Good morning, itâs Thursday, October 16th. In todayâs news, Pierre Poilievre blasts Canadaâs economic stagnation under Liberal leadership, Liberals extend pandemic-era media subsidies citing âsea of disinformation,â Why the modern west romanticizes âsimplerâ cultures, Mexican cartels are placing bounties on federal agents, and much more.
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Pierre Poilievre Blasts Liberal âEconomic Alchemyâ and Calls for Government to Get Out of the Way
In a recent National Post op-ed, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre delivers a sharp critique of Canadaâs economic stagnation under Liberal leadership, framing it as a failed experiment in political alchemy â the age-old promise to turn lead into gold. In his analogy, the âalchemist-in-chiefâ is Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor and current Liberal heavyweight, whose proposal to turn deficits into âinvestmentsâ is, in Poilievreâs view, nothing more than a rebranded version of Justin Trudeauâs long-standing economic mantra: that deficits somehow create growth.
Poilievre argues that after nearly a decade of this thinking, the results speak for themselves. Canadaâs debt has doubled, investment per worker has fallen by over 10 per cent â the steepest drop in the G7 â and per capita GDP growth has been the weakest among advanced economies. The numbers he cites paint a stark contrast between Canadaâs $15,600 in investment per worker and the $28,600 seen in the United States, with the OECD average hovering around $23,600.
The piece identifies two central flaws in the Liberal approach. First, Poilievre highlights the âcrowding outâ effect â the idea that when governments run deficits, they absorb funds that could have been used for private investment. Whether through borrowing or money-printing, he argues, deficit spending doesnât create new wealth; it merely redirects it from productive private enterprise to less efficient public bureaucracy. He draws on the example of Israel in the 1990s, where slashing deficits led to a surge in venture capital and innovation.
Second, he cites the concept of âRicardian equivalenceâ â that people and businesses anticipate higher future taxes when governments spend beyond their means, and therefore save rather than invest. In Poilievreâs view, this self-defeating cycle explains why Canadaâs economy remains stagnant despite record spending.
At the heart of his argument is a call for government restraint. Rather than promising yet another âGreat Reset,â Poilievre contends Ottawa should focus on removing barriers to growth: speeding up building permits, scrapping the capital gains tax on reinvestments, repealing restrictions on resource development, and allowing private enterprise to do what it does best â create prosperity.
In his words, Canada doesnât need another grand plan to turn lead into gold. It just needs a government willing to get out of the way and let Canadians start digging. Source.
Liberals Extend Pandemic-Era Media Subsidies, Citing âSea of Disinformationâ
The Liberal government is doubling down on using taxpayersâ money to prop up the mediaâand call it a defence of âunbiased information.â Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault announced that $12 million will be allocated for the Special Measures for Journalism component of the Canada Periodical Fund for the 2025-26 fiscal year. This program, first launched in 2020 as a COVID emergency relief measure, is aimed at helping non-daily community newspapers and magazines, particularly small outlets with free or limited-paid circulation, to continue producing âquality editorial and journalistic content.â
Ottawa claims this is necessary to protect democracy and ensure Canadians have access to âlocal, unbiased and timely informationâ in a climate full of âdisinformation.â Guilbeault framed the subsidies as essential to preserving Canadian voices and cultural sovereignty.
The Numbers:
2020 launch: $45 million
2021-22: $23 million
2022-25 extension: $40 million
Total since 2020: over $100 million
2025-26 extension: $12 million
But these are just the headline subsidies. Ottawa also funds:
Aid to Publishers, Business Innovation, and Collective Initiativesâall additional components of the Canada Periodical Fund: $85 million in 2024
Local Journalism Initiative: $58.8 million over three years
Changing Narratives Fund: funding outlets serving Indigenous, Black, ethno-religious minorities, people with disabilities, and LGBT communities: $10 million over three years.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC): Annual Funding: $1.4 billion
The Real Story: This isnât about helping struggling media. Itâs about control. The Liberals are weaponizing billions in taxpayer dollars to pick winners and losers in journalismâeffectively turning public funds into a propaganda machine. Ottawaâs claim of âunbiased informationâ is laughable when the government decides who gets funding and who doesnât. Itâs a direct attack on independent media by making survival contingent on playing by the Liberalsâ rules.
This is taxpayer money being funnelled into outlets the Liberals deem worthy, all while shaping the narrative in their favour. Democracy isnât served when the government decides which stories get toldâespecially when billions of Canadiansâ hard-earned dollars bankroll the operation. Itâs insane, authoritarian, and fundamentally corrupt. Ottawa isnât just supporting mediaâitâs hijacking it. And Canadians are paying for it, every step of the way.
The Cult of the Primitive: Why the Modern West Romanticizes âSimplerâ Cultures
Itâs become fashionable for academics to romanticize âdecolonizationâ and for politicians to tell you to respect every culture but be ashamed of your own. Universities now celebrate âindigenous wisdomâ as morally superior, and activists insist that modern civilization â built on science, merit, and progress â is the source of humanityâs corruption. But this obsession with âsimplerâ or âmore authenticâ cultures isnât really about admiration. Itâs about escape.
Civilization demands too much from the modern person â discipline, effort, and personal responsibility. It expects people to think critically, restrain impulses, and live by higher standards. Thatâs a heavy weight to carry. So, instead of rising to meet it, many look for an easier way out. They glorify less developed societies as âpureâ and âcommunal,â imagining them as utopias unburdened by greed, guilt, or competition. But the picture they paint isnât based on history â itâs based on fantasy.
Life in so-called âprimitiveâ societies was not peaceful or harmonious. It was brutal, superstitious, and often short. Disease, violence, and hierarchy were constant realities. The modern idealist, safely sheltered by the systems they claim to despise, projects their own frustrations onto a false image of the past. Theyâre not comparing truth to truth; theyâre comparing a distorted present to a fictional paradise.
This fantasy allows them to reject the moral and intellectual responsibilities of modern life while feeling morally superior for doing so. Itâs not love for indigenous cultures â itâs self-loathing disguised as compassion. The irony is that the people who despise civilization rely on it completely. The freedom, safety, and prosperity that make their activism possible are products of the very system they condemn.
Whatâs really being rejected isnât âWestern values.â Itâs maturity. Itâs the uncomfortable weight of having to uphold and improve what generations before us built. Civilization is demanding, yes â but thatâs what makes it valuable. The longing to escape it isnât wisdom or enlightenment. Itâs regression â the wish to return to childhood, where the world felt simple because someone else bore the responsibility.
Mexican Cartels Are Placing Bounties on Federal Agents
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has obtained credible intelligence that Mexican cartels have placed bounties on US law enforcement officers, including ICE and CBP agents, according to an Oct. 14 announcement.
The DHS says the cartelsâlong operating drug routes through major US cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Atlantaâare retaliating against recent enforcement crackdowns by recruiting US-based street gangs to harass, doxx, assault, and assassinate federal agents.
A tiered bounty system offers $2,000 for gathering personal information on agents, $10,000 for kidnappings or assaults, and up to $50,000 for assassinations of senior officials. Investigators found some Chicago gangs, including factions tied to the Latin Kings, using armed rooftop spotters to track ICE and CBP officers during Operation Midway Blitz, an ongoing multi-state crackdown on illegal immigration.
The revelation has deepened tensions between federal and state leaders. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have condemned President Donald Trumpâs decision to deploy the National Guard, accusing federal agents of creating a âwar zone.â Trump responded by calling for their arrests, while Johnson issued an order banning ICE from using city-owned property. More
Feds Seize $15 Billion in Crypto from âPig Butcheringâ Scheme Involving Labour Camps
Federal prosecutors have seized $15 billion in cryptocurrency from a massive âpig butcheringâ investment scam allegedly run out of forced labour camps in Cambodia, marking the largest forfeiture in US Justice Department history.
Chinese businessman Chen Zhi, founder of Cambodiaâs powerful Prince Group, has been charged with money laundering and wire fraud conspiracies, though he remains at large. The Treasury Department also sanctioned dozens of Prince Group affiliates, labeling them criminal organizations.
Prosecutors say Chenâs network used at least 10 forced labour camps, where trafficked workers were forced to run fake crypto and romance investment schemes using thousands of phones and social media accounts. Victims were âfattened upâ through weeks of online grooming before being defrauded of their savings.
Authorities seized 127,271 Bitcoinâworth roughly $15 billionâand allege Chen used stolen funds to buy yachts, private jets, and a Picasso. The FBI says the investigation began in Brooklyn in 2022 and has since exposed one of Asiaâs largest transnational criminal networks. More
Progressive Conservatives Win Majority Government in Newfoundland and Labrador - Voters in NL showed they were in the mood for a big change on Tuesday by ousting the governing Liberals after ten years in power. More
Top French Administrative Court Rejects Le Penâs Election Ban Challenge - The Council of State turned down her appeal against a ruling barring her from running for office for 5 years, ruling her out of the 2027 presidential election. More
The Afghan Taliban and Pakistan Agree to a 48-Hour Truce After Deadly Clashes Continue to Escalate - More
Quebec Judge Fines Man $5,000 for Improper Use of Artificial Intelligence in Court - âHe must bear alone all the opprobrium resulting from [false precedent] quotations âhallucinatedâ by artificial intelligence on which he relied to generate his contestation." - Justice Luc Morin. More
Trump Threatens Tariffs Against Spain Over NATO Defense Spending Shortfall - More
Ontario Government Wastes $75-Million on an Anti-tariff Ad Campaign in the US
Ontario Premier Doug Fordâs government is spending $75 million on a new US ad campaign using Ronald Reaganâs 1987 anti-tariff speech to pressure President Trump to end his trade warâbut this is nothing more than a wasteful use of taxpayer money, adding to the over $100 million already spent on similar ads that have done nothing to protect Canadian jobs or repair strained US trade relations.
Instead of helping workers or resolving economic tensions, Ottawa and Queenâs Park are burning through public funds on messaging campaigns that play politics while doing nothing tangible to fix Canadaâs worsening trade position with America. In fact, this approachâessentially poking the bearâis more likely to hurt Canada than help. More
Stellantis Moves Jeep Production to US Despite Billions in Canadian Subsidies
After receiving massive taxpayer-backed investments, Stellantis is shifting Jeep Compass production from Brampton to Illinoisâdealing a major blow to Canadian auto workers and exposing how Canadaâs public subsidies are failing to secure long-term manufacturing jobs at home. More
JPMorgan Launches $1.5 Trillion Security Initiative to Boost Americaâs Critical Industries - The initiative comes as rare earth tensions with Beijing deepen and as Washington accelerates efforts to secure critical resources. More
Study Reveals The Surprising Age at Which Your Brain Reaches Its Peak
Research indicates that although raw intellectual abilities such as processing speed and memory begin to decline after the mid-twenties, many psychological traits continue improving well into midlife and beyond. A study analyzing 16 key dimensionsâincluding reasoning, memory span, knowledge, emotional intelligence, and the âBig Fiveâ personality traitsâfound that overall mental functioning peaks between ages 55 and 60. Traits like conscientiousness peak around 65, emotional stability around 75, and even capacities such as moral reasoning and resistance to cognitive biases may improve into the 70s and 80s.
These strengths help explain why individuals in their fifties and early sixties often excel in complex problem-solving, leadership, and high-stakes decision-making, highlighting that midlife should be seen as a period of peak capability rather than decline. More
Researchers Discover the Cellâs Secret Anti-Aging Mechanism - Activating lysosome biogenesis restores defective progerin clearance in progeria cells, reducing cellular aging and offering a potential therapy for HGPS and other age-related disorders. More
Five Blue Jays Named Finalists for Gold Glove Awards
The Toronto Blue Jays showcased their defensive strength this season, with five players named Gold Glove finalists: Alejandro Kirk (C), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B), Ty France (1B), AndrĂ©s GimĂ©nez (2B), and Ernie Clement (3B/utility). Clement, a standout in multiple infield positions, leads the MLB in defensive runs saved, while GimĂ©nez, a three-time Gold Glove and 2023 Platinum Glove winner, overcame injury to rank among the top at second base. Kirk, Guerrero Jr., and France also impressed with their defensive metrics, contributing to the Blue Jaysâ consecutive team Gold Glove wins and ranking fourth in MLB with 51 defensive runs saved. More
Blue Jays Flip the Script in ALCS With Offensive Onslaught in Seattle, Winning Game Three 13-4 - Seattle leads the series 2-1 with game four tonight. More
Australian Swimmer Ariarne Titmus, World Record Holder and 4-Time Olympic Champion, Retires at 25 - More
Fans Launch Petition to Replace Bad Bunny with Renowned âKing of Countryâ George Strait for Super Bowl Halftime Show - More
Edmonton Police Seize 60,000 Opium Poppies from a Field Behind AcreageâThe Street Value Was Surprisingly Low at Just $500,000
Thatâs a Big Commitment: Italian Man Fakes Complete Blindness for Over 50 Years to Collect Disability Payments
On This Day in 1923, Walt and Roy Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Feliz, California, laying the foundation for what would grow into the global entertainment powerhouse known today as the Walt Disney Company