Louise Arbour is a horrible choice, and Carney killed the trade talks...
Plus, Kamikaze Dolphins, the price of oil and Marco Rubio takes the podium.
I’m not a fan of the newly appointed Governor General, yet I have respect for her office and hope she can prove me wrong and win me over.
I’m open to it, but we shouldn’t have to be here.
As I explain in my Toronto Sun column, Mark Carney in appointing Louise Arbour is putting us all in a bad situation and undermining the institution of the Governor General. There is no doubt that Louise Arbour is an accomplished woman with an impressive resume, but she is also highly partisan and political which a GG should not be.
Read the column and share it around.
My former Sun News Network colleague David Akin found a graceful way to ask Madame Arbour a difficult question - basically he said conservatives don’t like you and think this is a bad appointment, how do you respond.
For the record, here is the exchange that Akin referenced from 2008. Vic Toews didn’t use the word disgusting he called her a disgrace.
What you will see is then Liberal MP Martha Hall-Findlay ask about Arbour stepping down, then Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson answering and then the point of privilege between Hall-Findlay and Toews.
The video is old, so it freezes a bit.
I go into more detail on the issues conservatives have with Arbour in my column, give it a read.
It was never Doug Ford’s ad, it was Melanie Joly’s actions…
If you’ve been reading this space for a while then you know that I regularly scoop the press gallery in Ottawa from my tiny condo in downtown Toronto. I’ve done that consistently on anything to do with the trade negotiations simply because I talk to everyone, listen for signals and do my best to share the truth.
This morning, there was a fantastic report by Politico, and I do encourage you to read it, but much of what is in there was reported by me back in October.
In both my Sun columns and here in the newsletter, I detailed how Doug Ford’s ad was the facade while Melanie Joly’s actions were the real reason for calling off the talks.
As I mentioned yesterday, I have started a morning quick video running down the top stories. This morning I focused on this story, and again, full credit to Politico and Mickey Djuric for expanding on this and obviously speaking to different sources.
In this video, I break it all down with receipts.
Let me know in the comments if you like these morning videos.
Follow the Iran war via the price of oil…
How is the war in Iran going?
Based on the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate - currently trading at $102 a barrel, it’s not bad. That’s higher than it should be but lower than $112 a barrel which it was earlier.
This is a screenshot of the price over the last month from oilprice.com.
By the way, Western Canadian Select is trading at over $94 a barrel, which is great for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. At the start of the year, WCS was trading at $44 a barrel.
Meanwhile, at the Pentagon today Secretary of War and General Dan Caine were asked about an issue that has been raised on CNN and Fox this past week.
Kamikaze Dolphins!
I for one welcome our new Kamikaze Dolphin overlords!
If you have the time, Marco Rubio is worth the watch today. No, not as a wedding DJ, a role he took on over the weekend at a family wedding, but speaking bluntly about the efforts in the Persian Gulf to open the Strait of Hormuz.
He explained the end of Operation Epic Fury and that Project Freedom is underway.
Rubio is one of the best, if not the best, communicators in the Trump administration. He details how the Strait, or Straits if you prefer, of Hormuz, is an international waterway and that there is no area of international law that allows you to mine the waterways, send out fast boats to shoot at tankers or to charge tolls to use the waterways.
Rubio’s opening comments take up the first 9 minutes and then he takes a great question from Catherine Herridge, a Toronto native who has been working in D.C. for decades. If she were a liberal, she’d be a national hero, instead she just does her job.
Carnage continues. Me Arbour fits in well to Carneys new world vision. Her statements are libspeak 101. Reruns on CBC everyday. A horrible choice indeed.
Rubio was great today !
I so enjoy USA for my short visits, one such today. It’s friendly. To strangers.
So to , is my local community, friendly. But these are acquaintances in my community.
Overall I sense a burdensome racism in Canada. I don’t get that feeling in USA.
We need that USA trade.
Carney is a fool for playing the “ eurostatesman ” facade.
It’s not a question that his despotic reign will end. It’s just “ when” , and “how broke will we be when it happens” ?
An accurate Description of PM Carney
Despotic describes a ruler or government exercising absolute, oppressive, and often cruel power, typically disregarding the welfare of the people. It signifies tyrannical or autocratic behavior where power is wielded without legal restrictions, often relying on force to maintain control.