Mark Carney heads to Calgary on Thursday, Joly may head to Paris soon...

Plus, Poilievre takes Carney to task and Trump seeks peace for Ukraine.

“We can neither confirm nor deny,” is what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office was telling me on Tuesday as I sought new info on the supposed MOU. Will there be a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Thursday in Calgary?

My guess would be that yes, this will happen.

The fact that Mark Carney will be addressing the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Thursday is a clear signal something is coming. It’s the first time in at least 10 years that a sitting PM has addressed the business community in that city.

My questions would all be around what will the MOU say. Will this MOU require Alberta to do all the heavy lifting or will it be a real partnership? Will Premier Smith need to head out to Victoria and convince B.C. Premier David Eby to agree to the pipeline? Will Alberta be responsible to ensure that British Columbia First Nations groups are onside?

If any of that is part of this MOU then it isn’t worth much.

That said, any conversation that I’ve had with Premier Smith or her team on this issue has been incredibly positive, they seem to believe they are headed in the right direction.

Just as a side note, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also seems to be happy with the direction the Carney government is taking on the canola tariff talks with China.

We live in strange days.

Melanie Joly looking for a plum post in Paris…

When I look at the official residence of Canada’s Ambassador to France, I don’t blame Melanie Joly for wanting the job as she exits politics.

This morning I broke the news that Joly is the latest Trudeau leftover looking to leave Liberal politics and escape the new Carney era. According to multiple Liberal sources, she is asking to be posted as Canada’s top diplomat in Paris.

From my understanding, Carney’s team wants more of his own people in caucus and cabinet and Joly is not exactly a Carney Liberal. So there is the desire for her to go and her desire is to leave if the right landing spot can be found.

Looking at these photos of the embassy, can you blame Joly for asking for this post?

You get to live down the street from the French President in a historic building in a very fashionable part of Paris. This seems right up Joly’s alley and a nice way for Carney to remove a Trudeau holdover who isn’t helping to advance his agenda.

Does Mark Carney suddenly care…

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took Mark Carney to task over his who cares comment regarding when he last spoke to Donald Trump. I’ve written about that here and here if you want more information.

During Question Period on Tuesday, Poilievre had to ask Carney two questions about the “Who cares?” comment before Carney admitted that it was a poor choice of words.

In my experience, much of it with Doug Ford, voters will forgive politicians who admit they screwed up. It’s worked well for Ford, perhaps voters who aren’t ready to sour on Carney will be willing to cut him some slack.

There were several additional questions about Carney’s deals and lack of success. That’s something that I addressed yesterday, but again, if he wants to see real success, he needs to fix the regulatory and investment climate here at home.

You can’t have Canadian companies like Nutrien, Linamar, TC Energy and others opting to invest in the United States and expect that we will also be able to attract foreign investment. There is a reason that Canadian companies are parking their capital stateside and it has everything to do with our current rules.

A peace plan of sorts for Ukraine…

I didn’t like the idea of Ukraine giving up land for the peace deal Donald Trump proposed, but I didn’t see any other option. How do countries who are not party to this war demand that Ukraine not be required to give up land if they aren’t willing to fight for it?

This war has been going on for nearly four years and for the longest time, there hasn’t been much change in the front lines. While the Americans have given billions in terms of cash and military equipment, they haven’t put troops on the ground.

More importantly, Europe hasn’t put troops on the ground and they haven’t been willing to fully cut off Russian oil and gas or other trade with the Kremlin.

So what is to be done?

Early Tuesday, Ukraine said they would accept the peace deal, with some changes that Trump is now posting about. I await to see what the Ukrainians say in coming days.