Photo: Matt Borck, One Group Agency. Trump tariffs would be "catastrophic" for Canadian economy, warns CAPP president Lisa Baiton at energy and resources forum. Most Americans, like most Canadians, probably have no idea how important Canada is to American energy security and its comparatively cheap gasoline. But they may soon find out. Should Donald Trump’s threats of 25 per cent tariffs across the board on Canadian imports include oil and natural gas, there would be a crude awakening. American consumers would invariably be hit with price hikes at the gas pumps, should Canadian oil producers be hit with 25 per cent tariffs, as about one-third of American refining capacity is configured for heavy crude, most of which comes from Alberta’s oil sands. American LNG exporters would also feel the pain, as some of the natural gas used to feed LNG terminals on the Gulf Coast comes from Alberta and B.C. via pipeline. Trump’s threat of across-the-board tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports is sending “shockwaves” through the Canadian business community, said Bridgitte Anderson, president of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) at an energy and resources forum Tuesday in Vancouver. “The president-elect is threatening 25 per cent across the board on all Canadian projects,” said Lisa Baiton, president of the Canadian Petroleum Producers (CAPP). “This would be catastrophic for Canada's economy. And these kinds of events underscore the impacts of global instability and show how our resource sector, the economy and national security are all highly interdependent.” B.C. lumber exports to the U.S. are already subject to duties of about 15 per cent. Presumably, blanket tariffs on Canadian goods would add another 10 per cent. During his previous administration, Trump implemented tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, but energy exports, like oil and gas were not included. While it’s not yet clear whether the threatened tariffs would include energy exports -- oil, natural gas and electricity -- Trump did make a point of upper-casing his threat to suggest they would apply to everything. “On January 20 th , as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 per cent Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on November 24. The five top exports from Canada to the U.S., in order of value, are crude oil and refined petroleum products, automotive parts, natural gas, electricity, and lumber and wood products. Business groups and chambers of commerce in Canada are reacting to the threat with alarm. “A tariff of this magnitude will have significant consequences for B.C. businesses of all sizes and will negatively impact communities and workers across British Columbia,” said BC Chamber of Commerce president Fiona Famulak. “These proposed tariffs would have devastating consequences for our local businesses, further straining supply chains and diminishing the economic recovery we’ve worked so hard to achieve,” said Surrey Board of Trade spokesman Jasroop Gosal. “Some might say that the president-elect's tariff threat is meant to be provocative," Baiton said. “ I would say it's expected. And Canada needs to remember how closely integrated our market is in the U.S. “Our supply chains are highly intertwined. In 2022, Canada exported, in U.S. dollars $438 billion to the US, and a significant portion of that – or 27 per cent of that -- Canada's merchandise exports to the U.S. were energy related, including oil, gas, electricity and uranium." What’s not well understood about Canada’s role in American energy security is the configuration of American oil refineries. Many of the large refineries in the U.S. – notably in the midwest and Gulf Coast -- are built to refine heavy crude, not the lighter oil produced in the U.S. in its shale oil sector. As a result of this, 61 per cent of the crude oil imported by the U.S. comes from Canada, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Canadian heavy crude accounts for about 24 per cent of all crude oil consumption in the U.S. Depending on where oil prices are at, a 25 per cent tariff could add about $20 to the price of a barrel of oil for refiners, which would invariably result in higher prices for gasoline in the U.S. As for natural gas, in 2022, 99 per cent of American imports of natural gas were from Canada, according to the EIA, most of it from Alberta and B.C. The U.S. imported 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2022. Some of the natural gas now exported to the U.S. from Alberta and B.C. now feed LNG projects on the Gulf Coast, which would be affected by higher natural gas prices, as a result of tariffs. “Imposing tariffs on products like energy would cause chaos for our very integrated markets and our very integrated supply chains, and would have a devastating effect on Canada," Baiton said. "So whether that tariff threat comes to fruition or not, Canada is at a very real point of inflection.”Starmer says ‘bulging benefits bill’ is ‘blighting our society’After receiving no offers coming out of high school, it only took one start for Trevelin Queen to prove he belongs on the NBA stage. The Orlando Magic have been riddled with unfortunate injuries this season. Paolo Banchero has been sidelined since late October with a torn right oblique. Coincidentally, Franz Wagner went down with the same injury in early December. Moe Wagner will be out for the rest of the season with a season-ending knee injury. The Magic started the year out with hope and optimism, but since the past week, they’ve been looking for answers offensively as it seems the team cannot catch a break. Queen had started for the first time this season, and did not disappoint for his team down the stretch. Queen came up with 17 points, three steals, a block on a three-point attempt and three assists, one of which was to the corner for a game-clinching three pointer by rookie Tristan da Silva. Against the defending champions with their backs against the wall, this might’ve been the most impressive Magic win this season so far. Cole Anthony didn’t hold back in the postgame interview when asked about Queen’s much needed performance. https://x.com/OrlandoMagic/status/1871388764796567647 “(Trevelin’s) been waiting for his moment, and he’s doing it now,” Anthony said. Queen was not just a cinderella story in the game, his performance was needed, and it will be needed for the near future if the Magic want to keep their season in tact. As someone who found poise during the game, Queen credited everyone that’s been apart of this long, patient project. “My teammates believe in me, the coaching staff believes in me, my family believes me and I believe in myself,” Queen said. Trevelin Queen’s Career Has Required Much Patience Queen has been traveling his whole life, basketball included. After not getting any offers to play college basketball out of high school in Maryland, he attended Marin, a public community college near San Francisco. For his sophomore year, he transferred to the New Mexico Military Institute. After being named to the All-Western Junior College Athletic Conference, he transferred to New Mexico State where he won the Western Athletic Conference MVP. After going undrafted in 2020, Queen spent some time with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the G League team of the Houston Rockets where he won a G League MVP along with a championship and G League Finals MVP. He bounced around but finally ended up with the Orlando Magic on a two-way contract and has had that role since 2023. You can see the Magic lace up against the Miami Heat in an in-state rivalry game on Thursday night. This article first appeared on Hardwood Heroics and was syndicated with permission.
The Prime Minister used an op-ed in the Mail on Sunday to vow to “get to grips” with the cost of welfare after figures suggested more than four million people will be claiming long-term sickness support by the end of the decade. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will announce a package of legislation next week designed to “get Britain working” amid Government concerns about the projected rise. Official forecasts published by her department this week show that the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from a pre-pandemic figure of around 2.5 million in 2019 to around 4.2 million in 2029. Last year there were just over three million claimants. The Prime Minister wrote: “In the coming months, Mail on Sunday readers will see even more sweeping changes. Because make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society. “Don’t get me wrong, we will crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters. “There will be a zero-tolerance approach to these criminals. My pledge to Mail on Sunday readers is this: I will grip this problem once and for all.” Ms Kendall’s white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.
Jonah Goldberg Among elites across the ideological spectrum, there's one point of unifying agreement: Americans are bitterly divided. What if that's wrong? What if elites are the ones who are bitterly divided while most Americans are fairly unified? History rarely lines up perfectly with the calendar (the "sixties" didn't really start until the decade was almost over). But politically, the 21st century neatly began in 2000, when the election ended in a tie and the color coding of electoral maps became enshrined as a kind of permanent tribal color war of "red vs. blue." Elite understanding of politics has been stuck in this framework ever since. Politicians and voters have leaned into this alleged political reality, making it seem all the more real in the process. I loathe the phrase "perception is reality," but in politics it has the reifying power of self-fulfilling prophecy. People are also reading... Recap: Here's how Joey Graziadei will win 'Dancing with the Stars' They fell in love with Beatrice. So they opened a store in downtown. At the courthouse, Nov. 23, 2024 Search warrants lead to arrest of man in narcotics investigation No change in bond amounts in child abuse death case Clabaugh family presents Outstanding Educator award Harmonizers to perform Courthouse lighting ceremony planned for Sunday Kidnapping in Nebraska prompted police chase that ended with 3 dead on I-29 in Missouri Inside Nebraska volleyball’s finishing kick for a Big Ten title: First up, Wisconsin Zitel bound over to district court in death of child Just Askin': Dana Holgorsen noncommittal on future, ranking a big week for Nebraska Athletics Streaming review: 'Landman' gives Billy Bob Thornton a real gusher of a series Amie Just: Bring out the tissues — and the brooms — for Nebraska volleyball's emotional win At the courthouse, Nov. 16, 2024 Like rival noble families in medieval Europe, elites have been vying for power and dominance on the arrogant assumption that their subjects share their concern for who rules rather than what the rulers can deliver. Gobble up these 14 political cartoons about Thanksgiving Political cartoonists from across country draw up something special for the holiday In 2018, the group More in Common published a massive report on the "hidden tribes" of American politics. The wealthiest and whitest groups were "devoted conservatives" (6%) and "progressive activists" (8%). These tribes dominate the media, the parties and higher education, and they dictate the competing narratives of red vs. blue, particularly on cable news and social media. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Americans resided in, or were adjacent to, the "exhausted majority." These people, however, "have no narrative," as David Brooks wrote at the time. "They have no coherent philosophic worldview to organize their thinking and compel action." Lacking a narrative might seem like a very postmodern problem, but in a postmodern elite culture, postmodern problems are real problems. It's worth noting that red vs. blue America didn't emerge ex nihilo. The 1990s were a time when the economy and government seemed to be working, at home and abroad. As a result, elites leaned into the narcissism of small differences to gain political and cultural advantage. They remain obsessed with competing, often apocalyptic, narratives. That leaves out most Americans. The gladiatorial combatants of cable news, editorial pages and academia, and their superfan spectators, can afford these fights. Members of the exhausted majority are more interested in mere competence. I think that's the hidden unity elites are missing. This is why we keep throwing incumbent parties out of power: They get elected promising competence but get derailed -- or seduced -- by fan service to, or trolling of, the elites who dominate the national conversation. There's a difference between competence and expertise. One of the most profound political changes in recent years has been the separation of notions of credentialed expertise from real-world competence. This isn't a new theme in American life, but the pandemic and the lurch toward identity politics amplified distrust of experts in unprecedented ways. This is a particular problem for the left because it is far more invested in credentialism than the right. Indeed, some progressives are suddenly realizing they invested too much in the authority of experts and too little in the ability of experts to provide what people want from government, such as affordable housing, decent education and low crime. The New York Times' Ezra Klein says he's tired of defending the authority of government institutions. Rather, "I want them to work." One of the reasons progressives find Trump so offensive is his absolute inability to speak the language of expertise -- which is full of coded elite shibboleths. But Trump veritably shouts the language of competence. I don't mean he is actually competent at governing. But he is effectively blunt about calling leaders, experts and elites -- of both parties -- stupid, ineffective, weak and incompetent. He lost in 2020 because voters didn't believe he was actually good at governing. He won in 2024 because the exhausted majority concluded the Biden administration was bad at it. Nostalgia for the low-inflation pre-pandemic economy was enough to convince voters that Trumpian drama is the tolerable price to pay for a good economy. About 3 out of 4 Americans who experienced "severe hardship" because of inflation voted for Trump. The genius of Trump's most effective ad -- "Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you" -- was that it was simultaneously culture-war red meat and an argument that Harris was more concerned about boutique elite concerns than everyday ones. If Trump can actually deliver competent government, he could make the Republican Party the majority party for a generation. For myriad reasons, that's an if so big it's visible from space. But the opportunity is there -- and has been there all along. Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch: thedispatch.com . Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Related Articles National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.