Kelly McParland: Alaska summit offers no hope for Ukraine compromise
From Putin's position, there's little reason to compromise now. He faces no serious internal opposition or public pressure. Russians as a people are so accustomed to centuries of all-powerful monarchs, dictators or one-party states controlling their lives — demanding unquestioning obedience while treating resistance with ruthless punishment — that it's bred in their bone. They're born to it, live with it and see little prospect of anything different. People who challenge Putin fall out of windows, die in exploding airplanes or expire in jails in some distant outback. He has valuable economic and commercial support from China, which has its own reasons for seeking a western world flummoxed by the uncertainty Putin's war creates.
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On the other side of the table from Putin we have the president of the United States, who may have somewhat different motives, but could in no way be classed as a reliable friend of Ukraine or its people.
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President Trump originally claimed he'd end the war in his first 24 hours in office. Later, he sought to squeeze off its weapon supplies, demanding a big chunk of its minerals in return for more. He eventually agreed to renew sales, but only if European allies paid the bill for them. Most recently, he set a deadline for Moscow to end the fighting; it came and went on Friday. The war goes on.
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For Russia, the summit represents another chance to play for time, stringing along the president while continuing to pummel Ukraine and its people. His chances of gain increase the longer Washington procrastinates and Europe is distracted by the economic and security threats the conflict engenders.
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So, why would Trump fly all the way to Alaska for the sit-down? European leaders — none of whom were invited to take part — declared both that 'the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine,' and 'international borders must not be changed by force.' Zelenskyy has categorically rejected any surrender of territory, despite Trump's talk of 'swapping' territory.
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The U.S. president likes a show. He admires Putin's avarice and cruelty, which he mimics in his monetization of the presidency and his treatment of immigrants and the homeless. He's remodelled the White House with a czarist taste for gilt and excess, and staged his own military parade with tanks rumbling through the streets of Washington just like they do through Red Square. While he may be mildly irked at Putin's delaying tactics, he's never shown the Russian despot the level of public disrespect Zelenskyy endured during a visit to the Oval Office.
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Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Letters to the editor, Aug. 18: ‘Pierre Poilievre should stick to constructive proposals and quit attacking Mark Carney'
Re 'The Trump-Putin summit isn't Munich, 1938. It's Paris, 1973″` (Report on Business, Aug. 15): U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently stated that, in order to bring the war in Ukraine to a conclusion, both Russia and Ukraine must make concessions. This framing ignores a fundamental truth: Russia is the aggressor, having invaded Ukraine first in 2014 and again in 2022. What concessions did the United States make to Japan to end the Second World War? Peter Rozanec Toronto Re 'Only outcome' (Letters, Aug. 15): 'Vladimir Putin started this and must pay the full price.' In a word: yikes. After the First World War, the Allies took the same approach: Germany had caused massive carnage, and so the German people should have to pay restitution. The government did not have the cash, so it fired up the printing presses. The resulting inflation obliterated the German middle class and set the stage for Adolf Hitler. Dealing with him cancelled out any cash the Allies received from the treaty ending the war, and then some. To their everlasting credit, Allied leaders learned from that experience. After the Second World War, there were no calls for reparations. Instead there were boatloads of rebuilding aid and, lo and behold, former enemies became customers and trading partners. Decades of prosperity followed. God forbid, but if the current situation evolves into world war, let's remember the lessons of the 20th century. Ken Johnston Ottawa Re 'Disquiet on the Western front of the tariff war' (Editorial, Aug. 14): I believe it is a mistake to think that if we hand over Canada's electric vehicle market to China, they will be kind and reliably buy our canola. We should not be buying anything from China, except where we have no choice. China is by far the world's most powerful autocracy. It is systematically taking over one economic domain after another, with EVs next in line. The more we buy from China, the more we empower a tyrannical and threatening regime. Losing the Chinese canola market hurts a lot. But it is a price we should pay to stand up to them. We should make a serious push to trade and collaborate with like-minded liberal democracies, which no longer includes the United States, and become more economically and militarily self-reliant. The powerful are on the march and have no use for rules. Elbows up. Jim Paulin Ottawa You note that the auto, steel and aluminum industry jobs being protected by the federal government are in 'Liberal-friendly ridings.' Without getting into a deep discussion of how far auto industry workers commute to get to their jobs, an examination of the Ontario ridings where auto assembly plants are located, and how they voted in the last election, reveals a large percentage in Conservative ridings. There is Stellantis Canada's head office in Windsor, along with a minivan assembly plant; Volkswagen's PowerCo electric vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas; General Motors's CAMI Assembly in Ingersoll; Toyota's assembly plants in Woodstock and Cambridge; Honda's assembly plant in Alliston; GM's assembly plant in Oshawa; the head office of Magna International, Canada's largest auto parts maker, in Aurora. As for Liberal ridings, there is the Stellantis car assembly plant in Brampton and Ford Canada's Oakville Assembly Complex and head office. Greg Keenan Editor, Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing; Toronto Re 'Carney says supports for canola sector coming after facing criticism from Poilievre' (Aug. 15): Hopefully the federal government will address the unfair impact of Chinese tariffs on canola growers. Wab Kinew made a good suggestion: Use money from electric vehicle tariffs to compensate canola producers. Pierre Poilievre made the same proposal, but also took shots at British Columbia's Chinese ferry contract and accused Mark Carney of not caring about the West. Notably he did not suggest removing EV tariffs, which might give Canadians access to reasonably priced cars. If Mr. Poilievre is serious about opposing Alberta separatists in his new riding, he should stick to constructive proposals and quit attacking Mr. Carney. He might even talk to the Prime Minister instead of demonizing him. We need all hands on deck to deal with the trade war; we don't need Mr. Poilievre firing from the sidelines. David Steele Saskatoon It's sad that China has suddenly put a huge tariff on Canadian canola, causing a huge loss to Western farmers who stand to lose so much. It's sad that this represents a huge chunk of our national economy, with so many jobs at stake. But we've been here before. Whenever China wants to harm Canada, it stops importing our canola. We learned this the hard way six years ago. So why have we let canola exports to China again become such a vulnerable part of our economy? John Horman Waterloo, Ont. Re 'Northern Ontario communities propose widening sections of Trans-Canada Highway' (Aug. 13): Widening the Trans-Canada Highway should be a no-brainer as an infrastructure project. This is also true in mountainous British Columbia, where the narrow TCH gets shut down regularly due to collisions or transport trucks going off the road. But rather than a piecemeal approach, there should be a federally funded national highway plan, perhaps modelled on the U.S. Interstate Highway System. Such a plan would improve the efficiency and safety of commercial, personal and defence transportation from coast to coast to coast. It would set design, construction and maintenance standards across Canada, with deep involvement by provinces, territories and local communities. Highway travel would also be more enjoyable and safe with regular rest stops and clean flush toilets, rather than the more common pit toilets. To achieve this latter need, perhaps a new government role is needed: a minister of toilets. Glenn Johanson Columbia–Shuswap Regional District, B.C. Re 'For Saskatchewan, Chappell Roan's name-check serves up a surge of interest' (Aug. 13): No one has yet name-checked the song Girl in Saskatoon by Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton. Those of us who lived in Saskatoon in 1960, which I did, could not help but feel a little proud of being singled out by the great country and western singer (though, actually, I truly dislike country and western music). The song has an odd and somewhat tragic history. Mr. Horton died shortly after penning the tune with Mr. Cash. And despite being promoted by the record label, the song never hit the charts – except in Saskatoon, of course. However after a Saskatoon woman, who performed the song on stage with Mr. Cash in 1961, was later murdered, he apparently never sang the song again. Perhaps this is why it has fallen out of our collective memories of Saskatchewan's pop music history. Nancy Bjerring London, Ont. Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Sask. canola farmers already feeling strain of 'anti-dumping' Chinese tariffs
Social Sharing China's 75.8-per-cent tariff on Canadian canola came into effect on Thursday, and farming operations across the country are already dealing with a substantial dip in the market. Codie Nagy, who grows canola on more than 800 acres north of Ogema, Sask., said tariffs could seriously affect his business. "I've been growing it my entire career and we haven't dealt with this much pressure on it," he said. "This is definitely unprecedented for me." Nagy said he was able to pre-sell a bit of his crop but had to be careful not to overextend himself. "Essentially, we wanted to wait until we saw what type of crop we had," he said. "How do you protect against something that you don't know is about to happen?" Nagy said that the cost of fertilizer has doubled in recent years, while the price of canola has only increased about 20 per cent. On top of that, he said he's dealing with sharp increases on the price of seed, machinery, insecticide and herbicide. "The cost line and the revenue line are starting to match," Nagy said. "Obviously you're concerned about whether you will have enough money to operate in the future.… It's all I've ever done, so if you ever have the thought that crosses my mind, where maybe it's not financially viable, of course that's stressful." The timing was essentially the worst for us. -Codie Nagy, canola farmer and vice-chair of SaskCanola board of directors He said he believes his operation is in a financially stable position right now, despite the turmoil. If the profitability of the crop continues to erode, he would consider shifting into growing more cereals or pulses. "I'm just trying to keep a positive spin on it," Nagy said. "This just may be a blip and we can ride this out and it's stressful, but you try not to put too much worry into it. That's not good for me, not good for the kids, not good for the wife." WATCH | Pierre Poilievre says Ottawa should compensate farmers hit by canola tariffs: Pierre Poilievre says Ottawa should compensate farmers hit by canola tariffs 4 days ago Derek Brewin, a professor and chair of agribusiness and agricultural economics at the University of Manitoba, said the justification for the Chinese duty is dubious. "They're calling this an anti-dumping event and they're paying the duty up front, and if they rule that it's not dumping, then the duty can get returned," Brewin said. "I'm sure it's not any actual dumping, but you can make a trade case unfortunately from just comparing these prices." According to Brewin, China is comparing Canada's internal price of canola, which is among the lowest in the world, to external prices without factoring the cost of transport, but China's influence on the oilseed market legitimises the threat of the duty. "China's a large player there. In fact, they're 60 per cent of the world trade in soybeans. So they have this great big influence on the price of oil seeds," Brewin said. "Given that they already have that power, they're again messing with the canola market where they're the biggest buyer and we're the biggest export seller." Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, saying he spoke with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe on the topic. Brewin said that if China removes itself from the canola market, the long-term impacts would definitely be bad for crop producers in Canada, but alternative trade partners are definitely in the cards. He said the EU is starting to use canola for biofuels after previously rejecting it for food applications because it was genetically modified. "Canadians have more arable land per person than anywhere in the world except for Kazakhstan and Australia," Brewin said. "We've got more crop land and more crop production than we need most of the time, so we do have to rely on trade. It's just good to try to find a diverse group of buyers out there that helps us."
Globe and Mail
5 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
WTI Tests Key Support Ahead of Trump-Putin Meeting
WTI Crude Oil futures finished lower yesterday despite a risk-on rally in US equities and the bottom falling out on the Dollar. President Trump has continued to voice a positive outlook towards his Friday meeting with Putin, adding to trader angst as a ceasefire and the easing of sanctions is possibly on the table. Yesterday's CPI report was mixed. Inflation continues to be pesky, and the July report showed that pricing pressure was accelerating outside of tariff related goods. As these tariffs start to filter through more and more to the consumer, inflation will continue to accelerate (maybe), or, economic demand falls enough (stagflation). Globally, the economy looks to be at a do-or-die moment here. We still have no real clarity on tariffs moving forward – making things much more difficult. Fundamentally, OPEC+ and the EIA released longer term estimates that were somewhat friendly. OPEC's demand projections came out much higher than their international counterparts (as is tradition). The cartel, along with the the EIA also pared back 2026 US crude production estimates as the US rig-count continues to fall steadily. Existing well productivity has also showed signs of peaking in the Permian this year which is not great for US oil. Saying 'drill-baby-drill' alongside outlandish plans does not increase US production. Crude up in the $80-90 range does. And the only way to prices back to those levels is from robust and accelerating global trade. At this point, that is a pipe-dream. Today, the Dollar is once again seeing an outsized sell-off. Global confidence is eroding quickly in Dollar supremacy thanks to the continued attacks on the Federal reserve by the President. His statement about 'suing Powell' yesterday came alongside the idea of eliminating monthly Payroll Data. His latest appointment to the Fed board has started voicing radical ideas about reforming the Fed and the world is growing concerned. The macro environment is fraught with risks and clarity is lacking across a lot of asset classes. A sharp risk-off move in US equities is something to keep a close eye on. Attacking our central bank independence is not some limited consequence, hot-button social issue. There is significant risk to what he is doing. Attacking the Fed, while ramping the budget deficit, all while attacking our global trade and financing partners is taking its toll. The tectonic plates of the global monetary system are shifting, and if this continues, the ripple effects could get scary. Risk seems significantly underpriced across financial-assets, equities especially. Technical Analysis: Futures are trading into our longer-term pivot pocket and the picture is starting to look bleak. There is a probability that the catalyst we need will come out of the Trump-Putin meeting on Friday, but the rhetoric surrounding the meetup isn't pointing me in that direction. Significant downside risk is in play if Russian sanctions are eased. Their country is starved for hard currency and oil flows will be the quickest / only way they can right-size their foreign reserve balances and buoy the restart of their post-war economy. If Russian exporters are allowed back onto the board, and their banking sanctions are lifted, they will likely flood the market rapidly. Scenario two is that the meeting goes very poorly and we toughen up on Russian sanctions, a considerably bullish catalyst. Volatility looks underpriced. Shorter dated straddles look attractive through early next week. Generally, when my frustration levels hits this point, it's a sign a bottom is nearing. Intraday pivot and point of balance at… Want to stay informed about energy markets? 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