Carney may accept the world as it is, but we cannot accept Canada as it is - The Globe and Mail - "The bigger threat to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mission to double exports to non-U.S. jurisdictions by 2035 is a problem of our making, rather than the tiresome bluster of President Donald Trump. A steady diet of political indifference, bingeing on bureaucracy and peppering the mix with bouts of labour militancy has clogged Canada’s large ports, our critical commercial arteries to global markets. Transport Canada’s own assessment has shown our ports are “managed primarily in favour of importers and containerized exports are a secondary consideration.” The Montreal Economic Institute reported that Ottawa’s restrictions on automation are restraining port modernization and the efficiency it brings. RBC suggests our ports are “among the least efficient in the industrialized world,” posing one of the top economic risks facing Canada in 2026... Our ports in British Columbia, key gateways to Asian-Pacific countries, are amongst the worst in the world – not just among industrialized countries – when in comes to productivity... The Port of Vancouver is 389th and Prince Rupert comes in at 362nd. The Port of Montreal, moving about $400-million in goods daily, is little better, ranking 344th. In contrast, Cartagena’s Port in Colombia, a troubled and relatively poor country, ranks 46th. Large American ports such as Seattle, New York-New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia and Long Beach, Calif., are all run more efficiently than Canada’s largest ports. The Canadian bright light is the Port of Halifax, in 55th place. The price of our indifference shouldn’t be dismissed. A case in point is potash, which is mostly mined in Saskatchewan. It is a much sought-after agricultural fertilizer that increases crop yields and wards off crop diseases. Canada generates a third of global potash production volume and is positioned to materially increase that in the coming years. Our primary potash export market is the United States. Yet there is room to expand export markets in China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and many more countries – the very goal Mr. Carney has laid out for the country to reduce dependence on the Americans. But last year one of our country’s most important potash miners, Nutrien, announced a $1-billion investment in the Port of Longview, Wash., deciding not to invest in the ports of Vancouver or Prince Rupert. The company, having endured years of rail bottlenecks, labour disruptions, higher costs, and aging infrastructure, and little prospect of change, decided to mitigate its Canadian risk. In this case, that mitigation strategy entails directing a large portion of the potash it mines through the U.S. to tidewater in Washington State. Nutrien’s decision could see half of all the potash it produces shipped through the U.S. by 2031. If the Port of Vancouver continues to decline, even more potash could transit through Washington State in the years ahead, and with it well-paying union jobs, government revenues and logistics expertise, just as Canada is working to loosen America’s grip on our economy."
Time for the unions to strike again
Tristin Hopper on X - "I once went to the funeral of a guy whose entire professional career was designing things that never got built, or were at most failed boondoggles. I can't emphasize enough how much "not building stuff" has been a defining feature of Canada since the 1970s."
John Carter on X - "The incredible thing is that the national debt during Canada's infrastructure building period, which encompassed both World Wars, was effectively nothing. The moment we stopped building things, the debt skyrocketed. This was because the elder Trudeau redirected the government from nation-building to buying votes for the Liberal Party with welfare state patronage schemes, and ran up the national credit card to pay for it. It was also because he changed the rules such that the government could only take interest-bearing loans from private banks, rather than the previous system of funding infrastructure development via interest-free Bank of Canada loans. Which was how Trudeau paid off Canada's financial classes to look the other way as he bankrupted the country. Trudeau was the greatest criminal mastermind in Canadian history."
Canada Post carrier fired for hoarding 6000 pieces of mail reinstated - "An arbitrator has ordered the reinstatement of an Ontario postman fired for hoarding at least 6,000 pieces of mail during the summer of 2022 because Canada Post wasn’t aware of his post-traumatic stress disorder. Hyun Min Jang was terminated from his job as a rural and suburban mail carrier in King City, Ont., “for misdirection and delay of mail, as a result of the discovery of thousands of pieces of undelivered mail in his personal vehicle,” according to a recent decision from Kathleen G. O’Neil, the arbitrator. “Items retrieved from (Jang’s) vehicle included a great variety of mail, some of significant importance to customers such as wedding invitations, cheques, health cards, tickets, jury summons and immigration documents,” O’Neil said... The Canadian Union of Postal Workers grieved Jang’s termination. “The union acknowledges the undelivered mail as major misconduct for a mail carrier, but asks that (Jang) be reinstated to his position with appropriate accommodation for a health condition that affected the conduct that led to his discharge,” O’Neil said... Jang, who needed a Korean interpreter for the arbitration hearing, “worked successfully for Canada Post for approximately eight years, starting in 2014,” said O’Neil’s decision dated Dec. 16, 2025."
Losing our public services to privatization is criminal. Guess who's going to fill that void. : r/EhBuddyHoser - "Maybe management should take a pay cut then? Why's that never on the table?"
"The CEO of Canada Post, Doug Ettinger, has a salary within the range of $506,800 to $596,200, with a maximum performance bonus of up to 33%. This places the total potential compensation between approximately $562,200 and $661,400 per year. Canada Post loses $10 million a day."
Left wingers just hate the private sector on principle
B.C. premier paints rosy picture for economy heading in to 2026 - "B.C.’s premier says companies and investors are gaining confidence in major project proponents in the province, despite some economic uncertainty that remains."
Weak economic growth forecast for B.C. in 2026, says new Deloitte report
Eric Lombardi 🇨🇦🚀🏗️ on X - "My latest for @TheHubCanada CANADIANS MUST OPEN THEIR EYES TO OUR GROWING CULTURE OF CORRUPTION.
“Across all these examples, an unmistakable pattern emerges: the erosion of restraint. Canada has built a system where every pressure is answered with a new program, a new grant, a new intervention, a new procedure. Complexity accumulates. Discretion expands. Those with influence use it. But the public feels the consequences. Infrastructure is slowly built that costs far more than it should. Housing approvals take years instead of months. Businesses wait on permits rather than customers. A younger generation feels downwardly mobile. The population has a growing sense that government money is being used to manage political interests rather than create opportunity. Corruption in Canada is not a handful of scandals. It is now a culture. A system of indulgence and avoidance that rewards extraction because no one is willing to confront the incentives that sustain it.”"
Eric Lombardi 🇨🇦🚀🏗️ on X - "“Consider that the City of Toronto steers about $1.65 billion in construction work each year into “closed tendering” union arrangements, with estimates saying taxpayers are over-paying by roughly $350 million annually as a result. Or the federal level, where the government has committed $382.9 million over five years to launch the “Workforce Alliances” programme, which “brings together employers, unions, and industry groups to coordinate public-private investments in skills and training”. The same budget also provides $75 million over three years to expand the “Union Training and Innovation Programme.” Unions are among the biggest non-party political advertisers in federal campaigns, and are influential in procurement, public advisory boards, and sectoral decision-making with little public scrutiny. Unions make up the bulk of the millions of dollars spent directly on electioneering by third parties. The list goes on, not because unions are uniquely evil but because we have stopped applying a test of public value to the privileges they receive. Why? Because politicians fear their electoral impact.”"
Kirk Lubimov on X - "You don't realize how alarming Canada's manufacturing collapse is until you look at it in manufacturing GDP per capita. Since 2005, Canada's manufacturing GDP per capita has declined by 30%. 20 years of decline. The average Canadian produces less and less but no surprise as 25% of the workforce works for the government."
David Knight Legg on X - "Pax Silica is a new US and UK and Australia led tech and critical minerals security coalition. Where is Canada? We have US-adjacent supply chains and vast critical mineral deposits. Why are we missing - as we also are in AUKUS - again?
- Pax Silica is a security coalition between US, UK, Australia - and tech/sovereign wealth leaders Japan, UAE, Singapore, South Korea, Netherlands and Israel.
- Canada is also missing from the advanced submarine warfare coalition between Australia, UK and US (AUKUS) in spite of the largest coastline and adjacency to Russia. Why isn’t Canada a part of key emerging security coalitions with our allies?"
Jean Philippe Fournier on X - "This is a very serious issue and it leads to uncomfortable questions. Canada seems to be increasingly left out of important multilateral agreements despite being a member of the G7 and having a top 10 economy. Part of the reason is Canada has been a worse military freeloader than Europe. Another is that the Canadian economy has underperformed and is taken hostage by competing regional and other stakeholders. If serious action isn’t taken (and that would mean putting aside the Canadian need for consensus decision making), Canadians could wake up to being totally locked out of the forums that shape the world and that’s not something the country is used to."
🅰️sh Dash on X - "Canadians want to be left out - they experience suicidal empathy at the resource level - could extract it all to prosper, but most Canadians want to keep it in the ground. Doesn't matter if they go extinct, the success that comes with being resource rich is too much to bear."
When you can't develop due to indigenous sovereignty, environmental concerns and regulation and on top of it hate the US
Meme - Kirk Lubimov @KirkLubimov: "It may be a tough pill to swallow for many Canadians but Canada has a lost decade and it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. Donald Trump just exposed it even more. It has everything to do with the people you voted for. No lies or excuses can make up for it."
"Real per capita GDP growth among G7 countries: Last 10 years *Worst compared to, in descending order, USA, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany*"
Tech founders leaving Canada at accelerating rate, survey finds - The Globe and Mail - "Toronto venture-capital firm Leaders Fund found that just 32.4 per cent of Canadian-led “high-potential” startups launched in 2024 were headquartered in Canada. (The study defined these startups as having raised US$1-million, with most of their senior leaders educated in Canada. The survey tracked 2,932 such companies over a decade.) From 2015 to 2019, that figure exceeded 67 per cent. Much of the decline has occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic began. As a result, Canada is producing relatively fewer of the world’s high-potential startups, the study finds... The Leaders Fund study and other industry players have identified many issues that are hurting Canada’s competitiveness. Managing partner Gideon Hayden said deal flow at the Leaders Fund used to come mostly from Canada, but investments in the U.S. and Israel now account for 70 per cent of its financings. That shift prompted the firm to seek out whether that indicated a wider trend, using data from market-research firm Specter. “What is indisputable is that after 2020, virtually every single one of these metrics,” he said, “start to deteriorate in Canada, while in other ecosystems, that is not necessarily the case.”... Many believe the lengthy pandemic lockdowns in Canada compared with the U.S. held back a recovery, as the tech hubs of San Francisco and New York were quicker to restart networking events such as hackathons and founder meet-ups... there is a broad consensus among sector leaders that much needs to be done to make Canada a more competitive place to build a tech business. The U.S. offers many advantages for founders over Canada: Capital is abundant, the climate is more business- and founder-friendly, and the breadth of thriving tech companies in the Bay Area and New York is an irresistible draw. There is less red tape and fewer regulatory roadblocks. Governments and businesses are more willing to buy from startups. Meanwhile, Canadian tech entrepreneurs felt betrayed last year when the federal government proposed to increase taxation on capital gains after years of mounting deficits and spending increases. The U.S. government, in contrast, raised the tax exemption on capital gains by founders this year to US$15-million. While Prime Minister Mark Carney cancelled the Canadian tax change, its proposal by predecessor Justin Trudeau “was a low-water mark for startup entrepreneurs’ confidence in the federal government,” said Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators. “My takeaway is founders aren’t fleeing Canada, they are fleeing the friction that Canada has created,” said Lucy Hargreaves, CEO of Build Canada, a fledgling organization that has posted a series of memos from accomplished founders outlining how governments could improve Canada’s competitiveness. “If we keep pushing our builders away, we’re exporting our future prosperity.” One such company is Aalo Atomics, founded in 2023 by Toronto’s Matt Loszak to rapidly assemble nuclear plants to electrify data centres. He first pitched the idea at home but got a cold reception from investors and utility Ontario Power Generation. He moved his company to Texas, raised US$136-million and got approval from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a power plant. “We wouldn’t have been able to raise $136-million so quickly in Canada,” Mr. Loszak said. “That would have slowed us down.”... “Every founder who leaves Canada is one less person creating jobs, paying taxes and building prosperity here,” Ms. Hargreaves said. “We should be treating startups the way we treat our natural resources. They are a strategic asset that underpins our future economy.” "
Time for more regulation and to "tax the 'rich'" more
Canada’s national unity faces a major test in 2026 | Toronto Sun - "If legitimate concerns and grievances for both provinces are not dealt with by Ottawa, support for the separatist movement will only grow. That would include the Carney government dealing with one of the biggest threats to national unity in Western Canada, the continued refusal of British Columbia Premier David Eby to be cooperative in any way shape or form with Alberta on the issue of a pipeline to the Pacific. The fact that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is talking about the need for a pipeline route to the Pacific that goes through the United States instead of B.C. should be of concern to all. It would show that Alberta’s prosperity would be better served working with the Americans than with other Canadian provinces. Sadly, for those in the Ottawa bubble or captured by it, the likelihood of them being as concerned about separatism or national unity in Western Canada as they are about the possibility of Quebec separatism is slim to none. If the parochial attitude of the Laurentian elite, who continue to run this country, prevails then we will see scorn for the West and overtures to Quebec. And against this backdrop is the fact that unlike in 1995 when Bill Clinton was in the White House and spoke in favour of a united Canada, we can’t rely on that same sentiment coming from the White House now."
No 'business case' for pipelines because Liberals want it that way - "There is something perverse about a government that once claimed there is “no business case” to sell natural gas to Europe so our allies don’t have to rely on Russia, but whose prime minister is happily going to China to talk energy exports. That energy, by the way, could very well end up powering a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The Liberal party’s disreputable habit of siding with authoritarian enemies of the West aside, the government’s position on whether there is a “business case” for an energy project has nothing to do with the market, and everything to do with politics. When, on Thursday, Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith mocked those who want pipelines built “with no business case or analysis,” he wasn’t entirely wrong. Of course there is no business case for a pipeline, because the Liberals have engineered it that way. They’ve strangled the energy industry with regulation to such an extent that few businesses would ever risk hundreds of millions, if not billions, in investing capital, on their own. So, yes, there are no business cases for pipelines in Canada, only political ones. After the Americans deposed Venezuela’s murderous dictator Nicolás Maduro last weekend, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith argued that it had become even more necessary to approve and build pipelines in order to compete with Venezuelan oil. Yes, it could take about a decade for the Latin American country’s oil industry to rebuild once U.S. sanctions are lifted and investment resumes, assuming everything goes perfectly, which it likely won’t. But it could take at least that long to bring a new pipeline to the West Coast online... By no means is acknowledging the challenges ahead for the Venezuelan oil sector a vindication of the anti-oil agenda of the Liberal party, but those sympathetic to that agenda are trying to spin it that way. Globe writer Doug Saunders hilariously wrote on X that if anything, in light of Maduro’s removal, Canada needs to stop developing carbon-based energy altogether and immediately: “In fact, Venezuela amplifies the case that we urgently need to cancel any planned pipelines and pour investment into post-petroleum diversification.” This is silly. The people who never wanted energy infrastructure in the first place and have worked tirelessly to prevent it from ever getting built aren’t suddenly listening to business experts. They are cherry-picking what analysts say. As my Post colleague Jesse Kline pointed out, predictions in the past of peak oil turned out to be entirely bunk, so the left is now saying we must abandon oil because it is too plentiful. About a decade ago, when the Liberals first came to power, there were multiple pipelines and other energy infrastructure projects being advanced by private companies with actual business cases and everything. The Trudeau government then proceeded to systematically squash the industry. They cancelled the Northern Gateway pipeline. Energy East was killed because of political opposition and the uncertainty created by the government’s regulatory agenda. The same was true of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, while the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion was also nearly cancelled, and only survived because Ottawa purchased it. In all, by 2020, some $150 billion in energy infrastructure projects were cancelled largely due to politics and regulation. That only accounts for projects that were formally put forward, never mind the projects that were never, and will never be, proposed because of the Liberals’ antagonism to anything that would bring wealth to this country. The combination of the Impact Assessment Act, the tanker ban and the promise of an emissions cap, not to mention the government’s ability to just cancel projects, have all conspired to ensure energy companies avoid investing in Canada. Mark Carney’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta superficially promises to approve a pipeline, but puts so many environmental restrictions on any such project, and defers far too much to anti-energy B.C., that it is just another case of the Liberals replacing the judgment of private business with their own. So, when they say there is no business for a pipeline, believe them — because that has always been the plan."
'No one is going to build a pipeline without certainty,' Keyera CEO says - "The head of one of Canada’s largest midstream oil and gas operators says attracting private capital for another pipeline will require permitting reform and clearer assurances from Ottawa. Pipeline operator Keyera Corp. is set to become a national-scale natural gas liquids (NGL) company when its $5.15-billion acquisition of Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP’s Canadian NGL business closes early next year...
For us to attract more investment in Canada, we have to really reform our policies and our regulations. Investors see it as risky if they don’t have clarity on where carbon taxes are going: clean electricity regulations, emissions caps, tanker bans and things like that. There has to be 100 per cent clarity on what those policies are. No one is going to build a pipeline without that certainty. It’s just not going to happen. Part of that is regulatory and permitting reform, too. We always think it’s a lot of money to build a pipeline like Trans Mountain or Coastal GasLink. Those pipelines would cost a lot less if we had the right regulatory and permitting processes. Trans Mountain should cost less than half of what it cost. But we have too many headwinds that we create for ourselves in Canada. If we can get that policy reform, it would lower the hurdle rates for someone to make an investment to build another pipe."
'No one is going to build a pipeline without certainty,' Keyera CEO says : r/ilovebc - "No one is going to build anything of consequence without certainty."
Left wingers throw up endless obstacles to a pipeline (on top of their general anti-economic growth agenda), then claim there's no point trying to build one because no one wants to
One left winger called me ungrateful when I pointed out that the government making pipelines impossible to build, then coming in at a later stage and reversing the self-inflicted damage to some extent was not a "subsidy"
Gunter: Canada full of internal obstacles to 'nation-building' projects - "Want to know why nothing of significance ever gets built in this country? Consider the allegations levelled by NDP leadership contender Avi Lewis against pipelines, mines and other “nation-building projects” proposed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and others such as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. At his party’s French-language leadership debate last week, Lewis insisted the effect of megaprojects on women and girls, especially Indigenous women and girls, “are intense, are horrifying.” “Big, manly things with huge work camps entailed in remote areas,” Lewis charged, lead to widespread murder and sexual assault. This echoes the controversial Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) inquiry whose 2019 final report stated, without much evidence, that Canada’s resource industry brings “extractive violence” and drug trafficking to Indigenous communities. The MMIWG report also blamed “man camps” for increased “sexual harassment and stalking,” “increased domestic violence” and increased risk of Indigenous women “going missing or being killed.” Environmental groups have also used alleged violence in surrounding communities from “man camps” in seeking court injunctions against megaprojects. With segments of elite opinion so tainted against pipelines, hydro dams and mines — and for imaginary reasons — it’s no wonder investors stay away from Canada. Then there is the fact that Carney has given both the B.C. government and coastal First Nations de facto vetoes over an oil pipeline to the West Coast. And both groups have declared they aren’t afraid to exercise those vetoes. That will certainly raise the anxiety of potential investors who might spend billions getting federal approval only to lose it all because a First Nation or the very anti-development B.C. government figuratively lays itself across a pipeline right-of-way. On Monday, B.C. NDP Premier David Eby said he might be open to pipeline from Alberta to the coast if such a line did not require the lifting of the federal tanker ban off B.C.’s northern coast. If the pipeline could be brought to Vancouver (which already has a tanker port), Eby and his government might be prepared to consider it. But Eby’s not stupid. He knows such a route change could add 40 per cent to the final cost of an already expensive project. Indeed, Eby may be counting on the added expense to deliberately drive investors away and kill the pipeline that way. Then Tuesday, the other group to whom Carney granted a virtual veto — First Nations — voted unanimously for Ottawa to maintain its tanker ban and for Ottawa and the Alberta government to “withdraw” their memorandum of understanding on pipeline construction. Like it never even happened. And Tuesday’s vote wasn’t just among West Coast First Nations. It came unanimously from chiefs all across the country. As a country, we never have a shortage of people eager to kill economy-enhancing projects. The mindsets of our politicians, journalists, artists, interest groups and First Nations — even our “experts” — is to kill projects before they begin. Finally, Alberta, alone among provinces, is in the second quartile of the most-free economies in North America. All other Canadian provinces are in the third quartile. Those provinces’ taxes, regulations and red tape are only slightly more attractive than the most-restrictive Mexican states, which the Fraser Institute ranks as the least-free in North America. We know we need to expand our economy. We know we need to improve our productivity before our standard of living drops further. In the last decade, since the Liberals have been in power, Canadians have watched their incomes stagnate at the same time as prices have risen, substantially. That’s not a good combination. It explains the affordability crisis for items such as groceries, cars and housing. This, though, is a country that likes its “free” government benefits, particularly health care and education. And if we don’t get over our negative mentalities towards private-sector projects, soon enough our economy will shrink and our governments will run out of revenues to cover those expenditures."
You said it: Nation-building projects done - "Hooray! We have yet another spineless PM in Mark Carney who has, in essence, given de facto pipeline vetoes to B.C. and the First Nations. In other words, we will never again complete any badly needed “nation-building project” in Canada. Lorne Gunter writes, ”As a country, we never have a shortage of people eager to kill all economy-enhancing projects” before they even begin. These radical elements of our society will be the ones to scream the loudest when, as Lorne writes, our governments run out of revenues to cover “free” government benefits like health care and education."
Letters: Why does 'Buy Canadian' exclude 'Buy Alberta (oil)'? - "Why does Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “Buy Canadian” policy exclude Albertan oil? How can Canada become a self-sufficient energy superpower while importing crude oil into Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces? Canada spends approximately $20 billion annually importing oil into eastern Canadian provinces. Every year eastern Canadians convert $20 billion Canadian dollars into USD to pay for the imported oil they consume. Essentially $20 billion Canadian dollars are exported from Canada’s economy annually. National income increases as money circulates through the economy. Basic economics calls this circulation of money the multiplier effect. Using a reasonable Marginal Propensity to Consume of 60 per cent, providing Albertan oil to eastern Canadian consumers would add $50 billion to Canada’s economy annually. Building the Energy East pipeline and securing energy self-sufficiency in a troubled world should be the No. 1 nation-building project. Shipping processed petroleum products will minimize the pipeline’s footprint. Pipeline construction will keep Canada’s steel and manufacturing industries busy. Using Canadian know-how with Canadian engineering and trades will lower unemployment rates. Carney tried to appeased U.S. President Donald Trump with a proposed revised Keystone XL oil pipeline shipping Alberta crude to Nebraska. Instead of “Buy Canadian Oil,” the PM’s solution is to increase dependency on our American trading partner. Given Carney’s ‘values’ it is easy to understand why he has a blind spot for Canadian oil."
