The News Rundown

EU chief calls for Canada to become bloc’s first associate member

Last weekend the American outlet, The Wall Street Journal published a story saying that Canada would be offered Associate Member status in the EU.
The government said no that was not the case and Canadian media obliged and carried this as the narrative. But when Mark Carney actually went to Europe, Canada being the EU’s first associate member was on offer.
President of the EU commission Ursula von Der Leyen spoke favourably about Mark Carney and this idea in her speech.
With that lens, we now have to ask what exactly is going on here and why did the media carry water for the Canadian government so quickly.
Peeling back the layers of the onion we have to first look at how prestigious the label of “Associate Member” sounds. It sounds solid and historic. The reality though is that there’s no legal category for it in any of the current EU treaties.
No one in Canada or the EU has defined what an associate member is. Its rights, obligations, or market access has not been described anywhere.
The government’s own representatives have started walking the language back. They say what they actually want is a “unique alliance” or an “alliance for the future.”
We see this even with Canada’s EU Ambassador and former Liberal Natural Resources Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, he said, “I think we’re still a ways away from actually landing on what we think is the best way to describe it.”
The goal here appears to be to have the fancy language signify something more than actually is present on the tin.
For those worried that this could happen in the blink of an eye, we have to look at CETA, the trade agreement we have with the EU.
This agreement was signed in 2016 but 10 EU member states still haven’t fully ratified it. Any deeper agreement will run into the same national vetoes, resource sensitivities, and industrial friction that has already slowed down the existing deal.
The new idea of an associate member doesn’t remove any of these problems, it just renames them.
Sovereignty within Canada is something that the Conservatives have brought up. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said, “The Welland welder did not elect a Eurocrat to regulate our steel. The Saskatchewan farmer and the Atlantic fisherman did not choose a Brussels agrifood regulator that has never even seen our prairies or coasts. We will NEVER be the 51st U.S. state. And we will NEVER be the 28th EU state.”
There have also been calls for Parliament to debate the idea, it wasn’t anywhere in the last election, there was no discussion at all of near-membership with the EU.
The government though seems to want to move forward while the media is highlighting this as progress.
Those opposed, including Poilievre, have immediately been paired with Donald Trump. Poilievre’s job is to criticize the idea but the Conservatives do support free trade with Europe.
Donald Trump on the other hand floated that this could be potentially a “hostile act” with more tariffs to come on Europe.
Those are two different responses, critiques, styles, and ideologies. Yet the media often dropped them into the same sentence, “Trump and Poilievre slam the deal.”
This ultimately serves to flatten a legitimate debate here at home that needs to happen. A debate about sovereignty, parliamentary process, and what Canada would actually be on the hook for if it were to become an associate member of the EU.
By side stepping that debate the media again turns this into a Carney vs. Trump story leaving any discussion of nuance on the floor.
While the Conservatives have talked about sovereignty, we need to look at the reality. 70% of Canadian exports go to the United States. No discussion of Arctic cooperation or critical minerals will change that.
Trade diversification with Europe, New Zealand, Australia, or the UK makes sense but they will not replace the American market that Canada is literally attached to.
If Canada were to sign such an agreement, we would have to ask what the domestic cost would be. If we were required to lean into EU regulatory alignment we would see more EU standards on manufacturing, agriculture, and product rules.
The true story though is one of a media machine aiming to create a cycle to lean into anti-American sentiment. Announcements get made, photo-ops happen, and the hard work of ratification, provincial consultation, and actual implementation gets deferred.
The net benefit is that a narrative gets created where Canada is standing up for itself and finding new partners. The missing frame is how much of this is political theatre designed to show action while the real economic relationship with the US remains the dominant reality.
Canadians deserve the full picture: what is actually on the table, what Parliament’s role will be, what the trade-offs look like for Canadian industry, and how much of this can realistically move the needle on the scale of the U.S. relationship. That context is largely missing from the current coverage.
Supplementals:

The B.C. government says it is forecasting larger deficits over the next three years as the province faces “significant headwinds” from U.S. tariffs, the impacts of the war in the Middle East, and a tighter federal immigration policy.
The province’s First Quarterly Report, issued Monday, forecasts a record-setting deficit of $13.8 billion in 2026-27, which is $450 million higher than originally forecast. The jump is largely related to a “calculation error” on natural gas royalties, in a situation one critic describes as a state of “fiscal crisis.” This is followed by deficits of $12.7 billion in 2027-28 and $12 billion in 2028-29.
As well, it updates the forecast for real GDP growth in 2026 to 0.9 per cent, down from the 1.3 per cent forecast in Budget 2026. The revised forecasts reflect temporary weakness in the labour and housing markets, which are expected to weigh on consumer spending and residential investment, the report says. Furthermore, job numbers fell by 16,400 earlier in the year, pushing unemployment up to 6.5%. Voters are facing a cooling economy while the government continues to pile debt onto future generations.
As well, retail sales saw little growth early in the year, despite gains in wages and salaries, as economic uncertainty weighed on consumer spending, the report says. Merchandise exports have increased slightly, despite U.S. tariffs.
In addition, the province says it expects personal income-tax revenue to be nearly $1 billion higher over the three-year fiscal plan, in large part because of stronger household incomes and preliminary federal tax-assessment information.
The forecast shows almost $800 million more in revenue, but spending is also up. The added revenue comes from income and sales taxes, but wildfire fighting costs are projected to be $614 million more.
What fell by $531 million were projected royalties from natural gas. The Ministry of Finance said the lower forecast reflects lower prices, but also a $306 million error from the price forecast in Budget 2026, which the government earlier called a “serious mistake” in the calculation of the natural gas price. We covered this mistake on 2 weeks ago on Western Context.
While mainstream media reports have largely echoed the government's talking points—blaming "global headwinds," U.S. tariffs, and the climate costs of wildfire response—several critical narratives are being completely overlooked or downplayed, including the earlier spreadsheet error.
Under former Premier John Horgan, BC frequently ran structural surpluses, including a $1.265 billion surplus in 2021/22. Since David Eby took power, the province has completely fallen off a fiscal cliff. This week's update proves that the NDP's post-2024-election promise of "expenditure management" and hiring restraint was an illusion.
Government revenues actually increased by $789 million due to personal and corporate income taxes. The fact that the deficit still grew proves that the problem isn't a lack of cash flowing from taxpayers—it’s an insatiable appetite for government spending.
Major credit agencies like Moody's and S&P have already downgraded BC’s credit rating due to out-of-control operational spending. As provincial debt hits record heights, a massive portion of tax dollars will be cannibalized just to pay interest to bondholders. This means less money for actual services like healthcare and schools, even though citizens are paying higher tax totals than ever.
Despite a disastrous economic update, Premier Eby has been actively fueling speculation about a snap provincial election call. Mainstream analysis focuses heavily on the horse-race politics—noting that Eby wants to capitalize on recent internal chaos within the opposition BC Conservatives.
What the media isn't calling out directly is the timing. Calling a sudden provincial vote right now threatens to completely overshadow and disrupt the scheduled municipal elections. Organizations like the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) have explicitly warned that overlapping campaigns drop local community crises out of the media entirely, serving as a convenient smoke screen for the NDP's $13.8 billion deficit.
If the Eby government calls a snap election soon, it won't be because voters want one, it'll be because his government is doing so badly that they need a completely collapsing opposition to win. They have badly mismanaged almost every file they've taken over, and continue to do so. We will have to wait and see if we get an election next week, but until then, the province's citizens will see our economic future continue to plummet.

Alberta NDP wins reliable UCP riding amid backlash to separation referendum

This week saw the Calgary-Shaw by-election to replace popular outgoing MLA Rebecca Schulz. The NDP won that by-election.
The unofficial results as of now give NDP candidate Kyle Campbell 7,461 votes, UCP candidate Mike Derry 6,871 votes.
If we go further down the list, Progressive Tory candidate Kyle Joseph got 978 votes and the Liberal candidate got 602.
Everyone had a different story for why this happened.
The media called it a political earthquake piggybacking off of Naheed Nenshi’s “no safe Conservative seat in Calgary” jab.
Mainstream media also brought in the question of the referendum. A referendum framed on separation but in reality about starting the process of having a binding separation vote.
The missing angle though is that this is a by-election. By-elections always shrink the interested voting pool and this one was no different. Turnout for 2023 in this riding was 25,084 votes and 63.6%. Tonight is 16,002. This is not the same electorate, it’s people who had a reason to show up in mid-September.
How this all plays requires careful discussion within the province.
But also interestingly the raw votes are seldomly discussed. That’s why I opened the story with the raw vote totals.
The UCP dropped about 7,100 from Schulz’s 13,970. NDP dropped about 3,100 from 10,591 and still won. That is not a mass conversion of Calgary-Shaw. That is the larger pile staying home.
The third and most fascinating angle is how the night went. Mike Derry ultimately won the election day votes. Advance votes and social polling places flipped the count. This means that Campbell and the NDP took the planned voters.
This is a symbol of energy not a new political geography in south west Calgary. This riding borders Calgary-Lougheed where former Premier Jason Kenney held his seat.
It also overlaps Calgary-Heritage and Calgary-Midnapore federally that vote for Shuv Majumdar and Stephanie Kusie. Two very popular MPs. It also overlays where federal heavyweights Preston Manning, Stephen Harper, and Jason Kenney held their seats when they were in office.
The Progressive Tory party and Kyle Joseph is not a political party occupying the space to the right of the UCP. The Liberals sat probably closer to Progressive Tory and the NDP than the UCP.
With 978 for the Progressive Tories and if we were to assume about 60% of them would park themselves under the UCP under normal circumstances we see the emergence of a vote split narrative emerge.
A difference of 582 votes is meaningful but the bigger number is the absence of about 7,000 former UCP voters not voting.
In general people are of two minds on this: Danielle Smith isn’t remaining neutral or outright supporting independence. Or, Danielle Smith by enabling the referendum is being dangerous to Canada.
Folks in both those camps either stayed home or voted NDP to send a message. But splitting the conservative base come 2027 does indeed have the potential to lead to NDP victory as history has shown.
Going back to the idea of this being a political earthquake or major shift, the mobile polling place set up at Agecare/Silvera/Silverado Creek was 39 votes for the UCP, 24 for the Liberals, 18 for the NDP, and 14 for the PT candidate. That is not an NDP senior wave. That is UCP first and a park-the-vote in Liberal and Tory. Older voters did not join Campbell. They stopped giving Derry a majority.
At the riding level Campbell actually ran on healthcare, wait times, schools, and affordability. Nenshi and the NDP brand itself brought in a push to stop the separation campaign.
The referendum was the dominant discussion point from the NDP side.
The NDP provided two convenient pictures: dad, coach, and family doctor and maple leafs, forever Canada, and don’t tear the country apart. The UCP was framed as a party in this campaign that would signify turning up, voting, and splitting the country by the NDP.
The UCP lost that frame and it makes sense. Last week we discussed how the media prefers a sensational lens on the October referendum: minimize, belittle, or treat remain as the only serious position.
The UCP from Danielle Smith’s office has said that after October 19th they are moving forward inside a united Canada.
The reality check though about 2027 is sobering.
New boundaries will be in play. Calgary-Shaw could change, shrink, or be cut up.
A 60%+ turnout election brings back the traditional Conservative voters the riding has seen since the 1980s.
If anything, Calgary-Shaw is a warning about persuasion on the Alberta referendum and how that ballot issue can be weaponized.
The actual truth though is that when you look at all the factors going back to 2019, the 13% point gap the UCP won by, a referendum on the horizon, a NDP candidate that was not running as part of the crazy-NDP caucus, options for centrist voters, advance vote organization and energy, and a 38% turnout, removing or changing any of these likely means that Derry would have won.
While the media sold an earthquake, it was a 582 vote by-election victory for the NDP where the UCP’s majority did not turn out.
At the end, Calgary-Shaw voters do not like the living in the space where we are having this referendum. That’s not the same as voting on NDP on energy, taxes, or social policy. 2027 will be different and it’s what happens when a high emotion campaign meets a low turnout by-election.
Dropping the sensationalism would do everyone wonders.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Elbows down? PMO hires American firm to run Canada Investment Summit

The mainstream press spent this week fawning over Prime Minister Mark Carney and his inaugural Canada Investment Summit in Toronto. Outlets painted a rosy picture of institutional stability, flashing headlines about a historical $500 billion in "investment commitments" and new tax deductions. But behind the glitzy video montages and elite networking at the Four Seasons hotel in Yorkville, independent analysts and critics are pointing out uncomfortable realities, heavy American corporate entanglement, and corporate-welfare narratives that the establishment media chose to completely ignore.
The inaugural Canada Investment Summit brought about 300 global C-suite executives and pension fund titans to mobilize long-term capital for multibillion-dollar infrastructure and energy projects.
While Prime Minister Carney used his keynote to declare that "Canada has what the world wants", his government silently looked across the border to produce the summit itself. In a staggering blow to the optics of national procurement, the Toronto Sun exposed that the PMO hired E2K Events x Entertainment—a California-based firm—to run the glitzy, high-security summit.
It isn’t known how much the federal government paid E2K to facilitate the summit or if it was awarded via a sole-source contract or exempt procurement pathway. No public requests for proposal, tenders or open competition records relating to the summit were found on CanadaBuys, the federal government’s official procurement portal. All open tenders above $25,000 are typically listed publicly on CanadaBuys.
Mainstream outlets completely buried the fact that while Canadian live-event and tech firms are struggling for work, the summit's digital architecture, backend routing systems, and staging were outsourced to American operators.
The government boasted a headline-grabbing $500 billion in new investment pledges. The media largely regurgitated this number as a massive win for Canadian infrastructure, but a crucial reality check was omitted from coverage: these figures represent "financing capacity" and non-binding pledges—not real factories built or jobs created. Real capital remains frozen because getting projects actually approved in Canada is a bureaucratic nightmare.
To satisfy global financiers, Carney announced that Canada will hand over its four largest international airports (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary) to private corporate investment via long-term concessions. The mainstream media framed this privatization bonanza as an innovative way to "unlock asset value", largely ignoring the swift counter-protests on the ground.
During a question-and-answer session following his address, Carney said the government looked at other countries' approaches to privatizing airports before deciding to keep land ownership. Past governments have flirted with the idea of privatizing major airports before, but Carney insisted this time will be "different."
"We're getting the benefit of being late to this, if you will, because we've seen transactions that don't work well … and we're going to apply those lessons," he said.
Members of the Liberal caucus met on Monday night to discuss airport "modernization," a federal source told Radio-Canada. The source didn't specifically mention privatization.
Advocacy groups like the Council of Canadians hosted a parallel "Many versus the Money" counter-summit. They warned that inviting massive American asset managers like BlackRock and Blackstone into Canada’s public infrastructure assets will lead to a hyper-commercialized corporate cash-grab, higher traveler fees, and the erosion of domestic policy independence.
Franco Terrazzano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, asked when the PM planned to make good on his promise to save Canadians money: “The government added 86,000 bureaucrats in 10 years and it’s still getting an American company to help with a conference? None of those extra bureaucrats could have helped with hosting a conference? Taxpayers are paying way too much for all the in-house government bureaucrats and we’re also paying way more for consultants and outsourcing.”
Analyst Stephen Taylor, creator of Flashbulb Media Intelligence, called the government’s decision to outsource the event to the American firm as tone deaf and hypocritical.
“Just 11 days before the summit, Carney said, ‘We are becoming our own best customer — contracting Canadian companies, hiring Canadian workers,’ and said, ‘For too long, Canada has relied on other countries to build what we have the talent, expertise and capacity to build ourselves'. To hire a U.S. company to produce an event whose call-to-action is, ‘Choose Canada. Invest in Canada,’ it’s a bit too rich. Mark Carney’s ethics disclosure says he is over 90% invested in U.S. equities. Mark Carney is showing that he won’t invest in Canada. He is clearly not Canada’s best spokesperson for its turnaround.”
Deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman told the Sun that Carney can’t shout “elbows up” with one hand, while signing cheques to American-based vendors with the other.
“Canada’s events and production industry isn’t some mom-and-pop operation, it’s hundreds of thousands of jobs and firms that already have the contracts to prove it. If Ottawa can’t find a Canadian company to run its own investment summit, that’s a tough one to explain to the hundreds of thousands of Canadians whose small businesses are already bracing for tariff pain.”
When the government is focused on talking up Buy Canada initiatives at an event produced by an American company, it makes people wonder as to the realities of the nationalism being portrayed by the Liberal Party - and what exactly it's covering up.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“The Welland welder did not elect a Eurocrat to regulate our steel. The Saskatchewan farmer and the Atlantic fisherman did not choose a Brussels agrifood regulator that has never even seen our prairies or coasts. We will NEVER be the 51st U.S. state. And we will NEVER be the 28th EU state.” - Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Canada’s potential EU associate membership.

Word of the Week

privatization - the transfer of ownership, property, or business operations from a government or public sector body to a private commercial entity

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Show Data

Episode Title: Canada For Sale
Teaser: Canada might become an EU associate member, the BC government forecasts larger deficits in the future, and a Calgary provincial by-election goes to the NDP. Also, Carney’s investment summit was produced by an American company.
Production Code: WC-486-2026-09-19
Recorded Date: September 19, 2026
Release Date: September 20, 2026
Duration: 1:05:42
Edit Notes: Cough x3

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX