Trump to hike steel, aluminum tariffs despite Canadian pushback
The U.S. will proceed with doubling steel and aluminum tariffs to 50% despite last-minute lobbying by Canadian officials, sparking fears of major job losses. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling for retaliatory measures.
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Joel Kotkin: The case for defanging Ottawa
When globalism was hot, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau tried to be hotter by deciding that Canada has 'no core identity, no mainstream,' and suggesting Canada had become a 'post-national state.' Now that nationalism is back in vogue, Prime Minister Mark Carney, unwilling or unable to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's taunts and tariff barrage, has become an odd recipient of Canada's quest for a U.S.-like national identity. Even as he rails against America's temperamental chief executive, he has shown little interest in curbing his country's own protectionist policies. Article content Article content But Canadians, indulging in a rare burst of nationalist authoritarianism, may be jumping on the wrong train. Even as people reject globalism, the 'national state' is also losing its appeal — not only in the United States, but throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, as well. Some of this, on the left at least, reflects anti-western ideology, epitomized by DEI and the mandatory acknowledgement of First Nations land rights, which are now deeply entrenched in the education systems of the U.S., Canada and Europe. Article content Article content Support for a highly centralized state also represents a rejection of Canadian and American attempts to balance national and regional concerns. As enormous countries, we each have populations that have predominately different origins and exist in often wildly different economies. A suburbanite at the edge of the Golden Horseshoe or in the endlessly expanding sprawl north of Dallas has very different ideas and priorities, whether in terms of schools or support for terrorism, than an arts or non-profit worker in central Toronto or Manhattan. Article content The differences get greater when you look across the continental expanse. Alberta and the Prairie provinces depend on raw material production, which is not exactly in line with Carney's ultra-green vision, as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has rightly pointed out. British Columbia inhales new urbanist dogma and seeks to reduce fossil fuels, and Ontario remains divided between its industrial base and its greener-than-thou urban elites. Like them, Carney seems more focused on things other than finding ways for Canada's various communities to thrive. Article content Article content But more power to the provinces or the states does not really go far enough. For most things, outside of national defence and foreign relations, the real goal should be to bring decision-making down to as local a level as possible. This notion is popular among Canadians, most of whom wish to see decisions made closer to home. Article content This notion is also embraced in the U.S., notes Gallup. Big companies, banks and media receive low marks from the public, but small business continues to enjoy widespread support across party lines. Millennials, largely liberal on issues such as immigration and gay marriage, are as one commentator suggests, more 'socially conscious,' but they do not necessarily favour the top-down structures embraced by earlier generations; many prefer small units to larger ones.
National Post
27 minutes ago
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Jamie Sarkonak: DEI gardening — the new Liberal priority for agriculture
Article content On its face, that list doesn't make sense: race alone doesn't render a person 'at risk,' nor does speaking French in non-Quebec Canada, nor does living outside a city. Typically, in English, that term is used to describe homeless and low-income people. Article content The agriculture department's explanation isn't reflected in the actual record, either. The applicant guide for the Local Food Infrastructure Fund presents a closed list of 'equity-seeking groups' that a potential grant recipient can claim to help: Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, visible minorities, women, youth, 2SLGBTQI+, 'Not applicable' and 'Decline to identify.' The government (which actually prefers the term 'equity-denied group' over 'equity-deserving group) limits the scope of the definition to race, gender, sexuality, religion and disability. Article content What's certain is that the scope of this grant program is unclear, and that public-facing documents are giving potential applicants the impression that food programs serving, say, low-income, country-dwelling white seniors of Saskatchewan aren't deserving of government support. Neither would be a replacement freezer for a food bank serving the poor — regardless of race — in small-town Atlantic Canada. A curious choice for the minister of agriculture, Prince Edward Islander Heath MacDonald. Article content Meanwhile, a free set of raised beds for a community garden in an upper- to middle-class, predominantly non-white neighbourhood of Toronto would appear to meet the program's stated criteria, even though such endeavours are largely recreational. Indeed, the same can be said for low-income communities. Neighbourhood gardens can't achieve the economies of scale found in industrial farming or the year-round stability of the grocery store, which is why a local Loblaws or Metro does a lot more for food security than a few raised beds. Article content This is just one grant, but it's emblematic of the whole federal government's approach to public service. It's not enough to support food programs for the poor; the feds must also support the gardening hobbies across the cultural mosaic. Similarly, it's not enough to hire deserving students as youth employment hits 20-year lows; the feds must select their new hires on the basis of identity. It's not enough that Supreme Court justices are highly competent in the law — instead, they must be half-decent at their craft, bilingual and be the first person with their combination of diversity characteristics to join the court. Article content To the feds, managing a diverse population doesn't just mean ensuring that discrimination doesn't happen — it means actively discriminating to redistribute the goods of society. Even something as essential as food isn't immune. Article content
National Post
27 minutes ago
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Jesse Kline: CUPE made dupes of us all with phoney 'unpaid work' claims
Article content It certainly helped that many press reports repeated the union's claims verbatim. To bolster its cause and increase political pressure, CUPE also c ommissioned a poll showing that the majority of Canadians sided with the flight attendants (59 per cent) over the company (12 per cent), and that 88 per cent think 'flight attendants should be paid for all work-related duties, not just time in motion.' Article content Yet no one should be shocked that the public tended to support the people who serve them drinks and clean up their children's vomit over the company responsible for their cancelled flights and lost baggage. And some of the survey's findings were based on some fairly loaded questions. Article content The one about compensation, for example, was setup as follows: 'Some people say that because boarding, deplaning, delays and safety checks are all part of a flight attendant's workday, they should be paid for that time. Others say flight attendants' pay should only start once the plane is moving, as is current practice. Which is closer to your own view?' Article content Article content It's little wonder that only 12 per cent of respondents chose the latter. But although these positions may have represented the views of the parties at the bargaining table, it's unlikely that too many Canadians were arguing in favour of unpaid labour at the dinner table. Nor does this question fully encapsulate how flight attendants were paid under the previous agreement. Article content According to a press release issued by Air Canada at the start of the month, 'Time spent onboarding and similar tasks performed on the ground (are) captured within the formula pay defined by the collective agreement, which covers the duty period (commencing one hour prior to flight departure / ending 15 minutes after flight arrival). If the employee is requested to be on duty outside of these times or to perform service to passengers on the ground, the collective agreement provides for additional compensation.' Article content The text of the agreement also says that, 'Where an employee is required to report for duty prior to or remain on duty following the termination of a duty period … s/he shall be paid at one-half of the hourly rate of pay.' Similar terms were offered when employees were required to 'provide meal, bar or beverage service to passengers on the ground.' Article content Article content Other parts of the agreement discuss hourly wages, which started at $25.13 for new hires and rose to $87.01 for some in-flight managers, along with meal allowances and incentives, such as discounted flights, pensions and health benefits. Article content Being a stewardess is certainly not the most lucrative career, but painting them as destitute labourers forced to dumpster dive for food is a bit of a stretch. And although flight attendants can be forgiven for wanting a better deal, let's not pretend as though they didn't agree to the pay structure outlined in the last agreement, or the ones before that. Article content The risk for flight attendants, however, is that if they get too greedy, many of their jobs could one day be automated, at least as soon as someone realizes that much of what they do could be replaced by a vending machine strapped to a Roomba and sent down the aisle to serve food and drinks. Heck, the service on some flights may even improve! Article content Perhaps the solution is to allow them to accept tips. I'm fully aware that we're all sick of being asked to tip every time we reach for our credit cards, but I'd certainly be willing to chip in a few extra bucks if it meant someone would actually come when I press the flight attendant call button and stop giving me excuses about why they can't pour me a double gin and soda. Article content Ultimately, the workers and management settled on a tentative deal that will reportedly guarantee at least an hour of ground pay at half their hourly rate for each flight, with a pay bump of five per cent per year. Which sounds fair enough. But such decisions should always be up to those who are being hired to perform a specific task and the people who are hiring them. Patty Hajdu and her Liberal colleagues should stay on their own runway. Article content
