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The Ghosts of Liberals/ Democrats Past thread.

This is drifting into a split back to the tariff or current Liberal government threads…
 
No offence, but that has to be the dumbest strategy ever.

We have leverage (even if Trump says we he doesn't need anything), its need to be properly leveraged, at the right time and in a way as to NOT embarrass the Donald. Make it look like a win-win.
what leverage? Its not like its was already in operation and shut down
 
what leverage? Its not like its was already in operation and shut down
We have oil and they buy a lot and to add insult to injury, American tycoons screw us from expanding or finding new customers for O and G

We are supposed to finally open the "ring of fire" and have a shit ton of defence critical minerals available.

We have a shit ton of uranium, obvious why the USA needs that.

We could be a good customer again for stuff they make best and we don't, they play nice, we buy their things again. And kick China to the curb.

There are many small and medium American booze makers who have felt the pinch of Ontario and a few other provinces "no American booze" order. They play nice and we start buying again.

I am sure there is a shit ton of things I don't even know about, we can dangle in front of the Donald. And again, make it look he wins (and we win)
 
We have oil and they buy a lot and to add insult to injury, American tycoons screw us from expanding or finding new customers for O and G

We are supposed to finally open the "ring of fire" and have a shit ton of defence critical minerals available.

We have a shit ton of uranium, obvious why the USA needs that.

We could be a good customer again for stuff they make best and we don't, they play nice, we buy their things again. And kick China to the curb.

There are many small and medium American booze makers who have felt the pinch of Ontario and a few other provinces "no American booze" order. They play nice and we start buying again.

I am sure there is a shit ton of things I don't even know about, we can dangle in front of the Donald. And again, make it look he wins (and we win)
those all seem like things that would be beneficial to a natural trade relationship, outside of any bridge deal. Too bad the President isnt interested
 
those all seem like things that would be beneficial to a natural trade relationship, outside of any bridge deal. Too bad the President isnt interested
Thats basically don't even bother trying attitude. And if that is approach from some (a very few minority), then we will suffer far worse than the Americans. I hope your not one of those people willing to let our nation suffer just to spite Donald Trump? Thats a self defeating attitude.

Wishing Trump wasn't president is like wishing it wouldn't rain when it is raining. Accept it, get over it and deal with it.
 
Thats basically don't even bother trying attitude. And if that is approach from some (a very few minority), then we will suffer far worse than the Americans. I hope your not one of those people willing to let our nation suffer just to spite Donald Trump? Thats a self defeating attitude.

Wishing Trump wasn't president is like wishing it wouldn't rain when it is raining. Accept it, get over it and deal with it.
I have no idea what the negotiating stance of the government is. I'm sure they are trying something. The nation isnt suffering to spite Donald Trump but because of him. What the successful strategy is, I dont know. He negotiated the last agreement that he now ignores. Difficult to put much trust in that. Maybe we can rename the bridge the Donald Trump
 
Here's a Liberal ghost. The Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act
Commissioner's named, regs published, stand by for implementation - although you're not alone with being impatient :)
 
Commissioner's named, regs published, stand by for implementation - although you're not alone with being impatient :)
Those were the draft regs for public review and consultation. Final versions have yet to be published. Once they are, the clock starts on compliance, and non-compliance enforcement options open up. Looking forward to it.
 
Those were the draft regs for public review and consultation. Final versions have yet to be published. Once they are, the clock starts on compliance, and non-compliance enforcement options open up. Looking forward to it.
When I retired there was a shortage of drafters for legislation and regulation drafting, that might still be a bottleneck.
 
When I retired there was a shortage of drafters for legislation and regulation drafting, that might still be a bottleneck.
I suspect there’s a lot of work needs to go into making sure the foreign agents registry is properly structured and balanced. LOTS of ways they could inadvertently cause lots of unintended problems if they don’t torture test the regs against a lot of possible scenarios.

I’m very much looking forward to this being in place, but it needs to be done right.
 
Those were the draft regs for public review and consultation. Final versions have yet to be published. Once they are, the clock starts on compliance, and non-compliance enforcement options open up. Looking forward to it.
Thanks for the update!
2 years seems like a long time to work out the logistics/details.
Yes and no. Ever see any new policies or solutions in the Canadian military that seem obvious take waaaaay longer than planned? Especially ones where nothing was there before?

And we've seen what can happen if things get done from scratch lickety-split in a few weeks after the neighbours said "do more, do it faster & we want to see results, dammit!"
Fast, good and cheap - pick any two :)
 
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China went from national security threat #1 to our trusted trading partner in the new world order. I get the suspicion our government isn't in a rush to start calling out Chinas foreign interference, or anyone else's for that matter.
 
2 years seems like a long time to work out the logistics.
Our legislation passed in June 2024. We have a commissioner named, and draft regulations were published for review early this year. We’re still awaiting the issuance of the final regulations. Granted in that time we had all the drama around a PM resignation, election. But in any case.

For comparison, Australia passed its legislation for a foreign agents registry in June 2018. They published their regulations and opened their registry December of that same year. So it’s fair to say it’s taking us noticeably longer than the close ally were modeling our approach off of. However Australia has also had to do a couple rounds of revisions. I’ve not taken a deep dive into that, but potentially they rushed some aspects of it. Australia has succesfully prosecuted offences under its foreign agent registry.

China went from national security threat #1 to our trusted trading partner in the new world order. I get the suspicion our government isn't in a rush to start calling out Chinas foreign interference, or anyone else's for that matter.

Weird as it is, generally stable trading relationships can exist with countries that are also strategic threats. Most commerce is simple exchange between disinterested companies. You buy my soybeans, I buy your kids’ toys. Absolute China will mess around sometimes with pretextual trade barriers; I’m not going to argue that. But against our overall trade volume it’s not huge.

Now, I wouldn’t say they’re a ‘trusted’ trading partner, beyond trusting that they’ll honour contracts to buy or sell. We still see pretty regular cybersecurity warnings, espionage/foreign interference warnings, and companies ordered to shut down or acquisitions vetoed by the government on economic security grounds. Lots of work is being done in the foreign interference space, but that kind of stuff tends not to be publicly visible. It’s not often someone gets arrested and charged… But it doesn’t make the news when a foreign academic gets refused a visa or a research grant, or a company is quietly briefed by CSIS and warned off of engaging certain potential business partners.

With that said, the foreign agents registry is long overdue and will offer a lot of opportunity to strengthen our national security against frigging on behalf of a foreign state.
 
For comparison, Australia passed its legislation for a foreign agents registry in June 2018. They published their regulations and opened their registry December of that same year. So it’s fair to say it’s taking us noticeably longer than the close ally were modeling our approach off of.

I read that before posting, yeah. We seem to be on par with the UK. The UK having quite a few issues with the government trying to hide certain guest activities is a whole different story, but yes it's plasuable Canada is just trying to 'get it right' opposed to dragging their feet.

Also just as plausible we're dragging our feet when you look at our governments history (firearm ban) or look at how hard the LPC was trying to avoid any foreign interference investigation and accountability initially.

Weird as it is, generally stable trading relationships can exist with countries that are also strategic threats. Most commerce is simple exchange between disinterested companies. You buy my soybeans, I buy your kids’ toys. Absolute China will mess around sometimes with pretextual trade barriers; I’m not going to argue that. But against our overall trade volume it’s not huge.

Now, I wouldn’t say they’re a ‘trusted’ trading partner, beyond trusting that they’ll honour contracts to buy or sell. We still see pretty regular cybersecurity warnings, espionage/foreign interference warnings, and companies ordered to shut down or acquisitions vetoed by the government on economic security grounds. Lots of work is being done in the foreign interference space, but that kind of stuff tends not to be publicly visible. It’s not often someone gets arrested and charged… But it doesn’t make the news when a foreign academic gets refused a visa or a research grant, or a company is quietly briefed by CSIS and warned off of engaging certain potential business partners.

With that said, the foreign agents registry is long overdue and will offer a lot of opportunity to strengthen our national security against frigging on behalf of a foreign state.

I don't think it's weird at all. Our justice system is all about making deals with devils for the sake of expediency and managing resources.

I think we're largely on the same page. My concern is less about whether work is happening behind the scenes and more about the pace of the public facing 180 and threats to Canadian citizens.

We still never got an explanation why police officers from Beijin were allowed to disappear from their RCMP escorts for 6 hours. I doubt they went to a museum.

The foreign agents registry was proposed specifically because of foreign interference concerns, and I believe deemed an immediate national threat at the time.

It's still not operational years later and we're still voting for and paying MPs who are compromised. These politicians continue to make decisions on behalf of Canadians.

I give it another 3 years at least before the registry is online.
 
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