🇨🇦 Mark Carney’s Budget: The Soft Power of Smoke and Algorithms
Buried in Ottawa’s 400-page 2025 budget are six tiny entries that reveal far more about Canada’s future than any grand speech. They read like the diary of a technocrat pretending to dream — half-measures dressed as moonshots. There’s a space program without rockets, a song contest without songs, and artificial intelligence where human intelligence used to be. Together, they sketch the outline of a country trading purpose for performance art.
First comes the “sovereign space launch capability” — $182 million over three years. Not a line about where, when, or how, just a declaration that Canada will now “join the space race.” It’s less a strategy than a selfie: Ottawa’s way of signaling relevance in a new Cold War cosmos dominated by SpaceX, Roscosmos, and the PLA. The West no longer builds cathedrals of science; it rents them from contractors and calls it sovereignty.
Then there’s the pièce de résistance of cultural absurdity: joining Eurovision. Yes — the federal budget, amid deficits and de-industrialization, finds room for a line about “exploring participation” in Europe’s televised song contest. Mark Carney, ever the cosmopolitan banker-in-chief, loves to call Canada “the most European of non-European nations.” Now, apparently, he wants to prove it through sequins and soft power. The empire that once produced Leonard Cohen will now compete with Lithuanian pop acts for clout.
But beneath the glitter lies the steel circuitry of control. The budget quietly funds a “made-in-Canada AI tool” to automate the federal bureaucracy — a euphemism for replacing human clerks with compliant algorithms. “Digital sovereignty,” they call it. In practice, it means citizens talking to bots instead of civil servants, while real sovereignty evaporates into cloud servers managed by “trusted partners.” It’s not innovation — it’s automation of empathy.
Next: the $2.7 billion upgrade to weather forecasting. On paper, a noble goal — who doesn’t want better predictions? But the scale hints at dual-use ambitions. In a world of militarized climate models and data wars, atmospheric information is the new oil. The same supercomputer that tracks hurricanes can model battlefield smoke or energy-infrastructure stress. Ottawa may call it “environmental stewardship,” but the subtext reads national security.
The $55 million emergency alert overhaul seems more grounded — a response to failures during the Nova Scotia massacre. Yet even here, the pattern repeats: centralize, digitize, automate. A new “framework of national standards” that reduces provincial autonomy while giving Public Safety Canada a louder megaphone. Safety becomes the alibi for consolidation. Every crisis, every siren, another excuse to tighten the mesh.
Finally, the quiet burial of Trudeau’s two-billion-tree promise — canceled to “save $200 million.” It’s the perfect metaphor for post-national governance: the ritual abandonment of a performative ideal that was never meant to sprout. The green illusion is over; fiscal technocracy has reclaimed the stage.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Buried in Ottawa’s 400-page 2025 budget are six tiny entries that reveal far more about Canada’s future than any grand speech. They read like the diary of a technocrat pretending to dream — half-measures dressed as moonshots. There’s a space program without rockets, a song contest without songs, and artificial intelligence where human intelligence used to be. Together, they sketch the outline of a country trading purpose for performance art.
First comes the “sovereign space launch capability” — $182 million over three years. Not a line about where, when, or how, just a declaration that Canada will now “join the space race.” It’s less a strategy than a selfie: Ottawa’s way of signaling relevance in a new Cold War cosmos dominated by SpaceX, Roscosmos, and the PLA. The West no longer builds cathedrals of science; it rents them from contractors and calls it sovereignty.
Then there’s the pièce de résistance of cultural absurdity: joining Eurovision. Yes — the federal budget, amid deficits and de-industrialization, finds room for a line about “exploring participation” in Europe’s televised song contest. Mark Carney, ever the cosmopolitan banker-in-chief, loves to call Canada “the most European of non-European nations.” Now, apparently, he wants to prove it through sequins and soft power. The empire that once produced Leonard Cohen will now compete with Lithuanian pop acts for clout.
But beneath the glitter lies the steel circuitry of control. The budget quietly funds a “made-in-Canada AI tool” to automate the federal bureaucracy — a euphemism for replacing human clerks with compliant algorithms. “Digital sovereignty,” they call it. In practice, it means citizens talking to bots instead of civil servants, while real sovereignty evaporates into cloud servers managed by “trusted partners.” It’s not innovation — it’s automation of empathy.
Next: the $2.7 billion upgrade to weather forecasting. On paper, a noble goal — who doesn’t want better predictions? But the scale hints at dual-use ambitions. In a world of militarized climate models and data wars, atmospheric information is the new oil. The same supercomputer that tracks hurricanes can model battlefield smoke or energy-infrastructure stress. Ottawa may call it “environmental stewardship,” but the subtext reads national security.
The $55 million emergency alert overhaul seems more grounded — a response to failures during the Nova Scotia massacre. Yet even here, the pattern repeats: centralize, digitize, automate. A new “framework of national standards” that reduces provincial autonomy while giving Public Safety Canada a louder megaphone. Safety becomes the alibi for consolidation. Every crisis, every siren, another excuse to tighten the mesh.
Finally, the quiet burial of Trudeau’s two-billion-tree promise — canceled to “save $200 million.” It’s the perfect metaphor for post-national governance: the ritual abandonment of a performative ideal that was never meant to sprout. The green illusion is over; fiscal technocracy has reclaimed the stage.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤4👍3🤔2🤬2
🇨🇦💼 Carney’s Quiet Coup
On budget week, with the ink barely dry on his first fiscal plan, PM Mark Carney just scored a major defection: Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor to the Liberals — narrowing the gap to a two-seat near-majority.
Carney called it “exceptionally valuable.” Of course it is. The former Goldman Sachs banker-turned-PM knows the numbers: one more vote and he turns his “minority mandate” into full control.
D’Entremont says he was tired of Pierre Poilievre’s negativity and hinted others may follow. But in Ottawa, defections don’t happen without orchestration. The timing — mid-budget, pre-confidence vote, with Poilievre facing a January leadership review — reeks of precision politics.
Carney’s first budget balloons the deficit to C$78 billion, the second-largest in Canadian history, framed as “investment spending” to offset Trump’s new tariffs. Critics call it debt-driven technocracy in liberal packaging.
So while the headlines focus on one MP switching teams, the real story is subtler: Canada’s new banker-king is consolidating his boardroom majority — one floor-crosser at a time.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
On budget week, with the ink barely dry on his first fiscal plan, PM Mark Carney just scored a major defection: Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor to the Liberals — narrowing the gap to a two-seat near-majority.
Carney called it “exceptionally valuable.” Of course it is. The former Goldman Sachs banker-turned-PM knows the numbers: one more vote and he turns his “minority mandate” into full control.
D’Entremont says he was tired of Pierre Poilievre’s negativity and hinted others may follow. But in Ottawa, defections don’t happen without orchestration. The timing — mid-budget, pre-confidence vote, with Poilievre facing a January leadership review — reeks of precision politics.
Carney’s first budget balloons the deficit to C$78 billion, the second-largest in Canadian history, framed as “investment spending” to offset Trump’s new tariffs. Critics call it debt-driven technocracy in liberal packaging.
So while the headlines focus on one MP switching teams, the real story is subtler: Canada’s new banker-king is consolidating his boardroom majority — one floor-crosser at a time.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤬11🤯3😁2🤡2
🇨🇦 Mark Carney’s first budget hangs by a thread — and the horse-trading has begun.
With one MP crossing the floor, the Liberals now need just two more votes — or abstentions — to survive. Behind the scenes, the pitch is simple: local funding in exchange for a lifeline.
In Quebec, Bloc MP Alexis Deschênes is being courted with federal money for the Exploramer Shark Pavilion in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and a shipyard upgrade in Gaspé. In B.C., the NDP’s Don Davies faces pressure from a promised Filipino Community Centre in Metro Vancouver — in a riding still mourning a tragedy at a Filipino festival.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s Heather McPherson has a $257 million firefighting fleet and a local theatre grant on her desk, and NDP MP Gord Johns is eyeing clean energy tax credits tied to his own biomass proposals. The carrots are real — but so is the risk of being seen as bought.
Four Conservative MPs are in similar binds. Edmonton’s Kerry Diotte has anti-poverty funding for the Bissell Centre on the line; Saskatchewan’s Warren Steinley gets RCMP heritage funding; Ontario’s Vincent Ho sees a memorial in Richmond Hill; and Quebec’s Gabriel Hardy gets money for a regional Earth sciences centre.
Carney insists these weren’t bribes but “shared priorities.” Still, the pattern is clear: a budget sold one riding at a time. The Liberal leader needs just enough cross-party pragmatism to avoid an election before Christmas — and he’s gambling that local wins might outweigh party discipline.
Opposition leaders face their own dilemma: hold the fiscal line and risk an election, or take the projects and live with the optics. Either way, Canada’s $78-billion deficit just became the least controversial number in Ottawa.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
With one MP crossing the floor, the Liberals now need just two more votes — or abstentions — to survive. Behind the scenes, the pitch is simple: local funding in exchange for a lifeline.
In Quebec, Bloc MP Alexis Deschênes is being courted with federal money for the Exploramer Shark Pavilion in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and a shipyard upgrade in Gaspé. In B.C., the NDP’s Don Davies faces pressure from a promised Filipino Community Centre in Metro Vancouver — in a riding still mourning a tragedy at a Filipino festival.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s Heather McPherson has a $257 million firefighting fleet and a local theatre grant on her desk, and NDP MP Gord Johns is eyeing clean energy tax credits tied to his own biomass proposals. The carrots are real — but so is the risk of being seen as bought.
Four Conservative MPs are in similar binds. Edmonton’s Kerry Diotte has anti-poverty funding for the Bissell Centre on the line; Saskatchewan’s Warren Steinley gets RCMP heritage funding; Ontario’s Vincent Ho sees a memorial in Richmond Hill; and Quebec’s Gabriel Hardy gets money for a regional Earth sciences centre.
Carney insists these weren’t bribes but “shared priorities.” Still, the pattern is clear: a budget sold one riding at a time. The Liberal leader needs just enough cross-party pragmatism to avoid an election before Christmas — and he’s gambling that local wins might outweigh party discipline.
Opposition leaders face their own dilemma: hold the fiscal line and risk an election, or take the projects and live with the optics. Either way, Canada’s $78-billion deficit just became the least controversial number in Ottawa.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤3🤡3🗿2🤔1🌚1
🍗🇨🇦 The Great Chicken Squeeze
Canadian shoppers are feeling the pinch — chicken prices up 12–20%, with thighs hit hardest.
The culprits: avian flu outbreaks, supply chain strain, and, as experts admit, “bad planning.”
Small retailers like Calgary’s Master Meats say it’s getting harder to stock basic cuts. “It’s frustrating — we’re a single-destination business,” owner Johannes Wildenborg told CityNews.
Analysts warn the worst may come mid-winter, as wholesale costs hit consumers. Yet the industry insists it’s “just 1.5% year-over-year.” A familiar disconnect between grocery-aisle reality and bureaucratic spin.
Behind the price tags lies a deeper fragility: over-centralized food systems, disease-sensitive supply chains, and a market where even chicken — once the cheap protein of the people — is becoming a luxury.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Canadian shoppers are feeling the pinch — chicken prices up 12–20%, with thighs hit hardest.
The culprits: avian flu outbreaks, supply chain strain, and, as experts admit, “bad planning.”
Small retailers like Calgary’s Master Meats say it’s getting harder to stock basic cuts. “It’s frustrating — we’re a single-destination business,” owner Johannes Wildenborg told CityNews.
Analysts warn the worst may come mid-winter, as wholesale costs hit consumers. Yet the industry insists it’s “just 1.5% year-over-year.” A familiar disconnect between grocery-aisle reality and bureaucratic spin.
Behind the price tags lies a deeper fragility: over-centralized food systems, disease-sensitive supply chains, and a market where even chicken — once the cheap protein of the people — is becoming a luxury.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤡11🤬6😁2🤔2
🇨🇦 Canada’s Great Tech Poaching Gamble
In his first budget, Mark Carney is trying to turn Trump’s “America First” tariffs into a Canadian opportunity — launching a fast-track immigration program to lure H-1B visa holders from the U.S.
Trump’s new $100,000 hiring fee for foreign tech workers has Silicon Valley panicking. Ottawa smells blood — hoping to scoop up the displaced engineers, coders, and AI specialists.
But there’s a catch: Canada’s last attempt flopped. Of 10,000 approved U.S. visa holders, only 1,625 ever showed up. Most preferred to fight for their U.S. green cards rather than start over in a higher-tax, higher-cost, lower-pay market.
Carney’s challenge isn’t getting talent to apply, it’s getting them to stay.
The strategy may play well in press releases, but unless Canada fixes the fundamentals — housing, taxes, red tape — the “brain gain” risks becoming another bureaucratic mirage.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
In his first budget, Mark Carney is trying to turn Trump’s “America First” tariffs into a Canadian opportunity — launching a fast-track immigration program to lure H-1B visa holders from the U.S.
Trump’s new $100,000 hiring fee for foreign tech workers has Silicon Valley panicking. Ottawa smells blood — hoping to scoop up the displaced engineers, coders, and AI specialists.
But there’s a catch: Canada’s last attempt flopped. Of 10,000 approved U.S. visa holders, only 1,625 ever showed up. Most preferred to fight for their U.S. green cards rather than start over in a higher-tax, higher-cost, lower-pay market.
Carney’s challenge isn’t getting talent to apply, it’s getting them to stay.
The strategy may play well in press releases, but unless Canada fixes the fundamentals — housing, taxes, red tape — the “brain gain” risks becoming another bureaucratic mirage.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤮8❤2😁2💯2👎1
🇨🇦 Ontario’s Mood Turns South
A new Leger poll finds 55% of Ontarians say their province is heading in the wrong direction.
Only 33% think things are on track — even as Doug Ford’s approval holds at 45%.
The discontent cuts across regions:
• Just 29% in Southern Ontario and 32% in the GTA say Ontario’s on the right path.
• Housing and affordability dominate concerns — cited by 17% overall, and nearly 1 in 5 younger Ontarians.
Despite that, Ford’s PCs would still win an election tomorrow with 44% support, leaving the Liberals at 32% and the NDP in the dust.
Call it cognitive dissonance, political fatigue, or survival voting — Ontarians seem unhappy with the system but too wary to change it.
#Ontario
🍁 Maple Chronicles
A new Leger poll finds 55% of Ontarians say their province is heading in the wrong direction.
Only 33% think things are on track — even as Doug Ford’s approval holds at 45%.
The discontent cuts across regions:
• Just 29% in Southern Ontario and 32% in the GTA say Ontario’s on the right path.
• Housing and affordability dominate concerns — cited by 17% overall, and nearly 1 in 5 younger Ontarians.
Despite that, Ford’s PCs would still win an election tomorrow with 44% support, leaving the Liberals at 32% and the NDP in the dust.
Call it cognitive dissonance, political fatigue, or survival voting — Ontarians seem unhappy with the system but too wary to change it.
#Ontario
🍁 Maple Chronicles
💯4🔥3❤2👍1
🇨🇦🚫🇺🇸 Canadians Are Staying Home — And U.S. Border Towns Are Feeling It
Canadian travel to the U.S. is down nearly 30% year-over-year, hitting businesses across Minnesota and North Dakota hard. Restaurants like the Blue Moose Bar & Grill say they’re desperate for the return of Canadian customers.
So what’s changed?
The exchange rate is brutal.
Fuel and flight costs are up.
And many Canadians say they simply don’t feel welcome in America — especially after his renewed calls for Canada to become the “51st state.”
University of Manitoba sociologist Lori Wilkinson says Canadians are “disappointed and angry.” For some, it’s not just politics — it’s personal.
A quote from Winnipegger Philbert Furere sums up the mood for some:
“I don’t want to travel to the U.S. because of their politics… I feel like I could be arrested anytime and disappear.”
When annexation jokes and tariff wars mix with fear and fatigue, tourism turns to tension — and Main Street America pays the price.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Canadian travel to the U.S. is down nearly 30% year-over-year, hitting businesses across Minnesota and North Dakota hard. Restaurants like the Blue Moose Bar & Grill say they’re desperate for the return of Canadian customers.
So what’s changed?
The exchange rate is brutal.
Fuel and flight costs are up.
And many Canadians say they simply don’t feel welcome in America — especially after his renewed calls for Canada to become the “51st state.”
University of Manitoba sociologist Lori Wilkinson says Canadians are “disappointed and angry.” For some, it’s not just politics — it’s personal.
A quote from Winnipegger Philbert Furere sums up the mood for some:
“I don’t want to travel to the U.S. because of their politics… I feel like I could be arrested anytime and disappear.”
When annexation jokes and tariff wars mix with fear and fatigue, tourism turns to tension — and Main Street America pays the price.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤡19👍5❤4😁2👏1
🇨🇦🛢️ Western Canada Select Discount Widens — but Stability Holds
The price gap between Western Canada Select (WCS) and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened slightly to $11.45 per barrel, up from $11.25 earlier in the week, according to CalRock data.
While the spread has grown, it remains tight by historical standards — a sign of newfound stability in Canada’s oil market since the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion began operating last year. The expansion has opened a Pacific lifeline for Canadian crude, driving strong buying from China and easing the long-standing bottleneck that once crushed Alberta producers.
Canadian Natural Resources CEO Scott Stauth said the project has effectively “stabilized” the market, with discounts expected to hover between $10 and $13 per barrel below WTI in the near term.
Still, global prices dipped Thursday amid renewed fears of oversupply and slowing demand in the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer — a reminder that even as Canada finds balance, it remains tethered to volatile global energy flows.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
The price gap between Western Canada Select (WCS) and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) widened slightly to $11.45 per barrel, up from $11.25 earlier in the week, according to CalRock data.
While the spread has grown, it remains tight by historical standards — a sign of newfound stability in Canada’s oil market since the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion began operating last year. The expansion has opened a Pacific lifeline for Canadian crude, driving strong buying from China and easing the long-standing bottleneck that once crushed Alberta producers.
Canadian Natural Resources CEO Scott Stauth said the project has effectively “stabilized” the market, with discounts expected to hover between $10 and $13 per barrel below WTI in the near term.
Still, global prices dipped Thursday amid renewed fears of oversupply and slowing demand in the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer — a reminder that even as Canada finds balance, it remains tethered to volatile global energy flows.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
❤4👍3🤡2
🇨🇦 ‘Manufactured Crisis’: U.S. Tariffs Built on a False Fentanyl Narrative
President Donald Trump’s 35% tariffs on Canadian goods were justified under “emergency powers” — allegedly to stop a flood of fentanyl from Canada.
But new data tells a different story.
📉 Fentanyl seizures at the Canada-U.S. border plummeted this summer — down to just 0.14 pounds in September, the lowest since 2023.
💀 Less than 1% of America’s fentanyl comes from Canada. The rest flows from Mexico, long dominated by entrenched cartels.
“This is a manufactured crisis,” said Laura Huey, criminology professor at Western University. “If Canada were exporting large volumes, gang violence would explode. It hasn’t.”
Even as the numbers fell, Trump increased tariffs from 25% to 35%, accusing Ottawa of “continued inaction.” The irony? The same agencies used to justify those tariffs were already reporting a sharp decline.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court now faces a monumental question: can presidents use emergency powers meant for war or terrorism to impose tariffs on allies — all to score political points?
Another case where facts are secondary to theatre — and the stage is global trade.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
President Donald Trump’s 35% tariffs on Canadian goods were justified under “emergency powers” — allegedly to stop a flood of fentanyl from Canada.
But new data tells a different story.
📉 Fentanyl seizures at the Canada-U.S. border plummeted this summer — down to just 0.14 pounds in September, the lowest since 2023.
💀 Less than 1% of America’s fentanyl comes from Canada. The rest flows from Mexico, long dominated by entrenched cartels.
“This is a manufactured crisis,” said Laura Huey, criminology professor at Western University. “If Canada were exporting large volumes, gang violence would explode. It hasn’t.”
Even as the numbers fell, Trump increased tariffs from 25% to 35%, accusing Ottawa of “continued inaction.” The irony? The same agencies used to justify those tariffs were already reporting a sharp decline.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court now faces a monumental question: can presidents use emergency powers meant for war or terrorism to impose tariffs on allies — all to score political points?
Another case where facts are secondary to theatre — and the stage is global trade.
#Canada #USA
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤡16😁3💯2❤1🌚1
🇨🇦 BoC Moves to Regulate Stablecoins — The Digital Dollar Era Begins
At a Senate hearing Thursday, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem laid out his vision for Canada’s new stablecoin regime, just days after Ottawa handed the central bank full oversight of the sector.
Macklem says any Canadian stablecoin must be backed by “high-quality, short-term, highly liquid assets” — ensuring one-to-one convertibility with fiat money to prevent “runs” that could destabilize the system.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne confirmed the assets will be regulated as payments, not securities — centralizing control under federal oversight rather than provincial markets.
The timing is no accident: Washington just passed the GENIUS Act, giving U.S. banks and Big Tech green lights to issue their own stablecoins. Canada is now racing to keep up — or risk letting U.S. dollar stablecoins dominate domestic commerce.
Yet behind the talk of “innovation” and “resilience,” a deeper shift is underway: Open banking, digital ID, and now stablecoins — all under the same regulatory roof.
Welcome to the monetary merger of state and fintech, dressed in the language of stability.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
At a Senate hearing Thursday, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem laid out his vision for Canada’s new stablecoin regime, just days after Ottawa handed the central bank full oversight of the sector.
Macklem says any Canadian stablecoin must be backed by “high-quality, short-term, highly liquid assets” — ensuring one-to-one convertibility with fiat money to prevent “runs” that could destabilize the system.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne confirmed the assets will be regulated as payments, not securities — centralizing control under federal oversight rather than provincial markets.
The timing is no accident: Washington just passed the GENIUS Act, giving U.S. banks and Big Tech green lights to issue their own stablecoins. Canada is now racing to keep up — or risk letting U.S. dollar stablecoins dominate domestic commerce.
Yet behind the talk of “innovation” and “resilience,” a deeper shift is underway: Open banking, digital ID, and now stablecoins — all under the same regulatory roof.
Welcome to the monetary merger of state and fintech, dressed in the language of stability.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
👍4👎2🤡2❤1💯1
🇨🇦 Ontario’s Slowdown: Debt Up, Jobs Down, Blame South of the Border
Ontario’s fall fiscal update paints a grim picture:
• Deficit: now pegged at $13.5 billion
• Debt: projected to top $500 billion by 2027
• Growth: slashed to 0.8–0.9% over the next two years
• Unemployment: rising to 7.8%, the highest in nearly a decade
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy insists the Ford government is keeping a “steady fiscal hand,” pointing the finger at Trump’s new tariffs and “trade uncertainty.”
But opposition leaders say Ontario’s wounds are at least partly self-inflicted — nine straight quarters of rising unemployment pre-date the tariff war.
Housing construction is collapsing: expected new builds for 2025 have been cut again to 64,300, far off Ford’s target of 1.5 million homes.
With slower growth, fewer jobs, and record debt, the province is quietly edging toward a decade-long stagnation — one buffered by excuses and “contingency funds,” not a plan.
#Ontario
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Ontario’s fall fiscal update paints a grim picture:
• Deficit: now pegged at $13.5 billion
• Debt: projected to top $500 billion by 2027
• Growth: slashed to 0.8–0.9% over the next two years
• Unemployment: rising to 7.8%, the highest in nearly a decade
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy insists the Ford government is keeping a “steady fiscal hand,” pointing the finger at Trump’s new tariffs and “trade uncertainty.”
But opposition leaders say Ontario’s wounds are at least partly self-inflicted — nine straight quarters of rising unemployment pre-date the tariff war.
Housing construction is collapsing: expected new builds for 2025 have been cut again to 64,300, far off Ford’s target of 1.5 million homes.
With slower growth, fewer jobs, and record debt, the province is quietly edging toward a decade-long stagnation — one buffered by excuses and “contingency funds,” not a plan.
#Ontario
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤬7😁5🤡4❤1
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🇨🇦 Canada’s Ostrich Massacre: The Night the Shots Rang Out
In the hills of Edgewood, British Columbia, a government order ended an entire flock’s existence.
More than 300 ostriches — healthy, breeding, and in many cases hand-raised — were shot dead under floodlights by marksmen working for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The official reason: a few tested positive for avian flu.
The farm owners begged to quarantine and test — they were refused. Courts declined to intervene. And on the night of Nov 6–7, the cull began.
Gunfire echoed for hours.
Supporters were blocked by RCMP from the property line.
The next morning, mounds of hay and tarps covered the bodies.
The CFIA called it “humane.”
Observers called it “a government-ordered extermination.”
Experts now admit the outbreak was isolated — Canada’s risk of spread was minimal. The farm argued many birds were immune and could have advanced research. Instead, biosecurity theatre prevailed: total destruction to “protect trade markets.”
This wasn’t about disease.
It was about control — about showing that the state will eliminate anything that challenges its containment doctrine.
And the symbolism couldn’t be darker: a country that prides itself on “humane” governance turning floodlights on living creatures in the name of bureaucratic order.
#BC
🍁 Maple Chronicles
In the hills of Edgewood, British Columbia, a government order ended an entire flock’s existence.
More than 300 ostriches — healthy, breeding, and in many cases hand-raised — were shot dead under floodlights by marksmen working for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The official reason: a few tested positive for avian flu.
The farm owners begged to quarantine and test — they were refused. Courts declined to intervene. And on the night of Nov 6–7, the cull began.
Gunfire echoed for hours.
Supporters were blocked by RCMP from the property line.
The next morning, mounds of hay and tarps covered the bodies.
The CFIA called it “humane.”
Observers called it “a government-ordered extermination.”
Experts now admit the outbreak was isolated — Canada’s risk of spread was minimal. The farm argued many birds were immune and could have advanced research. Instead, biosecurity theatre prevailed: total destruction to “protect trade markets.”
This wasn’t about disease.
It was about control — about showing that the state will eliminate anything that challenges its containment doctrine.
And the symbolism couldn’t be darker: a country that prides itself on “humane” governance turning floodlights on living creatures in the name of bureaucratic order.
#BC
🍁 Maple Chronicles
🤬30🤡5😁4😈4😢2🥱1
🇨🇦 Scheer vs. Carney: Ottawa Turns Into a Power Auction
As the Carney government inches toward a majority, Conservatives are bleeding MPs — one defection, one resignation — and blaming “undemocratic pressure tactics” from the Liberals.
This week, Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor, while Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux abruptly quit after meeting with the prime minister. Within hours, Andrew Scheer accused Mark Carney of “cobbling together a majority through backroom deals.”
The optics are brutal: on budget week, when the opposition should be hammering a $78-billion deficit, the Conservatives are instead fighting fires inside their own tent. Leader Pierre Poilievre is silent, MPs are abstaining on confidence votes, and internal discipline is fraying.
Carney, meanwhile, is playing the long game — courting defectors, projecting calm, and joking that he’s “just a couple seats short.” For a man accused of being unelected, he’s behaving like one already crowned.
This isn’t just floor-crossing. It’s a live stress test of Canadian democracy — where persuasion, pressure, and ambition all blur in the scramble for power
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
As the Carney government inches toward a majority, Conservatives are bleeding MPs — one defection, one resignation — and blaming “undemocratic pressure tactics” from the Liberals.
This week, Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont crossed the floor, while Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux abruptly quit after meeting with the prime minister. Within hours, Andrew Scheer accused Mark Carney of “cobbling together a majority through backroom deals.”
The optics are brutal: on budget week, when the opposition should be hammering a $78-billion deficit, the Conservatives are instead fighting fires inside their own tent. Leader Pierre Poilievre is silent, MPs are abstaining on confidence votes, and internal discipline is fraying.
Carney, meanwhile, is playing the long game — courting defectors, projecting calm, and joking that he’s “just a couple seats short.” For a man accused of being unelected, he’s behaving like one already crowned.
This isn’t just floor-crossing. It’s a live stress test of Canadian democracy — where persuasion, pressure, and ambition all blur in the scramble for power
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦 Canada’s “Surprise” Jobs Boom — or Just Smoke and Mirrors?
StatsCan says Canada added 67,000 jobs in October, pulling unemployment down to 6.9% — beating forecasts. But look closer:
• Most gains were part-time, not full-time.
• Construction shed 15,000 jobs — another hit to the real economy.
• Growth came mainly from wholesale, retail, and recreation — not the productive sectors that build long-term wealth.
Economists called it a “strong headline” but a weak foundation. CIBC’s Andrew Grantham says it’s still a “meandering” labour market; TD’s Andrew Hencic calls the gains narrow and uneven.
Average wages rose 3.5%, to $37.06/hour, barely ahead of inflation. Youth joblessness dipped for the first time since February — helped, bizarrely, by the Blue Jays’ World Series run, which boosted food, accommodation, and entertainment work.
The takeaway: Canada’s economy isn’t roaring back — it’s shuffling sideways. A few thousand new service jobs can’t offset industrial contraction, chronic underemployment, and a government banking on optimism rather than productivity.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
StatsCan says Canada added 67,000 jobs in October, pulling unemployment down to 6.9% — beating forecasts. But look closer:
• Most gains were part-time, not full-time.
• Construction shed 15,000 jobs — another hit to the real economy.
• Growth came mainly from wholesale, retail, and recreation — not the productive sectors that build long-term wealth.
Economists called it a “strong headline” but a weak foundation. CIBC’s Andrew Grantham says it’s still a “meandering” labour market; TD’s Andrew Hencic calls the gains narrow and uneven.
Average wages rose 3.5%, to $37.06/hour, barely ahead of inflation. Youth joblessness dipped for the first time since February — helped, bizarrely, by the Blue Jays’ World Series run, which boosted food, accommodation, and entertainment work.
The takeaway: Canada’s economy isn’t roaring back — it’s shuffling sideways. A few thousand new service jobs can’t offset industrial contraction, chronic underemployment, and a government banking on optimism rather than productivity.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🎤🇨🇦 Mark Carney’s Budget: Canada’s Path to Prosperity… via Eurovision
You can’t make this up.
In a budget drowning in $78.3 billion of deficit spending, no bold tax reform, no energy revival, no productivity plan — the great innovation, the “hinge moment” for Canada’s economic rebirth — is joining Eurovision.
Yes. While housing collapses, youth unemployment spikes, and the debt tops half a trillion, the government proudly announced it will “modernise CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate” so Canada can compete in Europe’s televised song contest.
So hey, Carney may not have delivered generational investment — but he’s delivered generational comedy.
It’s symbolism, really: a banker-technocrat PM who once ran the Bank of England now trying to turn Canada into a “European-style nation” with British spelling, Brussels-grade bureaucracy, and borrowed cultural gravitas.
Forget fiscal discipline or sovereignty — the Carney era is about vibes, optics, and soft-power karaoke.
Canada strong.
Canada free.
Canada in Eurovision. 🎶
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
You can’t make this up.
In a budget drowning in $78.3 billion of deficit spending, no bold tax reform, no energy revival, no productivity plan — the great innovation, the “hinge moment” for Canada’s economic rebirth — is joining Eurovision.
Yes. While housing collapses, youth unemployment spikes, and the debt tops half a trillion, the government proudly announced it will “modernise CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate” so Canada can compete in Europe’s televised song contest.
So hey, Carney may not have delivered generational investment — but he’s delivered generational comedy.
It’s symbolism, really: a banker-technocrat PM who once ran the Bank of England now trying to turn Canada into a “European-style nation” with British spelling, Brussels-grade bureaucracy, and borrowed cultural gravitas.
Forget fiscal discipline or sovereignty — the Carney era is about vibes, optics, and soft-power karaoke.
Canada strong.
Canada free.
Canada in Eurovision. 🎶
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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💰🇨🇦 Budget 2025: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Tax expert Kim Moody didn’t mince words: Canada’s latest federal budget is a “slow-motion fiscal shootout where taxpayers are left holding the smoking gun.”
After 567 days with no budget, Ottawa delivered one that promises “generational investment” but delivers generational debt.
🔹 The Good:
• Repeal of the Underused Housing Tax and parts of the luxury tax.
• Progress on automatic tax filing and small depreciation incentives.
• Higher capital-gains exemption to $1.25 million.
🔹 The Bad:
• No serious tax reform or rate cuts.
• More boutique credits that clutter the code.
• Creative accounting splitting “capital” from “operating” budgets to hide the true deficit.
🔹 The Ugly:
• A $78.3 billion deficit this year, falling only to $57.9 billion by 2029.
• Debt-servicing costs exploding from $53 billion → $76 billion by 2030 — that’s $1.46 billion a week in interest.
• Just 10% public-service reductions while new spending soars to $450 billion.
Moody calls it reckless: “Calling this a generational investment is like calling a payday loan a wealth strategy.”
Behind the glossy rhetoric, the message is simple — Canada is borrowing its future to fund its present, and the bill will come due long after today’s cabinet is gone.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Tax expert Kim Moody didn’t mince words: Canada’s latest federal budget is a “slow-motion fiscal shootout where taxpayers are left holding the smoking gun.”
After 567 days with no budget, Ottawa delivered one that promises “generational investment” but delivers generational debt.
🔹 The Good:
• Repeal of the Underused Housing Tax and parts of the luxury tax.
• Progress on automatic tax filing and small depreciation incentives.
• Higher capital-gains exemption to $1.25 million.
🔹 The Bad:
• No serious tax reform or rate cuts.
• More boutique credits that clutter the code.
• Creative accounting splitting “capital” from “operating” budgets to hide the true deficit.
🔹 The Ugly:
• A $78.3 billion deficit this year, falling only to $57.9 billion by 2029.
• Debt-servicing costs exploding from $53 billion → $76 billion by 2030 — that’s $1.46 billion a week in interest.
• Just 10% public-service reductions while new spending soars to $450 billion.
Moody calls it reckless: “Calling this a generational investment is like calling a payday loan a wealth strategy.”
Behind the glossy rhetoric, the message is simple — Canada is borrowing its future to fund its present, and the bill will come due long after today’s cabinet is gone.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦⚔️ Military Families: The Invisible Backbone of Canada’s Defence
Ottawa has pledged a historic $84 billion boost to defence spending over five years — new ships, jets, and bases. But beneath the headlines, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is fighting a quieter war: keeping its people from leaving.
Recruitment is falling. Retention is collapsing. And the reason isn’t just pay — it’s family.
Frequent relocations mean uprooted children, jobless spouses, no family doctors, endless child-care wait lists, and broken continuity in schooling and health. Each move restarts a family’s life from zero.
An auditor general’s report found military housing crumbling, with thousands of service members stuck on waitlists. Behind every soldier who serves is a spouse carrying the unseen weight — the logistical and emotional cost of service.
Defence analysts warn: without family stability, there’s no operational readiness. NATO’s own definition of defence spending includes people, not just machines.
Supporting military families isn’t charity — it’s national security.
Canada’s sovereignty won’t be defended by hardware alone. It will be defended by those who serve — and the families who make that service possible.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Ottawa has pledged a historic $84 billion boost to defence spending over five years — new ships, jets, and bases. But beneath the headlines, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is fighting a quieter war: keeping its people from leaving.
Recruitment is falling. Retention is collapsing. And the reason isn’t just pay — it’s family.
Frequent relocations mean uprooted children, jobless spouses, no family doctors, endless child-care wait lists, and broken continuity in schooling and health. Each move restarts a family’s life from zero.
An auditor general’s report found military housing crumbling, with thousands of service members stuck on waitlists. Behind every soldier who serves is a spouse carrying the unseen weight — the logistical and emotional cost of service.
Defence analysts warn: without family stability, there’s no operational readiness. NATO’s own definition of defence spending includes people, not just machines.
Supporting military families isn’t charity — it’s national security.
Canada’s sovereignty won’t be defended by hardware alone. It will be defended by those who serve — and the families who make that service possible.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🌲🇨🇦 B.C. Cancels Anti-Tariff Ad Campaign — and Still Loses Another Mill
Premier David Eby began the week by backing off his plan to run anti-tariff ads in the U.S. — meant to expose Washington’s “one-man trade policy” under Donald Trump.
In exchange for dropping the campaign, Eby got more talks with Ottawa — a “working group” and a promise to “coordinate communications.”
Days later, West Fraser Timber announced the closure of its 100 Mile House mill, costing 165 jobs.
Eby blamed pine beetles and Trump’s tariffs. The industry was blunter:
“The mill is no longer able to access enough viable timber,” West Fraser said. “Higher duties and additional tariffs have compounded the situation.”
The premier’s retreat underscores a grim reality: B.C.’s forestry sector is caught between U.S. protectionism and Ottawa’s bureaucracy — with no rescue plan in sight.
Once the backbone of Western Canada’s economy, lumber towns are dying quietly, while politicians trade press conferences for “task forces.”
#BC
🍁 Maple Chronicles
Premier David Eby began the week by backing off his plan to run anti-tariff ads in the U.S. — meant to expose Washington’s “one-man trade policy” under Donald Trump.
In exchange for dropping the campaign, Eby got more talks with Ottawa — a “working group” and a promise to “coordinate communications.”
Days later, West Fraser Timber announced the closure of its 100 Mile House mill, costing 165 jobs.
Eby blamed pine beetles and Trump’s tariffs. The industry was blunter:
“The mill is no longer able to access enough viable timber,” West Fraser said. “Higher duties and additional tariffs have compounded the situation.”
The premier’s retreat underscores a grim reality: B.C.’s forestry sector is caught between U.S. protectionism and Ottawa’s bureaucracy — with no rescue plan in sight.
Once the backbone of Western Canada’s economy, lumber towns are dying quietly, while politicians trade press conferences for “task forces.”
#BC
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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🇨🇦 RCMP Probes Threats Against Floor-Crossing MP Chris d’Entremont
The RCMP in Nova Scotia has opened an investigation into online threats targeting Chris d’Entremont, the MP who defected from the Conservatives to join Mark Carney’s Liberals earlier this week.
Police in Yarmouth confirmed they received reports of threats on Wednesday, one day after d’Entremont’s shock move rocked Parliament and brought the Carney government within two seats of a majority.
While Liberals hailed him as a “principled convert,” many Conservatives erupted in fury — with MP Jamil Jivani calling him “an idiot” and MP Aaron Gunn branding him “a coward.”
The RCMP says it won’t disclose protective details, citing security reasons, but the episode underscores a deeper trend: Canada’s political climate is souring, and online vitriol is now colliding with real-world consequences.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
The RCMP in Nova Scotia has opened an investigation into online threats targeting Chris d’Entremont, the MP who defected from the Conservatives to join Mark Carney’s Liberals earlier this week.
Police in Yarmouth confirmed they received reports of threats on Wednesday, one day after d’Entremont’s shock move rocked Parliament and brought the Carney government within two seats of a majority.
While Liberals hailed him as a “principled convert,” many Conservatives erupted in fury — with MP Jamil Jivani calling him “an idiot” and MP Aaron Gunn branding him “a coward.”
The RCMP says it won’t disclose protective details, citing security reasons, but the episode underscores a deeper trend: Canada’s political climate is souring, and online vitriol is now colliding with real-world consequences.
#Canada
🍁 Maple Chronicles
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