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Jul 11 2025

The Roundup: New threats. NL Chaos. CBC v Dhanraj.

FRI JUL 11 2025
David Akin's Roundup
New threats. NL Chaos. CBC v Dhanraj.
Canada
Trump threatens new 35% tariff on Canadian goods, effective Aug. 1
In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would impose a 35 per cent tariff on imports from Canada next month. [Global]
A Liberal win in this sprawling rural riding would be one in a trillion. Great deep dive from Dave on this riding which would likely never have received this much attention without Poilievre running here. [Daveberta]

On Thursday, the NDP’s Federal Council met to ratify the rules governing the 2026 leadership race that will see the next leader of the party elected. [Canada's NDP]

Jurisdictions participating in the HAF issued permits for 31% more units and saw 5% more housing starts than their 2018 to 2023 average. This was both more permits and more starts than non-participating jurisdictions. Changes are not consistent across participating jurisdictions ... [Parliamentary Budget Officer]
👆First female commander of Canada's Air Force. Good luck, Lt-Gen Speiser-Blanchet! - DA

On June 26, 2025, in the City of Windsor, Ontario, the [Commissioner of Canada Elections] laid three charges. The charges relate to an investigation into an individual who acted as the official agent of a [People's Party of Canada] candidate during the 2021 federal general election. Under the Act, the individual is accused of submitting an incomplete campaign return and depositing an election campaign reimbursement cheque issued by Elections Canada in their personal bank account. The individual is also charged under the Criminal Code for committing theft of a value of more than $5,000 while acting in their role of official agent. [Commissioner of Canada Elections]
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The Provinces
Chaotic 2021 N.L. election saw votes cast using sticky notes, people sending selfies to get ballots
Votes were cast using sticky notes, people tried registering for ballot kits using selfies as ID and more than 500,000 envelopes had to be ordered at the 11th hour as officials in Newfoundland and Labrador scrambled to switch to a provincewide mail-in election following a COVID-19 outbreak in 2021. [CBC]

Verdun Borough Councillor Enrique Machado has left the Projet Montréal caucus and won't seek re-election after he made disparaging comments on social media about Indigenous people. [CBC]
Aurora
Elsewhere
👆Fascinating thread. Recommend clicking through (Sorry: You're going to X). - DA
Media
Who gets 'platformed' by CBC News — and why
Brodie Fenlon: In the past year or so, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people writing to complain about how CBC News “platforms” certain viewpoints, people and organizations in our journalism. The author is CBC's editor-in-chief.  [CBC]
"We intend to commence a human rights lawsuit," Dhanraj's lawyer Kathryn Marhsall said. [National Post]
Note to Readers
A reminder that the headlines and excerpts here are written, for the most part,  by the publishers of the item to which I’ve linked. If I’ve written the headline and excerpt, I’ll take authorship by finishing the note with a bold - DA. If I’ve inserted my own comment in an excerpt written by the publisher, I’ll put that in italics. The stamps scans at the bottom are from my personal collection and I write the stamp blurbs. Who am I? I’m the Chief Political Correspondent for Global News. My office is on Parliament Hill where I’ve been covering federal and provincial elections and politics since 2005. You can always find my disclosure statement and biography at www.davidakin.com.

This newsletter is produced independently of my employer and has essentially taken the place in my news ecosystem that Twitter had prior to Musk’s acquisition of that platform: i.e a place to share items of interest to those parliamentarians, political staff, public and government relations pros, academics, and others who followed me and interacted with me on X. I once had 100K+ followers on Twitter. Then Musk happened. I made my account “private”. I now post on that platform infrequently and I’m down to 95K followers. Why am I still there at all? Until all or most MPs and the federal government drops use of X, I have strong professional reasons to stay there. Prime Ministers and ministers continue to make announcements via X. Indeed, X was where PM Carney first responded late yesterday to Trump's most recent tariff threat.

Now, while I have you: Can I ask for a little financial help? You’re getting this newsletter 7 days a week and there’s no charge. But I do incur costs to produce and distribute what amounts to about 60,000 e-mails a month. And I produce this on my own time.  There's 2,200 subscribers to this newsletter but only about two per cent help contribute financially. So let me ask: can you chip in as little as $3 or  $5 a month? Click through to my Patreon account if you can. If you prefer to make a one-time donation — great!  — send an e-transfer to jda@davidakin.com. And if you wish to join our friends at Aurora Strategy as a sponsor of this newsletter - to whom we’re very grateful for the support —  please get in touch! -DA
Science and Technology

The 245 extensions, available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, have racked up nearly 909,000 downloads, John Tuckner of SecurityAnnex reported. The extensions serve a wide range of purposes, including managing bookmarks and clipboards, boosting speaker volumes, and generating random numbers. The common thread among all of them: They incorporate MellowTel-js, an open source JavaScript library that allows developers to monetize their extensions. [Ars Technica]
The Calendar
  • 1130 ET : Rome - Finance Min François-Philippe Champagne speaks to reporters.
  • 1230 ET : Charlottetown, - Energy and Natural Resources Min Tim Hodgson speaks to reporters after meeting with provincial and territorial counterparts.
  • 1315 ET : Ottawa - Industry Min Melanie Joly speaks to reporters.
  • 1400 ET : Charlottetown, - Energy and Natural Resources Min Tim Hodgson makes a funding announcement
As a subscriber once asked about this: All items in The Calendar are Ottawa time, i.e. ET. 
Issued this day ...
… in 2003. Sc 1991. Vancouver 2010. Design: Katalin Kovats and Stuart Bradley Ash. Issued on the day Vancouver was announced as the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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