Well apparently he’s really quite good at getting Conservatives to cross the floor and join the Liberal caucus.
I see Poillievre is using this opportunity to take the high road, and analyze how he can change and improve. (not)
in a post to social media on Wednesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Jeneroux of betraying his constituents.
In a press conference on Parliament Hill Tuesday, Poilievre was asked how he felt about the state of his caucus.
“Overall, I think we have a great team,” he said.
As you note, this is in large part due to geography: Windsor to Detroit is a bridge trip, Vancouver to Calgary is about 1,000 km, including some mountain highways. It also reflects the fact that capital and capitalists seek profits, not “nation-building” or other civic goods. Thus the Canadian Pacific Railway chose the southern route, forestalling settlement on the better more northern areas to the detriment of farmers, because part of the business plan was to ship to and from the US and try to scoop as much US traffic as possible. The CPR always had its eye on the US market, and continues to make most of its money from US traffic. This historical and geographical reality is as responsible for north-south business as “provincial red tape,” much of which has been put in place by provincial producers to protect themselves from outside competition. Take away the red tape and local producers may fail. Great for the successful big business, perhaps not so great for local business.
Rightly or wrongly, I was of the opinion that PP is a dead man walking back in December.
I view these defections and JJ’s open politicking as symptoms of the same issue, PP is losing control of his caucus. (could you ever imagine a CPC MP pulling a stunt like this with Harper as party leader? He would have his head)
The reason he’s losing control is because PP has unrelentingly played internal Conservative politics with a heavy hand while he was on-the-rise. It wasn’t a hindrance, as PP also drew huge crowds feeding political “red meat” to his culture-war hungry supporters who flooded the CPC base.
However Carney has repeatedly out-maneuvered and out-classed him by simply being a competent, and shrewd politician. I’m sticking with my prediction. I just do not see PP turning this around. Canadians are now well-familiar with both PP and Carney, and the numbers always favour Carney (by a wide margin).
Unless some force majeure drops in to radically re-contextualize the Canadian political scene (like on the scale that Trump did) Carney has it in the bag.
The effect on small producers of provincial barriers is very industry dependent. In many cases they would benefit from less regulation. In some cases they wouldn’t.
I worked in an ER that was near the intersection of three big counties. In Ontario ambulances are funded and staffed at the county level and this funding varies a lot. So some counties have advanced paramedics and better vehicles while others are more limited in terms of what they can offer. Apart from that, each county used different types of some equipment. Transferring sick patients was often delayed by having to change stuff to be compatible with local crews for that county. Similarly, having trucks stop at the provincial borders to make useless changes to reflect local law does not really benefit many businesses. Having nationwide standards for basic things in fact would save a lot of grief and legal fees.
I am seeing a number of YouTube videos about Carney walking out of a meeting with Trump. Examples:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDH3NSodSlU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1G1OKKc9DY
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBXYHQoKuaA
I can’t find anything in CBC or other mainstream news sources, even though this should be a major story. Are these fake news, possibly AI-generated?
Fake news. 100% AI generated made to look like a real video and filled with alarming content to excite, inflame, and please. There’s videos like this with Bolton, and other famous US political people.
Sadly AI has turned even video/audio against us.
There’s no question that some industries would benefit from different regulations, and that unequal funding for health and education is awful, between counties, municipalities, regions, and provinces. My point was simply that some of the inter-provincial red tape is more than irrational, outdated “red tape.” Deciding which is which can be a bit of a political mine field.
The AI guy in the third video blinks in a very disturbing, non-human manner. If he’s not AI, then he’s a lizard in a human suit.
Fair enough. As always with these issues, “where you stand depends on where you sit”.
Background story on the CPC → Liberal defector Matt Jeneroux.
There was rumblings all over the news that he was going to defect (according to the Liberal party, they were in talks with him to cross the floor), however word got out and he surprised everyone by resigning his seat. It was all over the news that he was threatened in some manner.
The night of his resignation, PP put out a message thanking him for his service and that his resignation will be in the Spring of 2026 (pushing it to after PP’s leadership review). This was weird as MJ didn’t say this, normally when one resigns they vacant their seat immediately. MJ didn’t attend Parliament sessions, nor did he appear in public, so this all was interpreted as a directive from PP.
However this proved to be yet another mal-step from PP. As when it came for MJ to leave, he had a rethink. “I can leave my job, or I can just floor cross now while Carney is popular and keep my career.” If PP accepted MJ’s resignation that day, there would not have been a floor crossing now.
So I’m listening to my political/media news podcast and they mentioned that while monitoring right-wing media, it appears that some dirt was released on MJ. Most likely this dirt is what he was threatened with a few months ago. And now that he crossed the floor people associated with the CPC released it.
the unconfirmed dirt that Jeneroux was threatened with…
It was reported that MJ cheated on his wife.
Man, all his actions make sense now.
I’m just popping this in here for the benefit of anyone who was saying a while ago that Carney should have been “making deals” with the US, and that other countries were making deals, so why was Carney not working with Trump to lower tariffs?
Lifted from the "leopards eating people’s faces thread in the Pit:
They Did Deals With Trump to Get Lower Tariffs. Now They Are Stuck.
Countries that under the threat of tariffs made commitments like enormous investment pledges face the reality that they might have been better off waiting.
I guess Carney made a very Jeneroux offer.
That’s why Carney is seen as the adult in the room by most Canadians, not to mention everyone else in the world. Even Trump.
Carney to visit India later this week, and India hopes to start talks on a free trade agreement with Canada.
We will never be able to stop trading entirely with the US, but what we can do is get trade agreements with as many nations as possible to diversify trade. This is a good plan of Carney’s I think.
India and Canada to begin free trade talks during Carney’s visit, minister says
Would be nice to see a parallel track of enforcement in general so as not to upset countries against interference. But the 2025 National Security report has us apparently not focused on the obviously continuing influence campaigns.
F1. Foreign states conduct sophisticated and pervasive foreign interference specifically targeting Canada’s democratic processes and institutions, occurring before, during and after elections and in all orders of government. These activities continue to pose a significant threat to national security, and to the overall integrity of Canada’s democracy. The PRC and India are the most active perpetrators.
F2. The government was aware in 2018 that the reforms implemented under the Plan to Protect Democracy were insufficient to address foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions. It has yet to implement an effective response to foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions. This is despite a significant body of intelligence reporting, the completion of foundational policy work, public consultations and having been called to do so by this Committee
You don’t have to call out India/China while making deals but you can make general improvements wrapped in domestic policy statements. We’re just not seeing that….or I’m missing them when they happen.
Absolutely agree with you.
Some headlines from the globe and mail about Canada’s visit to India: A trade deal by the end of the year would be moving very fast indeed.
Carney aiming to complete trade deal with India by year’s end
Canadian universities ink partnerships with Indian counterparts during Carney’s visit
No exemptions for India on foreign interference concerns, Anand says
You want fast? You got fast.
Expands trade to maybe $50 billion/year by 2030, with major investments in energy technology, including uranium sales, and cooperation on building new small modular reactors.
The promises that were made were all ridiculous, in almost every case non binding, and literally everything through they were all bullshit and efforts to buy some time in the hopes Trump would die or become distracted.