https://www.stephentaylor.ca/ Canadian politics, policy, and commentary by Stephen Taylor. en-ca Tue, 19 May 2026 09:42:14 GMT https://nm-images-8457234568729053244893255.s3.amazonaws.com/stephentaylor-ca/default-og.png https://www.stephentaylor.ca/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/15/trump-has-carney-on-a-leash/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/15/trump-has-carney-on-a-leash/ Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT Mark Carney was elected to stand up to Donald Trump. But Trump controls the policy levers that determine the value of Carney's largest financial interest. The man who promised to defend Canadian sovereignty may be the most compromised negotiator Canada has ever sent to the table. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/14/powering-canada-strong-a-trillion-dollar-wish/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/14/powering-canada-strong-a-trillion-dollar-wish/ Thu, 14 May 2026 18:00:00 GMT The Carney government's National Electricity Strategy promises to double Canada's grid for a trillion dollars. The plan doesn't address why Canada can't build anything, and the man who wrote it stands to benefit from every dollar spent trying. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/12/canadian-federal-by-election-maps-now-available/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/12/canadian-federal-by-election-maps-now-available/ Tue, 12 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT The Stephen Taylor Data Project now includes interactive poll-by-poll maps for every Canadian federal by-election going back to 2005. Multi-agentic AI turned what would have been a monthlong side project into an afternoon. Canadian Politics By-elections https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/05/governor-general-louise-arbour-the-laurentian-default/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/05/governor-general-louise-arbour-the-laurentian-default/ Tue, 05 May 2026 18:00:00 GMT Mark Carney's pick for Governor General is a 79-year-old Montreal jurist who endorsed a charter calling for the elimination of Zionism, led the UN's push to normalize mass migration, and told countries that objected they were spreading misinformation. She is the most ideologically committed GG appointment in living memory — and the process that produced her is a black box. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Crown in Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/01/the-watchdog-that-cannot-bite/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/05/01/the-watchdog-that-cannot-bite/ Fri, 01 May 2026 08:00:00 GMT Fifty-three employees. A $7.7 million budget. Zero examination reports in its most recent year. Three findings against a sitting Prime Minister and his Finance Minister that produced exactly zero institutional consequences. The honest question is not whether the office will act on Carney. It is what this office is actually for. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada Parliament of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/30/the-loophole-that-no-democracy-has-closed/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/30/the-loophole-that-no-democracy-has-closed/ Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMT Carney's situation is not unprecedented. Every democracy that has faced it — Canada, the EU, Italy, the United States — has struggled with the same structural question. None have solved it. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/29/where-brookfield-sits-in-every-room/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/29/where-brookfield-sits-in-every-room/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMT Fourteen Carney-era policy decisions, mapped against Brookfield's portfolio. Some confirm the thesis. Some cut against it. Both matter. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/28/one-year-of-mark-carney-the-brand-without-the-balance-sheet/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/28/one-year-of-mark-carney-the-brand-without-the-balance-sheet/ Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT Mark Carney was elected as the competent one. One year later, his deficits are twice Trudeau's, his housing numbers are a rounding error, and his sovereign wealth fund is backed by debt. His CV is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/28/how-brookfield-lobbies-ottawa-without-brookfield/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/28/how-brookfield-lobbies-ottawa-without-brookfield/ Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMT Brookfield Corporation has filed zero lobbying communications since Carney became Prime Minister. Its subsidiaries have filed twenty-three. The federal lobbying registry does not connect the dots automatically. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/27/the-canada-strong-fund-is-not-a-sovereign-wealth-fund/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/27/the-canada-strong-fund-is-not-a-sovereign-wealth-fund/ Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:00:00 GMT Every sovereign wealth fund in history was built on surplus revenue. Canada is running a $78 billion deficit. Carney's 'Canada Strong Fund' is borrowed money dressed up as national savings — and the comparison to Norway is an insult to anyone paying attention. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/27/mark-carneys-ethics-screen-has-a-huge-hole/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/27/mark-carneys-ethics-screen-has-a-huge-hole/ Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMT Most coverage of Mark Carney's conflict-of-interest arrangements is secondhand. This is what the actual document says — line by line — and what the law underneath it permits. Canadian Politics Mark Carney Liberal Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/02/non-binding-motions-the-end-run-around-parliament/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/04/02/non-binding-motions-the-end-run-around-parliament/ Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT Non-binding parliamentary motions and UN declarations are expressions of values. They carry no force of law. But Canadian bureaucracies have treated them as signals to build programs, create offices, and spend billions — without enabling legislation or meaningful parliamentary oversight. Canadian Politics Parliament of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/31/stephen-lewis-dead-at-88/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/31/stephen-lewis-dead-at-88/ Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:00:00 GMT Stephen Lewis has died at 88. Three generations of the Lewis family have shaped the Canadian left. His passing, days after his son Avi won the NDP leadership, marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Canadian Politics New Democratic Party of Canada https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/31/carney-to-prorogue-parliament-after-by-elections/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/31/carney-to-prorogue-parliament-after-by-elections/ Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT Is Mark Carney set to shutter Parliament after April's by-elections? With a backdoor majority in reach, prorogation would let him dodge accountability for a lackluster record on the economy. Canadian Politics Mark Carney https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/30/air-canada-ceo-caves-to-the-mob/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/30/air-canada-ceo-caves-to-the-mob/ Mon, 30 Mar 2026 22:00:00 GMT Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau is retiring after years of pressure over not speaking French. A week after a fatal crash at LaGuardia, no one is talking about airline safety. Canadian Politics Canadian Business https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/30/how-to-predict-a-leadership-race/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/30/how-to-predict-a-leadership-race/ Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:00:00 GMT Leadership races are a black box to outsiders. But there are ways to read the signals if you know where to look. Canadian Politics https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/30/avi-lewis-is-the-new-leader-of-the-ndp/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/03/30/avi-lewis-is-the-new-leader-of-the-ndp/ Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT Avi Lewis won the NDP leadership race on a decisive first ballot, taking 56 per cent of the vote. Federal Politics New Democratic Party of Canada Avi Lewis https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/02/19/can-i-blow-your-mind-with-some-economic-indicators/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/02/19/can-i-blow-your-mind-with-some-economic-indicators/ Thu, 19 Feb 2026 18:50:36 GMT I spend a lot of time looking at economic data. I’m constantly pulling numbers from Statistics Canada, the OECD, FRED, the Bank of Canada trying to get a clear picture of how the Canadian economy is actually performing. The problem is that getting those numbers is usually very annoying. Do you want to know Canada’s … Side projects https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/01/26/are-canadian-political-polls-still-useful/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/01/26/are-canadian-political-polls-still-useful/ Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:49:49 GMT I’ve long viewed polling as a useful but imperfect tool for gauging Canadian sentiment. It helps parties like the Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre create messaging that resonate with everyday Canadians frustrated by Liberal overreach on everything from taxes to immigration. But lately, I’ve been wondering: has polling on key issues reached a ceiling in its … Canadian Politics https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/01/09/announcing-pdfpony-com/ https://www.stephentaylor.ca/2026/01/09/announcing-pdfpony-com/ Fri, 09 Jan 2026 18:46:20 GMT I didn’t set out to build a PDF tool. It started with a simple thought: modern browsers can edit video, run serious WebAssembly apps, and render 3D worlds. So why is “merge two PDFs” still treated like something that needs to happen on a server somewhere? Around Black Friday I finally cancelled my Adobe subscription. … Uncategorized