USA

Wednesday January 12, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 12, 2022

Canada offers to support U.S. measures to deter Russia in confrontation with Ukraine

June 13, 2017

Canada has told the U.S. that it’s willing to help with possible deterrence measures against Russia — which could include sanctions — to head off a crisis in Ukraine, CBC News has learned.

Canada made the offer during a meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Dec. 31, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

The source said the message was received well by Blinken. 

Bilateral talks between Russia and the U.S. over the nearly eight-year-long war in Ukraine took place in Geneva Monday. Nearly 100,000 Russian troops are stationed near Ukraine’s eastern border, prompting concerns from other countries that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin intends to invade Ukraine.

Thursday January 6, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 6, 2022

A year after Jan. 6 riot, Americans and Canadians agree U.S. democracy in peril: poll

January 8, 2021

One year after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a majority of Americans and Canadians alike say democracy in the United States is under threat, a new poll suggests.

The poll, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute and released Thursday, also found stark differences in how the event is viewed by conservatives and liberals in both countries.

The divide is more severe in the U.S., where 68 per cent of respondents who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election disagree that the riots were an act of domestic terrorism — an opinion at odds with the FBI and other officials — while nearly three quarters still believe Trump won the election that he lost.

“There are only two (major) political parties in the U.S. … and this has become the narrative of one of those parties,” said Matthew Lebo, a political science professor at Western University who studies U.S. and Canadian politics.

“You cannot have a democracy with only one party that believes in democracy.”

Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the riots, which saw supporters of Trump violently storm the Capitol building and disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory the previous November. Seven people, including police officers, died during and after the siege.

Friday December 24, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 24, 2021

The ghosts of a pandemic Christmas

A lot of Canadians will empathize with Ebenezer Scrooge on this second COVID-19 Christmas Eve.

December 24, 2016

It’s not that they share the opinion of Charles Dickens’ infamous miser that the holiday is nothing but “humbug.” It’s simply that as they take stock of life at the end of 2021 they will, like the hero of “A Christmas Carol,” be haunted by three phantoms: the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: The first spirit will be the most amiable, but unfortunately in ways that make the other pair seem even more worrisome. Somehow those childhood Yuletides are always gold-plated.

We might remember nervously sitting on the knee of a shopping-mall Santa, listing our heart’s desires for Christmas Day. Or we’ll recall laying a stocking by our bedside on Christmas Eve, secure in the knowledge it will magically be filled to the brim next morning. Helped by the Ghost of Christmas Past, we’ll hear the songs of carolers and, perhaps, of a church choir singing “Silent Night.” And we’ll laugh, perhaps even blush, at the antics of bygone Christmas office parties

Was it only two Christmases ago that people still came together in large gatherings, where a card table would be set up in the dining room and lawn chairs hauled in from the garage to handle the mob of relatives and friends cramming our homes to the rafters? People still shook hands and hugged in those days. Imagine that.

November 28, 2020

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: The smiles inspired by the Ghost of Christmas Past might turn upside down when this grim reaper drops by. What will Christmas 2022, 2023 or 2024 be like? We might shudder to think, as Scrooge did when his phantom of the future finally led him to a graveyard.

What variant might we face in a Christmas or two? What pandemic wave might engulf us then? Will the antivirals coming our way cure us if we catch COVID? Will the vaccines we have now still work? Christmas or not, there’s no denying that two years into COVID the situation is still disastrous and there are no guarantees it won’t be this bad next year. Which brings us to the ghost that matters most.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: Whatever rose-coloured glasses we put on to view the past, it is gone and unrecoverable. As for the future, despite our valid trepidation, it nonetheless remains within our power — as it did with Scrooge — to determine what it will be. We should reach out and grasp that power.

If we’re responsible and respect the new provincial guidelines set down just days ago, many of our gatherings with families and friends will be smaller this year — or even cancelled. Loved ones who’ve tested positive — a growing trend with the emergence of the Omicron variant — will be absent. The latest advisories against nonessential travel will keep others somewhere else, far away. So yes, a lot of people won’t be home for this Christmas.

March 26, 2020

But there is still this stubborn, resilient holiday waiting for us. Though we may not be able to mark it as we once did, we need it more than ever as 2021 staggers to a close. We need its peace, its joy and its unquenchable spirit of giving — especially to the sick, the homeless and all those living in great want. Even wearing a protective mask, we can celebrate the hope found not only in all the wondrous Christmas stories but in what we have done together to survive nearly two years of pandemic. We should never forget that those game-changing, life-saving vaccines developed in record time are themselves veritable miracles worthy of continual thanks.

And finally, whether we celebrate the special day in a church, around the tree in our living room, or even if this holiday is not part of our own tradition, we should all be able to perceive the inestimable value of human love wrapped up in the gift it leaves for us. In the darkest time of year, the days are finally lengthening again. So, when the Ghost of Christmas Present comes knocking at your door, let him in. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)  

 

Wednesday December 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 22, 2021

One senator just blew up Joe Biden’s presidential plans

A single U.S. senator has detonated a political bombshell whose wide-ranging blast radius has touched his political party, his country and his planet.

December 14, 2021

Let us sift through political wreckage over the horizon and count the effects unleashed by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

He has, until further notice, killed President Joe Biden’s hope of signing major legislation. Resurrecting the Build Back Better mega-bill could happen but it won’t be easy and it’s dead in its current form.

Because he holds the 50th vote in a 100-seat Senate, Manchin’s statement was a game-changer on multiple fronts.

It’s rocked Biden’s presidency, enraged the Democratic Party, imperilled about two dozen major initiatives affecting millions of Americans, undone economic forecasts, torched the U.S. climate plan, tossed into doubt a global tax plan, and, perhaps to Canadians’ benefit, paused a major Canada-U.S. irritant, a potential violation of trade agreements.

His move unleashed recriminations within the Democratic Party as some of Manchin’s colleagues castigated him; questioned his integrity; said he couldn’t be trusted; and some even raised money in fundraising letters trashing his decision.

February 23, 2021

That acrimonious climate is hardly propitious to getting Democrats back to the negotiating table to try saving bits of the 2,468-page Build Back Better bill.

There’s a silver lining in all this for Canada.

The Canadian government was deeply worried about the green rebates and preparing for an economic war over them. 

That’s because Build Back Better offered tax credits for the purchase of U.S.-assembled electric cars, which Canada and others called a violation of trade agreements that would kill jobs abroad.

It’s no accident a Canadian auto-parts representative happened to be meeting with Manchin’s staff on Friday, lobbying against the measure.

Flavio Volpe said it’s too soon to assume this irritant is gone. Ottawa appears to agree. Nobody in the Canadian government has been willing to comment on Sunday’s developments, suggesting they’re not final.

“I don’t feel like we’re out of the woods yet,” Volpe said. “We’re [still] on DEFCON 1 for Canadian prosperity.” (CBC) 

 

Tuesday December 14, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 14, 2021

Canada threatens U.S. with tariffs, partial suspension of CUSMA over electric vehicle tax credit

November 18, 2021

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has written to top U.S. senators threatening to suspend parts of the CUSMA trade agreement and impose tariffs on American goods unless U.S. officials back away from a proposed tax credit for American-built electric vehicles.

“We are deeply concerned that certain provisions of the electric vehicle tax credits as proposed in the Build Back Better Act violate the United States’ obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” Freeland and International Trade Minister Mary Ng say in the letter.

“The proposal is equivalent to a 34 per cent tariff on Canadian-assembled electric vehicles,” the letter says. “The proposal is a significant threat to the Canadian automotive industry and is a de facto abrogation of the USMCA.”

November 19, 2019

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in the United States.

Congress is proposing sizeable tax credits worth up to $12,500 US to buyers of new electric vehicles — as long as those cars are manufactured by union workers in the U.S.

Experts agree the tax measure would deal a major blow to the Canadian automotive sector, which is trying to attract new investment as the industry transitions away from internal combustion engines.

Freeland and Ng also say in the letter that they will “consider the possible suspension of USMCA concessions of importance to the U.S.” They specifically mention the possible suspension of “USMCA dairy tariff-rate quotas” and the possibility of delaying implementation of CUSMA copyright changes.

December 11, 2019

“To be clear, we do not wish to go down a path of confrontation,” the letter says. “That has not been the history of the relationship between our two countries – nor should it be the future.

“There is an opportunity to work together to resolve this issue by ensuring Canadian-assembled vehicles and batteries are eligible for the same credit as U.S.-assembled vehicles and batteries.”

Ng said the letter is Canada’s way of indicating that it’s prepared to play hardball on the trade file, although she would prefer to come to a compromise that avoids trade actions. (CBC)