Food inflation still through the roof, Carney's new relationship with Trump and Poilievre in the House...
Plus a standing ovation for free speech and Charlie Kirk.
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Canada’s inflation numbers just came out and they are a mixed bag.
Overall, the Consumer Price Index rose by 1.9% in August compared to the same time a year ago. That’s manageable and within the range that the government likes to keep it, but that number masks some wild swings.
The price of gas fell by 12.7% in August, the price of cellular service was down slightly but the cost of groceries is still persistently high.
Food inflation was up by 3.4% with groceries increasing by 3.5% and food from restaurants increasing by just a little bit less. Meat though is sky high still, up 7.2% with beef increasing by 12.7%.
The Food Professor, Sylvain Charlebois noted on X that coffee was up more than 20% as were other products hit by Ottawa’s counter tariffs on American goods. Those tariffs ended on September 1 so we should see better numbers come next month.
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Off to Mexico, but first canola…
Mark Carney will head to Mexico on Thursday, but on Tuesday will meet with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in Ottawa. Moe is just back from a trip to China to try and find a solution to the 100% tariffs that China has imposed on Canadian canola.
After their meeting, they will be joined by industry leaders and several cabinet ministers.
As I pointed out a while back, Carney is caught between a rock and a hard place. There is no guarantee that China will lift the tariffs if we drop EV tariffs and Trump is likely to impose tariffs on us if we drop them.
As it stands, Trump is pushing NATO allies to add more tariffs on China to try and pressure them to help end the war in Ukraine.
Mark Carney’s new, modern relationship with Trump…
When Mark Carney said that the old relationship with the United States was over, I didn’t know that meant the new relationship was all about texting. Yet, there was Carney on Monday as Parliament resumed explaining to Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet that things with the Americans were great.
If your memory is long enough to go all the way back to April and the federal election, this may be causing you cognitive dissonance given what Mark Carney said back then.
“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” Carney said in the early days of the campaign in late March.
He’s gone from warning us that “President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us” to bragging about our great relationship.
This was his stance all through the election and in the days and months since, though lately, the Carney Liberals have been trying to portray the American relationship in a positive light. That included on Monday as the Liberal PM faced the first scrutiny in nearly three months and boasted about the relationship with the United States.
“At this moment, we have the best agreement in the world with the Americans, as well as the lowest imposed tariff rate in the world,” Carney boasted under questioning from Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet.
“The President of the United States is a modern man: he has a cell phone. I speak with him regularly and we exchange text messages.”
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A tribute to Charlie Kirk and free speech…
Conservative MP Rachel Thomas rose in the House of Commons on Monday and paid tribute to American conservative activist Charlie Kirk who was assassinated last week. She spoke about the horrors of political violence and the value of free speech.
Surprisingly, as you can see, both the Conservatives and Liberals rose for a standing ovation as she finished, it was nice to see.
Here is the text of what she said.
Mr. Speaker, freedom of speech is the cornerstone of a free society. It means we will hear ideas that we disagree with and expressed views that may be offensive.
This freedom can make us uncomfortable or even hurt, but silencing voices, whether for a moment or forever, is never the answer. We must protect a society where people can hold beliefs and share opinions without fear of losing their jobs, being censored or worse.
Charlie Kirk was an outspoken advocate for faith, family and freedom. Many disagreed with him; some were offended. Tragically, on September 10, he was assassinated in an attempt to silence his voice.
When has political violence ever been the solution? It destroys dialogue, it undermines democracy, and it breeds fear instead of understanding. True progress comes from persuasion, not intimidation. As we grapple with our personal response to this, may we be honourable in our actions, may we fiercely defend the right of our opponents to speak freely, and may we join our hearts with Charlie's family, his wife Erika and his two young children. May he rest in peace.
The return of the House…
I thought it was an interesting return to the House of Commons, some humour, some joking between leaders, a new but serious tone.
I wrote about all of this in the Toronto Sun.
It started with Poilievre joking about why he was late to the current session, it included Carney making a joke after accidentally referring to Poilievre as a minister. Then it got down to serious questions of accountability, something the government in Ottawa hasn’t faced in a long time.
I’m not sure why CBC continued to act as if Poilievre hadn’t changed his tone compared to when Justin Trudeau was PM. One of their pundits made that claim, said he clearly needed to tone it down and then criticized him for not getting a hard hit on Carney in his first QP back in the House.
I think the CPC strategy is a good one, they are asking questions of the government based off the promises and expectations set by the Carney government themselves. Time and again on Monday they asked the Carney government why they were not living up to their own promises.
It’s an effective strategy that isn’t combative but still holds the government to account.
Here is the first ever exchange between Poilievre and Carney in Question Period.
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Good morning Folks,
I have an opinion to offer.
The problem that Canadians have is directly related to the high taxes we pay to support the liberal Government. The cost of living is very high because of uncontrolled spending by the liberals. Inflation is too high. The Customer Consumer Index has been much higher over the last few years than wage increases, therefore every year we struggle to survive under the liberal spending machine. We are destroying the futures of our children and grandchildren. The debt must be controlled.
When the last election took place, Canadians forgot about our Health Care crisis, rampant crime, homelessness, food shortages and food bank lines, drug problems, etc. The primary focus was Donald Trump so Mr. Carney was voted in to deal with Mr. Trump. Mr. Carney is a very weak individual who had no success in the debate before the election and no success with Mr. Trump.
((((Conclusion))))
The free ride with USA is over. We signed a NATO agreement in good faith with multiple countries and then Canada never honored the agreement. Billions of dollars that could have been spent to honor our NATO agreement was wasted on promoting the liberal WOKE movement. Canada sponsored pride parades all across Canada costing taxpayers Millions of dollars. It's hard for me as a taxpayer to acknowledge that my tax dollars was wasted supporting a parade where naked men exposed themselves to children while Officers stood by and watched. Other parades were men urinating on each other. All Federal facilities across Canada have been outfitted with large stainless steel tampon dispensers in the mens washrooms. I have asked several people why this was done and no one knows why. A man has never had his period in thousands of years so why does the liberal government think they will start now?
All the years that Trudeau flew around the country attending every Pride parade and spreading pixie dust in the air was a serious waste of time and resources. Trudeau doing photo shoots with top less woman and Carey posing with a naked man is a disgrace to Canada.
Shall I go on? There is no need. It is obvious why many countries have trade agreements with the US and we don't. I have also noted above a few reasons our Country is in such a mess.
Well folks,
That's my opinion.
Thanks
Rocky
You surely don’t expect the CBC to stop tone policing Pierre do you? It’s their whole game. Whether Pierre changes his tone or not they are going to keep smearing him as an attack dog because it works on our sad, resentful indoctrinated CBC viewers.