It’s counterproductive to tie current populist movements to a single cause. They’ve attracted a lot of people who have different motivations.

Some of them are legit racists and antisemites. They deserve to be called out.

But there are a bunch of people who are suffering from the cost of living crisis. They can’t afford what they think they deserve (given what their parents had and their educational attainment) and they’re angry. These are the people that voted for Obama and Trump. They’re the ones who voted for Trudeau and will vote for Poilievre.

In Canada, this group includes people who can no longer afford decent housing and can’t find a family doctor.

These are legit concerns that political elites aren’t addressing. Trudeau’s collapse in popularity was (at least partially) because he didn’t seem to acknowledge the problems.

As progressives, I think we do ourselves a massive disservice when we fail to acknowledge and address these concerns.

If it’s privately owned, there are owners who want to make money. If it’s a nonprofit, there are employees who want a paycheque.

Well, the shareholders want money. So it could solve that problem.

It feels like the media have already lost interest in the story. There isn’t nearly as much coverage as the last two times.

At this point we need to diversify our trading partners. Trump’s gonna do whatever he’s gonna do. We’ve gotta do what’s best for us.

We allocated $1.3b in early December as a response to Trump’s initial tariff threat.

Monday’s 270-page budget document outlined key new expenditures including C$1.3 billion for border agencies over six years, an attempt to avert Trump’s threat of 25% tariffs unless the flow of migrants and fentanyl over the crossing is halted.

We budged.

I don’t think it was the wrong choice, but I don’t think it had the desired effect.