Here's why Canada can't get a deal with Trump when others can...

Plus Ford's really bad idea, his really good polling numbers, that hockey trial and making Sean Feucht famous in Canada.

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Greetings from 37,000 feet above Canada.

After squeezing out two columns for the Sun and recording a podcast episode for Full Comment that will drop Monday, I’m on a flight to Fredericton for the weekend. More on the visit to New Brunswick after it happens, it’s been about a decade since I’ve visited the province so it’s nice to go back.

If you follow me on social media, you may see some photos of lobster rolls or fish and chips.

No deal with the Donald...

This is starting to feel like the daily update on Trump and the trade talks. Remember that I was saying yesterday that folks on the Canadian side were telling me that our negotiators were dragging their feet.

Keep that in mind as you watch Trump go off on Canada speaking to reporters before boarding Marine Force 1.

Here’s part of what he said in the scrum, specific to Canada:

“We don’t have a deal with Canada,” Trump said.

“Aug. 1 is going to come, and we will have most of our deals finished, if not all. We haven’t really had a lot of luck with Canada. I think Canada could be one where they’ll just pay tariffs. It’s not really a negotiation.”

That’s not good and there is a good chance, much of this is our own fault.

In my latest Toronto Sun column, I go into more detail about the reasons why it is our fault. This isn’t Canada bashing as some will claim, it’s reporting reality.

It also means, without a new deal, we could face job crushing new tariffs starting next week.

Trump bears plenty of responsibility for the mess we are in, but when countries around the world can get deals and we aren’t, maybe we are part of the problem.

Give the column a read and share it on social media, this is reporting you won’t get elsewhere.

Funny enough, I was talking about this very issue on camera on Thursday morning with Toronto Sun editor-in-chief and Sun columnist Warren Kinsella.

As a friend likes to say, you can listen to BLill now, that would be me, or catch up with everyone else next week.

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Doug Ford’s really, really bad idea…like really bad…

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the other day at the closing news conference with the premiers that he wanted to start handing out work permits to asylum seekers.

What the actual hell?

Ford announced that he would use a little talked about section of the Constitution Act, Section 95, to star issuing work permits.

“We will be issuing our own work permits. We aren’t going to sit around and wait for the federal government,” Ford said.

This is utter insanity and hopefully Ford quietly drops the idea and never mentions it again.

If you want the low down on why he thinks this is a good idea, and I can see his reasoning, then read my column in the Sun.

Suffice to say, at a time of high unemployment, this is the last thing we need and as I explain, with stats in the column, unemployment in Ontario is not good at the moment.

Ford riding high in the polls…

Despite grumbling about Ford being close to Carney, or that he’s a closet Liberal - yes, I read your emails - he’s riding high in the polls.

Abacus Data, a firm I’ve worked with in the past and that is considered one of the reputable firms doing public opinion polling, has Ford and his PC Party at 50% voter support. The Ontario Liberals under Bonnie Crombie are well back at 28% while the NDP under Marit Stiles - still the official opposition - sits at just 13% support.

So, while there is a portion of voters who believe Ford should be acting in a more conservative way, half of all voters in the province would return him and his party to power if an election were held today.

These numbers are devastating for the NDP which pulled off 27 seats with just 18.5% of the popular vote. That was enough for the party to retain the role of official opposition that they’ve held since 2018.

To drop by five points since the end of September though is not good.

Chances are that Stiles and her team are feeling the effects of the collapse of the federal NDP in Ontario. In the April 28, federal vote the NDP dropped below 5% of the vote and didn’t win a single seat in the province.

Crombie and the Liberals remain close to the 29% of the vote they took in the February provincial election. Still, with Crombie losing her own seat, she’s facing a real challenge to her leadership.

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of Beaches - East York, is in full campaign mode against Crombie.

Remember that the entire premise of Bonnie Crombie’s leadership run was that she would win. Ideas and grassroots rebuilding were secondary. We’d carry Peel and go from 3rd to 1st place. Today, we’re still in 3rd and the leader lost her Mississauga race.

It turns out that ideas and grassroots rebuilding are essential to win.

That was a post he made on his Substack calling for a real overhaul of the party.

Erskine-Smith wants to take the Ontario Liberal Party to the left, not the centre. He thinks Crombie lost because she didn’t follow the same disastrous path as Kathleen Wynne, you know the one that saw them lose official party status in 2018 and be reduced to the mini-van party.

The Ontario Liberals were successful under Dalton McGuinty for nearly a decade because he did try and stick closer to the centre.

Anyway, it will be an entertaining convention in Toronto in September.

One last point on the polling, Ford isn’t as popular as his party, but his personal approval numbers are through the roof and well above any other provincial leader.

Of hockey and trials…

I haven’t had much to say about the sexual assault trial in London involving five former members of Canada’s national junior team. The reason is simple, I’m sickened by the whole thing and no one looks good in this case.

There are no good guys to cheer for in this sorrid story.

Now Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia has delivered her verdict and it was not guilty for all five men. The ruling is being denounced by activists who say women aren’t treated properly in our courts, but I put it to you that the judge was herself a woman.

My colleague Michele Mandel covered the trial and the verdict delivery extensively. Her column on the issue will open the eyes of those who paid just passing attention to the trial or who relied on CBC TV for their coverage.

I will warn you before you read the piece, that she goes into detail from the judgment.

Great Canadian books that have been or will be profiled soon on Full Comment.

Making Sean Feucht famous in Canada…

Back when the BBC used to ban songs, one of the quickest ways to a number one hit was to be banned by the BBC. Punk bands back in the 70s loved this and it was good for them.

It isn’t the BBC banning Sean Feucht, nor is it the BBC’s Canadian cousin CBC, rather it is a bunch of publicly owned venues who decided that because they got some emails, they had to cancel their contracts to have him play on a concert tour. Now, more people than ever in Canada are talking about Sean Feucht and likely many are discovering his music.

Chris Selley is writing about all of this for National Post.

There is plenty that bien-pensant Canadians would object to on Feucht’s record: He was fervently anti-lockdown, he deplores abortion, has said nasty things about drag queens. Rolling Stone reports his security detail had included a notorious member of the Proud Boys. But you will notice that none of the statements from Canadian officials explain what specifically their actual problem is with the guy.

By the way, Feucht has been able to find new venues for all six of his concerts.

He had his original venues cancelled because some people object to Trump supporters being allowed into Canada. Meanwhile, Irish rap group Kneecap is still scheduled to perform in Canada later this year.

Kneecap openly and actively support terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

CBC gave wall to wall coverage to Feucht and those who wanted him banned. I wonder if they will now do the same for Kneecap.

Don’t count on it.

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