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National Post
25 minutes ago
- National Post
"Go Habs Go: Quebec language watchdog now says it's OK to use 'go' to support sports teams
MONTREAL — Quebec's language watchdog has changed its tune on whether it's acceptable to use the word 'go' to cheer on sports teams. Article content In a new guideline posted in its online dictionary, the Office quebecois de la langue francaise says that while 'allez' is the preferred term, it's now 'partially legitimized' to use the English word to show encouragement. Article content The flip-flop comes after the office took a hard line with Montreal's transit agency, pressing it for months in 2024 to scrub the word 'go' from the electronic signs on more than 1,000 city buses. Article content The watchdog confirmed it had changed its position after The Canadian Press obtained a series of emails through access to information legislation, revealing it gave the transit agency a green light to use 'go' in June. Article content The reversal followed a public outcry on the eve of the Montreal Canadiens' first playoff home game in April, when the Montreal Gazette reported how the transit agency had replaced 'Go! Canadiens Go!' with 'Allez! Canadiens Allez!' to stay on the watchdog's good side. Article content The revelations prompted French-language Minister Jean-Francois Roberge to intervene, declaring that the expression 'Go Habs Go' is part of Quebec culture, and that any future complaints about the slogan would be dismissed. Article content That statement verged on political interference and placed the watchdog in a difficult position, according to one expert. Article content 'The office had to respond to a political order,' said Benoit Melancon, emeritus professor of French literature at Universite de Montreal. 'The minister said, 'You will accept this,' so the office had to find a way to accept it.' Article content Article content The transit agency says it hasn't decided whether it will put the word 'go' back on its bus displays. On Wednesday, a spokesperson said the agency is now 'beginning its reflection on the subject.' Article content In an April statement, Dominique Malack, the president of the language office, agreed that the slogan 'Go Habs Go' is anchored in Quebec's history. Still, she went on to say that the word 'go' is an anglicism, and that public bodies have an obligation to use 'exemplary' French, which includes using only French words in their signage. Article content Emails released to The Canadian Press show the transit agency asked the watchdog in May, following the uproar, for authorization to start using 'go' again. A month later, on June 6, the language office directed transit officials to its new entry for the word 'allez' in its online dictionary of terminology, a reference guide for the proper use of French in Quebec. Article content The page notes how the anglicism 'go' has been used in Quebec since at least the 1980s and is 'well-established' in common parlance. 'It is considered to be partially legitimized,' the entry says.
National Post
35 minutes ago
- National Post
Colby Cosh: Carney's surrender to Trump was inevitable
One funny thing about the 'elbows up!' slogan of the New Canadian Nationalism is that in real life it's pretty hard to hit yourself with your own elbow. But in the actual policy sphere, most of what we might do to put our elbows up against the United States involves self-harm or, at a minimum, self-denial. Article content On Sunday the Department of Finance issued a terse circular announcing that the Digital Services Tax announced in 2021 would not, as originally planned, begin to be collected on Monday. The DST (R.I.P.) was designed to exclusively target Canadian revenues of American 'web giants' that provide online services, advertising, or streaming content. As the Finance memo observes, it is being dropped at the last minute in the hope of restarting negotiations with the U.S. on an updated version of continental free trade. Article content The idea of a DST was framed by the Trudeau government as a moral necessity of the 21st century: something had to be done about foreign vampires like Netflix and Google which had built businesses with millions of Canadian customers out of digital ether, but paid no tax in Canada. Everybody recognized, however, that much of the cost of the tax was bound to come out of the pockets of the customers rather than the vampires. Article content Article content It's inherently difficult to know how the tax incidence would have worked out, because the process of digital price discovery isn't especially mature: some of these companies are still figuring out their own optimum, revenue-maximizing price points in plain sight. But from a selfish point of view, Canadian consumers, considered strictly as such, can only feel relief at the sudden abandonment of the DST. Article content Is this a craven surrender on the part of the post-Trudeau Liberals? Well, this is the problem with interpreting everything in brute terms of animalistic personal combat, isn't it? The governments of the developed nations largely agree (perhaps against the interests of their own citizens) that there ought to be an international framework for digital-services taxation, and the OECD reached an agreement that nobody would run wild and introduce their own digital taxes until the issue could be sorted out collectively. Article content From that neoliberal-nerd point of view, Canada went rogue when it announced a homebrewed DST — one that would have had a nasty retroactive effect, that was designed specifically only to collect from large American companies with recognizable names, and that didn't address double-taxation issues. And let's recall that Joe Biden was still president when this happened. Article content Article content It's worth noting that this isn't just a question of playing chess against Donald Trump. Canada was really forced to withdraw the DST by the terms of the Trump-designed One Big Beautiful Bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May, and now before the Senate. The OBBB reflects the fact that there's genuine bipartisan distaste in the U.S. toward the digital taxes hypothecated by Canada and already in effect in some other countries; it allows for tax-withholding countermeasures against countries that impose 'unfair' taxes on U.S. digital companies, countermeasures whose size could easily have dwarfed the relatively meagre revenues from the DST. In other words, if the government hadn't pulled the plug on the DST, we might have quickly found out how a one-armed man does in a battle of elbows. Article content
Globe and Mail
36 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Defense Spending and Trade Reform Could Fuel These ETFs
Against the backdrop of trade negotiations with the U.S., the recently elected Mark Carney government announced the passage of a bill that will strengthen the Canadian economy. On Thursday, June 26th, Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, received Royal Assent. The bill is the realization of Prime Minister Carney's campaign promise to promote free trade in Canada by Canada Day, by introducing legislation to eliminate all federal barriers to interprovincial trade and labor mobility, and to remove all federal exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. As stated in the bill's press release, the One Canadian Economy Act serves a two-fold purpose: Expedite nation-building projects (Building Canada Act): Streamline federal review and approval processes to increase regulatory certainty, attract capital, strengthen industries, and enhance sovereignty and resilience while protecting the environment and respecting Indigenous rights. Remove federal barriers to internal trade and labour mobility (the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act): Accept comparable provincial or territorial regulations, where they exist, as meeting federal requirements for the movement of goods, services, and labour within Canada. This will enable more goods, services, workers, and businesses to move freely across provinces and territories. In summary, the bill aims to promote economic development and growth within Canada. As noted by Statistics Canada, approximately $532 billion worth of goods and services were traded across provincial and territorial borders in 2023, accounting for 18.1% of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP). Revitalizing Canadian Manufacturing The manufacturing industry is a vital part of Canada's internal trade, accounting for one-third (33.3%) of the total trade between provinces and territories in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. However, less than one-fifth (18.6%) of the industry's output was used domestically, highlighting the significance of U.S. trade to the sector. The importance of the U.S. economy to Canadian manufacturing was emphasized in a recent National Bank of Canada Financial Markets memo, which noted that merchandise exports to the U.S. have declined by approximately 26% over the past three months. Due to this weakness, the manufacturing sector experienced a third consecutive decline in real sales in April, and new orders, following the same trend, show no signs of short-term recovery. Both indicators were at their lowest levels since 2022 in April. Recently, Prime Minister Carney has committed Canada to a substantial increase in military spending, as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members have agreed to invest 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually on core defence requirements and defence- and security-related expenditure by 2035. For Canada, this amount would be approximately $150 billion annually on defence-related priorities. The rise in defense spending, along with efforts to reduce the country's internal trade barriers, could bolster the manufacturing sector. As noted in a recent National Bank of Canada Financial Markets memo, Canada's global manufacturing presence has been steadily declining since military spending last reached the 2.0% level. The new NATO requirements will necessitate a major shift for Canada to reindustrialize, leveraging an underused energy advantage to revive manufacturing. A recent example where the prospect of increased defense spending boosted a nation's economic outlook is Germany, where a newly elected government enacted a fiscal plan allowing defense spending in excess of 1% of GDP to become exempt from the debt brake, Germany's constitutional limit on structural deficits. Investing in Manufacturing For Canadian investors seeking exposure to the Canadian manufacturing sector, both the iShares S&P/TSX Capped Materials Index ETF (Ticker: XMA), and BMO Equal Weight Industrials Index ETF (Ticker: ZIN) are options that offer such exposure. As a baseline, understanding the sector exposures that these solutions offer is important. The Materials Sector includes companies that manufacture chemicals, construction materials, forest products, glass, paper, and related packaging products, as well as metals, minerals, and mining companies, including steel producers. The Industrials Sector comprises manufacturers and distributors of capital goods such as aerospace & defense, building products, electrical equipment, machinery, and companies that offer construction & engineering services. It also includes providers of commercial & professional services, including printing, environmental and facilities services, office services & supplies, security & alarm services, human resource & employment services, research & consulting services. Additionally, it covers companies that provide transportation services. Given the above, XMA aims to replicate the performance of the S&P/TSX Capped Materials Index. Conversely, ZIN aims to replicate the performance of the Solactive Equal Weight Canada Industrials Index. Please note this article is for information purposes only and does not in any way constitute investment advice. It is essential that you seek advice from a registered financial professional prior to making any investment decision.
