Wednesday Night #2320

Canada
GO LIBS GO!
A clean sweep of the federal by-elections and a majority government
Liberals claim victory in three federal by-elections
PM Carney’s popularity (at home and abroad) has only increased since he pulled the Canadian team out of the trade negotiations with the US. Writing in The Guardian, Robert Reich says “no one should expect an easy resolution to what may go down in history as the stupidest of all the stupid foreign policies Trump has initiated. And given the extent of Trump’s dumb international moves, that is saying something.”

Global Economy, Trade & Transportation
The G20 Finance Ministers meeting
Rather than dwelling on the trade war issues, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, headed to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, with Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada. While the Department of Finance press release underlines the success of the minister’s meetings (“Canada is building a stronger and more resilient economy by forging strategic partnerships with like-minded partners abroad”), media reports indicate considerable tension thanks to the inclusion of Russia. (U.S. inviting Russia to G20 caused ‘a lot of discomfort’, Champagne says) We wonder how the Europeans and Canadians kept a straight face when “Asked by reporters Monday about Russia’s inclusion in the gathering, Trump defended the decision. ‘We like getting along with everybody,’ he told reporters. ‘One of the reasons that I’m so successful — that I get along with everybody.’ ” (See Long reads/videos for a decidedly different view of the conduct of the US representatives Tense G20 summit ends without a deal, U.S. ‘outrages’ allies by inviting Russia)
In contrast, the concurrent Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting seems to have run smoothly, despite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s televised calling out of President Putin directly, telling him to end his war against Ukraine.

US v Iran
The latest violence came after a monthlong lull in fighting. Fighting has escalated since the American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, saying Iran was planning to use them to lay mines. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan that were intercepted.
American military resources are stretched and political pressure in Washington is mounting, while Iran’s economy has been battered by sanctions and an American naval blockade. Iran’s currency hit another record low on Wednesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging 2.20 million rials for one U.S. dollar, a 10% hike from last week’s record.
Neither side can continue indefinitely between full-scale war and a truce, said Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, an international think tank. Trump Returns to a Familiar Playbook as the War With Iran Flares Up Again

No words …
Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’
Defence minister says he believes US backing could tip regional balance in favour of forced resettlement
Israel’s defence minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime.
Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this
migration” during a conference hosted by the Israeli news site Ynet and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He said the Israeli government was “organised and prepared to get them out by sea, by air, by every way possible”.
Trump discussed a US takeover of the Gaza Strip in early 2025 that would have involved removing Palestinians from the territory, but has since pulled back from the idea. A 20-point peace plan the White House drew up last year did not call for Palestinians’ deportation, an act that would be widely seen as ethnic cleansing.

Quebec
and in Quebec, though it is very early days, the resuscitated Fréchette CAQ could pull off a Carney-style victory by allying with Carney on the Trump trade wars
Marc-Olivier Fortin: Quebec goes ‘elbows up’ — CAQ could ride anti-Trump voters to victory – Christine Fréchette is shamelessly copying Mark Carney’s playbook leading to the headline of Wednesday’s Gazette newsletter “Is Paul St-Pierre Plamondon at risk of suffering the same fate as Pierre Poilievre? –
The federal Conservative leader spent years building a commanding lead while campaigning against an increasingly unpopular Justin Trudeau. Then Trudeau left, Mark Carney took over, Donald Trump’s tariff threats upended Canadian politics, and Poilievre found himself in a very different race …four polls over the past 10 days suggest a race that once looked like the PQ’s to lose has become far more competitive. Voters are in a very different mood than they were a year ago when the PQ was riding high. These days, they’re increasingly focused on economic uncertainty and Trump’s unpredictable economic pressure on Canada.”
It remains to be seen what will be the reaction from the francophone community to the news that Élections Québec announced this week that the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s sweeping language reforms under the law known as Bill 96 require voting guides and reminder cards to be mailed only in French. Julius Grey reacted in a nanosecond ” ‘Pettiness and nastiness’: No justification for Quebec’s French-only election mailouts, lawyer Julius Grey says
“I certainly would be prepared to defend the position that this is contrary to equality and to the democratic rights.”

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson (a Wednesday Night guest we would love to have return) on what the Meta settlement means for North Carolina – and for his own kids
Inside the landmark Meta deal
It’s $451m for NC [By law, those funds will go to the state, and discussions have already begun about how to best use those funds to address the harm that was caused, i.e., youth mental health and wellbeing.]
This is probably our biggest win yet.
As the AG, I’m proud of this one – but as a dad to three kids, I’m excited. This is what I’ve wanted as a parent, long before becoming AG.
Protecting kids, empowering parents. That was the goal, and this is a historic step.

Natural Disasters
After the flood: human suffering on an unfathomable scale in Nepal’s worst-hit districts
Thousands remain missing and aid is hampered by treacherous conditions in communities almost wiped out of existence
The Nepal flash flood disaster is heartbreaking. Our friend C Uday Bhaskar writes:
Nepal Flash Flood Disaster: The Himalayan Crisis India and China Must Address
Amid this tragedy, India and China have a chance to demonstrate collective leadership in enabling the Global South.

Varia
Saturday Evening Post Will Stop Printing After 205 Years
The magazine, famous for publishing Jack London stories and Norman Rockwell art, will continue online.
For more than two centuries, The Saturday Evening Post has chronicled American life in its pages, enshrining a homespun national identity and printing some of the nation’s greatest writers.
The magazine’s January issue will be its last in print, according to Joan SerVaas, the president and publisher. In a letter to The Post’s 50,000 subscribers in the most recent issue, she attributed the decision to a combination of “rising production costs, declining advertising revenue and shifting reader habits.”

Search begins for Canadian team to restore uninhabitable 24 Sussex Drive
Canadian materials, Indigenous participation required to restore prime minister’s official residence
The government’s new RFQ is the first stage of the procurement process. The nearly 100-page document provides the most detail in writing about the competition to date.
Teams pitching a design plan must show they can create a private living quarter for the prime minister and their family while balancing space for work, meetings, hosting receptions or ceremonial events, the request said.
The winning team, according to the document, will also be responsible for making the property universally accessible, handling landscaping elements and restoring heritage elements.
Compare and Contrast with Supreme Court lets White House continue construction on Trump’s $400 million ballroom

Canada is not blocking ships that refuse to honour Lake Ontario name – But it is a great idea!
“Dozens of ships bound for ‘Lake America’ are stuck at the entrance to the Welland Canal. Canada simply refuses to let them through,” claims an Aug. 29 Threads post with 23,000 likes. The post attributes its information to the U.S. media company Fox News.
Similar posts…claimed that Canada would allow passage to U.S. vessels if their “documents” acknowledged Lake Ontario instead of Lake America.
Jean Charest on the Lake Ontario (proposed) name change “The last time the president paid attention to a body of water, it was the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. And if I remember correctly, it didn’t finish well.”

How to spot AI writing
Large language models like long words and em-dashes—or do they?
AI writing is everywhere. It is in your inbox and on your LinkedIn feed. It is all over the internet, drafting more than a third of new websites by one count. Large language models (LLMs) are helping students write essays and probably helping scientists write papers. Some allege AI-generated prose won the Commonwealth Short Story prize this year, with judges praising its “quiet authority”. (The Commonwealth Foundation denied the claim.)

Long reads/videos
Jeremy Kinsman: The Starkest Test Yet of Carney’s Davos Doctrine
The question is whether Carney’s stand will redound as a positive thrust to return to a more robust and balanced transatlantic relationship while presenting a cautionary tale against any further indulgence of a demonstrably undependable and erratic America.
There have already been many tests of Mark Carney’s Davos Doctrine since January, but none quite as stark as this. How consequential it is for Canada may already be written. How consequential it is for America is up to Donald Trump.

Tense G20 summit ends without a deal, U.S. ‘outrages’ allies by inviting Russia (video)
Former senior White House official Larry Haas comments on the tense and uncooperative atmosphere of the G20 summit in North Carolina that ended without a deal.

In Letters from an American August 30, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson points out the fallacies (disinformation?) in Trump’s triumphant declaration that the US government is entering into an unprecedented agreement with Venezuela.

Why the United States Can’t Quit Its Wars
The country’s longest war came to an end exactly five years ago. Today it offers lessons for policymakers seeking to avoid an endless war in Iran.