Canada

As state-level Republicans in Alaska work to affirm their close relationship with Canada amid U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and threats of annexation, an Alaskan senator has warned British Columbia's premier that "you don't want to mess with Alaska."

Dan Sullivan of the Republican Party, who represents Alaska in the U.S. Senate, made the remarks in an interview with an Anchorage radio station posted to his Facebook page.

During the conversation, which touched on topics ranging from energy development to Ukraine, Sullivan, one of two senators who represent the state in Washington, was asked about B.C. introducing legislation that grants the province the ability to levy new fees on U.S. commercial trucks heading to Alaska.

In an interview on Power & Politics, (David Paterson, Ontario's representative in Washington) told host David Cochrane that the Canadians and Americans had a 90-minute meeting and the first half-hour was "a master class" from Lutnick in breaking down the U.S. position on tariffs.

The focus of the U.S. government is dealing with its yearly deficit in federal spending, Paterson said. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the federal government ran a $1.83 trillion US deficit in the 2024 fiscal year.

There are three ways the U.S. government is working to cut down that deficit, Paterson added.

The first is a major budget resolution that calls for billions of dollars in tax cuts, and the second is slashing the size of government through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The third is tariffs, which are meant to be a new revenue source and attract investment into the United States.

They're now projecting:

• Liberal majority with 61.4%
• Liberal minority with 32%
• Con majority with 1%
• Con minority with 5.5%

This is an amazing oped:

The pandemic was a brutal example of Canada’s chronic inability to plan for the worst. When Ottawa finally got around to releasing a report last October about how the various levels of government had handled the crisis, the report’s authors pointed out that its recommendations closely mirrored those in an exhaustive report on the 2003 SARS outbreak in Ontario, which in turn had closely mirrored a 1993 report on the HIV epidemic.

That same inability to focus on issues that don’t provide instant political gratification is exacerbating the threats coming from the Trump White House. The tariffs are all the more potent when applied to a Canadian economy that

Ottawa and provinces have been happy to coast on the fumes of North American free trade, never imagining this might come back to haunt the country.

Politicians of all stripes have repeatedly ignored calls to make the country more competitive and increase its productivity. That includes tearing down the ludicrous interprovincial trade barriers that have been shaving points off of Canada’s gross domestic product for decades.

...

And why? Because it’s easier to sell Canadians on immediate largesse the year before an election than it is to convince them of the need for long-term investments that will cost billions and may not be needed for years, or even decades.

Federal politicians of all stripes are guilty of this. We haven't seen a serious response to climate change, the housing crisis, or Canada's collapsing productivity. We get weird bandaids (immigration to pump the GDP/workforce, reducing GST on property purchases), but rarely do we see well thought out plans with multi party support.

Original: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-the-lesson-that-politicians-never-learn/

Ashley Chapman, chief operating officer at Ontario-headquartered Chapman’s Ice Cream, said in a statement circulating on social media that the family decided to take that measure for the rest of the year to maintain their prices.

Chapman said they wanted to do their part to support Canadians as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten economic annexation, which Chapman called the “greatest threat to our sovereignty” since the Second World War.

(See also !buycanadian@lemmy.ca )

The filings show the company owes $950 million to 26 pages' worth of listed creditors: landlords, suppliers and other partners, including fashion heavyweights Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Columbia Sportswear, Diesel and Estee Lauder.

Jennifer Bewley, the chief financial officer for Hudson's Bay's parent company, said in a court filing made on March 7 that the business had to defer certain payments to such companies for many months because it was having so much trouble making payments to landlords, service providers and vendors.

The situation was so severe that she said a landlord "unlawfully locked" Hudson's Bay out of a store located in Sydney, N.S., and a team of bailiffs attempted to seize merchandise from another location it runs in Sherway Gardens, a suburban Toronto mall.

Family and friends of a Vancouver entrepreneur are demanding answers after she was unexpectedly detained by U.S. immigration officials while attempting to cross the border with a job offer and visa paperwork in hand.

Jasmine Mooney, a 35-year-old business consultant and co-founder of a drink brand, has been detained for 11 days under what her supporters describe as “inhumane conditions,” with no clear explanation of why she was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Eagles, who said she found out about Mooney’s detention through a family friend, noted that her daughter had been working in the U.S. but was detained at the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico border crossing near San Diego, Calif., on March 3.

Eagles said an immigration lawyer was finally able to reach Mooney late Thursday, but despite having no criminal record and facing no charges, Mooney remains in custody with no clear timeline for release.

“We have no issue with her being denied entry, we have no issue with her initially being detained. But we have a huge issue with the inhumane treatment she is receiving and that she knows nothing, has not been charged and has not been able to speak with us directly,” her mother said.

Eagles said the family has received an update from a third-party that Mooney may have a tentative release date of March 24, which — if true — remains “still too far away.”

“By then, she’ll have been in custody for three weeks,” Eagles said. “That’s twice as long as she’s been there already. And so we want to get her home as soon as possible.”

Mooney was detained by border officials while trying to enter the U.S., as she had previously done successfully when applying for a Trade NAFTA, or TN, work visa.

After spending three nights in detention at the world’s busiest land border, Eagles said her daughter was transferred to a facility in San Diego then to the San Luis Regional Detention Center south of Yuma, Arizona, where she has since been sleeping on the floor of a cell alongside nearly 30 other women.

Eagles said that each time her daughter was transferred, she was handcuffed and in chains.

“I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for 2½ days,” she told a reporter.

As her detention continues, Mooney remains confined to a concrete cell with no natural light, no mats, no blankets, and minimal bathroom facilities.

“Every single guard that sees me is like ‘What are you doing here? I don’t understand — you’re Canadian. How are you here?’” she told ABC News.

“One or two months ago, if CBP officers found an issue with a Canadian’s work visa, the typical route taken is revoking the visa and ordering that person to leave the country,” said Neitor. “To detain someone like this would have been considered extreme not long ago, but’s it happening much more frequently nowadays.”

Neitor noted that while there is no limit on how long U.S. immigration authorities can detain a non-U.S. citizen, individuals have the legal right to talk to a lawyer while in detention.

This statement came after the meeting with Doug and the fed ministers.