The rupture

In Strasbourg, our guy had a moment.

EU politicians swarmed Mark Carney as he entered the legislature. Backslaps. Handshakes. Selfies. Like he was Harry Styles. Or Cristiano Ronaldo. But, no. Just a little, grayish career banker Canadian dude, now towering on the world stage.

An ocean away Donald Trump reacted to news Canada could become an associate member of the European Union, forming a block of 490 million people encompassing four of then ten biggest world economies and spanning two continents. “Canada is the worst country to deal with,” the orange guy sputtered. He said if this deal looked anti-American he’d tariff the poop out of Europe, “or maybe I’ll just stop trading with them.”

He’s ill, of course.

Back in Toronto, Carney’s two-day glitzy investfest ended up garnering about $500 billion flowing into everything from data centres to mines. Ottawa is sweetening the corporate tax structure, offering up major airports in a private-public scheme and vowing to fast-track approvals of new mines, ports, pipelines or AI infrastructure.

How serious is this government about sucking in capital from pensions, banks, hedge funds and sovereign wealth outfits? Enough to slash Canada’s effective marginal tax rate on new business investment in half – from 13% to just 6.4%. Investors will be able to immediately deduct 100% of their new spending – on mines, pipelines, equipment, fibre-optics and a lot more.

So, on Monday Regina got news of a $50-billion AI investment. On Tuesday in Toronto the banks freed up $325 billion for new investment in Canada. On Wednesday Carney was feted in France as the sole western leader with the stones to face Trump and the vision to promote a block of middle-power countries that together can withstand America, Russia or China. And on Thursday Trump was boasting that the National Weather Service (US) was changing all references to ‘Lake Ontario’ to ‘Lake America’.

Did I mention he’s lost it?

By the way, who was the closing speaker at Carney’s high-stakes investment summit?

Yep, Stephen Harper. The former Conservative prime minister, endorsing Mark Carmey – who we all now realize is a progressive conservative. Which makes Pikerre Poilievre, well, irrelevant. For his part PP was trashing the EU initiative, suggesting “hard-working waitresses and welders” would soon be “paying taxes to Brussels”. Nonsense, of course. But we might end up being able to live in Tuscany or the Rhine Valley for a year.

It’s a changing world, obviously. Yesterday we yakked about the profound impact of AI. We’re also watching eight decades of US hegemony and benign empire being shredded by one guy. There are two more years of Trump, and at the end of his term America may be forever changed. A protectionist, isolated, walled-off giant that few allies trust any more, ripped apart politically with a cash-sucking military unable to defeat a crazy cleric regime with cheap drones – or a drab central banker who speaks in paragraphs.

Of course, big changes bring anxiety.

These days we’re dealing with war news, high energy costs, creeping loan rates, a trade war, potential job losses, bond market burps and endless uncertainty as our largest trading partner changes rules weekly. National Bank economist Daren King warns of a ‘bleak autumn’ for the Canadian real estate market as a result.

He’s probably right. Showings have collapsed lately. The traditionally-strong fall period already looks like a bust. There’s too much fear swirling for people to swallow fresh dollops of mortgage debt. Oh yeah, and AI will probably kill you.

But out of all this, there’s hope. Others look at us and see it. They’re not wrong.

About the picture: “As we do not have a dog,” writes Mike in BC, “I am forced to forward a picture of Teddy, our friend Lien’s two year old Bernadoodle.  This picture was taken on Mt Boucherie in West Kelowna at the end of August. Finally the smoke is gone!! PS. Still enjoying the daily blog, not sure how you manage to read all the comments…”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘[email protected]’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/09/17/the-rupture/