Wednesday Night #2329 Prologue #1 UPDATE

Written by Diana Thebaud Nicholson // November 4, 2026 // Wednesday Nights // No comments

In case you missed Canadian news items in the excitement of the Midterms:
Budget will focus on affordability, cultural sovereignty, Champagne says
Thursday’s federal budget will focus on affordability and cultural sovereignty while continuing the government’s push to make Canada’s economy more independent, François-Philippe Champagne said on the eve of tabling his second budget as Finance Minister.
Speaking at the factory of Montreal shoemaker Pajar, where he took part in the tradition of buying a new pair of shoes before the budget, Mr. Champagne said the government is aiming to help Canadian businesses by expanding trade opportunities.
Many of the budget’s big-ticket items have already been announced in recent weeks, including a Productivity Mega Deduction that expands the ability of businesses to immediately write off investments in eligible capital assets, worth $36-billion over five years.
Mr. Champagne has also recently announced an extension of the federal gas tax cut until the end of March, at a fiscal cost of about $2.9-billion. Further, the government announced a $2-billion program last month to provide rebates for homeowners who install electric heat pumps.
Sure footing
(iPolitics)Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says Thursday’s federal budget is about giving Canada a “strong footing” to navigate a more volatile world. Asked how impending Democratic control of Congress might affect Canada’s trade bargaining position with the Trump administration, Champagne said the upcoming fiscal plan is about giving Canada leverage at many negotiating tables. “Whatever happens south or somewhere else in the world, we need to be more resilient, we need be more independent, we need to open up new markets,” he said.
Summit season has Carney planning trips to Ireland, Philippines, Cambodia and China
Prime Minister Mark Carney will circle the Earth next week as he attends four global summits in eight days.
Carney will return to Dublin five months after his last visit, this time for a meeting of the European Political Community, which brings leaders together to talk about strategic co-operation. He then will head to Manila for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, where Canada is likely to sign a free-trade agreement with the bloc and another with the Philippines itself. Carney will then visit Cambodia for the Francophonie summit, which Canada will host in 2028. The prime minister then heads to China’s tech city Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which brings together leaders from across Asia, South America and the South Pacific.
Jeremy Kinsman: The Canada-EU Shared Sense of Purpose: Years in the Making, Now Free to be Unleashed (see Long reads)
The Canadian pivot to the EU, which Carney has now characterized as “our closest ally” constitutes a shift of real potential consequence for the geopolitically inclined EU Commission under Dr. Von der Leyen. That some EU member states are facing internal political challenges from far-right nationalists is the way of the world.
The remarkable outcome thus far is the extent to which EU countries and Canada see a sense of purpose in a shared future. It has been many years in the making, now free to be unleashed.
Carney calls December byelections for 6 ridings in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan
Races on Dec. 7 give Liberals a chance to bolster majority in the House of Commons
Half of the races will be in Quebec, in the ridings of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot-Acton, Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie and Laurier-Sainte-Marie — seats previously held by Bloc Québécois, NDP and Liberal MPs, respectively.
De Havilland getting up to $2.5B in federal financing to ramp up water bomber production
The federal government has pledged up to $2.5 billion in financing for Canadair water bomber maker De Havilland Canada in a bid to ramp up production of the iconic firefighting aircraft.
The money will allow for a second assembly line in Alberta, the federal Department of Finance said. And it will provide the means to double production capacity to an eventual 20 water-scooping planes per year, according to De Havilland. The manufacturer…also says it will put the cash toward new staff and production in Victoria, Calgary and Ontario.
With Democrats taking Congress, the trade war will continue and could even be worse
Lawrence Herman, counsel at Herman & Associates, a member of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations and a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute
It’s premature – and even naive – to think that the Republicans’ loss of control of the House of Representatives (and the Senate) will change U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-Canadian policies or lessen his aggressive trade war against this country.
Quite the contrary.
This week’s political upset in Congress will mean Mr. Trump will double down and rely even more aggressively on his presidential powers over trade relations. Even if Mr. Trump’s use of tariff authority under the long-forgotten 1930 Smoot-Hawley Trade Act doesn’t survive legal challenge, experts say his tariffs issued under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act and the 1974 Trade Act are on sound legal footing.
Andrew Coyne is tougher than any of the US commentators we have seen
U.S. midterms are a rebuke to the Republicans, but not the wipeout they deserved
… As always with Mr. Trump, it is important not to fall prey to the temptation of normalizing. Any other president would be severely chastened by this result, indeed would have already altered course in a bid to avoid it. Mr. Trump spent the closing days of the campaign musing on the shape of people’s posteriors and boasting of his efforts to remodel the White House. Even if he did not care about the country, you might think he would care about his party, or even his own best interests

WOW! AN AMAZING 24 HOURS AND STILL NOT OVER

First a sigh of relief and then the questions begin
How much damage can the current administration do before the Democrats take over Congress?
How much damage before 2028?
(minor -but not for some of us) concern: can Trump ‘s public works projects (the Arch, the golf course, the Kennedy Center…) be reversed?
Even if Trump has declared to the NYT that he was willing to work with Democrats (Trump Says in Interview That He Will Accept Election Results) How will the new Democratic House and Senate manage to overcome his veto of any/all legislation?
What happens to the war with Iran?
What happens with the Canada-US trade war?
Can Trump’s (Latin) American adventures be curtailed?
Trump to Push Overseas Agenda After Midterms Wipeout at Home
Presidents have long turned their attention abroad in the final stretch of their terms, given the traditional midterm loss of their party’s congressional control, the authority they wield to wage wars and forge international agreements, and Congress’s limited ability to stop them
(Bloomberg) Speculation includes fresh strikes against Iran, a deeper rupture with Europe over Ukraine, and possible military intervention in Cuba, as Trump works to cement his legacy. Trump may also ramp up tariffs and push for bigger swings in foreign policy, with some areas such as his tariff agenda potentially being harder for Democrats to stop. Presidents…have used the waning days of their administrations to push foreign policies that amounted to some of the most consequential moves of their terms.

These Wins Could Mint a New Generation of Democratic Stars
Voters from South Carolina to Ohio to Texas have elevated a new class of Democrats who could not be more different from one another.
(NYT) They are ideologically diverse, including progressives intent on reshaping the party’s approach to Israel and health care and moderates who spent months persuading Republicans to join their cause. Some eschew the virality of the social media era, others are a product of it. There’s a pediatrician, a pastor, a Paralympian and a former Navy helicopter pilot.

Trump’s public reaction(s) to the Midterm results are bizarre
Trump faces reckoning, but focuses on ballroom, after devastating losses
(The Hill)… In his first public appearance after the landslide, Trump spent most of his time talking about the details of his under-construction ballroom. The president signed the last beam installed in the structure, in what his interior secretary called a celebratory day.
The president also discussed his beautification projects at the White House and around Washington, DC.
“I’m doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America. It’s got to be pristine. It’s got to be perfect,” Trump said.
The president took several questions from reporters on the midterms, the Iran war, and working with Democrats in the new Congress. However, he kept returning his focus to the construction site.
A day after a stinging midterm defeat, Trump focuses on his ballroom.
As his party reeled from a resounding defeat in the midterm elections, President Trump made an impromptu appearance on Wednesday at the White House, where he defended two of what he considers to be legacy-defining projects: his ballroom and the war in Iran.
Mr. Trump’s appearance at the ballroom’s construction site — his first comments to reporters since the American electorate delivered a sharp rebuke of his party and policies — was a ceremony to celebrate the raising of the final steel beam atop the structure. He delivered extensive remarks detailing the progress of the project before adding his signature to the beam. He never mentioned the results of the midterms.
The beam-signing ceremony was the latest in a series of striking examples of the disconnect between Mr. Trump’s priorities and those of the American electorate. On Monday, the eve of the election, Mr. Trump gave a speech from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he spent nearly an hour detailing renovations he had ordered at sites around Washington rather than offer a closing argument to voters concerned by his handling of the economy and the war with Iran.
Later in the day, the president took to social media to complain that the Senate had not passed a legislative effort to make daylight saving time permanent, which would have ended the semiannual time change that shortens winter days, and that the clock change back to standard time had moved the sunset in Washington, D.C., today to 5:06 p.m.

For Israelis, U.S. Midterms Show How Far Their Star Has Fallen in America
Israel once had bipartisan support in the United States, but a strong showing for Democrats, some of whom are deeply critical of the war in Gaza, has left the country with fewer friends in Congress.

Trump’s wealth dented after Democrats trounce Republicans in midterms
Donald Trump’s wealth is falling along with his political fortunes.
Tradeable investment assets that helped make the president more than $2bn during his first year in office are collapsing in value the day after the Democrats trounced the Republicans in the midterm elections. Trump Media and Technology Group stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange, was priced at just over $5 this morning – its lowest mark ever, and down from an all-time high of $101. It lost 11% overnight, dropping from $5.90 once the election returns started coming in. Trump has reported he owns 114m shares of DJT.
Trump owns over 40% of the stock through a trust. He has still grown his wealth dramatically during his presidency; Forbes estimated in a September analysis that he is $2.7bn wealthier than when he won the White House in 2024.

Long reads/audios/videos
$500 Million Bought Elon Nothing
Musk’s unprecedented spending may even have hurt Republicans.
Here are a few things $474 million can cover: roughly 77 million Big Macs, about 12,814 Tesla Model 3s, or approximately 2,724 years of a U.S. senator’s average salary. If you’re Elon Musk, it could also buy you one deeply disappointing evening in November.
This year, Musk became the single largest non-candidate donor in any election cycle ever. His contributions to campaigns and organizations account for about one-quarter of all campaign donations Republicans received in 2026. …
‘Decency Won’: 9 Writers on the Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s Midterm Rout
On election night, Times Opinion asked nine columnists and contributors to look back on these midterms and explain what mattered most …
Binyamin Appelbaum: Antipathy toward the president trumped everything else. But for Democrats, winning was the easy part. Memories of this election cycle will be shaped by what Democrats do with their power. And they made a mess of their recent opportunities. …
Thanks to Gloria Calhoun for “An eight-minute and very straightforward interview with Rahm Emanuel on possible Democratic agenda.” Rahm Emanuel maps out a vision for what Democrats can achieve after taking Congress
Heard on All Things Considered — NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with former congressman and Obama advisor Rahm Emanuel about what Democrats’ strategy should be, now that they’ll soon control both houses of Congress.
Jeremy Kinsman: The Canada-EU Shared Sense of Purpose: Years in the Making, Now Free to be Unleashed