ICYMI: June 15-21

I was in Toronto this past week visiting family and friends, so I didn’t have a chance to complete any stories, but I do have a pretty big story you’ll have to stay tuned for in the coming days.

I made Ben Mulroney quite mad on air while I was away, so I recorded a response to him.

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Blogroll

Story of the Week

Inside Canada’s Conservative identity crisis, Haniel Sorensen, The Breach (June 18)

What does it even mean to be a Conservative? What are the distinct policies Conservatives are fighting for that clearly distinguish them from Carney’s Liberals?

Again, in his keynote speech, Poilievre argued that Conservatives “have won these debates so thoroughly that Liberals have stopped debating us altogether and started plagiarizing.” Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole recently struck a similar note, writing to Carney on his Substack: “keep it up on all of these issues.”

Carney’s current agenda on the environment, immigration, government spending, foreign policy, defence, and technology is already being pursued in a manner similar to, if not directly aligned with, longstanding Conservative priorities. Carney is moving forward with new pipelines, aggressive deregulation, disregarding Indigenous sovereignty, cutting immigration and ramping up deportations, gutting the federal public service, inflating our defence (war-making) capabilities, getting tougher on crime, selling off public assets, undermining labour unions, doing away with pharmacare, and doubling down on AI technologies and data centres.

While some key differences regarding social policies, cultural politics, and geostrategic relations with China and the United States remain, in broad policy strokes, they are fairly analogous to many existing Conservative policy platforms.

Because of Carney’s uncanny imitation of conservative politics, speakers and attendees alike appeared to have already conceded a degree of ground on the policy front, begrudgingly beginning to reckon with their movement’s unclear posturing. If many of the policy battles have already been won, what comes next?

At CSFN, the answer increasingly seemed to lie in culture rather than policy. Across the conference, many of the best-attended panels and busiest booths focused on immigration, national identity, gender politics, and the perceived erosion of traditional Canadian values.

If Conservatives are struggling to distinguish themselves through policy, they appear increasingly willing to do so through questions of culture, belonging, and who gets to define the nation.

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Alberta

Not enough time to put Water Not Coal question on referendum ballot: Smith, Stephen Hunt, CTV News (June 17)

Smith’s Power Plays Depend on These Hand-Picked Appointees, Charles Rusnell, The Tyee (June 17)

Supreme Court allows former Alberta MLA’s $2.2-million lawsuit against ex-chief electoral officer to proceed, Matthew Black, Edmonton Journal (June 19)

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi calls on Ottawa to review dual practice surgery model, Cindy Tran, Edmonton Journal (June 19)

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Canada

Police say young people being recruited to carry out GTA shootings using encrypted messaging services, Codi Wilson and Joshua Freeman, CP24 (June 16)

Nate Erskine-Smith considering run for Toronto city council. Outgoing Liberal MP discussed idea in meeting with Chow, Ben Spurr, Toronto Star (June 16)

World Zionist Organization removed from Canada’s West Bank sanctions draft before release: sources, Raffy Boudjikanian, CBC News (June 16)

TSDB cancels permit for anti-Palestinian racism workshop over ‘divisiveness’, Cherise Seucharan, Toronto Today (June 18)

Carney government passes law allowing authorization of banned pesticides, Marina von Stackelberg, CBC News (June 19)

B.C. mining exploration company NovaRed recruits Kristi Noem as strategic adviser, Niall McGee, Globe and Mail (June 19)

USMCA heads into unpredictable new phase with no extension likely, Mark Rendell and Steven Chase, Globe and Mail (June 19)

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U.S.

Justice Department Decision to Allow Paramount Deal Surprised Staff Investigators, Dave Michaels, Dana Mattioli, Sadie Gurman and Jessica Toonkel, Wall Street Journal (June 15)

Did Kamala Harris’s Silence on Gaza Cost Her the White House? Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vanity Fair (June 15)

Democratic socialists surge in mayoral races across the US as anti-Trump fervor rises, Matt Brown, Associated Press (June 18)

SpaceX handed lowest possible ESG rating by MSCI, Ramsay Hodgson, Financial Times (June 20)

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World

A boat with migrants capsized north off Libya, leaving 51 dead or missing, group says, Samy Magdy, Associated Press (June 19)

Draft dodgers in Ukraine do what they must to avoid the front lines, Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail (June 19)

First Quantum’s shuttered mine passes audit, as Panama weighs restart, Elida Moreno, Reuters (June 19)

Canadian-owned Cobre Panamá mine kiboshed

The U.S. Is Ramping Up Economic Warfare. Its Enemies Aren’t Blinking. Rory Jones, Patricia Kowsmann and Thomas Grove, Wall Street Journal (June 20)

Mass atrocities looming in another Sudanese city, UN says, Geoffrey York, Globe and Mail (June 21)

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Middle East

The End of the U.S.-Israel Alliance, Joshua Leifer, Foreign Policy (June 15)

The Israeli right is marching under a new flag, Menachem Klein, +972 (June 15)

This New Party Wants to Write a New Future for Israel, Mairav Zonszein, New York Times (June 16)

Inside Trump and Netanyahu’s Complicated Relationship, Josh Dawsey, Alexander Ward and Anat Peled, Wall Street Journal (June 17)

15 articles a day: The extent of the Israeli army’s media interference, Haggai Matar, +972 (June 17)

U.S. intelligence warns Israel is likely to undermine Iran peace deal, officials say, Ellen Nakashima, John Hudson, Gerry Shih and Warren P. Strobel, Washington Post (June 19)

How Deal With U.S. Could Reconnect Iran to the Global Economy, Patricia Cohen, New York Times (June 19)

The plot against Palestine Action, Jonathan Cook, +972 (June 19)

The Surprising Reaction Inside Iran to Its War Victory, Séamus Malekafzali, The Intercept (June 20)

Vance Heads to Peace Talks, After Iran Says It Closed Strait of Hormuz, Andrew Dowell and Robbie Gramer, Wall Street Journal (June 20)

Israeli fire kills nine people in Gaza, including a child and journalist, medics say, Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Reuters (June 20)

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Tech

Sucked In. The Maw That Feeds AI Mania, Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee (June 15)

What If It All Came Out? Bridget Read, New York (June 15)

AI data centres’ voracious thirst for water makes their environmental footprint even bigger, Eric Reguly, Globe and Mail (June 19)

AI opposition isn’t the product of a lack of “literacy”, Paris Marx, Disconnect (June 19)

They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real, Katherine Long, Caitlin Ostroff, Neil Mehta and Brenna T. Smith, Wall Street Journal (June 20)