Blayne Haggart

Mark Carney has a prescription for middle powers in uncertain times – but Australia isn’t heeding the call | Tom McIlroy Labor has long defended the rules-based order, but Iran and Aukus show a stubborn refusal to move away from the US

If it makes Australians feel any better, when it comes to both Iran and the overall military relationship, Canada under Carney has also shown "a stubborn refusal to move away from the US."

Sánchez: “You may have heard that Spain is alone. They’re the same people who said that when we recognized the State of Palestine, and then others followed.

“We are not alone — we are the first. Those who will end up alone are the ones defending the indefensible.”

The two leaders are engaged in a faux debate. Each wants to stay as close to the US as possible.
Missing is an actual Third Option, which would require massive structural governance changes that aren’t on either’s agenda. It would start, e.g., with increasing, not cutting, government capacity.

A reluctance to stake out different policy positions from the US while diversifying trade is characteristic of a First Option approach.
Ironically, both lead to the same destination — deeper integration — by different means (intentionally v inertia).

ANALYSIS | Do Carney and Poilievre have different visions for the Canada-U.S. relationship? | CBC News The clearest attempt at a line of demarcation during Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's speech on Canada-United States relations was an apparent rejoinder to Prime Minister Mark Carney's insistenc...

Articles like this would benefit by framing their differences in terms of Mitchell Sharp’s three options. Poilievre leans toward the Second Option: deeper formal integration with the US. Carney is pursuing a de facto First Option: reactive without challenging underlying governance dynamics.

Trendsetters.

YouTube video by Sunscreen Music Sunscreen - Drain (Official Video)

Last year, I started counting down my Top 100 fave (mostly) Canadian & Aussie (mostly) indie tunes of (roughly) the past decade, adding one whenever I needed a boost. Time to bring it home with my top 10, beginning with some shimmering guitar pop from Sydney (2023).
#best100 #musicsky
(100-11 below)

“For Khamenei, being assassinated in this way, in the middle of Ramadan, it actually has given him…a bigger position as a symbol within the Shia faith than what he could have done by staying alive,” said Maryam al-Khawaja, an exiled Bahraini human-rights activist…“They have given him the best gift.”

"the U.S., along with its ally Israel, is once again prosecuting war in the Middle East. Only this time, America’s case is built not on one lie but a stack of lies — & Prime Minister Mark Carney thus far has seen fit to rationalize all of them"

#GiftLink 🎁 #CdnPoli

www.thestar.com/gift-redeem?...

Which of these two arcades is the "world largest"—and does it matter? While semantics count for some, gamers win either way.

Yes, there are two arcades in the US labeled as the world’s largest, and while that may seem a bit paradoxical, a visit to both proves that while only one can be the biggest, both are the greatest.

Screenshot News Release Ontario Government March 4, 2026: Ontario Secures Groundbreaking National Energy Corridor Agreement

I want to be hopeful, but this should be part and parcel of a coherent, encompassing industrial strategy, developed within an institutional framework of cooperative federalism.

Unfortunately, we lack both. A problem for a project of this scope to materialize.

news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...

tech CEO in 2026: My computer has anxiety.
venture capitalist in 2026: Here, have 200 billion more dollars.

child in 2006: My NeoPet is angry at me.
mom in 2006: No it isn't sweetie, go to bed.
mom to dad in 2006: We have an idiot boy. Our boy is a little idiot person. It's too late to fix him.

Numbers 100-91: bsky.app/profile/bhag...
Numbers 90-50: bsky.app/profile/bhag...
Numbers 49-11: bsky.app/profile/bhag...

YouTube video by Sunscreen Music Sunscreen - Drain (Official Video)

Last year, I started counting down my Top 100 fave (mostly) Canadian & Aussie (mostly) indie tunes of (roughly) the past decade, adding one whenever I needed a boost. Time to bring it home with my top 10, beginning with some shimmering guitar pop from Sydney (2023).
#best100 #musicsky
(100-11 below)

What I’ve been calling “the M agenda”: mining, manufacturing, military, men

🙃

(Mining meant as a stand in for the broad scope of strip-it-and-ship-it policies)

People who previously complained about the size of the public service, and who subsequently complain about the speed of government or delayed services after the current round of cuts, will earn my best shrug.

Quite an opening paragraph.

Thread on the “shadow fiscal system” of the state - the underlying papers are great.

How Carney’s navigating the Iran war response — At Issue Prime Minister Mark Carney rides the line between keeping Canada back from the Iran war and supporting the U.S. mission, but won’t ‘categorically’ rule out involvement. Pierre Poilievre tours Europe. ...

Hébert, Coyne & Raj absolutely (and rightly) savage in their criticism of Carney on the US attack on Iran.
Raj: “You can’t say ‘I wasn’t consulted, and then say, ‘I had discussions with Donald Trump’.”
Hébert: No excuse for his “rush to judgment.”
Coyne: This was about currying favour with the US.

Sorry Reuters you’ve already been scooped by No Shit Magazine

It's all very confusing and the government has done a terrible job of clarifying Canada's position. Which should be:
1. No involvement in war w/o UNSC approval.
2. Canada should respect treaty obligations (eg, NATO), but they need to be clear which treaties/agreements/allies they're talking about.

It's a shame that international relations is so much more complicated than simply travelling the world signing trade agreements.

So, Mark Carney's strategy for decreasing Canadian exposure to the US involves increasing trade with authoritarian Gulf states, putting us in a military alliance with them, which could lead to Canada effectively intervening on the US side in its illegal war, drawing Canada closer to the US?
Genius.

What.

YouTube video by NOBRO NOBRO-Better Each Day (Official Video)

Number 11: A shot of punk rock adrenaline out of Montréal (2021). Bonus points for NOBRO being the third band I saw after everything opened up in 2022 (the first two: Fanclubwallet and Chvrches).

#best100 #MusicSky

youtu.be/8GZ9PKPlKrA?...

So please support your public radio and newspapers! We're the source of whatever Claude is summarizing anyway. And we do it better.

But this Claude incident highlights another problem with AI:

My story and the Post's work are carefully written and reported.

We deliberately choose what we can and can't say. Editors review our language and challenge us on facts.

AI summaries throw all that work into a copy blender.🫠

The paradox with Carney's thinking on the rules based order is that while he says it's dead, he also aligns himself - most recently, with the war in Iran - with the very states who are destroying it, one war crime and violation of the UN Charter at a time.

Carney says he supports US invading Iran, Cuba, and possibly Canada "with some regret" "It's a good thing that Trump is the most peaceful president in history who ends all wars, right?"

Carney says he supports US invading Iran, Cuba, and possibly Canada "with some regret"

YouTube video by NOBRO NOBRO-Better Each Day (Official Video)

Number 11: A shot of punk rock adrenaline out of Montréal (2021). Bonus points for NOBRO being the third band I saw after everything opened up in 2022 (the first two: Fanclubwallet and Chvrches).

#best100 #MusicSky

youtu.be/8GZ9PKPlKrA?...