Good morning,
Over the past two months, Canadians have watched anxiously as our political and economic agenda has been hijacked by the hegemonic narcissist heading up the United States government. U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated his tariff threats into a full-blown trade war, grabbing as much power and money as he can for the United States, allies be damned. And if he and his henchmen can benefit along the way, so much the better. Call it corruption or cronyism; Trump no longer even bothers to hide it.
Canada’s National Observer saw some of this coming when Trump was reelected in November. So, we partnered with DeSmog, an international climate media outlet that specializes in cutting through the disinformation fog. Together, we set out to uncover the power and influence behind Trump’s throne and the spillover effect on Canadian politics.
Huge influence is being wielded by Elon Musk and other so-called Tech Bros, but Big Oil and Gas also have the president’s ear and have upended U.S. clean energy transition plans. Trump’s “drill-baby-drill” promises are music to the ears of these corporate giants.
The trade attack by the U.S. also has also reinvigorated discussion about the possibility of new oil pipelines here at home as a way to negate our current reliance on cross-border routes. It may be that at least in the short term, we will need new ways to transport oil from Western Canada to the east. But the danger of investing heavily in new fossil fuel infrastructure is it would provide an incentive to keep them as a prime energy source. Burning more fossil fuels will mean even higher temperatures and climate destruction.
Over the next weeks, CNO reporter Marc Fawcett-Atkinson and DeSmog’s Geoff Dembicki will bring you stories while Sandra Bartlett, CNO’s managing producer of podcasts, will deliver a podcast series connecting the dots between money, power and politics.
—Adrienne Tanner, Editor-in-Chief
Top Story
Remember when Jordan Peterson was a Canadian university professor whose teachings veered so off course and views deemed so extreme it cost him his job? He’s come a long, long way since then. Peterson is now the darling of far-right political movements that are gaining international traction. CNO disinformation specialist Marc Fawcett-Atkinson recently attended Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference. ARC was formed as a right-wing intellectual and political hub its founders claim should replace the World Economic Forum. Disciples tend to be Christian, anti-immigration, downplay or deny the existential danger of climate change and rail against so-called “wokeism.”
Quote of the week
“She’s actually going down for a fundraiser with the far right, which puts her in a unique place in Canadian political life," Keith Brownsey, a political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s participation in a fundraiser for PragerU.
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👎🏽Alberta Premier Danielle Smith isn’t winning a lot of friends this week — at least not among Canadians. The oil-boosting premier is headed to Florida to cohost a fundraiser for PragerU, a media platform that promotes “pro-American values” and is funded by fossil fuel interests. This would be questionable at any time. But it’s particularly galling at a moment when Smith’s country is the target of punitive tariffs and annexation threats from the U.S. — and Smith’s cohost at the PragerU event is none other than Ben Shapiro, who has joked about the lack of humour among Canadians over threats from the U.S. President Donald Trump that Canada should become the 51st state.
Jeremy Appel reports
🌲The days when Canada’s thriving forests sucked up more carbon dioxide than they emit through fire and logging are long gone. Climate change is causing more frequent megafires that turn burning forests into CO2 emitters that speed global warming. Meanwhile, logging, which also releases the carbon stored in wood when the timber eventually decays, continues apace. The result? Our greatest carbon pollution scrubber is now a giant carbon polluter.
Charts and graphs by Barry Saxifrage visually tell the story.
😟A plan by Northvolt to build one of North America’s largest battery factories in Quebec is in deep trouble. Northvolt’s parent company in Sweden has filed for bankruptcy, leaving Canada searching for a new buyer for the $7-billion plant. The plant, designed to produce enough batteries each year to power a million EVs, was billed as a cornerstone of Canada’s $100-billion EV strategy. Innovation minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the search is on for new buyers. But China need not apply.
Darius Snieckus reports
👍🏼B.C. scored a recent appeals court win upholding the right of B.C. Hydro to limit the amount of energy supplied to a cryptocurrency mining firm. Cryptocurrency mines require massive computer power and vast amounts of electricity at a time when the province’s other electricity needs are rising. Conifer Timber Ltd., a forestry company in Prince George with high-performance computing facilities used for cryptocurrency mining, wanted unrestricted access to power. However the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that BC Hydro has the right to act in the public interest by curtailing supply to protect ratepayers from onerous rate hikes. Other Canadian provinces have similar limits in place.
Justin Fiacconi reports