Canadian Politics

My only comfort throughout this is that if Trudeau bows down, he likely won't remain in office come 2019. The IP laws will fall on his head, and the dairy farmers will doubtlessly be pissed at the weakening of the protections the US hates so much. I can only pray that he and Freeland won't be pushed into signing off on it, but my confidence isn't high at all.

India was a PR disaster, no excusing that.

The Saudi Arabia scandal is entirely on them, we pointed out a severe human rights violation involving the relative of a Canadian resident, and they went ballistic as is their MO since Mb S came into power. Now that the medical students are allowed to stay here, the main damage is to other Saudi students.

And what G7 screw up? Trudeau simply repeated what he (and every other leader Trump as screwed with) has been saying constantly, and Trump flipped his lid as usual. Kneeling to Trump is both terrible policy (give him an inch, he'll take a mile, and his demands are untenable) and political suicide for almost any democratically elected leader anywhere.

If Trudeau goes down, he's replaced by Andrew Scheer. If that happens, the best case scenario is that trade strategy doesn't change much. The worst case scenario is that he follows his mentor's (Harper) advice and sells out the entire country because he and his party really only give a damn about one industry and one region. There is zero sign that the NDP will have a prayer at forming government next year, they will be lucky to keep the seats they have now.

Edited by Rationalinsanity on Aug 29th 2018 at 4:07:26 PM

Hopefully Trudeau and other world leaders know that you just cannot negotiate a good trade deal with Trump. Trump has a zero sum view of the world and he's a petty vindictive shitbag. He's not interested in a good deal where everyone benefits. He cannot even comprehend that such a thing is possible. No, he only cares about "winning", and that means making others lose as painfully as possible.

Federal Court of Appeals rules Canada has not fulfilled its duty to consult with First Nations on the pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia. The court quashes the approvals of the pipeline. Kinder Morgan shareholders approve the sale of the project to Ottawa with 99% support less than an hour after the ruling.

Liberals remain comitted to the pipeline despite the lost appeal

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 30th 2018 at 4:38:13 AM

News is out in Washington that there's negotiations between Ottawa and Washington on a new NAFTA deal.

Alberta pulling out of federal climate change plan until pipeline construction resumes

Well geez. Thanks Alberta.

Even under the NDP (who are about as NDP as the BC Liberals are Liberal), Alberta gonna Alberta I guess.

In other news, a leaked Bloomberg report had Trump say outright that he has zero plans to negotiate with Ottawa, planning to use tariff threats to get all of this demands through. Trudeau and Freeland are already pushing back against that, if its true.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-trump-compromise-trudeau-1.4806240

We knew that the Yankees under Trump and his advisors would never make deals in good faith (they barely kept their word under more reasonable presidents), now we have proof. Either get them to cave, or walk the fuck away.

The best part is Trump being annoyed that his comments were leaked. Like, no shit? The man really thinks he can tell shit like that to reporters and they won't run with it?

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 31st 2018 at 2:55:13 PM

According to reports, the talks broke off for the weekend with no deal, to reconvene next week.

Oh dear. So much for the deadline, then. Plus, Trump made things infinitely harder for himself by trusting that reporters wouldn't leak his comments. To think that things would be easier if he just kept his mouth shut. But then, that's like hoping for a lion to not eat meat, is it not?

Lions are actually known to ignore preys when not hungry.

So, that puts them above Trump.

Oh, really? Then what about tigers? No? Bears?

Animals have something resembling impulse control, its how they survive. Trump was born into the one species on Earth that doesn't need that to survive, due to the whole society thing (and him being born into its upper echelons).

Hunting is dangerous and a possible energetic loss if you fail to catch your prey. Predators who are bad at assessing situations tend to not survive for long. Trump is a scavenging specialist who thinks he's a top predator.

Edited by nightwyrm_zero on Aug 31st 2018 at 8:39:09 AM

And he is coddled by the rest of the predators and scavengers. It is extremely difficult for rich white men to fail in a society that panders to them. I have mentioned before that Trump is what he is because he is a spoiled brat who has been shielded from the consequences of his own mistakes and wrongdoings for decades.

Edited by M84 on Aug 31st 2018 at 8:47:31 PM

Heck he has thousands of prey who walk up to him for the priviledge to be eaten and who then claim that he's doing them a solid and is increasing their life expectancy.

I think we're losing the metaphore.

Oh wait, it was a Simile...

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 31st 2018 at 8:46:43 AM

The black sheep know better, but the white sheep do not listen to them.

Now I'm hungry and want a steak.

I am suddenly in the mood for a rack of lamb with mint sauce.

I'd like to apologise. It seems in my attempt to make a lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) joke in this thread, I ended up making everyone hungry.

Not sure if this was already posted, but Canada is looking into a full ban on handguns and “assault weapons”. [1]

Trump's tweets on Canada this morning were based off what he watched on, you guessed it, Fox and Friends.

Seems to me like if the Canadian government is serious about Trump's tweets, they should expel Fox News from the country (most Canadian TV providers carry Fox News, unfortunately, though I believe it's in a higher channel number position, like most other international networks, than Canadian-based channels) rather than take the bait and derail NAFTA talks.

Edited by Mario1995 on Sep 1st 2018 at 12:38:42 PM

Maybe the CSIS ought to plant some folks in the production staff of Fox & Friends?

Lol.

Standard policy is to ignore what Trump says, because he shifts so often, amd focus on what he does.

Unfortunately presidential words are technically a form of action, so in the eyes of non-US leaders, they're impossible to ignore.