dailynewsnblog
Good evening, readers.
We begin this evening’s newsletter with a feature on Carney’s new electricity strategy.
If you were watching the Winter Olympics in Ontario, you’re likely to have come across the Ford government’s TV commercials touting the plan to protect the province against U.S. tariffs.
The taxpayer-funded ad campaign showed images of highways and pipelines, along with the building of a nuclear facility promising high quality jobs.
There’s a reason the commercial showed the inside of a power plant instead of smaller-scale contractors working to install solar panels or heat pumps.
“Supply side is politically compelling because building new, big, clean energy projects responds to the moment we’re in where Canadians are looking for economic security and future prosperity,” says Amber Bennett, head of Re.Climate, a centre for research and strategy on climate change communication.
The Carney government has leaned into this messaging from the get-go.
“We are going to build great things for Canadians, on a scale and at a speed never seen before – and this is just the beginning,” promised Prime Minister Mark Carney as he began referring projects to the newly created Major Projects Office last fall.
This vision is set to shape the upcoming federal strategy on how to double electricity generation by 2050 to keep pace with projected demand.
That strategy has, so far, been kept under wraps.
Find out more from Aya Dufour.
Prime Minister Mark Carney landed in India on Friday, where he will continue his government’s ongoing efforts to reset a fractured diplomatic relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Carney and Modi are each looking to decrease their countries’ dependence on trade with the United States under President Donald Trump.
“Both for India and for Canada, the big picture is one of diversification and reducing overreliance on the U.S.,” Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said.
“There is definitely sort of a Trump accelerator in play here, because both sides are moving quicker than they have in the past when it comes to forging partnerships and making deals.”
Since becoming prime minister, Carney has been criss-crossing the globe in an effort to strengthen relations with other countries. His speech to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month — in which he urged middle powers to work together to counter great power coercion — earned headlines around the world.
Modi recently signed one of the largest trade deals in history. India’s trade pact with the European Union covers roughly two billion people.
“The same logic as what is driving Prime Minister Carney is also driving Prime Minister Modi,” said Sushant Singh, a lecturer on South Asian Studies at Yale University.
CP has more.
A Nova Scotia manager of Jordan’s Principle says Ottawa needs to offer more sustainable funding and remove burdensome rules to ensure First Nations children have access to public services.
Jordan’s Principle Unama’ki Manager Kelly Holley said she welcomed recently announced new funding but called for changes to address concerns from Indigenous communities.
“We’re pleased with the announcement, but we need sustainable funding,” she told iPolitics in an interview.
“We need the Indigenous Services Canada to remove the unnecessary bureaucratic red tape that they put in place ever since Jordan’s principle began.”
The comments come after the federal government announced on Thursday $1.55 billion in funding for Jordan’s Principle, a legal principle that states First Nations children must have equal access to social and health services.
This one’s from Sydney Ko.
In Other Headlines
Internationally
The Pakistan defence minister’s declaration of “open war” between his country and Afghanistan seemed both unexpected and inevitable.
It’s unexpected because Pakistan and the Taliban were once close allies. Pakistan is one of only three countries to recognize the first Taliban government that seized power in Afghanistan in 1996, and Pakistan welcomed its return in 2021.
And it’s inevitable because the two Islamic neighbours share a complicated history that has deteriorated rapidly over the last five years, leading to military strikes in early October of last year and an unsteady ceasefire that has now collapsed completely.
CBC has the report.
Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he shares the “red lines” set by rival Anthropic restricting how the military uses AI models, amid Anthropic’s escalating feud with the Pentagon.
The Department of Defense has given Anthropic a deadline of 5:01 p.m. ET today to drop restrictions on its AI model, Claude, from being used for domestic mass surveillance or entirely autonomous weapons. The Pentagon has said it doesn’t intend to use AI in those ways, but requires AI companies to allow their models to be used “for all lawful purposes.”
Defense officials say if Anthropic doesn’t comply, it could lose its contract worth as much as $200 million with the U.S. military.
The government has also threatened to invoke the Korean War-era Defense Production Act (DPA) to compel Anthropic to allow use of its tools and has, at the same time, warned it would label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” potentially blacklisting it from lucrative government contracts.
Find out more from NPR.
In Other International Headlines
The Kicker
Happy Friday!
Next week, our very own Aya Dufour will be heading to Toronto for the Premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention.
She will be missed in the office, but our temporary loss is your temporary gain.
Want to arrange a coffee chat? You can reach her at [email protected].
Have a great weekend!
