Wednesday Night #2240

Andrew Caddell had suggested last Wednesday that it might be appropriate to devote some time to the topic of Bill 84 (proposed law regarding the integration of immigrants to Quebec) this week. However, we have learned that our QCGN friends will appear before the National Assembly’s Commission des Relations Avec des Citoyens to present a brief on Bill 84 next Tuesday evening. So we suggest leaving this inside-Quebec-baseball topic for next week’s menu when Doug Sweet might comment.
Raising Canada’s international profile is in our best interests
Andrew, meanwhile, is writing his column from Fort Myers, Florida where he has been attending the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs,
—We are so sorry
“Never in my life have I heard so many Americans apologizing to Canadians, and not the reverse. Almost everyone I met in the last week in Florida was apologetic, expressing their embarrassment over United States President Donald Trump’s harangues about Canada, the imposition of tariffs and the “51st state.
I spoke in sessions on the use and misuse of data, Quebec nationalism, and with international journalists discussing the response to Trump’s election. The other panellists came from Germany, Africa, and Latin America. I took the conference theme and said Canada’s concern was the “unwinding of the ties” with the U.S.” – We look forward to hearing more.

In any event, the tsunami of Trump-related national (US; regional (Canada and Americas); and international (Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Middle East to name a few) stories, starring the increasingly disagreable figures of JD Vance, Elon Musk, Marco Rubio and their allies, gives us more than enough fodder.

Multilateralism gone awry
The Munich Conference 2025 has ended and the attendees dispersed. In the wake of JD Vance’s shocking Valentine’s Day speech that laid bare the collapse of the transatlantic alliance, Macron hastily convened the Paris Summit assembling the leaders of France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and – speaking for the Nordic and Baltic states – Denmark, plus Britain’s prime minister and the heads of NATO and the European Commission and Council. On Wednesday, 48 hours after previous talk, an expanded summit was expected to include EU countries Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Belgium as well as Canada and Norway ― both NATO allies.
C Uday Bhaskar writes in Money Control (an infuriatingly ad-overloaded site)
Europe wakes up to a tectonic shift in the continent’s geopolitics
US-EU-NATO amity nurtured during the Cold War is being buried by the Trump administration. Europe is out in the cold. This message was hammered home on February 18 when the US and Russia agreed to work together to end the conflict in Ukraine, relegating other stakeholders to the periphery.
See also Europe struggles to respond to US policy shift on Ukraine

The SCMP asks Will Trump’s bureaucracy overhaul free up resources for US to compete with China?
Foreign aid freeze and policy chaos could undermine soft power, but changes may put Washington in better position in rivalry with Beijing

Turning to the ever-fraught Middle East:
Netanyahu says Israel committed to Trump’s ‘take over’ Gaza plan, whereby he has repeatedly suggested the US could “take over” and “own” Gaza, permanently resettle its Palestinian population of more than 2 million people -with no right of return-, and redevelop the enclave into a holiday destination.
negative reaction to Trump’s Gaza ‘Riviera’ proposal was swift.
Latest news is that Egypt is developing a Gaza reconstruction plan to counter Trump’s ‘take over’ It is reported that Egypt expects to finalise the plan “by next week”, while its first phase should begin “after the emergency Arab summit in Cairo”, currently scheduled for February 27. Before that, Saudi Arabia will host officials from Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan on Thursday, as part of a five-way Arab meeting in the capital Riyadh to discuss Cairo’s proposed reconstruction.

Busy people the Saudis these days, hosting the US-Russia talks one day and the meeting on Cairo’s proposal a couple of days later. MBS must be purring like a well-fed pussycat!

Eugene Robinson: America’s new foreign policy: Who cares?
The Trump administration shows little concern for allies or adversaries
Really?
State Dept. orders cancellation of news subscriptions around the world
Embassies and consulates were told to terminate subscriptions to the New York Times, the Associated Press and others.
“Considering this priority [effort to reduce spending], posts are asked to immediately place Stop Work Orders on all non-mission critical contracts/purchase orders for media subscriptions (publications, periodicals, and newspaper subscriptions) that are not academic or professional journals.”

Andrew Coyne: The democratic world will have to get along without America. It may even have to defend itself from it
It is not just that the democratic world can no longer count on America. It is that America, under Mr. Trump, is no longer necessarily part of the democratic world: neither fully democratic in its own affairs, nor committed to the welfare of other democracies, but hostile to both. If the international order is to be preserved, then, it will have to be preserved, in part, from the United States. Certainly it will have to be rebuilt without it.

Don’t mess with Mexico‘s superstar President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Mexico awaits new response from Google on dispute over Gulf of Mexico name before filing lawsuit
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum…has also mentioned that, according to the constitution of Apatzingán, the antecedent to Mexico’s first constitution, the North American territory was previously identified as “Mexican America”. Sheinbaum has used the example to poke fun at Trump and underscore the international implications of changing the Gulf’s name.
Meanwhile, Trump defends barring the Associated Press from Air Force One, Oval Office
“We are going to keep them out,” Trump said Tuesday, unless the wire service agrees to make the switch to the “Gulf of America.”
Trump singled out the AP as being the only outlet to not make the switch to the Gulf of America, but other large news outlets have followed similar guidance to the AP. The AP also has considerable sway over language the rest of the industry uses because its stylebook is widely adopted by other major newsrooms.

G7 Canada 2025
In case it has slipped your mind, Canada currently holds the presidency of the G7 and will host the 50th anniversary Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, from June 15 to 17. Trump is already stirring the pot, insisting that Putin be invited back

‘No kings on Presidents Day’ rings out from protests against Trump and Musk
The “No Kings” theme was orchestrated by the 50501 Movement, and marked the second set of protests criss-crossing the nation in less than two weeks. A similar nationwide event on Feb. 5 drew participants in dozens of cities. Both sets of rallies denounced Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
In honour of Presidents Day (or Presidents’ Day), Snopes combed its archives for lesser-known stories about U.S. presidents and notes During the scan, we found numerous quotes falsely attributed to presidents, as well as rumors attempting to prove their lack of mental fitness by alleging various social faux pas… Here are 50 nuggets of political folklore listed in order of presidential terms.
For many of us, whenever a statement looks suspicious, we automatically turn to Snopes to check on its veracity.
We have recently adopted this reference for verification of political statements- but do not bother to check Trump, Vance, or Musk.
PolitiFact, run by the editors and journalists, focuses on looking at specific statements made by politicians and rating them for accuracy.

Anatomy of a sociopath — Trump and the GOP dismantled
— written by Eilene Workman
I know a little something that so many do not appreciate about Donald, but that those of us who worked with him in the financial services game have known for many decades—LONG before he ever made a run at politics.
His stated motives rarely reveal his true agenda. His showmanship and charisma bedazzle the uninformed, which is exactly how he likes it. He never signed a contract or met an agreement he wouldn’t violate or wriggle out of if it suited his hidden agenda. He never met an investor whose purse he didn’t consider his own in some strategic way. And he never met a human being he wouldn’t screw in order to advance or satisfy himself.
If you want to understand his beef with Panama, don’t look at the canal to which he now points. Look at Trump enterprises and their fraught financial and criminal relationship with Panama, and look to the Russian oligarchs who bought condos in his Panama Tower. If you want to understand his fixation with Gaza, don’t look at the Palestinian or Israeli people; look at the real estate value he now perceives that Gaza holds, and he’d like to unlock. If you want to understand his insane, obsessive beef with energy renewable windmills, don’t look at the wind energy aspect; look at his beef with Scotland over his golf course and the nearby windmills that damaged his idea of its aesthetics.
If you want to understand his irrational hatred of Obama, don’t look at the policies of the Obama administration; look to the annual press corp dinner where Obama poked fun at him and bruised his ego. If you want to understand his demonization of Democrats, look not to Democratic social policy, but to the fact they didn’t want him to run under color of their party. If you want to understand his hatred of “immigrants” don’t look to the actual contributions and challenges related to immigration, but to his own germophobia and personal disgust for all things “dirty and brown.”
What he does SO masterfully, as many sociopaths do, is figure out how to align, however temporarily, his own personal agenda with the drives of those he can then USE to help him execute it.
And the GOP fell right in line with that abusive strategy. The GOP now looks much like a battered wife who would LOVE to quit Trump, but who also knows their financial security, personal comfort, and social status would collapse if they ran away. And they fear they won’t get much sympathy or support from the people who tried to warn them not to marry the dude—a serial, liar, cheater, thief, sadist, and a generally Bad Person.
Many of the GOP politicians today are busily masking their own abuse from the general public; at some point, however, as they watch their power continue to erode, their reputations get smashed, and themselves get blamed for the extensive abuse they now suffer, something’s gonna give.
I don’t know what it is, but every bone in my body FEELS an energetic convergence heading toward a massive, MASSIVE explosion—coming soon.

Lacking any obvious strong leadership from the US Democrats, we have taken refuge in the Facebook group Liz Cheney/Adam Kinzinger Against Trump and top contributor Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 2024 They pull no punches.
weaponized stupidity (love it!)
On Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees –The administration asked some of the agency’s workers, who were part of last week’s massive layoffs across the federal government, to come back.
“in a stunning display of weaponized stupidity, Trump’s Department of Energy fired hundreds of nuclear security personnel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)—the people who maintain America’s literal doomsday stockpile—was suddenly short-staffed because Trump wanted to “cut costs.””
We could add After firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees, the Trump administration is now attempting to downplay safety concerns FAA Employees Say Trump and Musk’s Purge Is a ‘Threat’ to Air Safety
and
Cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could affect people across the country who are struggling to rebuild and prepare for disasters. FEMA is losing scores of employees. What does that mean for disaster recovery?
and so many more…

Varia
Baftas 2025: Conclave beats The Brutalist to best picture
We have not seen the movie but reviews indicate that it is a worthy successor to the book, which we loved.
Write-in candidate for U.S. Congress wants to turn northern New York into Canada’s 11th province
Richard Grayson is running on a platform of joining Canada as the nation’s newest and third-smallest province
Good ideas for all levels of government.
A Real Plan to End the Housing Crisis
Statement by Chrystia Freeland​
(Financial Post) Like Poilievre, Freeland is pitching a housing plan that would limit immigration
Canada’s signature cocktail has an identity crisis
…the satisfyingly savoury Caesar has evolved to become a Canadian classic. …the drink’s fame has spread from Calgary across Canada thanks in large part to the prepackaged Mott’s Clamato juice imported from the United States. In 2019, Motts estimated that Canadians consumed more than 400 million Caesars a year, the majority made with their Clamato juice, but in the face of a growing “Buy Canada” sentiment, bartenders and Caesar lovers are seeking homegrown substitutes.
A dilemma or two
Steve Bannon Ramps Up His War on ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’ Elon Musk, while we are delighted to see Elon Musk attacked by Steve Bannon – we are less than thrilled by what Bannon is calling him out for.
Mike Pence emerges as one of the few Republicans willing to challenge Trump 2.0 sounds good, but then we are reminded that Pence opposed RFK Jr’s appointment as secretary of health and human services because of Kennedy’s past comments voicing support for abortion rights. Pence makes mostly favourable comments about Trump’s initiatives, so we’ll give him a pass and wait for more enthusiastic in-fighting.
Furious at Musk? Don’t Buy a Tesla.
The company is in a precarious position. This is a case where buying choices can effectively communicate rage.

Speaking of Teslas, Peter Frise is now the go-to guy for media seeking comments on the effects of Trump tariffs on the North American automotive industry, see Trump fact-check: No such thing as ‘Canadian’ or ‘American’ cars, experts say ‘Some of the things that he is using in his narrative are simply not correct,’ one expert says  -we could rightfully claim that we heard it here first.

Long reads
Trump’s Gaza takeover won’t happen. But it has already changed the face of Israeli politics
The US president’s support for forcibly relocating Palestinians has laid the ground for Netanyahu’s ultimate fantasy
A Nordic ‘Trump-Mitigation’ Strategy Amid a Return of Power Politics
Perhaps the most interesting development is the emergence of the so-called NB8 (Nordic-Baltic 8) group of countries as a force to be reckoned with in international affairs. These are the five Nordics and three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), all of which have emerged as both decisive and determined in their support for Ukraine and in their resistance to Russian aggression and hybrid warfare tactics. In relative and absolute terms, these eight countries lead the way, on a per capita basis, in supporting Ukraine militarily and economically. Within NATO, following the accession of Finland and Sweden, this is particularly pertinent.
There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing
How regime change happens in America
By Anne Applebaum
Trump’s musings on ‘very large faucet’ in Canada part of looming water crisis, say researchers
Aging infrastructure and changing climate could put pressure on long-standing treaties
Evan Solomon: Donald Trump has an empire state of mind.
From his threats to make Canada the 51st state, buy Greenland, reclaim the Panama Canal, and, almost implausibly, “take” the Gaza Strip, Trump isn’t hiding his imperial ambitions. In his inaugural address, he explicitly said he sees an America that “expands its territory.” Is he serious about this, and, if so, what does it mean for its closest neighbor and biggest partner, Canada?
Let’s start with the first question: Is territorial expansion a real threat or just rhetoric Trump is using to shake down opponents in trade negotiations? It’s both. Trump is using these threats to gain better access to markets for American goods, and he’s flexing his imperial desires.
No moment better illustrated Trump’s empire state of mind than on Tuesday, when he met King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House. With Trump’s radical promise to take Gaza and “clean out that whole thing ” — choice words not lost on anyone remotely familiar with the worst crimes under international law — the meeting was expected to be about as uncomfortable for the royal as a crown of porcupine quills. But it got even more interesting than expected.