Ostriches, another Ask Me Anything event, government spending and the NDP strikes again...

Is anyone shocked the NDP is helping the Liberals once more?

They are coming for the ostriches…

I’ll admit, it’s not a story that I’ve been invested in, but I’ll be paying attention now. The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday declined to take up the case of the more than 300 ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, B.C.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has now moved onto the farm to carry out the culling that they first ordered last December.

See, last December avian flu was detected at the farm and 69 birds died. CFIA is very concerned about avian flu and and its potential to spread and culling is their normal way of dealing with this.

The Americans have already banned raw and unprocessed chicken from Canada due to avian flu and the disease can spread between different types of birds.

There are currently cull orders in effect for five different poultry farms in Manitoba. For the past two years outbreaks of avian flu have driven up egg prices dramatically in the United States due to culls of the flock and right now, grocers and processors are seeing price hikes happen for chicken as well.

There are very real consequences to avian flu, for our food supply and more.

No, these ostriches are not going into the food supply, but their existence could harm other bird flocks in the area and spread the disease. That said, it’s been 11 months since the birds were sick, I think there are reasonable questions to ask about whether they are still sick and if they still pose a risk.

Those however are not questions that I am qualified to answer.

As for how the birds will be culled, looks like it could be pretty creepy and gross according to a CFIA manual. We have the story up at the Sun website but ask whether you want to know before you click.

Another Ask Me Anything coming this Sunday…

The last Ask Me Anything event was a success and folks asked that we do another one after the federal budget, so this Sunday at 2pm, we will do another.

I’ll be trying different software to make it an even better experience, but if you are a paid subscriber, you will get the email or notice in your Substack app that I am live and then you just click the link and join. You can send questions ahead of time to brian@brianlilley.com.

Come on out and join in the fun.

Ontario’s economic update compared to the federal budget…

I won’t bore you with too many details, Ontario’s Fall Economic Statement, the FES as the staffers at Queen’s Park call it, is pretty boring.

Good, that’s how I like it.

You can read my full column if you want more detail, but when you compare it to the federal budget you can see the difference having an adult in charge makes.

Peter Bethlenflavy, Ontario’s finance minister, is a former banking executive and once ran Dominion Bond Ratings Service. He knows how finance works and how the markets work and he’s been looking after Ontario’s finances since the end of 2020.

The end result, yes Ontario is still running a deficit but a much small and more manageable one than the feds. The cost of servicing the debt is much lower thanks to Bethlanfalvy refinancing Ontario’s long-term debt during the pandemic when interest rates were low - a measure the feds didn’t follow him on.

In fact, if it weren’t for the financial hit from Trump’s tariffs, Ontario would have a balanced budget by now, instead they are projecting it will take two more years.

Yes, Ontario spends too much, I say that about every government, but they have raised revenues without raising taxes and that is something I can appreciate.

Wish we had that in Ottawa.

Batra’s Burning Questions…

Each week, I chat with my boss, Toronto Sun editor-in-chief, Adrienne Batra about the politics of the day.

This morning it was just her and I, no Warren Kinsella or Lorrie Goldstein this time, and she opened by talking about how sneaky the Liberals are. Instead of talking about their awful budget, we are all talking about the floor crosser Chris d’Entremont!

Get the podcast mic that I use and trust, the Shure MV7+.

The Liberals will survive the first budget votes…

I still don’t believe we are headed towards an election over the budget. We now know though that the NDP will vote with the Liberals and against the Conservatives on their motion to amend the budget and they will do the same with a Bloc motion.

In total, the NDP will help the Liberals survive three budget votes, beyond that we will need to wait and see.

As for whether more MPs will cross the floor and join the Liberals to help them win budget votes, Conservative MP Gerrard Deltell says there won’t be any more Conservatives joining the LPC.