Cycle Fun Montreal (archived)

@JohnieRoastbeef @Katie___Simpson Canada has pro-rural economy policies (ie Supply Management in the dairy sector) that avoid boom-bust cycles, rural poverty, small-owner farm bankruptcies, meth/opiate addiction crises that are endemic throughout rural USA. Also Canadian dairy sector is unsubsidized, unlike USA.

@Katie___Simpson We don't need the dairy cartel, open up the market already.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on trade with Canada — and his desire to seek a higher tariff in order to reshore more jobs to the U.S.

@StaringSad @stphnmaher Canada has pro-rural economy policies (ie Supply Management in the dairy sector) that avoid the rural poverty, small-owner farm bankruptcies, and meth and opiate addiction crises that are endemic throughout rural USA. Also Canadian dairy sector is unsubsidized, unlike USA.

@stphnmaher Everybody has their version of the Dairy Cartel

Total scumbags. I feel bad that Canadian negotiators have to shake their hands when they meet.

@dustem63 @jkenney We're keeping Canada's pro-rural economy policy Supply Management which avoid the rural poverty, small-owner farm bankruptcies, and the meth and opiate addiction crises that are endemic throughout rural USA. Also Canadian dairy sector is unsubsidized, unlike USA.

@jkenney How you can say that ,when we have zero idea of where these talks stand, or what is preventing a deal from being closed when they were so close to one last July .If we are to debate what's best for Canada, then we need to know the answer.What's the hold up ? Supply Management?

Martin, with precisely zero provocation, Trump said a year ago that he intended to “annex Canada” and make it the 51st state by applying “economic pressure;” - He imposed lifted, increased, decreased, re-imposed and repeatedly threatened tariffs on everything imported from Canada, in gross violation of the CUSMA agreement that he signed, calling it “the greatest trade agreement in history;” - He initially did so on the entirely specious grounds that Canada was a major source of fentanyl imports and illegal migration to the US, both claims completely contradicted by data, and US law enforcement agencies. The claims were so ridiculous - even for Trump - that he has not repeated them for the past ten months; - He has repeatedly said the US needs “nothing” from Canada, specifically mentioning our energy - He continues to maintain crippling sectoral tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and certain auto components in violation of CUSMA, tariffs that are costing the Canadian economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs; - Senior Administration officials (Greer, Lutnick et al) have been intimating for months that CUSMA will not be renewed; - Trump has repeatedly referred to the Canada-US border as “imaginary” and “fake.” - His insults and provocations are too many to list, but just in the last week he has said that Canada has been “completely taken over by China” because of a discrete tariff agreement requested by western provinces and initially *endorsed by Trump*; and insulted the honour and memory of our troops, claiming that they “stayed a little back from the front lines” in Afghanistan. Given all of that and more, you blame the Prime Minister of Canada for CUSMA being in jeopardy? WTH? After a year of this, how can we still have some Canadians blaming Canada for Trump taking a wrecking ball to the relationship? Under these circumstances, Prime Minister Carney has exercised remarkable restraint. What would satisfy you? Grovelling subservience? Giving the US total control over our trade relations with the rest of the world? We Canadians can and should debate the most prudent way to deal with the completely unpredictable and destabilizing threat from Trump. (I, for one, don’t support the recent deal with China.) But surely no reasonable person can conclude that Canada provoked or is any meaningful way to blame for this crisis.

@stphnmaher Visualise rapid climate change. Source: This week's The Economist

This gets at something I have been thinking about for a while. The oil industry is at the heart of the Trump project, and it is not the industry of the future.

@stphnmaher Expecting PR front-group astroturf organizations like National Citizens Coalition to do anything other than get rubes GrrrAngry in support of corporate class's pursuit of no taxes, regulations or pesky human rights getting in the way of profit maximizaion is expecting too much.

Is the National Citizens Coalition against the global elite? I would not have thought so.

@stphnmaher Visualize "rapid climate change" and square that with the big- to huge-sized gas-powered pickups and SUVs that the US "auto" industry specializes in:

Addled by empire. What they say doesn’t have to make sense. The world should bow to them because of their manifest magnificence.

@RobKlein66601 @ExnerPirot Canada has pro-rural economy policies (ie Supply Management in the dairy sector) that avoid the rural poverty, small-owner farm bankruptcies, and meth and opiate addiction crises that are endemic throughout rural USA. Also Canadian dairy sector is unsubsidized, unlike USA.

@ExnerPirot Canada has protectionist policies (i.e. Supply Management in the dairy sector). Canada is unwilling to budge and even legislated that it wouldn’t be on the table for future negotiations. This was to show public defiance to the current US administration. Talk about frustration

Fascinating framing from WSJ

@stphnmaher What did Canadians think of the job Brian Mulroney did as Prime Minister of Canada, and of his sales pitch for the Free Trade Agreement??

He won a majority with 43 per cent of the vote. Most Canadians voted against free trade.

@stphnmaher For anyone who is interested, here it is: csun.edu/~rdavids/150sp…

@CycleFunMtl I must read that!

I am interested in the Taino, Beothuk and Indigenous Tasmanian perspective on the benefits of the imperial era

@stphnmaher Looking forward early in 2026 to the celebrations for your 100,000th post here.

I have done enough arguing on the internet for this year. Happy new year! Thanks to everyone who gave me insight on this site, including the haters and losers.

@stphnmaher Generally as a rule I don't believe the claims of people/groups/companies that are selling something; and the Sun's business is selling fear. It's a good rule.

Am I missing something? I find this convincing.

@JJ_McCullough US dairy industry's small-farm segment is collapsing, milk industry itself gets government subsidies so it can underprice milk at the retail level. The profitable dairy farms in US are 1000 to 10,000 cow farms, but "farms" is a misnomer as they're industrialized milk factories.

It's amazing what anti-American propaganda can do. American milk is exactly the same as Canadian milk, it just costs more because we put tariffs on it to protect a wealthy cartel of Quebec farmers. But I guess Carney's gambling the country is full of suckers like this guy.

@stphnmaher It's an interesting theory that the infant mortality rate in US is higher than comparable nations bc the US medical system is simply too good at what it does.

No pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC48…

@dmacpher @stphnmaher Many people do consider copaganada to be an accurate representation of facts.

@stphnmaher Oh I know this policy file pretty well 🤭

The premier should be more careful.

@stphnmaher He's probably tired of getting tipped over at Halloween.

Is everyone aware that it is not necessary to make jokes about the surname of the CPC campaign manager? What could be more boring?

@sjkelly1 @stphnmaher Any mines going to pollute your drinking water? Any smelter going to poison your air? Without an environment assessment there's no pollution to worry about, or compensate for, so more profit to the investor class. And that's who is paying for the green backlash PR campaign.

@stphnmaher The greatest barrier to investment over the past twenty years has been the practice of managing Crown obligations through the environmental assessment process. At the cost of tens of $B’s in project spend. It needs to end.

Productivity polls badly, but leaders at all levels of government should be fixated on it. We’re in a pickle.

@MrLeslieRoberts @SorayaMartinezF @EnsembleMtl We look forward to your efforts to make the de Maisonneuve bike path across your district safer and better able to handle to capacity of users it now has.

Thank you to the residents of the Peter-McGill district for your trust and support. Now, the real work begins — Merci aux résidents du district de Peter-McGill pour votre confiance et votre soutien. Maintenant, le vrai travail commence @SorayaMartinezF @EnsembleMtl

@stphnmaher As I've said before, what we're seeing is a pirate takeover of the US government. Maybe you can negotiate with pirates, give them what they want, but it's still ultimately going to be pirate law down there until people rebel against it, or the pirates self-destruct. #WhyNotBoth

There’s something weird about reading stories about Canada-US trade when this is the context, this is who Canadians are dealing with, people who would do this.

@stphnmaher Calvinball results in "...a fun and chaotic experience."

Had to check this was not a parody