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No enthusiasm, no movement—just media spin trying to sell a Liberal comeback that doesn’t exist

Published

10 months ago

9 minute read

The Opposition with Dan Knight
Dan Knght

Liberals Picks Mark Carney as their new leader and Calls It ‘Historic’—But Let’s Look at the Numbers

Oh, look—it’s the biggest non-event in Canadian politics: the Liberal Party leadership race! The CBC, bless their little subsidized hearts, have been hyping this up like it’s some kind of monumental moment for democracy. Like Canada is holding its breath to see who will replace Justin Trudeau.

And listen, I’ll say this—thank God we don’t have to watch Trudeau waffle around anymore. That guy spent nearly a decade embarrassing Canada on the world stage, throwing out empty platitudes, and burdening Canadians with crushing taxes while his buddies made millions off government contracts. Good riddance.

But here’s the thing: who are they replacing Trudeau with? Enter Mark Carney. The media is desperately trying to sell you this idea that he’s some kind of outsider. An outsider! Right. Because nothing says “outsider” like a guy whose signature is literally on the country’s currency.

Even John Stewart—who, once upon a time, was a sharp comedian but is now just another Democratic Party lapdog—got on The Daily Show and actually tried to push this nonsense. During the Liberal leadership debate, Carney himself got up there and tried to gaslight Canadians, claiming he’s not a politician, just a pragmatist. A pragmatist! Oh, of course. He’s not a career political insider—he’s just a guy who ran the Bank of Canada, then ran the Bank of England, then bounced around every globalist economic institution imaginable before parachuting into Ottawa. Just your average outsider, folks.

Mark, come on. You are literally the definition of an establishment insider. You’ve been embedded in the power structure of this country for decades. You’ve been making economic decisions that affect millions of Canadians while sitting in rooms with the wealthiest elites on the planet. But now, we’re supposed to believe you’re just a humble, practical guy stepping in to help? No, Mark—you’re running to be Prime Minister. That is literally the definition of being a politician. Own it.

Let’s talk about enthusiasm—or, more accurately, the total lack of it when it comes to the Liberal Party of Canada. The media is working overtime, trying to convince you that this party is roaring back to life after Trudeau’s exit, that a “new era” has begun, that Canadians are rallying behind their fresh new leader. And yet, when you actually look at the numbers, the whole thing falls apart faster than a Liberal campaign promise.

The Liberal leadership race—the big moment where the party supposedly reinvents itself, the grand rebirth, the resurrection the media won’t stop talking about—managed to pull in a whopping 151,899 votes. That’s everyone who participated. Just to be clear, this wasn’t some exclusive club—you didn’t have to pay to vote, you didn’t even have to show any real commitment. Memberships were free. The party was practically begging people to sign up. And still, after all the hype, all the coverage, all the desperate attempts to make this seem like a big deal, they couldn’t even break 152,000 votes.

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Meanwhile, let’s rewind to 2022. The Conservative leadership race—where people actually had to pay money to vote—brought in 417,987 ballots. And just Pierre Poilievre alone? 285,000 votes. Let me repeat that—Poilievre, by himself, got almost twice as many votes as the entire Liberal Party could muster. But sure, let’s pretend there’s a massive groundswell of excitement for Mark Carney, a guy nobody outside the Laurentian elite even wanted in the first place.

And here’s where it gets even better. The polling—oh, the polling. For months, the Liberals have been sinking. Before Trudeau resigned, they were floundering at 24% support. Then, magically, within days of picking a new leader, they skyrocket to 33%? A 9-point jump in the blink of an eye? Wow, what a coincidence! You mean to tell me that the same Canadians who couldn’t be bothered to sign up for a free membership, the same Canadians who have overwhelmingly turned against this party, suddenly decided they’re on board again—just because the party swapped one out-of-touch elitist for another?

No. That’s not how this works. That’s not how enthusiasm works.

This isn’t some grand Liberal resurgence. This is the Liberal-friendly media manufacturing a comeback narrative because their government subsidies depend on it. The same journalists who screamed for years about the Conservative “far-right” threat are now bending over backwards to convince you that Mark Carney is a fresh outside

And you know what? Maybe if they had actually let Ruby Dhalla into this race, they would’ve stood a chance. Seriously. I had to do a double-take when I looked at her policies—supporting small business, tough on crime, actual immigration regulation—I mean, that’s how you win the center. That’s how you stop a Conservative majority and turn it into a minority government. If they had let her run, we’d be having a very different conversation right now.

But what did the Liberals do? Oh, they disqualified her over—get this—campaign finance irregularities. But guess what? They kept the money. That’s right. The party flagged “violations,” kicked her out, and then conveniently pocketed the cash. If that’s not the most Liberal Party thing I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is.

Instead, they’re giving us Mark Carney, a guy who has zero grassroots appeal, who has never won an election in his life, and who thinks he can waltz into power simply because the Laurentian elite think it’s his turn. That’s the play here, folks. The media is going to prop him up, the political insiders are going to rally around him, and the Liberals are hoping that Canadians just go along with it.

But here’s the truth: Canadians aren’t buying it. The numbers prove it. The excitement isn’t there. The support isn’t there. And come election time, the Liberals are going to get a very rude awakening.

 

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Energy

‘The electric story is over’

Published on December 24, 2025

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From Resource Works

By Stewart Muir

Oil economist Dr. Anas F. Alhajji challenges assumptions about EVs, demand and Canada’s future.

Every episode of Power Struggle offers a different doorway into the global energy system. But every so often I speak with someone who doesn’t merely interpret the data — he dismantles the illusions around it. Energy economist Dr. Anas F. Alhajji is one of those rare voices.

For anyone who follows world oil markets, Anas requires little introduction. He is one of the most widely referenced analysts in global energy economics, managing partner at Energy Outlook Advisors, and a commentator whose views often diverge from the political narratives that dominate Western media. Our conversation, fast-paced and data-driven, reinforced a point I’ve been making for years: many assumptions about the energy transition are overdue for a hard reset.

And if you think the transition is unfolding as advertised, Anas has a simple message: look again.

Peak oil demand — or peak illusion?

We began with the recurring claim, made most notably by the International Energy Agency, that global oil demand is nearing a terminal peak. Anas has long challenged this analysis, but his breakdown was especially stark.

“In May 2025, they said they are revising up global oil demand… They’ve been wrong for 18 straight years. By how much? Two or three years. The total is about 350 million barrels.”

He added an even sharper example.

“In August, they revised up Mexico’s oil demand by a hundred thousand barrels a day — since 2020. With all of this, who is going to believe the IEA?”

If we are going to debate “peak oil demand,” Anas argued, we must start with accurate numbers. And reality, as he laid out, tells a very different story.

Oil demand is higher — not lower

The most striking fact he brought to the table was where global demand sits today.

“Current world demand for oil is 107 million barrels a day.”

That figure sits eight million barrels above 2019 levels, despite rapid growth in electric vehicle sales. And here is where the assumptions collide with the data.

“Right now we have about 55 million EVs… 35 million are in China. The replacement in terms of oil is only 1.3 million barrels a day. That’s it.”

EVs are increasing, yes — but the global vehicle fleet is expanding even faster, and so is mobility demand. A century’s worth of built energy systems does not pivot overnight.

Hybrids now dominate

This brought Anas to the point that may surprise the most people.

“The trend right now is very clear. We are going hybrid. Hybrid. The electric story is over.”

He emphasized that this is not ideological — it is practical. Hybrids outperform EVs on cost, convenience and grid impacts, and consumers are voting with their wallets.

“Hybrid sales have been going through the roof. And this is going to continue… The media reports EV sales all the time. But what matters is the number of EVs on the road.”

This distinction matters. Monthly sales data can create a false sense of momentum. What counts for emissions, infrastructure planning and oil displacement is the stock of vehicles actually in use.

Three ‘scams’ in EV sales reporting

Anas went further, arguing that even sales data does not always reflect real-world adoption. He described what he called three “scams” that inflate EV sales figures globally. He shared one example on air:

“There are many tens of thousands of them in parking lots that are not being sold… A manufacturer calls an official, says: I have 2,000 cars. I will sell them to you. You issue the license plates, you issue the insurance, you get all the subsidies, we split it. But the cars are still in the parking lot.”

On paper, these are “sales.” In reality, they are inventory.

The broader point is that EV market statistics need scrutiny — and policymakers who rely on headline numbers may be basing major decisions on flawed data.

Why Canada still needs another pipeline

We then turned to Canada’s current debates about pipelines and whether the country still needs more tidewater access. Anas answered without hesitation.

“I can tell you without any reservation, we do need another pipeline, another Canadian pipeline to tidewater.”

His rationale was blunt.

“Energy demand globally is increasing at a very high rate in a way that we have never seen before.”

For Canada, this is about competitiveness. Without access to global markets, Canadian oil is priced at a discount — a problem solved only by pipelines reaching the coast.

On LNG: “Canada should go at full speed”

Anas was even more emphatic when discussing natural gas.

“That’s where Canada basically should go at full speed.”

He criticized the idea of a long-term LNG surplus.

“All those ideas about a surplus in LNG… it is nonsense.”

Asian LNG demand is projected to grow sharply, and Canada’s low-emissions LNG — powered by hydro — gives the country a unique competitive advantage.

Why voices like Anas matter

What I value most about conversations like this is the grounding they give us. In energy, narratives and evidence are drifting apart. You may not agree with every assertion, but you can’t dismiss the data. Whether discussing EVs, oil demand, LNG or Canada’s infrastructure, Anas reminds us that aspirations only matter when they intersect with reality.

This episode of Power Struggle is exactly the kind of dialogue we need: sober, data-based, and challenging enough to re-examine assumptions.

You can listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts. If it unsettles a few comfortable stories — that’s the point.

Watch the video on Power Struggle 

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Alberta

A Christmas wish list for health-care reform

Published on December 23, 2025

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Nadeem Esmail and Mackenzie Moir

It’s an exciting time in Canadian health-care policy. But even the slew of new reforms in Alberta only go part of the way to using all the policy tools employed by high performing universal health-care systems.

For 2026, for the sake of Canadian patients, let’s hope Alberta stays the path on changes to how hospitals are paid and allowing some private purchases of health care, and that other provinces start to catch up.

While Alberta’s new reforms were welcome news this year, it’s clear Canada’s health-care system continued to struggle. Canadians were reminded by our annual comparison of health care systems that they pay for one of the developed world’s most expensive universal health-care systems, yet have some of the fewest physicians and hospital beds, while waiting in some of the longest queues.

And speaking of queues, wait times across Canada for non-emergency care reached the second-highest level ever measured at 28.6 weeks from general practitioner referral to actual treatment. That’s more than triple the wait of the early 1990s despite decades of government promises and spending commitments. Other work found that at least 23,746 patients died while waiting for care, and nearly 1.3 million Canadians left our overcrowded emergency rooms without being treated.

At least one province has shown a genuine willingness to do something about these problems.

The Smith government in Alberta announced early in the year that it would move towards paying hospitals per-patient treated as opposed to a fixed annual budget, a policy approach that Quebec has been working on for years. Albertans will also soon be able purchase, at least in a limited way, some diagnostic and surgical services for themselves, which is again already possible in Quebec. Alberta has also gone a step further by allowing physicians to work in both public and private settings.

While controversial in Canada, these approaches simply mirror what is being done in all of the developed world’s top-performing universal health-care systems. Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland all pay their hospitals per patient treated, and allow patients the opportunity to purchase care privately if they wish. They all also have better and faster universally accessible health care than Canada’s provinces provide, while spending a little more (Switzerland) or less (Australia, Germany, the Netherlands) than we do.

While these reforms are clearly a step in the right direction, there’s more to be done.

Even if we include Alberta’s reforms, these countries still do some very important things differently.

Critically, all of these countries expect patients to pay a small amount for their universally accessible services. The reasoning is straightforward: we all spend our own money more carefully than we spend someone else’s, and patients will make more informed decisions about when and where it’s best to access the health-care system when they have to pay a little out of pocket.

The evidence around this policy is clear—with appropriate safeguards to protect the very ill and exemptions for lower-income and other vulnerable populations, the demand for outpatient healthcare services falls, reducing delays and freeing up resources for others.

Charging patients even small amounts for care would of course violate the Canada Health Act, but it would also emulate the approach of 100 per cent of the developed world’s top-performing health-care systems. In this case, violating outdated federal policy means better universal health care for Canadians.

These top-performing countries also see the private sector and innovative entrepreneurs as partners in delivering universal health care. A relationship that is far different from the limited individual contracts some provinces have with private clinics and surgical centres to provide care in Canada. In these other countries, even full-service hospitals are operated by private providers. Importantly, partnering with innovative private providers, even hospitals, to deliver universal health care does not violate the Canada Health Act.

So, while Alberta has made strides this past year moving towards the well-established higher performance policy approach followed elsewhere, the Smith government remains at least a couple steps short of truly adopting a more Australian or European approach for health care. And other provinces have yet to even get to where Alberta will soon be.

Let’s hope in 2026 that Alberta keeps moving towards a truly world class universal health-care experience for patients, and that the other provinces catch up.

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