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Max Fawcett 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Profile picture
Max Fawcett 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
@maxfawcett
Lead columnist for Canada's National Observer.
6 subscribers
Apr 18 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I honestly didn't think they made gruel this thin.

Let's try to pull it apart in a quick thread. 🧵 First of all: when this sale took place, he hadn't been Governor of the Bank of Canada for almost three years.

He resigned the role in June 2013. Stephen Poloz was the Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2016. Image
Apr 11 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
God help anyone who has to read this entire "book" on the carbon tax by the national director of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation.

In fact, let me try to save the masochists out there the trouble. A thread: 🧵

nationalpost.com/news/politics/… Franco starts with the usual nonsense about Canada only being 1.6% of global emissions, which apparently means nothing we do matters.

This is equal parts nihilism and defeatism, and it ignores the fact that our trading partners are already starting to price carbon on imports.
Apr 9 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is all wishful thinking. It's also dangerous. Allow me to explain. Quick thread: 🧵 Braid doesn't cite any actual evidence in support of his claim that "Conservatives are seeing a rebound."

He just points out that they've had big rallies lately. We've been over this before. If you're ignoring polls and focusing on rallies you're mainlining pure, uncut copium.
Apr 8 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
There's been lots of talk lately about the "lost decade" under the Liberal government. It revolves around this chart:

Let's dig into it with a quick thread. 🧵 Image First, some caveats/acknowledgements: we *do* have a productivity problem in Canada. We haven't focused enough on growing the economy. The Liberals, in part, have to own that.
Apr 2 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This is just pure lizard-brain stuff here from Conservatives like Ryan. All they know how to do is keep pounding the "oil and gas" button over and over.

But I want everyone to notice how dumb they assume Canadians -- and their supporters -- are.

A quick thread: 🧵 Image Look at number three: the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.

It was approved in 2010. It sat unbuilt for years because it was proposed in the pre-shale era. The economics didn't work once fracking unlocked that basin. Image
Feb 10 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Brian Lilley posted twice about the deal Japan struck with Trump on LNG. He claims it will "make them very wealthy" and that we could have had it if not for Trudeau's ideology.

I know this is like pissing into a gale-force wind, but let's bring some facts to the table. 🧵 Image First, no: it will not make the Americans "very wealthy". It's one LNG project that will, presumably, sell cargoes at global spot prices.

Nothing in this deal changes the long-term economic calculus for these projects, which remains....problematic. Image
Jan 31 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
This perspective is both frustratingly selfish and annoyingly common. What has Canada ever done for us as Albertans, folks like Staples wonder?

A lot, as it happens. Let's get it into it.

A thread: 🧵 Image I've already made the argument about the last decade and what it's done for Alberta's economic interests. If you want to revisit it, read this.

nationalobserver.com/2025/01/08/opi…
Jan 24 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
I see that Danielle Smith and ever other oil and gas loving Conservative in Canada is sharing this latest exercise in spurious correlations.

Let's pull it apart in a thread, shall we? 🧵 We'll start with the $16.1 billion Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline.

It was approved in 2010. Harper had a majority for four years after that. Why wasn't it built?

Oh, right. The business case didn't work with lower gas prices.

Moving on.... Image
Jan 22 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
I see a lot of folks trying to tarnish Mark Carney by suggesting he's somehow responsible for Britain's current economic woes.

That's ridiculous. A thread: 🧵 Image First of all:: the thread being QTed here is about government debt and deficits. That's not the Bank of England's purview.

And guess what: Carney left as BoE governor in 2020. You know, before things got out of control here due to COVID. Image
Jan 20 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Poilievre and other Conservatives have been claiming that the Liberal government "forced us to sell our energy at a discount" and made us more dependent on US markets.

Is that actually true? Of course not.

A #cdnpoli thread 🧵 First of all: there's no universe where we would be able to "go around the Americans", as Poilievre says here. We're always going to be linked and integrated. Geography matters.

But if he really believes in the importance of going around them, he'll loudly oppose KXL. Has he?
Jan 16 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Translation: give us everything we want or we'll drag the country down with us.

Shall we do a quick thread? 1) Donald Trump is the one threatening said livelihoods. Canada is trying to *prevent* that from happening. And yet, you seem determined to remove any negotiating leverage we might have there.

Why might *that* be?
Jan 8 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Let's take a quick break from all this 51st state nonsense and unpack this column from the @BizCouncilAB's Adam Legge.

Thread time!
calgaryherald.com/opinion/column… It revolves around the premise that it would be unfair to target our auto sector and its climate footprint, since those vehicles would just be manufactured somewhere else.

And if the emissions cap worked the way these folks keep pretending, I might agree. We'll get to that. Image
Jan 4 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Here's a genuine answer for Sean.

I think his question is a bit of a straw man, since it's not at all clear to me that Bruce is being "subsidized" any more than the opinion writers at the National Post or Calgary Herald are.

A brief thread: I'll speak from personal experience here. I'm an opinion writer. My organization, Canada's National Observer, receives government support -- mostly in the form of the LJI (local journalism initiative), which directly funds the work of reporters.

Not columnists.
Jan 3 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
One of my favourite parts of the JoPete/Poilievre interview is where Peterson says that Ontario is the richest province in Canada (it isn't, and isn't even close) and then talks about how poorly it compares in per-capita GDP to Mississippi.

Let's dig in a bit, shall we? Image "The inhabitants of Canada's richest province are poorer than the inhabitants of America's poorest state -- and that's actually occurred primarily in the last 10 years, because we were basically at parity before that....pretty much tracking them one-for-one."

Mmmm, no. Image
Jan 2 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Since I can't answer Evan's question -- the original post has its replies locked -- I'll do it in a thread.

Warning: we're going to talk about LNG-related facts here, not feelings. The original post was about Zelensky's call for more US LNG imports, followed by the usual hand wringing about our inability to build an LNG facility on the east coast -- and the PM's comments about its business case.
Dec 30, 2024 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Licia bought the ticket. Now let's take the ride.

Thread time. And @nenshi, you might want to join us. Under the Paris Accord, countries are responsible for their own emissions reductions.

There's a provision for the transfer of them (we'll get to that), but saying "what really matters is global emissions" is an attempt to play the forest for the trees.
Dec 9, 2024 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Crapping on their country has become a *very* popular activity among Canadian Conservatives of late. One of their preferred arguments is that Canada can't possibly compete with America right now -- and we're losing our best and brightest as a result.

Thread time. First, it's important to understand the difference in our national cultures. America has always venerated and valorized risk. It's marbled into so many aspects of its past.

Canada, on the other hand, has been a place where things like order and caution hold more sway.
Dec 4, 2024 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce has come out with a letter asking the federal government to withdraw its proposed emissions cap.

Let's dig in.

calgarychamber.com/open-letter-ca… First of all, credit where it's due: they referred to it as an emissions cap, not a "production cap". So, you know, points awarded there.
Nov 28, 2024 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
My word, this thread is quite the trip.

Let's dive in, shall we? Fred starts with this framing of how the study in question "shows" the carbon tax is inflating costs across the board. But does it? Image
Nov 27, 2024 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
How many times do we have to do this, David?

Grab a seat if you like, folks. It's thread time. Image First of all, spoiler alert: there still isn't a business case for LNG exports from Canada to Europe. There never was. There never will be.

Why? We'd have to spend billions upon billions building the infrastructure -- new pipelines connecting western gas to eastern terminals.
Nov 21, 2024 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Sure, let's do this Brian.

Thread time. First, the facts: it sounds like the feds will be able to recoup almost all of that $34 billion.

The PBO just put its value at between $29.6 and $33.4 billion.

pbo-dpb.ca/en/publication…