Mark Carney goes missing and Harper calls out Putin...

Plus a trip down east and Trudeau's celebrity romance.

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Tuesday was a busy day and there were some tech issues at the end of it, so the newsletter didn’t go out when it should have, but better late than never.

I was in New Brunswick over the weekend visiting my oldest son and his wife. We took in the New Brunswick Highland Games in Fredericton; I got to chat briefly with Premier Susan Holt who is not only an impressive politician but my son’s MLA.

Of course, at an event like that you hear lots of trad music and since then I’ve had Sonny’s Dream stuck in my head.

If you like East Coast/Celtic music then you might be familiar with this song.

It was written by Ron Hynes, a Newfoundland musician back in 1976 and has been covered all over the Celtic music scene. I first heard the song when Mary Black performed it on the CD “A Woman’s Heart” in the mid 1990s.

Anyway, they played it in the beer tent and I can’t get it out of my head. Hope you enjoy.

Good food all around...

Given that I arrived on Friday, it only seemed right to have local fish and chips. Yes, those are McCain crinkle cut frozen fries, and they are not the best, but...the fish was amazing.

This was my Friday night meal at The Cabin in Fredericton.

As we were chatting on Friday, I happened to mention Lobster Spaghetti, which my son thought sounded disgusting. By Saturday night, we were both eating this amazing dish at Claudine’s Eatery.

No, for those of you asking, I don’t get paid to mention these places and I don’t get free meals, this is just me documenting my trip.

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Where is Carney...

Donald Trump spent the weekend in Scotland, up near Aberdeen, playing golf and signing trade deals. If you haven’t been, Aberdeen is stunning, as is most of Scotland, and Trump has honestly built a stellar golf course.

To be honest though, I just want a stellar trade deal. Heck, I’d settle for a decent trade deal at this point.

As Trump was signing deals with the European Union, boosting his deal with Britain and as his top trade negotiators were in Sweden talking with Chinese officials, Mark Carney was in PEI announcing a drop in road tolls. It’s a great local announcement and if you are someone bouncing back and forth between Nova Scotia and PEI, it will save you money.

What this announcement won’t do is save jobs in Canada that are threatened by Trump’s proposed 35% tariff increase as of Friday.

As I have written before, far too many Canadians are happy to fight Trump on all of this out of some simplistic and idiotic national pride point of view. They don’t realize that the jobs of their friends, their neighbours or their kids are at risk.

We shouldn’t be cheering on the economic demise of our neighbours.

Putin as a bond villain...

I don’t know about you, but I miss Stephen Harper as PM. He was smart, he was serious, and he was insightful.

Maybe this new Carney guy will end up the same, but at this point, we don’t know.

So, there was Harper on Monday speaking to a group of Canadian and American legislators in Saskatoon when he started talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin and comparing him to a Bond villain.

“So, he has a lot of great attributes, and the problem is, though, this is a big problem, he’s an evil man,” Harper said.

Harper told the crowd that he gets asked about Putin more than any other figure he has met including politicians, artists, celebrities etc.

It all makes me think that I need to up my game when chatting next with Stephen Harper, I want to hear more Putin stories.

Read my full column on Harper’s comments.

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We don’t really believe in free expression...

I’ve been deep in the free speech/free expression trenches for more than 20 years. This includes Mark Steyn being hauled before the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2008 and Ann Coulter being blocked from speaking at the University of Ottawa in 2010.

In both instances, we were told that Canada believes in “free expression” but...not that kind of expression. You either believe in free expression, free speech, or you don’t.

I’ve spent two decades fighting with “Liberals” who claim to stand for Charter values but are selective on this file.

Which brings me back to Sean Feucht, the American Christian pastor and singer who CBC and Canada’s left wants to shut down. I don’t the man, I don’t know his music, I don’t care to know him.

If he hasn’t broken any laws in Canada, and there is no evidence of that, his concerts should go ahead. Sadly, the Laurentian Elite seem to think we should shut down views we disagree with.

Like father like son, and mother...

According to TMZ, Justin Trudeau was out on the town with Katy Perry. I don’t care much what Trudeau is doing now that he is in private life, but he really is following in his fathers footsteps.

His mother’s too.

The Trudeau’s have a habit of courting celebrities and before his father met Maggie, he dated Barbra Streisand. The relationship was public but didn’t last long for various reasons as Streisand wrote in her memoirs.

Later, Justin’s mother famously had a lost weekend at Studio 54 and partied with the Rolling Stones.

Now he’s out with Katy Perry. California Girls and all...

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