Does Carney care now? Talking to the New Right and why Danielle Smith is right again...
Plus does anyone really want Ukraine to win?
I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to hear from Mark Carney today on the Algoma Steel layoffs, 1,000 jobs gone in the New Year, but I’m also disappointed that Pierre Poilievre didn’t ask him about it. I’ve already heard from the CPC spinners that Pierre asked about the issue yesterday and raised it in the House on Tuesday with a request for an emergency debate - which was rejected by the Speaker.
The simple fact is, he had a chance to ask Mark “Who Cares?” Carney about more layoffs that are still related to the Trump tariffs and he didn’t.
As much as I am disappointed in Poilievre, he’s not the one in power, that’s Carney. Sure, Carney apologized for his “Who Cares?” comment after the fact, but he made it and my immediate response was autoworkers, steel workers, aluminum workers, anyone in the softwood lumber industry all care about him talking to Trump and fixing the tariffs.
I wrote about this in my Toronto Sun column today and recorded a video on the matter.
Carney is in Washington on Friday for the World Cup draw, let’s hope he speaks to Trump then.
The Kids are the New Right…
Some of you will get that reference to The Who, Maximum R&B, and the rest of you won’t, that’s fine. We’re talking about a generational divide in the conservative movement, so perhaps it’s fitting to reference a band that sang about My Generation.
To be clear, that wasn’t my generation, it was my father’s, I only saw The Who in 1989 on their second farewell tour and our math teacher, who was a young woman then and is likely now long retired, wouldn’t reschedule the end of year math exam.
But let’s bring this into 2025.
I’ve been reading Anthony Koch and others write about the New Right and I’ve seen them get a lot of flack from people who were closer the Won’t Get Fooled Again generation than I am. How dare he suggest that conservatives actively engage in the culture wars that liberals keep starting.
Doesn’t he realize it’s a losing strategy?
Anthony is a smart guy who worked on Pierre Poilievre’s 2022 leadership campaign and helped him win, but he’s frustrated with where conservatism in Canada is going.
We had a long conversation about his ideas and this movement branded as the new right. The whole video is posted here on brianlilley.com or you can watch it on YouTube if you prefer.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Danielle Smith is right again…
She’s not only pushing back against the gun grab, which apparently only collected 22 guns in Cape Breton, but she is also fighting on the Castle Law front.
I don’t know how many times I need to say this, but Canada doesn’t need to pass Castle Law legislation and the reason is, it already exists. I’ve written columns about this, I’ve done podcasts and videos about this and it’s clear, we don’t need new laws, we need better policies.
As I explained in yesterday’s column and a video, self-defence is already legal in Canada. The problem is that every province has manuals they send out to their Crowns and cops describing how and when to lay charges and those manuals are the problem.
What Premier Smith is promising to do is to change the policy manuals to make it clear when charges should and shouldn’t be laid.
As you will see if you read my column or watch the video below, we have all the laws we need, the policies on the books remain the problem.
Ukraine has allies, but not allies willing to help her win…
An awful lot of the rhetoric about the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine is focused on Donald Trump. It’s a fair point, he’s the leader of the last real super power and he promised to end this war quickly if he won re-election.
That hasn’t happened.
But Ukraine also has allies across Europe and here in Canada who have put forward flowery rhetoric but little in the way of substance. It makes me wonder if we even want Ukraine to win.
That was a focus of my discussion with Matt Bondy on this week’s Full Comment Podcast, recorded last Friday before the latest headlines.
Alberta has a deal for the steel workers. Let’s build pipelines all across the country and use Canadian oil and gas instead of shipping oil in tankers up the east coast from Saudi and other less responsible oil producers. Let’s build ferries here in BC instead of China. What happened to “Team Canada”. It seems the “team” is more interested in beating up their own players.
Canada does not want Ukraine to win, neither does France or even the United States. Why? Because that would shut down the money laundering to Macron and his bunch and Carney and the Liberals. Trudeau left as a VERY rich man due to Ukraine and China. Anything Carney does, including all his world hopping, jet fuel burning, trips that bring nothing to Canada are all designed to make Brookfield big money. Carney gains wealth every time he makes Brookfield happy. Screw Canada and Canadians. Like Carney says, "Who Cares?"