Ottawa Fighting Battles on Several Flanks in Canada

In our last episode before the calendar turns to 2024, the conversation begins in Israel where Prime Minister Netanyahu struggles to maintain support for his war against Hamas. Next, we shift to Russia, where President Putin warned his neighbor Finland, a recently minted NATO member, that he will be assigning military to the Russia-Finland border area despite acknowledging he has no territorial rights over NATO nations. Back in Canada, Frank is critical of Quebec's decision to raise language standards and tuition costs for out of province students, a blow to McGill and Concordia along with the City of Montreal who will suffer due to a lack of enrollment and corresponding reductions in revenue. The conversation then moves on to David Dodge's recent paper on improving productivity for Canada, a problem that Frank thinks is worthy of a Royal Commission. We finish with a review of Canada's proposed Cap and Trade system to address oil and gas emissions and a postmortem of Argentina's new President Javier Mileil's first week on the job. Chapters 1:26 – Netanyahu's Western Support Crumbling 9:28 – Putin's Warning to Finland 14:50 – A Blow to English Speaking Universities in Quebec 18:28 – Solving Canada's Productivity Gap 26:00 – Canada's Cap and Trade Solution 31:30 – Mileil's First Week on the Job This podcast was recorded on December 18, 2023. For relevant disclosures, visit: tdsecurities.com/ca/en/tds-geopolitics-episode-47. To learn more about TD Securities, visit us at tdsecurities.com or follow us on LinkedIn @tdsecurities.