The entire city of Kamloops and the SunPeaks resort. Wild what’s happening in BC right now. pic.twitter.com/SPnlIOvXaM
— Martin Pelletier (@MPelletierCIO) November 6, 2025
Comedy Gold
Maybe Dougie should take up a new career in standup comedy. Either that or fiction writing.
Canada’s most populous province projected a deficit of C$13.5 billion ($9.63 billion) for the 2025-26 fiscal year that began in April. That’s down from a C$14.6 billion deficit forecast in a May budget, helped by higher tax revenue, but far wider than the 2024-25 deficit of C$1.1 billion.
New Governor, Same As The Old Governor
Canada, Greece, Japan — Same Problem, Different Timelines
As an aside.
New Governor, Same As The Old Governor
Apparently there was a budget tabled today.
Bottom line: $78.3 billion deficit for 2025-26.
Mentions of the word “invest,” “investing” or “investment.”
Budget 2022: 424
Budget 2023: 467
Budget 2024: 632
Budget 2025: 964
It’s Probably Nothing
Dan Knight- Is PEI the New Front Line of Foreign Influence in Canada?
How a tiny province with red dirt and quiet harbours turned into a testing ground for influence operations, land grabs, and political denial and why Ottawa still pretends not to see it.
Another Zero Percent Interest Miracle!
The purpose of interest rates is to align the supply of capital with the demand for it. When they fall to zero, that sends a false signal that capital practically self-replicates and that no one really needs to care about where capital gets invested. These “malinvestments” are starting to show up more and more these days.
Among other things, authorities are trying to determine whether Tricolor double-pledged—using the same set of subprime loans as collateral against multiple warehouse loans. This would be akin to a homeowner with a $500K mortgage on a $600K house taking a second mortgage for $500K without notifying—in fact, intentionally withholding relevant information from—the lender about the first mortgage.
Smelter Skelter
Glencore is planning to close its Horne smelter, Canada’s largest copper metal-producing operation, due to environmental issues and the millions of dollars needed to upgrade the facility, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The London-listed miner does not disclose copper metal production figures for its Canadian operation, but industry sources estimate annual output at more than 300,000 metric tons.
Meanwhile… REGULATORY RELIEF FOR CERTAIN STATIONARY SOURCES TO PROMOTE AMERICAN MINERAL SECURITY
Oil’s Well
An economy in recession doesn’t need as much oil as one that grows. Who knew? More evidence that the marginal consumer is throwing in the towel.
Investors and analysts have spent much of the year embracing the view that the oil market, which has been in oversupply mode, is heading straight for a glut through 2026 — and that glut could reach as high as 4 million barrels per day (b/d) and depress global prices even further along the way.
A Halloween Story
Circling The Drain
I don’t see a problem here, do you?
Real gross domestic product declined 0.3 per cent in August and early signs suggest the economy barely managed any growth in the third quarter, Statistics Canada said Friday.
More (from Kate) – Patient on life support…
Today In Canadian Infrastructure
It’s Probably Nothing
It’s Probably Nothing
Did China Down Two U.S. Navy Aircraft in South China Sea?
The incidents occurred amid President Trump’s tour of Asia, during which he is expected to meet a host of Asian leaders, including China’s leader, Xi Jinping, making it more suspicious, and embarrassing.
The South China Sea is an extremely sensitive geopolitical region, and potential flashpoint for conflict, where China asserts ownership over much of the region, despite an international court ruling rejecting Beijing’s claims.
Over the last two decades, China has bolstered its illegal claims by constructing military installations across the sea, including artificial militarized islands on reefs, challenging U.S. efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in these international waters.
The U.S. Navy’s operations in the region are part of a broader strategy to counter China’s maritime expansion and aggression.
Special Delivery
More evidence that the marginal consumer is tapped out.
The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10% of its roughly 350,000 corporate employees.
Tonight On Unsolved Mysteries
Lacking Alternatives
Basically, Canada needs US markets a lot more than they need our markets, or anyone else’s for that matter.
Beaudry contrasted Canada’s dependence on global trade — roughly 40 per cent of the economy — with the U.S.’s much lower reliance at about 15 per cent. That difference, he said, helps explain why Washington can afford to use tariffs as a political and fiscal tool without triggering the same level of economic disruption seen elsewhere.
Dispatches from the Maple Gulag Truck Stop
Good Morning All –
In the wake of the disaster in California earlier this week, I’m going to Re-Up some previous writings on the issue of various immigrant groups into the North American trucking market.
A thread of threads + Intel
— Gord ‘Anti-Social Media Defluencer’ Magill (@GordMagill) October 25, 2025
But wait, there’s more.
Gord Magill has a book coming out…
Ghosts On The Grid
With the Feast of All Hallows rapidly approaching I thought it would be apt to explain how the grid is haunted by a concept that doesn’t really exist. A pre-occupation with a made-up concept risks the security of our power grids. In this blog I will explain how “vars” aren’t real, and treating them as if they are is creating existential risks on our power grids.
Not being able to properly explain reactive power is common in the energy industry – ask a dozen people to explain it and you’ll get twelve different answers. Most will reach for the beer-glass analogy where real power as the liquid and reactive power is the froth, or mutter something about “energy sloshing back and forth” on the grid. More sophisticated responses will mention capacitors “injecting vars” and inductors absorbing them. These phrases are repeated so often that they’ve become folklore. Unfortunately none of them describes what actually happens in power grids.
“Vars” in particular is an accounting fictions that obscure the underlying physics. And because we’ve replaced understanding of the physics with shorthand, we now incorrectly believe that anything producing current including batteries, solar inverters, or a clever algorithm, can perform the same stabilising role as the electromagnetic machines that built our power system.This misunderstanding could one day cost us the grid.
Elbows Down!
I thought our new PM was just the guy we needed to stand up to the Americans. Oh, well…..
American truck maker Paccar Inc. is laying off 300 more factory workers in Quebec ahead of a 25 per cent import tariff to be imposed by the U.S. next month.
The factory in Sainte-Thérèse, a Montreal suburb, manufactures Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks and relies heavily on revenue from the United States.
Circling The Drain
Voters want lots of free stuff, so maybe those things will just pay for themselves, right? Unfortunately, I don’t know of a political party with currently elected members which would make a serious dent in any of that spending.
For the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Desjardins is projecting a $70-billion deficit, although the report acknowledges some estimates from other sources have been as high as $100 billion.
“There is a lot to unpack in the run-up to what will be a truly unprecedented federal budget,” said the report. “Deficits could rise to levels not seen in decades outside of a recession or pandemic, and the debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to be headed in the wrong direction.”