carnival

Tuesday October 2, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 2, 2018

President Trump creates crises, then claims credit for solving them

September 5, 2018

President Trump’s specialty is to create crises and then claim credit for solving them. Last year, for example, he ratcheted up the rhetoric against Kim Jong Un — a.k.a. “Little Rocket Man” — threatening to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea. Trump now claims he and Kim “fell in love” after Kim sent him “beautiful letters,” and that, were it not for this bromance, “you’d be in a war” and “millions of people would have been killed.” In reality, no one thought a second Korean War was likely before Trump took office. That only became a serious risk because of his unhinged rhetoric.

Trump has applied this same template to the North

August 28, 2018

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he spent years lambasting as “the worst trade deal ever approved.” According to Bob Woodward’s book “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Trump was on the verge of pulling out of NAFTA in April 2017, and had to be talked back from the brink by senior aides. He grudgingly remained in the deal while launching high-pressure negotiations to rework it.

Lo and behold, just ahead of a U.S.-imposed deadline on Sunday night, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed on a revamped NAFTA. Trump triumphantly proclaimed on Twitter that this was a “wonderful new Trade Deal,” “historic,” and “a great deal for all three countries.” “NAFTA is dead,” said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. Long live the new United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA).

June 13, 2018

In fact, the biggest change is the name of the trade deal, and it is not an improvement. Just try saying “USMCA.” It does not roll off the tongue the way “NAFTA” did. As for the substance, my Council on Foreign Relations colleague Benn Steil rightly describes the new agreement as “little more than margin edits.”

Trump’s biggest victory was in opening up slightly more of the Canadian dairy market for U.S. exports. This has long been an obsession for him. He complained in June: “Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products! They didn’t tell you that, did they? Not fair to our farmers.” Trump was right about the Canadian tariffs. What he didn’t mention is that the United States still ran a $474 million dairy surplus last year, with U.S. farmers selling five times more dairy goods to Canada than U.S. consumers bought from Canada. In any case, milk products represent just 0.06 percent of U.S.-Canada trade, 99 percent of which was already tariff-free. (Source: Washington Post) 

 

Tuesday April 30, 2013

Tuesday April 30, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 30, 2013

Tories launching ‘non-confidence’ vote in bid to topple Liberals

Raising pressure on the NDP to help defeat the minority Liberals over the power plant scandal, the Progressive Conservatives charge the government “bought the last election.”

Tory Leader Tim Hudak launched a long-shot bid to topple Premier Kathleen Wynne’s administration on Monday with a non-confidence motion over the cancelled plants in Oakville and Mississauga.

“If this isn’t corruption then tell me what is?” Hudak said, referring to critics’ estimates that the cost to taxpayers could reach $1 billion for axing both plants to save Liberal seats in the 2011 election.

But it’s unlikely the non-confidence motion — first mentioned by the Tories a week ago — will amount to much because it needs approval from all three parties to go to a vote in the legislature.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath branded it a “political game” and Government House leader John Milloy told reporters “the theatrics are getting a little silly.”

Wynne, who will testify Tuesday before a legislative committee investigating the scrapped power plants, said the opposition will have a chance to vote the government down within weeks.

“There is a big confidence opportunity with the budget and we will be bringing the budget down on Thursday. The opposition can express their confidence or not.”

An auditor’s report found the cost to cancel the Mississauga plant was $275 million — 45 per cent more than the $190 million the Liberals claimed. They have put the cost of cancelling Oakville at just $40 million. (Source: Toronto Star)
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Wednesday November 28, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday November 28, 2012

A British Take on Mark Carney

Mark Carney, the new Governor of the Bank of England, is a remarkable man. He studied economics at Harvard, racked up a Master’s and a doctorate at Oxford, and, for the past four years, he’s been governor of his national bank – all before the age of 50. Carney is married to a glamorous British economist and has four lovely daughters. According to Time magazine, he’s one of the 25 most influential people in the world.

But – wait for it – there’s something even more remarkable about England’s new top banker. He’s a Canadian! Carney, he of the snappy suits and slicked-back hair, hails from the nation affectionately known as “America’s attic”. What’s more, he’s proud of it. He’s a maple syrup-drinking, poutine-loving, moose-spotting, beer-swilling ice-hockey fan, who once dreamed of playing for his local team, the Edmonton Oilers.

A couple of decades on, his selection for the coveted BoE job has raised a few eyebrows – not least because of his nationality. “Canadians have a reputation for being the boring good guys,” says Oxford academic (and bona fide Canadian) Margaret MacMillan. “If you want to say something is really tedious, you say ‘as dull as a Sunday in Canada’. We’ve never been loudly patriotic, probably because we live next to the US. As a result, people think we’re dull and quiet all the time.”

You see, even Canadians admit it: their country has an image problem. It has long been subjected to stereotypes – perpetuated by South Park and Due South – and rather than deny them, Canadians have simply got used to being the butt of bad jokes. “A Canadian,” goes the gag by the author Pierre Berton, “is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe.” (Source: The Telegraph) 

 

Thursday August 16, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday August 16, 2012

There have been secret talks about local casino

City staff say there’s “interest” brewing about building a casino in Hamilton — but not even council is allowed to know who’s behind it.

Tim McCabe, the city’s director of economic development and planning, said he has had “absolutely confidential” discussions about a new gambling facility in the city.

“I have had some discussions through a third party, and there is some interest in Hamilton,” McCabe said.

McCabe’s comments came about after Councillor Sam Merulla put forward a motion asking for a moratorium on any new gaming facility in the city until the public can vote in a referendum on the issue during the 2014 municipal election.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation announced a massive “modernization” earlier this year that includes plans for one casino in the Hamilton/Burlington area. It’s still not clear whether that means Flamboro Downs will remain open — council’s preference — or whether a new facility will be built.

Though Merulla’s argued that locating a new casino in the city would be as contentious as the Pan Am stadium debate, McCabe warned councillors that passing Merulla’s motion could potentially cut the city off from millions of dollars’ worth of investment. Councillors were divided about whether or not to approve the referendum.

Councillor Judi Partridge said the city’s role is “not to roll over or chase an elusive carrot” and criticized the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, arguing the city has “a chance to say no, and to be in the driver’s seat.”

Mayor Bob Bratina argued that the city should be open to all possibilities.(Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday February 11, 2009

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 11, 2009

Carney maintains his rosy outlook

Even as the economic horizon darkens, the man who controls the levers behind Canada’s performance is still predicting the economy will pick itself up off the floor starting later this year and stage a strong rebound in 2010.

Nearly alone among respected forecasters, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has said the combined efforts of Canada, the United States and other industrial nations to counteract the global recession will begin to turn things around here by late summer.

Asked yesterday by an opposition MP if the central bank was not out “on something of an optimistic limb” in its predictions, Carney told the Commons finance committee: “We don’t do optimism, we don’t do pessimism.

“We do realism at the Bank of Canada. We don’t do spin.”

Carney, 43, a former Goldman Sachs executive and finance department whiz kid, expressed full confidence in the bank’s number crunching.

It’s based on hundreds of interviews with business people, bank loans surveys and 21 economic forecasting models, he said.

Still, Carney tempered his relatively upbeat outlook by cautioning that all forecasts are “subject to an unusually high degree of uncertainty” now because of the speed and worldwide reach of the current economic downturn. (Source: Toronto Star)