What was Carney thinking saying that...

Plus separatists across the country, and why Poilievre was right on the RCMP.

I’m not sure what Mark Carney was thinking in answering this question the way he did. In a podcast with a British journalist, Carney said he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Justin Trudeau said that Canada would honour the International Criminal Court arrest warrants i.e. Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he came to Canada,” asked Mishal Husain.

“Does that stand under your leadership?”

“Yes,” Carney said.

“You’d be prepared to do that?” Husain asked.

“Yes,” Carney said.

Now, beyond the fact that I disagree with this concept and have grave doubts about the International Criminal Court, this is stupid for other reasons.

Carney infuriated the White House back in August with his surprise announcement that Canada would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State. It shut down trade talks between the two countries which put Canadian jobs on the line so Carney could virtue signal.

This is the same thing.

What benefit does Carney get from saying this considering many of our allies would not do this?

It gives us nothing but will surely sour the White House on us again which will of course put Canadian jobs on the line. Carney just came off a good visit with Trump at the peace deal signing ceremony in Egypt, now he has squandered that good will.

Cross country separatism…

As Alberta and Saskatchewan continue to see separatist sentiment rise, I’m in Quebec where a separatist party may soon be elected. I lived here under separatist premiers Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry in the early 2000s.

The Parti Quebecois is leading in the polls, the latest Leger numbers have the PQ at 36%, the Quebec Liberals at 25%, the governing CAQ at 16% and the Quebec Conservatives at 15%. There’s some interesting chatter at the conference that I’m at and connecting some smart people who understand Quebec politics in a way that I don’t anymore.

All the players have changed since I lived in Quebec, or next to it, and quite frankly, I haven’t been paying attention the way that I used to. As we learned recently in the federal election, things can change quickly in politics and we never know when events will knock everything off kilter.

Expect some writing and pontificating on Quebec politics soon.

Western separation is also up for discussion…

One thing that I constantly try to explain to people in central and Eastern Canada is that you shouldn’t dismiss the separatist sentiment. It’s not as if a separatist government will sweep Alberta or Saskatchewan anytime soon, but there are real grievances that needs to be addressed.

“They don’t like the way we make money out here,” is how one plugged in and influential Western politico put it to me on Friday.

He was talking about the dismissal of the oil and gas sector and the abandonment of the canola industry in favour of Ontario’s nascent electric vehicle industry.

It’s a tough one for me, I understand both sides and as I wrote recently, Mark Carney is in a tough spot. Do we really think that if we abandon the 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs that the Americans requested that we won’t be hit with something worse by them or lose out on a trade deal?

It’s part of what I discussed on an episode of the Full Comment Podcast that I just recorded on the sidelines of the Banff Forum here in Quebec City. I spoke with Ed Fast, the former Minister of International Trade under Stephen Harper and Louise Blais a former diplomat and ambassador who has worked for years on the trade file.

Western anger over this is legit, but China is the common trade enemy of Canada and the United States right now and a bad trading partner on canola which they have attacked us on in 2013-14, 2017 and 2020-22.

We need to move very carefully on this file.

Poilievre is right the RCMP dropped the ball on SNC-Lavalin…

The pearl clutching over Pierre Poilievre’s comments about the RCMP are a bit much. As I wrote in yesterday’s newsletter, I’ve been hearing Liberals claim the RCMP helped the Conservatives win the 2005-06 election since that election happened.

I went a bit further in my column for the Toronto Sun this morning detailing what the RCMP chose to ignore in deciding not to proceed with charges.

It’s shocking to remember just how much evidence there was of Trudeau and his team trying to interfere in a criminal prosecution. What made it all worse was that this was a government trying to interfere in a criminal prosecution in a bribery and corruption case.