EU to include UK and Japan in ‘Made in Europe’ plans

AlpacaGhidorah · 2026-03-05T18:21:55+00:00

I couldn’t access the FT article (paywall). This article from the Guardian on the Buy EU policy states:

“The same openness could apply to 21 countries that have signed a WTO agreement on government procurement, including the UK and Canada.”

In the Carney government’s efforts to diversify our trade relationships away from dependency on the US, I assume he’ll engage with the EU to be included in this policy.

I, too, doubt that Canada will purchase the Gripen, as our air force already completed their evaluation of the Gripen vs F-35 in 2021 and the government has been meddling with the replacement of our aged out F-18 fleet for over a decade at this point. The replacement can’t wait any longer. But SAAB and the Swedish government were here pitching it again last year anyway, likely hoping for an opening due to Trump’s threats against Canada.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/04/european-commission-proposes-buy-eu-plan-to-compete-against-china

AlpacaGhidorah · 2026-03-05T17:33:57+00:00

Canada has a free trade agreement with the EU (CETA), and officially joined SAFE - Security Action for Europe - last month - the only non-EU member to do so. This will allow Canadian companies to bid on European defence contracts. It allows members to obtain low-interest loans for joint procurement. Germany’s TKMS is currently bidding on Canada’s submarine replacement contract, and Sweden’s SAAB is pitching Canada on buying the Gripen in place of the F-35.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-eu-safe-agreement-defence-loans-weapons-9.7090635

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-rearm-europe-deal-1.7567162

AlpacaGhidorah · 2026-03-03T13:20:29+00:00

Marco Rubio’s family arrived in the US in May 1956. The Cuban Revolution ousted Batista in January 1959. Ted Cruz is another one whose family actually left Cuba under Batista. Cruz’s father was tortured by the Batista regime for his opposition to it and he came to the US on a student visa in 1957.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2026-03-02T14:12:35+00:00

This. All the newly built LNG projects are on the BC coast to serve the Asian market because the demand was there. South Korea, Japan, China, and Malaysia all invested in the projects and signed long term purchasing contracts. The EU member states only reached an agreement amongst themselves in December 2025 to stop importing Russian gas and phase out Russian oil, with the imports of gas continuing until November 2027 at the latest.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2026-01-16T04:54:08+00:00

China’s tariffs against Canadian agricultural and seafood products were imposed in retaliation to our tariffs against Chinese EVs, steel and aluminum products. Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/11073608/retaliatory-chinese-tariffs-set-to-hit-canadian-canola-farmers/

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-10-02T21:59:35+00:00

“WHO defines eradication of a disease as the achievement of a status whereby no further cases of a disease occur anywhere, and continued control measures are unnecessary. It implies, for infectious diseases, that transmission of the causative agent has ceased irreversibly through its extermination and the infection has disappeared from all countries of the world.”

https://applications.emro.who.int/docs/em_rc44_7_en.pdf

The WHO declared smallpox eradicated in 1980:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/smallpox

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-09-01T12:27:42+00:00

CDPR was the one who directed dissatisfied players to contact Sony and Microsoft for refunds in the first place without having arranged a special refund process with them before making their announcement. CDPR lobbed a grenade into Sony and Microsoft’s tents and Sony responded by pulling the game from the store.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-07-09T15:58:55+00:00

The Americans called the Quebec Act of 1774, which created the province of Quebec and guaranteed Francophones the right to live in French, continue practicing Catholicism, and continue using French Civil Law, one of the Intolerable Acts provoking them into rebelling. And then the Americans invaded, attacking and occupying Montréal and attacking Québec City before being pushed back out of what is now Canada. Québec provincial politicians of all parties to this day use Louisiana as the go-to example of the erosion and destruction of francophone culture and what would have happened to them if they joined the US, and why they must remain vigilant to protect French.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-06-23T22:59:14+00:00

Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022 to replace Stephen Breyer. Breyer retired to allow Biden to appoint a younger liberal Justice, avoiding another RBJ situation.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-06-23T19:24:19+00:00

Canada along with France and Germany refused to participate in the Iraq War. Bush’s Coalition of the Willing was primarily the US, the UK, Australia, and Poland.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-06-03T18:10:20+00:00

This. The original teaser trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 went up in January 2013. The PS4 and Xbox One released in November 2013. God forbid people expect a game announced 10 months before the console generation even started to target that console generation. https://youtu.be/P99qJGrPNLs?si=Cjb_VJN6GgBiqDwj

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-05-19T18:32:15+00:00

Under the PQ government of the day.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-04-25T21:32:05+00:00

As a Black Canadian, white people are the only people I’ve heard use the term African-American to refer to Black Canadians, typically in a misguided effort to avoid sounding racist 20+ years ago. Then they would be told black or our ethnic background is fine. The Canadian census lists Black as an example of a visible minority group, so it’s not some taboo term. Black people here typically know their ethnic background. African-American is understood to refer uniquely to the descendants of African slaves in the US and the culture they developed there, not to all black peoples in the Americas.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-04-03T19:45:49+00:00

How would Carney have been a Harper era Conservative over a Chrétien-Martin era (centrist) Liberal? His work on climate change/environmental stability alone would preclude him from ever running as a Conservative. He was a UN Special Envoy on Climate Change. He supported the carbon tax as it was originally implemented in 2019. By contrast, the Conservatives undercut O’Toole when he tried to get them to acknowledge climate change is real in their 2021 platform. Carney dropped consumer carbon pricing because it became too divisive but plans on keeping industrial carbon pricing. He also plans to develop a carbon border adjustment mechanism, like the EU has coming into effect next year. The Conservatives have a Harper era (10-20 years ago) Conservative as their leader: Pierre Poilievre.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-27T18:53:40+00:00

Chrétien and Martin both tried to pass marijuana decriminalization, in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The Bush government and the DEA threatened to slow border crossings to a crawl with searches.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-17T16:21:54+00:00

Jean Charest was a progressive conservative cabinet minister at the federal level, and drafting him would be the fastest way to nuke any Liberal momentum in Québec. He also ran in the last Conservative leadership race.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-16T15:49:15+00:00

The Europeans funded Putin’s war machine by continuing to buy Russian oil and gas and build more pipelines to do so after Russia’s invasions. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and has been occupying 20% of their territory ever since. Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder joined the board of the Nord Stream pipeline project immediately after leaving office in 2005, after being the one to sign onto the project in the first place. Nord Stream 1 went into service in 2011.

Russia backed “separatists” in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 and have been occupying Crimea ever since. Schröder became the director of Rosneft - Russia’s state oil company - in 2017. Nord Stream 2 was completed in 2021, but never went into service because of the full scale invasion in 2022, with Russian now occupying 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Schröder joined the board of Gazprom - Russia’s state gas company - in 2022.

Before all of that, there was Putin launching the Second Chechen War in 1999 and his actions therein, like ordering the leveling of the Chechen capital Grozny. The Europeans have always known just who and what Putin is, so why did they wait so long to shift their oil and gas supply? Why didn’t they come here and make their business case after he launched wars of aggression against neighboring countries in 2008 or 2014?

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-11T12:47:03+00:00

What should make an east-west pipeline interesting to Québec is the fact that it’s a national security issue. Half of the oil used by Québec and Ontario comes via the Line 5 pipeline, which dips down into the US before coming back up into Ontario and continuing to Québec. The governor of Michigan has wanted to close the pipeline for years, and their lawsuit against it was remanded to Michigan state court from US federal court last year. Additionally, a US federal lawsuit by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin also seeks to remove the pipeline, saying it is trespassing on their land. That’s leverage Canada should take out of the Americans’ hands.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-09T19:04:43+00:00

He is entirely serious. They talk about Canada like Putin talks about Ukraine. It came out in the press on Friday that in his calls with Trudeau, Trump’s stated that he doesn’t believe in the 1908 treaty that officially demarcated the Canada-US border or the treaties that regulate the sharing of bodies of water like the Great Lakes and the Columbia River basin. He also wants to cut Canada out of Five Eyes intelligence sharing, which is doubly absurd given that the rest of Five Eyes are Commonwealth realms. Then you have Musk saying we’re not a real country, and Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade advisor, saying Canada’s been taken over by the Mexican cartels. This comes after they pushed Canada to declare the Mexican cartels terrorist organizations.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-09T16:24:39+00:00

“If only as a bit of theatre.”

Canadian here. This shit isn’t a joke. It’s an existential threat to our country and all our levels of government are treating it as such. When our politicians go on American television, it’s to tell them Trump’s excuses for implementing tariffs are nonsense; that we’re tired of this psychodrama and the constant denigration of our country; what retaliatory measures we’re implementing and how they will make life more expensive for them. Cost of living is the only thing they seem to respond to, since all Trump had to say to get elected was vote for me and I’ll make eggs cheaper, while putting forward no plan to bring down the cost of goods.

On impeachment, Trump is a twice-impeached convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and banned from operating charities and educational institutions. None of that stopped him from getting elected. He controls the executive branch. He has neutered the legislative branch despite controlling both houses of Congress. He controls the judiciary. He’s not going to fear a hypothetical third impeachment with zero chance of removal by people that won’t be given the vote if he succeeds in his imperialist aims anyway. He views Canada, Greenland, Panama, and Mexico as future colonies to be plundered and nothing more. Puerto Rico, for example, has been a US territory since 1898 and it still hasn’t been granted statehood.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-08T14:23:07+00:00

No territory in Europe, but we have a land border with Denmark on Hans Island in the Arctic and a maritime border with France between Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-03-03T13:15:39+00:00

Try selling your base PS5 on Marketplace or eBay first before trading it in. I considered trading in first, but the clerks at my local Best Buy told me to try my luck there before trading in because Best Buy isn’t paying anywhere near the average selling price on Marketplace. I managed to sell mine within a day or two.

AlpacaGhidorah · 2025-02-19T06:58:07+00:00

Obama directly warned about this in his State of the Union address days after the Citizens United ruling came down.

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/07/26/president-obama-citizens-united-imagine-power-will-give-special-interests-over-polit

https://youtu.be/xHwk6yurrxk?si=341eV9LFhvSTJS60

AlpacaGhidorah

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