Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s ambitious young foreign affairs minister, is secretly itching to draw Canada into a showdown with Russia because of the seething hatreds she inherited from her Ukrainian grandfather, a Nazi collaborator and war profiteer she never told us about. She’s been lying about her family’s sordid past all along, and she’s been lying to Canadians about what’s really going on in Ukraine. She’s dangerous.
.. The Monday announcement was overshadowed by the gathering pace of the Freeland conspiracy theory, however, and by Freeland’s own chilling caution that Canada should expect to be targeted by the same mischief of Russian disinformation that the Kremlin has used to target the United States and Europe.
.. You see how it works? Instead of headlines about Canada’s response to Russia’s brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and the 10,000 lives lost to Vladimir Putin’s thuggish belligerence, we’re being entertained by salacious innuendo about Chrystia Freeland and encouraged to question whether it is only because of that scheming harridan’s Russophobic impetuousness that we’re being so beastly to the Russians in the first place.
.. Kremlin-friendly smear campaigns
.. a Moscow-based freelancer, John Helmer. Back in the 1980s, in Washington, D.C., Helmer found himself at the centre of a maelstrom of allegations that he was a KGB asset. He left for Russia almost immediately thereafter, and has worked in Moscow ever since.
The other man is the notorious far-right Luxembourg-based Polish “analyst” Stanislas Balcerac.
It’s official. It’s a bubble!
What scares the heck of me, beyond the 22% Y/Y appreciation, is the nature of sales these days. In speaking with agents I see a few clear and worrisome trends.
First, “bully offers” have become the norm these days when they used to be the exception. Bully offers are aggressively high offers that bidders submit before the official offer date. For example, a seller and their agent will market the home as accepting offers on a set date (usually Tuesday), but bidders will come in with preemptive offers shortly after the listing goes to market, canceling out the stated Tuesday offer night. Basically if you’re trying to purchase a home in Toronto you can’t react quickly enough since the bully offers come in so fast, leaving many interested parties no time to react.
.. Since 1999, the Teranet-National Bank Toronto Home Price Index has risen an incredible 200%. In contrast Japan’s home price index rose 193% in the 17 years prior to its peak, and the US S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rose 152%
.. I have to run now. I’m interviewing some real estate agents to give me a quote on what my home is worth. Who knows, maybe Garth has rubbed off on me and I can convince my wife to sell our home and lock in a massive profit. These type of gains don’t come along too often in life!
Meanwhile in Canada … Things Are Just as Bad
Canada has two Trump-like candidates running for the federal Conservative leadership on platforms very similar to those that have nudged the United States and parts of Europe into the embrace of white nationalism.
.. After the American election, a member of Parliament named Kellie Leitch sent out an email blast calling Mr. Trump’s win “an exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well.”
.. Ads for Ms. Leitch run on our version of Breitbart, the adorably named The Rebel, a site that traffics in hate speech. Earlier this week, The Rebel wondered if the Quebec City shooter was actually a Muslim extremist rather than a white nationalist.
.. Meanwhile, Kevin O’Leary, a fame-hungry “Shark Tank” judge who has been living in Boston and refers to himself as “Mr. Wonderful,” is the latest to announce he’s running for the Conservative leadership. He has also argued that the 85 wealthiest people in the world having as much money as the 3.5 billion poorest is a good thing.
Justin Trudeau, Facing Pressure to Oppose Donald Trump, Opts to Get Along
He recruited political opponents with ties to Washington and Mr. Trump, notably Brian Mulroney, the former Progressive Conservative prime minister who has a house near Mr. Trump’s in Palm Beach, Fla., for the cause. Mr. Trudeau promoted Chrystia Freeland, the international trade minister, to minister of foreign affairs and set one priority above all else for her: to “maintain constructive relations with the United States.”
.. Mr. Trudeau has been under pressure at home to be the world’s voice against a president who has already insulted or belittled an array of nations. Those Canadians are likely to be disappointed.
Mr. Trudeau may feel he has little choice. Canada is too closely entwined with its immense neighbor — economically, militarily, diplomatically and in countless other ways — to risk the development of serious friction.
.. he and his cabinet ministers have been careful not to criticize Mr. Trump directly. It is a situation that faces the leaders of other American allies, but none have nearly as much to lose as Canada does — and none may have a leader as completely opposite to Mr. Trump in manner and belief.
.. At news conferences, Mr. Trudeau, who describes himself as a feminist, is often asked if Mr. Trump is a misogynist. His response is always similar. “It is not the job of a Canadian prime minister to opine on the American electoral process,” Mr. Trudeau said last month in Calgary, Alberta. “It is the job of the Canadian prime minister to have a constructive working relationship with the president of the United States.”
.. On Thursday, Ms. Freeland received a call from Rex W. Tillerson during his first day on the job as secretary of state.
.. Last month Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet met with Stephen A. Schwarzman, the co-founder and chief executive of the Blackstone Group
.. After the meeting, Mr. Schwarzman offered soothing words. “Canada is held in very high regard,” he said. “We have balanced trade between the U.S. and Canada, and that’s not the kind of situation where you should be worrying.”
.. Ms. Freeland said that by her count, 11 substantial changes had already been made to Nafta.
.. Mr. Trudeau’s government may have to weigh protecting its trade relationship with the United States against standing up for Mexico’s free-trade status — and implicitly its support of the principle of open commerce.
If it comes down to that, Mr. Higginbotham predicts that Canada will abandon Mexico “in a minute.”
.. They regularly remind governors, mayors and members of Congress that Canada is the largest export market for 38 American states, making free trade in America’s best interest as well.
.. Already it is working to quash proposals to require Canadians to give fingerprints or undergo facial recognition scans every time they enter or leave the United States. With more than 400,000 people crossing that border daily, Canada fears that could cause cross-border travel gridlock and hamper trade.