Rapidly changing global events make clear that Canadians are now paying a steep price for the lost decade of economic growth under the government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Where the previous Liberal government should have focused on making Canada an energy superpower by expanding our energy infrastructure, given our vast oil and natural gas resources, it instead downplayed them, using the ridiculous argument that the age of fossil fuels was ending.
Happy New Year. Or not, depending on where you find yourself these days. If you’re deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, that’s in a cell in Brooklyn, N.Y. If you’re U.S. President Donald Trump, that’s on the catbird seat in Washington, D.C. And if you’re Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, that’s on a tightrope in Ottawa, trying to strike the right note with an ally that looks more like an aggressor every day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Monday that he appointed former finance minister Chrystia Freeland as an economic advisor based on her “extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations.” Yet it’s hard to see how Freeland’s economic experience would benefit war-stricken Ukraine. Worse, she accepted the position without informing her constituents first.
Sure Carney … Carney Says He’s ‘Absolutely Not’ Keeping Freeland as MP Due to Minority Government
TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s Indigenous governor general and its foreign minister will visit Greenland in early February, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.
The visit comes as U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his call for the U.S. to take control of Greenland, the Inuit self-governing territory of the kingdom of Denmark. Trump has also previously talked about making Canada the 51st state
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Governor General Mary Simon, who is of Inuk descent, are expected to open a consulate in Nuuk, Greenland.
For what purpose beyond shopping?
A sitting Member of Parliament (MP) should not be serving a foreign government. That principle ought to be uncontroversial in a parliamentary democracy.
Yet it is now being tested by Chrystia Freeland’s decision to accept an advisory role with the Ukrainian government while continuing to hold a seat in Canada’s House of Commons.
It’s so shady but so normal for the Liberal Party.
More … Canada co-signs pledge to secure Ukraine under future peace deal
(Incognito)
Donald Trump said the Venezuelan oil industry could be booming again in 18 months. Here in Canada, we might have finished the first round of consultations on a new pipeline, but we won’t have concluded the court challenges to it.
This is the dilemma Canada is facing: We are still moving at Ottawa speed, meaning slow, while the Americans are talking about a breakneck pace in restoring Venezuela’s oil industry.
Carney has not changed his spots.
Venezuela: Trump announces plan to get up to 50M oil barrels
US President Donald Trump has announced that “interim authorities in Venezuela will be turning over” between 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the US.
“This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as president of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”
Former longtime cabinet minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland says she will resign from Parliament, just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he’d appointed her as an advisor on economic development.
In September, Freeland was tapped to be Canada’s special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine. At the time, she stepped down from her cabinet position of transport and internal trade minister to take on the new role, but said she’d stay on as an MP.
In light of Freeland’s appointment I think I understand why the Libs are diddling the Foreign Agents Registry – it’ll provide cover
Minister proposes to weaken foreign registry mandated by Parliament 19 months ago. Draft regulations disclosed Saturday suggest penalties as modest as $50 fine and cash payments to foreign agents remain hidden: “Regulations would allow certain information not to be published.”… pic.twitter.com/499MvriXFb
— Holly Doan (@hollyanndoan) January 5, 2026
Guess it’s best if she’s working without Canadian scrutiny … h/t Mauser
Good column from Urback – What’s a Canadian MP doing as an adviser for a foreign government?
Chrystia Freeland became the “minister of everything” in Justin Trudeau’s government because of her ostensible good judgment. This never made much sense to observers of her actual performance, which routinely showcased her poor political instincts against a backdrop of poor policy decisions.
Maybe the Chrystia Freeland that emerged at the end of Mr. Trudeau’s tenure – the one that decried “political gimmicks” and urged fiscal restraint – was there all along, hiding behind an obligatory façade of unyielding partisanship. Or perhaps, and what seems more likely, Ms. Freeland’s instincts actually aren’t that great.
In “Walt’s predictions for 2026” (WWW 31/12/25), I predicted that no matter how you slice it, the Ukraine is going to get sliced, diced and screwed in whatever “peace settlement” is negotiated this year. Sadly, I must now double down on that call, as it appears from this ayem’s news that the Ukraine is going to screw itself!
More … Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says he’s appointed Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland as an economic adviser
h/t patthedog
WASHINGTON – A surprise pre-dawn raid on a sovereign country was the opening salvo by an American strongman hellbent on bringing the world’s most resource-rich nations under U.S. control.
In 2025, Donald Trump tested the reach of his authority, faced down the system of checks and balances and dared the world to push back. Meeting no resistance, the twice-impeached commander-in-chief orchestrated his fait accompli, stealing the world’s largest oil reserves with nary an outcry from the international community.
I think Canada will split apart frankly and given the way we’ve been abused by the Liberal Government this past decade that’s not really such a bad thing.
So long as Trump deports the migrants I’m good.
Chrystia Freeland named as economic adviser by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
OTTAWA — A former Trudeau cabinet minister and federal Liberal leadership hopeful has a new job.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he’d appointed Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister — and catalyst for the downfall of former prime minister Justin Trudeau, as an economic advisor.
So Freeland is gonna suck and blow.
— Blazingcatfur (@fancypants_s) January 5, 2026
Hey Z I’ll swing a few billion your way for a “Job”
h/t Mauser
The streets of Iran are once again filled with anger, grief, and bloodshed. What began as economic protests over a collapsing currency and runaway inflation has turned violent, with demonstrators killed and the regime signalling that repression, not reform, will be its response. This is not a sudden crisis. It is the predictable consequence of a system that long ago exhausted every source of legitimacy except fear.
Regime forces straight up unloading live rounds from a DShK heavy machine gun on protesters in Ilam/Malekshahi, western #Iran.
Later reports say this shooting left about 20 dead.Mr PM @Netanyahu, us Iranians are asking you: h!t the IRGC bases and riot police units hard in the… pic.twitter.com/NuMwHkbwn1
— ✺Yaar – يار قدیمی️ (@YaarGhadimi) January 4, 2026
Iran protests intensify as Revolutionary Guard officer set on fire by Molotov cocktail on Day 5
Rial collapse sparks biggest uprising since 2022 Mahsa Amini movement
Protesters chant "Death to Khamenei" across Tehran while Basij deploys live fire
Regime is ️urning pic.twitter.com/NyNxAcWjH2
— Boi Agent One (@boiagentone) January 1, 2026
Carney won’t do anything to upset Amira.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has correctly admitted that the federal government will not achieve its 2030 and 2035 industrial greenhouse gas emission targets under the climate strategy of his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
“We have too much regulation, not enough action,” Carney told CBC in a year-end interview commenting on Trudeau’s plan.
OTTAWA — The federal government proposes fining people and organizations up to $1 million for failing to comply with the requirements of its planned foreign influence transparency registry.
Newly published draft regulations are another step toward establishing the registry, which was set out in legislation passed in 2024 as part of a package of measures to counter foreign interference.
The proposed regulations define key terms and describe the information individuals and entities would have to provide when entering into arrangements with foreign principals to influence Canadian political or government activities.
Liberals report on themselves? Please.
Canadian parliamentarians are taking a crack at squeezing out more government revenue from tax havens, and we wish them all the luck and stamina.
Tucked away from the Conservative-to-Liberal floor-crossings and the nail-biting confidence-vote drama that have dominated this Parliament, MPs on the House of Commons finance committee were contemplating all the places where corporations put their profits.
Consensus analysis of the 2025 election results includes this thesis: centre-left ‘progressive’ voters abandoned the NDP and voted for the Liberals under Prime Minister Carney and gave him his victory.
Why? Two broad reasons: 1) to unite against Donald Trump and 2) to unite against the possibility that Pierre Poilievre could be prime minister.
Of course, there is more to it than that, but there’s no question that the worst showing for the NDP in history was accretive to the Liberals and that ‘progressive’ voters gave Mark Carney his victory against Pierre Poilievre despite Pierre’s strong showing – the best vote percentage for a Conservative campaign since 1988.
