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Polls have done an about-face in the region, which experts say is fuelled by a historic lean toward the party amid threats from the outside, while the longstanding desire for change has been satiated by a new Liberal leader.

Most recent polling found the Liberal Party has a 21 percentage-point lead in the region, which includes Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Nationally, the Conservatives and the Liberals are neck-and-neck.

The Liberals had fallen behind in popularity over the past two years. The party currently holds 24 of 32 seats across the Atlantic provinces, a decline from the 32 seats it captured in the 2015 election.

The Jays' season opens Thursday March 27, hosting the Orioles in the first of a four-game homestand.

It should be an interesting year. Many think the front office will react based on early season performance; i.e., acquire more talent or sell off pieces if the team is good or bad, respectively. Vladdy's in a walk year, as is Bo. Varsho has 1 more year of arbitration. People around the organization seem to think President, Mark Shapiro, has been extended based on his language in recent press conferences, although that has not been announced. Will Max Sherzer's thumb significantly limit the innings he pitches? How will Manoah look? Who's the fourth best hitter on the team? There's a lot to keep an eye on.

Many think Boston's got the best team in the AL East, following by NYY and Baltimore, followed by Tampa and Toronto (ie, 3 layers). Consensus also seems to be that the Jays have an outside chance at a wild card spot.

I want to see them back in the playoffs. I hope it's an entertaining year. Let's go Blue Birds!!!

A forensic analysis of Statistics Canada data on the composition of recent inflation confirms that fossil fuels haven’t protected Canadians from affordability problems. In fact, fossil fuels were the biggest single cause of those problems.

The 2022 spike in global oil prices, channeled immediately into higher prices for fossil fuel products sold in Canada, was by far the biggest single factor setting off post-pandemic inflation. From January 2021 through June 2022 (when inflation peaked), consumer prices for fossil fuels grew 81 per cent. Prices for fossil fuels used as inputs by businesses grew even more, by 127 per cent.

The direct costs of higher fossil fuels caused almost half of all consumer price inflation in that time—and more than half of inflation over the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target. Add in the indirect costs faced by businesses in other industries (from agriculture to transportation to construction) for their fossil fuel purchases, all passed on to consumers, and the dominant role of fossil fuels in the inflationary surge is clear.

This will be shocking news to Canadians who blamed the carbon tax, or immigrants, or Justin Trudeau personally, for inflation and affordability challenges after the pandemic. It’s no accident that vested interests—from the oil industry to the Conservative Party—have tried to divert Canadians’ righteous anger toward those scapegoats. They don’t want us to know where the true problem originated.

Since that price spike did not reflect fundamental economic factors (like supply and demand, or cost of production), it fed directly into the profits of petroleum corporations around the world—including in Canada. Canadian oil and gas operating profits grew by $151 billion (compared to 2019 levels) from 2022 through 2024.

While the pace of disastrous change in the U.S. is dizzying, we should have seen it coming. Billionaires and anti-democratic libertarians have been building up to this for decades. Much of it stems from the most profitable enterprise in history: fossil fuels.

In a chapter on taxes in her book At a Loss for Words, former CBC journalist Carol Off details efforts going back to the 1960s by “dark money” forces led by fossil fuel industrialists to overturn regulations, especially environmental, and remove barriers to companies by having the U.S. Supreme Court rule that corporations have the same rights as people, among other measures. This has substantially widened the gap between rich and poor that had been shrinking since President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1930s New Deal. The richest one per cent now have more wealth than 95 per cent of the world’s population.

Referencing research by Democracy in Chains author Nancy MacLean, Off writes of “a small band of brothers” who in the 1970s created a “complete blueprint for a post-democracy world” that people in high places would put into play. The movement was sparked by political economist James Buchanan, a pro-segregationist who believed democracy and equality were incompatible with capitalism.

And so, when a narrative emerged from corporate media and analysts that Trudeau had to go because he had moved too far to the left, I did a spit take: What in the universe are they talking about?

The members of Parliament (MPs) who made this claim mostly spoke under a cloak of anonymity. Global News’ David Akin reported, “Almost all of the MPs Global News spoke to believe Trudeau has moved the party too far to the left and that shift has played a key role in the decline of the Liberals.” Akin didn’t say who or explain how these MPs were defining “the left.”

How can it be that a prime minister whose tenure saw record-breaking corporate performance paired with widening social inequality is also “too far to the left”? What kind of left-wing doctrine supports extreme income inequality and a tax structure that has failed to redistribute profits?

No one could reasonably believe that Trudeau’s economic policy was too far to the left. What they’re really saying is that Trudeau’s vibes were too far to the left.

https://mastodon.world/@BrianJopek/113816404576409938

In the worst region, bordering BC and the Yukon, extreme conditions increased by 1.8 days every year over two decades.

The labour board rules workers in different locations can bargain toward one contract covering them all.