Do endorsements like Mike Myers 'Elbows Up' video with Mark Carney influence voters?
The Canadian icon and lyricist behind timeless gems like the song 'Old Man,' penned an open letter to Carney in the lead up to Monday's federal election. Young told Carney he supports him and exhorted the Liberal leader to use his 'chops' and his 'guts' to fight for Canada's future. Carney is the best person to lead Canada as it faces 'threats to its very existence' from the U.S., Young wrote.
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an hour ago
What the U.S. dairy industry really wants from Canada
U.S. dairy producers insist they're not looking for Canada to dismantle its supply management system, but they do want Canada to follow the letter and spirit of the existing deal that governs the dairy trade between the two countries. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted Canada as unfair and ripping us off with massive dairy tariffs, in a way that isn't fully accurate. However, senior figures in the U.S. dairy industry are concerned there's also some misrepresentation happening north of the border, creating a false perception of what U.S. producers are actually seeking in terms of access to the Canadian market. Shawna Morris, executive vice-president for trade policy and global affairs with the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, says it's not true that her industry wants Canada to abandon its system for protecting the dairy sector. We've never been out to eliminate Canada's supply management, said Morris in an interview from her office in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington. It's much easier to create a boogeyman and fear-mongering around that being the goal of the Americans, but that's certainly not what our industry has advocated. Enlarge image (new window) Donald Trump dances as he departs a September 2024 campaign event at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, Wis. The top dairy-producing state in the U.S. has also been a key swing state in recent presidential elections, decided by less than one percentage point in each election since 2016. Photo: Associated Press / Alex Brandon Becky Rasdall Vargas, senior vice-president of trade and workforce policy at the International Dairy Foods Association lobby group, says she recognizes the Trump administration has been fairly abrasive in its tone toward Canada. But at the same time, I think we feel pretty ignored by Canada in terms of our legitimate trade concerns. Two main trade irritants According to Morris and Rasdall Vargas, the U.S. industry has two main irritants with Canada: how the Canadian government allocates the existing quotas for tariff-free imports of dairy products, and how Canadian milk producers dump cheap milk protein into the international market. The import quotas negotiated under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA, which Americans call USMCA) are designed to give U.S. producers tariff-free access worth roughly 3.5 per cent of Canada's domestic demand for dairy products. Three per cent is pretty limited, said Morris. It's certainly not a situation where our industry is gonna come in and take over the Canadian dairy market. How much U.S. milk comes into Canada? See interactive chart here (new window) CUSMA sets import quotas for 14 categories of dairy products. That allows an annual volume of each category (new window) to enter Canada tariff-free, and any imports exceeding the quota would get hit with sky-high tariffs of 200 per cent or more. Canada's rationale for this is ensuring the domestic dairy industry thrives by effectively capping how much the U.S. can export each year, preventing cheaper American products from dominating the market. The U.S. government supports its dairy sector with hefty direct subsidies (new window) . The U.S. dairy industry says it's not asking for Canada's quotas to be increased or the tariff rates to be decreased. Rather, it wants changes to how Ottawa allocates the quotas: more specifically, who gets them. Big Canadian dairies dominate import quotas Much of the quota volume is allocated to major Canadian-owned dairy processing companies such as Saputo (new window) and Agropur (new window) . Industry analysts on both sides of the border say such companies have little incentive to import U.S. products that would compete with their own. According to the U.S. producers, this restricts their access to the Canadian market. Their evidence for that claim: Canadian trade statistics (new window) showing tariff-free imports from the U.S. have almost never reached the quota limits in any category. WATCH | What Donald Trump gets wrong (and right) about Canada's dairy tariffs: For five years, Canada's been playing games with these tariff rate quotas, said Morris. That's a lot of volume that should have been able to reach Canadian consumers. Despite those complaints, Canada's imports of U.S. dairy products have risen significantly since the CUSMA quotas took effect in 2020. Those imports totalled $897 million in 2024, according to Statistics Canada data (new window) , more than four times the value of imports in any year before 2020. Trade certainly should be far higher than it is, said Morris. That was what USMCA promised to deliver and quite frankly has fallen far short. A key change the U.S. producers would like to see is for Canada to grant retailers and the food-service sector a share of the tariff-free quotas, allowing them to import some U.S. dairy products directly. The U.S. industry also wants Canada to be far stricter in taking away allocations from importers that fail to use their full quota in a given year. While a bill that Parliament passed in June (new window) bars Ottawa from agreeing to raise the dairy import quotas or lower the tariffs, it doesn't prevent other changes to the system, leaving Canadian trade negotiators some wiggle room. WATCH | Canada's supply management system, explained: 'An inherent mismatch' The other chief complaint from the U.S. focuses on Canada's cheap exports of milk proteins, also described as milk solids, such as skim milk powder. The Americans argue that because Canada's supply management system keeps domestic prices artificially high, Canada can sell its excess production of milk proteins internationally at artificially low prices, undercutting the competition. It frankly makes no sense that you could have one of the highest milk prices in the world and yet be exporting dairy protein at some of the lowest prices globally, said Morris. That's just an inherent mismatch. Canada's pricing of milk solids for the export market is currently the subject of a U.S. International Trade Commission investigation, ordered by (new window) the Trump administration, with a hearing scheduled for Monday (new window) . Dairy Farmers of Canada declined a request for comment on the case. During the recent election, all major parties expressed support for supply management and stated that it would be off the table in upcoming trade negotiations, the organization said in a news release (new window) in June. The Trump administration is not the first to accuse Canada of breaching CUSMA terms on dairy. Enlarge image (new window) Cows wait to be milked at a dairy farm in Granby, Que., on Feb. 5. Photo: The Canadian Press / Christinne Muschi Joe Biden's administration twice took legal action over Canada's handling of the dairy quotas, claiming it was unfairly undermining (new window) U.S. access to the Canadian market. The U.S. won the first dispute (new window) , which it launched in 2021, but failed (new window) to win the second, in 2023. Now in 2025, Rasdall Vargas says her industry wants Canada to be willing to hear its true concerns and do something about them. Ultimately, when we have a trading partner who isn't taking our concerns seriously until they're threatened to do so, it's also not a good feeling from our side, she said. Whatever anyone thinks about Trump's bluster on Canadian dairy, Rasdall Vargas believes it's having an impact. I think that's the president's way of having our back, probably more abrasively than Canada would like, she said. I will say I've never seen Canadian dairy interests take U.S. concerns about Canadian dairy policy more seriously than in the past six months. Mike Crawley (new window) · CBC News · Senior reporter Mike Crawley has covered Ontario politics for CBC News since 2009. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in B.C., spent six years as a freelance journalist in various parts of Africa, then joined the CBC in 2005. Mike was born and raised in Saint John, N.B. Follow Mike Crawley on Twitter (new window)
Montreal Gazette
an hour ago
- Montreal Gazette
Hanes: Can courts save us from the existential threat of climate change?
By Just before Earth Day in 2019, a group of young Quebecers gathered in the Old Montreal offices of a top law firm to announce they were suing the federal government for climate negligence. All then under the age of 35, the plaintiffs accused elected officials of mortgaging their futures by failing to live up to Canada's commitments under the Paris Accord. The suit, which sought damages for younger generations who will bear the disproportionate burden of a warming planet, was a Canadian first. It followed a new path being set in the U.S. and around the world by young people seeking legal remedies to force their governments to address the emergency. But for the most part, the courts have so far declined to intervene. Quebec Superior Court refused to certify the class action attempt launched that day six years ago in Montreal. The Quebec Court of Appeal later said it wasn't its job to tell legislators what to do and dismissed the charge of discrimination on the basis of age. The Supreme Court of Canada eventally decided not even to hear the case. Courts in the U.S., Ontario and Sweden have come to similar conclusions, although a Swiss court did hand a legal victory last year to older women finding government inaction on climate change was a violation of human rights. The wheels of justice turn slowly, even as the planet burns. But last week, the United Nations' top court offered new hope for those still determined to pursue legal avenues to fight the existential crisis. The International Court of Justice in The Hague recognized a ' clean, healthy and sustainable environment' is a human right. It issued a legal opinion countries have an obligation to act against this threat to humankind and failing to do so could be a breach of international law. The IJC also said those most harmed by global warming may be entitled to damages from those most responsible for the emissions that are heating the planet. The 500-page decision is not binding, but it could, nevertheless, breathe new life into climate lawsuits, despite the reticence of domestic and national courts to hold elected governments to account. At the time the young Quebecers filed their original suit, the world was finally waking up to the warnings from scientists and environmentalists that had been ignored for decades. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had just published a grim report finding the planet was warming at a faster rate than expected and the most serious effects would be felt at a lower temperature threshold than previously thought. Even if world leaders and the public should have been paying attention much earlier, the report was a wake-up call that snapped many people out of their torpor and denial. Suddenly, climate issues became a mainstream priority. Since then, climate change has become a tangible reality — both close to home and around the world. Two summers ago, Montrealers choked on smoke carried by wildfires incinerating northern Quebec. Last summer, the city was flooded after the remnants of Hurricane Debby drifted inland. Iconic Jasper in Alberta and star-studded Los Angeles have burned. Temperature records have been shattered around the globe. Extreme weather has become a common occurrence. And yet, faced with all the tragic prognostications coming true, commitments to climate action have waned as other major threats to economic stability, democracy and peace have grown. The U.S. under President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Accord and vowed to ramp up fossil fuel production. In this context, industry has eased up on their sustainability efforts. Canada has wavered, too, even under leaders who profess to care about the environment. If Canada's measures to tackle its emissions were inadequate before, Prime Minister Mark Carney put them in reverse last spring, caving to pressure to scrap the consumer carbon tax because it was 'unpopular.' Once a UN special envoy on climate finance, Carney is now looking at building pipelines and deferring zero-emissions vehicle mandates in response to Trump's tariffs and annexation belligerence. Climate has become an inconvenient afterthought. These immediate challenges must be addressed, of course, but not at the expense of climate action — or Canadian children's futures. The courts in Quebec and Canada may have previously declined to provide redress for the generations who will endure the most significant consequences of a phenomenon they did little to cause and have been powerless to stop. They have shied away from holding government accountable for contributing to the man-made catastrophe upon us. The IJC advisory ruling may not mean much in terms of setting legal precedent in Quebec or Canada. But it should serve a timely reminder today's young adults, teens, children and babies still have a right to a liveable world — no matter what other current crises Canada is facing.
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Toronto's top patty: Who serves the best Jamaican patties in the city? Vote now in round 1
There's no denying it: Torontonians love their Jamaican patties. Whether it's grabbing one on the go at a subway station, stocking up at a bakery or supermarket, or fuelling up before dancing down Lake Shore Boulevard during the Toronto Caribbean Carnival parade, patties are a city staple. To celebrate the golden, flaky goodness, the Star is inviting readers to vote for their favourites in our Patty Week Bracket. This isn't a definitive list of every patty maker in the city, but we hope it prompts new discoveries, inspires folks to shout out their go-to patty place and sparks a few lively debates.
