A quiet New Year’s Eve and Day for me, following a four-day holiday weekend boardgame binge with my gaming group.
I am one of the Canadians that O’Leary says is “interested” in the 51st state issue, but like most of us “interested” people, my interest is in how stupid the idea is and how to prevent it from ever happening. I expect that his statement will appear at some point as a Trump post “fact”, however.
I tend to go by my taste buds rather than the label. I’m looking at the label of a jar of Jif creamy peanut butter right now, where a serving is 33g, total sugars is 3g, including 2g added sugars. Depending on how you want to look at it, that’s either 1g sugar per 11g peanut butter or 1g added sugar per 16.5g peanut butter.
Or, to put it into percentages - Canadian peanut butter has 6.67% sugar while Jif in the US is 9.1% sugar, or 6.06% added sugar.
Please feel free to check those numbers - I am not a mathematician, nor do I play one on TV. I have, however, been eating peanut butter on a daily basis for quite some time, and when I went vegetarian (bordering on vegan) in 2018, I stopped getting the standard peanut butter and switched exclusively to the Kraft ‘Only Peanuts’, the Nuts to You just ground nuts, and the various hippie health food store versions where they just grind nuts for you. It doesn’t take long to lose the taste for added sugar, which I’m certain is what has happened to me. I haven’t had a standard issue Kraft, President’s Choice, or whatever other brands have added sugar in years, and so, I really noticed the difference down here!
The Globe and Mail (via Yahoo News) has sources who are saying Trudeau is going to resign tomorrow:
I feel sorry for whoever replaces him. I don’t think they can turn things around for the federal Liberal party.
I don’t think the Liberal Party handled this well. If this had happened less publicly, they would have found it easier to take the months needed to properly choose a successor and saved more face. Lots of people are interested in running, but it is hard to see any of them making a difference big enough to affect the election. Freeland is said to be the highest polling potential candidate at 21%.
A lot of this is happening due to a fairly frantic response to a Trump tweet. Since the markets and the Mexicans are less moved, a better response would have been to joke about closer union and an eleventh province, continue to cultivate state members that do business with Canada, stay calm, prepare tough but limited retaliatory measures, use third parties to emphasize this is a “Trump Tax” to Americans directly, and flatter Trump while including all the top advisors and influencers regardless of Trump’s preferences.
In the silence, someone needs to speak for Canada, and while not ideal, Smith has probably done better job than other self-appointed lickspittles who lack legitimacy.
Come the election in the fall the details of how Trudeau resigned - assuming he does - won’t be much remembered or matter at the polls. Resigning how would at least give a leader time to get settled in and maybe save a few seats. The election result is a foregone conclusion.
How Trump will be handled doesn’t change much except that Trudeau was a dead man walking and would lack some legitimacy. But, really, the major negotiations between countries aren’t done by the big talking heads anyway.
I’ll agree with the second half of your statement, that they won’t make a big difference at the polls.
Kevin O’Leary is an arrogant and obnoxious dumbass. He really does want Canada to join the US, not just economically, but politically, because all he cares about is money and, well, he’s a dumbass. Of course it will never happen because the Canadian people (and our Parliament) are firmly opposed, and so is the US Congress. But to be fair to O’Leary, a strong economic union between the US and Canada is important to both (while strongly guarding our sovereignty).
And I suspect the “Mr. Wonderful” moniker was intended ironically. In his appearances on Dragons Den, O’Leary was always the first to disparage the guests, and always the last to make an investment offer. Sometimes, when all the other Dragons were enthusiastic about the business, O’Leary would be the only holdout, scowling in the background.
Damn, looks like I was off by a week!
I enjoyed O’Leary’s book. But it is hard to disagree with your description. I think he decided to give himself the sobriquet “Mr. Wonderful”, which predates his TV show success, in an unironic display of “public relations”. O’Leary claims he does not recall the origins of the name.
Hmmmm…
Not good.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-pm-trudeau-announce-resignation-early-monday-globe-mail-reports-2025-01-06/
Don’t know why there’s no preview.
Hasn’t yet made a “final decision”, but sounded pretty imminent.
Apparently there’s going to be a press conference at 10:45
I’ve got the radio on now. I expect a prepared statement: resignation, stay on until new leader, prorogation, no Q&A.
And apparently I am wrong, he will be taking questions.
FYI, I am listening to Jerry Agar on Newstalk 1010 here in Toronto. He annoys the shit out of me and the gloating is running freely.
He’s the brother of a friend, and if you get him on topics other than politics, he’s an interesting and knowledgeable person.
And if you allow him to get on to politics, he’s one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met.
Here is his resignation speech:
Odd. He’s resigning… but not yet. And got the GG to prorogue Parliament again in order to avoid a non confidence vote. So I’m not sure WHEN this resignation will happen.
That would be a pretty rare occurrence on one of those shows. It was, and remains, pretty unusual for them not to be fairly unanimous on whether a business is a good or bad idea.
It’s not that odd. There’s a tradition that an interim leader isn’t supposed to run to be the ultimate replacement as party leader. So if everyone who might be qualified to be interim leader is interested in the permanent job, it makes sense for him to stay on, from a party perspective.
As to when, well, we don’t have an exact date yet, but they made the criteria pretty clear: once they’ve replaced him. We’ll know that date exactly as soon as the party sets the date for their vote.
As for proroguing Parliament, that’s to be expected. There’s nothing to be gained in letting Parliament sit while this is ongoing. The Liberals aren’t going to introduce any new legislation, and all anyone else wants to do is have a non-confidence vote, which is kind of moot at this point. Why hand PP an easy PR win, while simultaneously screwing over the whole Liberal party, which would have to find a new leader right in the middle of a Federal election? Anyone who thought they’d do that isn’t paying much attention.
Surely someone out of over 100 MPs would be happy to serve as interim leader? I mean, it’s someone’s chance to be in the history books as a Prime Minister. 
Upon the return of Parliament, the government might just fall right away.
Yeah, but then you’d have to be the person dealing with Trump’s first few months of shit show. Not much of a trade-off.