Robert Wolfe

Laennec -- 17 novembre, Nantes, France medecine.univ-nantes.fr/la-faculte-d...

519,235 Canadians voted for Alberta to leave Canada. 532,201 Canadians voted for Olivia Chow has mayor of Toronto. Which is a fun statistic.

Going from “expected leader of Brazil“ to “fugitive from justice” inside of 48 hours is quite the journey. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/w...

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO: I bought Stelco because I could not afford anymore having Stelco flooding the market here in the United States to the detriment of my own company. David Cochrane: Am I understanding you correctly there? It was a defensive acquisition?

Zosia Bielski: “‘Ending biannual clock adjustments may eliminate transition harms that last a few weeks,’ wrote the authors, ‘but the health effects of permanent [daylight] time are likely to be chronic.’” www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article...

Of course: "American steel — not overseas dumping — dominates Canadian imports, trade data shows" ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/america...

75% of Canadian financial support for energy went to fossil fuels in FY 2024-25, but it's not too late to change course. Canada can: 🛑Phase-out fossil fuel subsidies 🌏Align public finance with climate goals ☀️Prioritize renewables 📗 @IISD_Energy: https://bit.ly/4ssZP1T

Please enjoy my cartoon for Wednesday's Toronto Star

WTO REFORM: The unspoken context is geopolitics. So they tread water — or keep the mouse moving — to look busy. ● The facilitators’ reports➡️ tradebetablog.wordpress.com/text-facilit... ● Unofficial compilation of points made in members’ recent papers➡️ tradebetablog.wordpress.com/reform-point...

WTO REFORM: “It makes soul destroying reading. Glimmers of learning but ….” That was one expert’s response to the latest reports from ambassadors coordinating the current talks on reform. ● Analysis➡️ tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2026/10/27/r...

TRADE POLITICS: Why a stronger WTO is needed for a stable and prosperous world order. If it’s allowed to fade away, and world trade fragments, uncertainty and costs will rise for everyone. It won’t be as instantaneous as closing the Strait of Hormuz. It may be worse. By @bobwolfe.bsky.social

Is Trump about to TACO on tariffs? Don’t bet on it The latest from the Globe's business commentary, by Tony Keller:

• Ahmed Zewail (Egypt / US): Won 1999 Nobel Prize in #Chemistry • Nader Masmoudi (Tunisia): Won Fermat Prize in #mathematics • Abbas Bahri (Tunisia): also received the Fermat Prize • Sir Michael Atiyah (Lebanese descent / British): #mathematician who won both Fields Medal and Abel Prize.

"The Prime Minister also signaled he’s not sure he can rely upon the U.S. government to honour a future trade deal." "Asked Monday whether he believes the U.S. government’s signature on a new trade deal would be “in pen,” meaning permanent, Mr. Carney replied: “I don’t know that.”" Sound caution.

Please enjoy my cartoon for Tuesday's Toronto Star

Canadian HoC Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development is launching a study on Effectiveness of International Institutions. I'll be speaking about the #WTO in the panel that begins at noon eastern today www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentView...

He destroyed his country, maybe they want him to destroy the UN as well?

Yep, just to add even more color for how bad this is—there are tons of American made vehicles that are basically only exported to Canada because they’re too expensive for most consumers in Mexico and too big for consumers in Europe/Asia. One of endless reasons it was dumb to start this trade war.

"It’s Not (Just) the Tariffs: Rethinking Non-Tariff Measures in a Fragmented Global Economy" academic.oup.com/crawlprevent... "Higher-income countries rely relatively more on NTMs than on tariffs"

Fifteen years ago, the Liberal party of Canada was dead. It's now coming up on 11 years in government and polling at 48%. And that, kids, is why you should avoid making predictions about politics.

Congratulations to David Peterson, who will no longer be the first David people think of when discussing the potential peril of triggering an early election.

of course they should. He doesn't seem to mention where they should do that work. My view: In Geneva, by strengthening the WTO

I wrote about this week’s rather mysterious announcement of new money for the auto sector, and why Carney needs a do-over for his strategy for that industry. www.thestar.com/business/opi...

Trump said he had to takeover Greenland to keep China and Russia out. And then he snuck Russia onto the North Slope. Literally just ... inviting them in. www.ft.com/content/e9cf...

So, in a new NYT essay about May 13, 1986 (the day she was born), Lena Dunham suggests that, back then, nobody in Canada or the US knew or cared much about acid rain. I hate to get in the way of a good generational shaming, but she’s just…er, totally wrong?

Also Rush.

Me: "It cannot be stated often enough or vociferously enough: the Trump Administration is helping Russia to conquer Ukraine. The United States of America has taken the side of an aggressor against its innocent victim. We are helping our actual enemies" www.aei.org/foreign-and-...

Trade policy?? LOL. Of course.

Any piece that says "the U.S. had become an outlier in its commitment to completely free trade" is fundamentally flawed. The U.S. has never been anywhere close to "completely free trade."

So.... the "Susan Collins" amendment to the Canada tariff actually.... resulted in a high tariffed import value ...

No shade toward any reporters getting intel on Canada-EU talks, which obviously is a service, but I have to confess that I find the question of what we call the relationship one of the less compelling dramas of our current era. www.politico.eu/article/germ...

When my book came out, everyone asked if Trump was going to change the direction of US trade policy. "Too soon to say" I'd say because of status quo bias. Now Trump made "tariff" one of the most hated words in politics, says Greg Ip (1/3) www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

GREG IP: “.. Trump called ‘tariff’ the most beautiful word in the dictionary. He somehow made it the most hated word in politics.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

Please enjoy my cartoon for Friday's Toronto Star

Bloomberg scoop: Canada has banned its diplomatic staff in the US from even being in the same room as a midterm election candidate, taking an extra cautious approach to avoid accusations from the Trump administration of "interference" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

the Opposition probably won't say this when the Budget is delivered in Ottawa next month: "Canada and Germany are entirely immune from being the countries at the sharp end of a market rout. Both have low debt and a history of prudence." #cdnpoli

I really really REALLY want this to be true but the question mark is there for a reason. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/has-americ...

this folly, if true, will taint all promotions during the Trump era, blighting careers for years, as colleagues wonder if fellow officer said yes to get the promotion

Not a surprise from this administration, but both unlawful and incredibly destructive of effective governance. www.washingtonsun.com/administrati...

Irish trade minister Helen McEntee says her government wants to ratify the trade agreement with Canada - CETA - by the end of the year. But all depends on a court case next week. Canadian trade minister Maninder Sidhu is at the meeting of EU trade ministers in Dublin this week

Freeland still likes the friend-shoring she was pushing years ago (a bad idea then and now) and still agrees with the "woke" parts of Trudeau's foreign policy.

This list is bonkers. All legitimate activities. Unlike what the Trump admin is doing in Israel, or did in Hungary, or...

"A list of Canadians who once hurt my feelings"

🎯🎯🎯

President Emmanuel Macron has made his strongest and most personal attack yet on Donald Trump, describing the US President’s comments on last weekend’s riots in France as “stupid”. 1/ www.lemonde.fr/societe/live...

"the United States has come to embrace a perverse and unsustainable orientation to the rest of the world: extreme belligerence paired with strategic fecklessness." @jkdemp.bsky.social

holy smokes, conan strikes up a chat with a random lady on the subway and she immediately starts riffing on his level, no problem.