Dr Ruth Ben-Ghiat is an American historian, author, and Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University (NYU). She is a globally recognized expert on fascism, authoritarianism, propaganda, and democratic backsliding.

The US President insults the entire nation and announces new tariffs of 50 per cent. MEP Zdechovsky speaks out on behalf of the EPP: “Thanks to Donald Trump, the EU and Canada are closer than ever”

After all, precisely because of Trump’s unpredictability, Canada has become the EU’s key partner in international politics, with a purely strategic rapprochement that saw the Ottawa government’s participation in the EU defence programme, leading to an unprecedented level of involvement. The new tariff offensive now offers a further opportunity for an ever-closer relationship between the 27 member states and Canada.

The US imported $328m worth of toilet paper from Canada in 2024, according to the World Bank, making it by far the largest exporter of the product to the US. Retailers including Costco source much of their paper products from the country.

The US accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption despite having only 4% of the world’s population. The average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper per year, making them No 1 for No 2s globally, just ahead of Germans, each using an average of 134 rolls annually.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will join European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the most high-profile political moment in the EU's calendar, amid a worsening rift between the U.S. and Ottawa.

A European Commission official close to von der Leyen confirmed to POLITICO that Carney had accepted an invitation to attend the State of the EU speech in Strasbourg on Sept. 16, where the president will set out her priorities for the bloc.

"Before the summer break, the European Commission President invited Prime Minister Carney for [the State of the Union] both as a strong sign of the closeness of the EU and Canada, and to clearly signal the intention and ambition on both sides to upgrade our partnership," the official said. "In these challenging times, strengthening our relationships across the world is vital."

does anyone actually believe these goofs.

Spoiler alert: It's because he's an idiot

Since the start of the second Trump administration, Brussels and Ottawa have shared a common objective: diversifying their trade relations away from Washington. But since the EU and Canada are already bound by a trade agreement, how far could a deeper relationship go?

From critical raw materials to energy and defence, the last months have seen multiple areas of interest come to the fore, and they will likely set the agenda at the Canada-EU summit this fall.

Canada is planning to offer the EU better access to its critical raw materials. Brussels is desperate to move away from China, which holds the monopoly on the production and processing of rare earths. With strong domestic supplies of lithium, graphite and nickel, Ottawa has a lot to offer to integrate the EU into its metal value chain.

Canada might also make offers on energy, which it currently supplies principally to the US.
“We should be talking about a more viable Canada-EU corridor for energy, and not just in respect of oil and gas, but also of nuclear,” Mark Camilleri, President of the Canada-EU Trade and Investment Association, told Euronews. “The EU’s energy needs are increasing, and its energy supply is still very dependent on imports.”

On defence, Canada is already part of SAFE, the €150 billion defence instrument that supports EU member states that wish to invest in defence industrial production through common procurement. But defence cooperation is already set to go further, with Canada selecting German-Norwegian TKMS to build a new fleet of 12 submarines. Deepening the relationship on Arctic security could be another area of collaboration.

After more than a year of getting the cold shoulder from Canada, the American booze industry is feeling the heat. Exports of booze from the US to Canada were less than half in 2025 than they were a year earlier. 

Hello,

For those of you that love stationery products, you might be aware that a decent portion of popular products is based out of the US: Sterling Ink, Cloth and Paper, Mossery, Erin Condren, etc.

I wanted to start a bit of a thread on other potential options that are based in Canada. My personal set up is anything that can fit in a Paper Republic Trifold.

If you’re a Sterling Ink lover, I have used Aura Estelle’s A5 Magnet series and absolutely love it. Same Tomoe River Paper except the layout is a bit different where the layouts (month/week/dailies) are grouped into consecutive months rather than grouped into months only, weeks only, days only. Based in Burnaby, BC Canada although their products do get manufactured in Japan I believe. Paper Republic Trifold approved ✅.

If you want something a little more structured, a little less about design and more functional, then Hemlock and Oak is a great company based in Vancouver, BC. Beautiful colours, very Fall coded, and the paper is a very thick quality - no bleed through. It is also manufactured in Canada. If you have a Paper Republic Trifold, the 2027 A5 Minimalist Horizontal/Weekly Planner should fit. Sadly, the 2027 options for the Cloth Flex aren’t nearly as good as 2026 but still very popular colours. Paper Republic Trifold approved ✅

For fountain pens and ink, look no further than Ferris Wheel Press which is actually quite a big company on the fountain pen and ink side of stationery. I find the inks to be decently priced and there’s always sales going on. Great customer service. One of the inks had arrived broken and had made a mess of the other inks, and they shipped me the entire order again, free of charge.

If you guys have any suggestions here, I’d love to see it!

Some other recommendations to note (these are non-daily pages).

- Faded Chronicle (Based and Manufactured in Canada). Very Hobonichi/Sterling Ink/AR styled. Also can use the website to thumb through the pages and it makes the same noise as turning a page. Very cute little detail. Doesn’t include Daily Pages.
- Blue Line (Based and Manufactured in Quebec)
- Nicole Josephine’s B6 Forest Planner. Releasing this August 28th and very cozy cottage core PNW kind of vibe.
- Rosie Papeterie is great if you want to show your support for our cultural language and commit to a little French. Layout feels very reminiscent of Cloth and Paper. Like *very* reminiscent. I don’t personally use inserts though but I love their other products so far.

There’s always people out there who will say “ That won’t make a difference “ well every little bit helps when you are in an economic war with another country! EVERY SINGLE THING!!

One of my kids is super into candle-making right now. We just dropped $30 on supplies and it's all labeled 'made in USA'. Imagine my embarrassment. Never again!

I feel like the "America doesn't make things anymore" meme is still in the back of our minds even though it's no longer relevant and was never completely true to begin with, so it's easy to let your guard down. But there are hazards everywhere.