentences based in immigration status.

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I wrote up the newsletter on Wednesday afternoon and planned on sending it once my second column on immigration was published. Some columnists write two columns a week, I write two a day normally and then send out the newsletter.

Anyway, the column was filed later than I’d like, but that was on me and not the editors.

Bottom line, this is a Thursday morning newsletter instead of a Wednesday evening newsletter. I still hope you like it and if you are already a subscriber, please share this with other people.

Dealing with Trump is about more than tariffs…

Ever since I listened to Donald Trump’s inaugural address back in January, I’ve been warning Canadians about two things. First, the tariff threat is real, he loves tariffs and secondly, this is about much more than tariffs.

Most Canadians remain fixated on tariffs and view all of this as a trade war with the United States. That can be an understandable position to take, but it also colours your view of everything else that has happened.

The Americans say this is not a trade war and shouldn’t be treated as such. They view this as a reset of the economic order and they will come to deals with everyone eventually.

Unfortunately, we are stuck in a war mindset and we are losing.

We could be a rich country if people would simply look up and see what is before us, including Carney.

Image of Mark Carney looking out over Canada’s rich farmland, oil fields and mines. Generated by Microsoft Co-Pilot.

In two columns over the last two days I’ve tried to pull focus away from the tariff issue to other ways we can boost our economy in the wake of the Trump trade shake-up. Sadly, some Canadians remain fixated on Trump, on tariffs, on going to war with him.

In my first piece, I addressed this mentality and described it this way.

For the Elbows Up crowd, none of this makes a difference. We can alienate every trading partner in the world as long as we annoy the Americans. It’s like Leafs fans who accept losing seasons as long as they beat the Habs.

This is a loser mentality and one that we shouldn’t accept.

We’ve all met these people, as long as we beat our rivals, nothing else matters. Even though by not achieving our full potential we are only robbing ourselves of greatness and riches.

In that piece I accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of playing small ball while Trump tries to score home runs. I truly mean that, we aren’t reaching for the stars, we are reaching for good enough, or as I put it in the column:

Carney’s plan, exemplified by Bill C-5, looks like the kid who is trying to get a 51% to pass the class. It’s not too ambitious and will do just enough to get a passing grade and not annoy the left flank of the Liberal Party which doesn’t want Canada’s economy to boom.

Poilievre’s plan is that of the student who is trying to get an A+ but will settle for an A if that is what the teacher determines the case to be.

I was one of those kids who was happy to get the 51% in some courses, but sought out the 85% or higher in others. As a country, we need to be reaching for the stars and right now Carney is not.

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Here’s how we can reach for the stars…

Despite what my critics claim, I do offer constructive advice and ideas on how to improve things. They may not want to hear those ideas or may dislike them because they come with criticism that the current plan isn’t working, but the ideas are there.

On Wednesday, I wrote a column just about how we could turn Canada’s economy around and gave five key points along with concrete examples.

I’ll let you read the full column and comment below, but if Carney and the Liberals adopted these ideas it would kickstart Canada’s economy in a way few could imagine. We would see a boost in investment, the government would take away much of the uncertainty that is keeping companies from moving forward and would set us up to compete.

As I said in the piece, we all know what needs to happen, the only question is whether we are bold enough to do it.

Why a penny for China…

On Wednesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked a valid question. Why are we still supporting the purchase of Chinese made ferries for British Columbia with a $1 billion federal loan?

The question comes in relation to China’s decision to up tariffs on Canadian canola seed at a rate of 75.8%, on top of 100% tariffs on canola oil and meal.

While China is doing that to Canadian farmers, we are having the British Columbia government buy Chinese ships and the federal government finance the purchase.

It was revealed back in June that the government owned B.C. Ferries would be buying four new ships from the China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards, a Chinese state owned company. Later, after the Carney government expressed outrage over the deal, it was revealed that the federal government was floating the purchase with. a $1 billion federal loan.

“This makes no sense. Canadian workers are capable of building world-class ships, with Canadian steel, aluminum, and technology, here at home,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said.

You don’t hear any calls of Elbows Up for China, just the United States. Canadians, like Democrats in the United States, aren’t as bothered by President Xi as they are with President Trump.

It really doesn’t make sense, but neither does an awful lot of our response to what is happening in the world these days.

Immigration status shouldn’t lead to lighter sentences…

My parents were immigrants. When people tell me to trace my family tree in Canada, I call my mother.

I was born here, as were my brother and sister, but when I was a kid, we had my Aunt and Uncle and their four kids move into our tiny home in Hamilton until they could get settled. There were six of them, plus the five of us, living an experience that many immigrants can relate to.

I tell you this because if one of them committed a serious crime before they became citizens and was facing deportation, I’d be sad but I would understand.

In the early 90s, I still recall talking to a friend who had come to Canada as a child and had never taken out citizenship despite the possibility he could be deported if he committed a crime.

Given that we were young and stupid, this wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. I told him two things, don’t commit a crime and become a citizen - problem solved.

We live in a strange world though and in my most recent piece for the Sun, I tackle the idea that people who aren’t citizens should get lighter sentences to ensure they don’t get deported or have their citizenship chances harmed.

To that I say hell no, that shouldn’t happen.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner was out speaking about this on Wednesday, see the video below, and said in September, her party would introduce legislation to stop this practice.

As I explain in my Sun column, this started with a 2013 Supreme Court decision that was rather narrow and sensible for the case that was before the court at the time. It involved a sentence of two-years versus a sentence of two-years less a day and which was appropriate for the crime.

Now though, lower courts are running wild with the ruling and abusing it as I explain.

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