Canada is eliminating the watchdog office that investigated abuses by Canadian mining and oil companies overseas. cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-…

Carney: What one can't do at this point in a rapidly shifting world order is rely on one set of institutions, one grouping, one country to provide the answers. You have to know what you want, what you need, how you serve your citizens, and then go and get it.

Carney: The rules-based order is eroding, the values we cherish are under threat, and as reliable partners become fewer, those that remain matter ever more. Canada believes that this moment of rupture can only be answered by positive, purposeful action, by building what comes next. So we look first to our closest allies. That's Europe, that's Ireland.

Give this a listen. "Realpolitik" is not speaking out of both sides of your mouth, depending on which country you're in. It's doing hard things even when unpopular. Our country needs consistent, active leadership that advances Canada's interests, not European cosplay. #cdnpoli

The underappreciated divide shaping Canadian politics A recent academic paper revisits an old question in Canadian politics: Does where one works shape how one votes? Drawing on data from 16 federal elections between 1968 and 2019, the authors find evidence that Canada’s so-called “sectoral cleavage” remains alive and may even be growing stronger. Public-sector workers are generally more likely than their private-sector counterparts to hold Left-leaning economic views and support parties such as the NDP. The differences are especially pronounced among public-sector professionals and managers. The paper cannot tell us exactly why these differences exist. It may be that people with more interventionist political preferences disproportionately choose careers in government. It may also be that employment itself shapes political attitudes over time. Most likely, both factors are at work. Yet the findings are notable because they connect to several of the most important debates in contemporary Canadian politics. For years, political scientists have understood Canadian politics through the lenses of region, language, class, and ideology. The paper suggests that the employment sector deserves a place on that list. Public- and private-sector workers increasingly appear to constitute distinct political constituencies with different interests, incentives, and policy preferences. Readers of The Hub will recognize this theme. We’ve explored it previously in debates over the public-sector compensation premium, work-from-home policies, pension arrangements, and government workforce growth. What often appears on the surface as a dispute about pay, workplace flexibility, or management practices can reflect a deeper divide between those whose livelihoods depend primarily on government spending and those whose livelihoods are more directly exposed to market forces. This helps explain why debates over government spending, regulation, taxation, and public-sector compensation often feel so contentious. They’re not merely ideological disagreements. They increasingly involve groups whose livelihoods are tied to different parts of the economy.  The findings also resonate with insights from public choice economics, which emphasizes that political actors respond to incentives just as market actors do. The point of course isn’t that public servants are uniquely self-interested. It’s that the interests of those who depend primarily on public budgets may not always align with those whose livelihoods depend on competitive markets, entrepreneurship, investment, and business formation. Recent controversies over public-sector work-from-home policies offer a useful example. What began as a debate about workplace flexibility quickly became a broader argument about accountability, productivity, and the obligations associated with taxpayer-funded employment. Beneath the surface lay competing assumptions about the role and purpose of public institutions themselves. None of this means that public- and private-sector workers are destined to be political opponents. But as government employment grows and public spending occupies an ever-larger share of economic activity, the divide identified in this paper may become increasingly important for understanding Canadian politics. Where one earns a paycheque may not determine one’s political views. But it appears to matter more than many observers once assumed.

Fun fact... One of the UCP's appointees to the Electoral Boundaries Commission submitted to the original commission with his recommendations. Darwin Durnie. He was... Very invested in the process. So much so, he actually did up his own report. /1 #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

Every rural riding gets a piece of Calgary. This will keep those non-UCP Calgarians in line. Rural Albertans will love having their MLA constituency office in Calgary, or Calgarians will enjoy a trip to a farm to visit their MLA. #Yyc #ableg