Welcome to Need to Know, The Hub’s roundup of experts and insiders providing insights into the political stories and developments Canadians need to be keeping an eye on this week.
Trump is a spectacle, but peek behind the curtain for the real show
By Howard Anglin, former deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Trump may be the most important figure of the 21st century, but in the long term he is not a particularly interesting one. The day he took office, his relevance was on the clock. He already has less than four years left in office, and although that may sound like a long time, I promise it will go quickly. The sand trickles out a little more each day.
More interesting than what Trump is doing now is the battle behind the scenes for what comes next—next week, next year, next term. Trump is a battering ram; a blunt instrument knocking holes in settled assumptions domestically and globally. The real action is in the contest among Trump’s advisors, and between them and other GOP constituencies, to see who will advance through the breach and occupy the future. The lines are drawn between very different visions of the future of MAGA, the GOP, and America.
Will Oren Cass and Stephen Miran be able to convince a narrowly Republican Congress to go along with their neo-Hamiltonian vision? Will Elbridge Colby’s and Marco Rubio’s partnership of hard-edge/soft-touch realism overcome the more traditionally hawkish foreign policy establishment? Will Stephen Miller’s and Michael Anton’s immigration restrictionism prevail over the push by Elon Musk and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to expand foreign work visas? And will JD Vance be able to hold the various camps of the post-liberal Right together and forge a new fusionism between the America First populists and the tech futurists, or will he eventually have to choose a side?
These fights will ultimately answer many of the questions Canadians and the rest of the world are asking. Questions like, are tariffs just leverage for renegotiating trade deals and military spending, or will they really replace income taxes and force business relocations? Will the United States seek containment of China in a multipolar world of competing economic and cultural blocs, or hegemonic victory? And in either case, how much carrot and how much stick can nervous allies expect to keep them in line? For the answers to these and other pressing questions, don’t watch Trump: pay attention to the men behind the curtain.
Bromides and bravura in B.C.
By Kirk LaPointe, The Hub’s B.C. correspondent
They lustily sang “O Canada” in the British Columbia legislature Tuesday. It’s the thing to do all of a sudden, even if some haven’t chanted it since the dispatch of “in all thy son’s command.”
The B.C. MLAs had last convened last May—babies were conceived and born since—and little was like what they left. There was a new lieutenant governor, a new official Opposition, and a new cabinet. Oh, and the world had changed a bit.
B.C. Premier David Eby speaks in the Legislative Chamber, in Victoria, B.C., January 30, 2025. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press.
Then again, there was nothing particularly new in the Speech from the Throne to suggest the BC NDP yet understands how to generate prosperity instead of gorging on its yield. There were wartime mentions of D-Day, of Winston Churchill and his fight against the Nazis, and a description of our situation as the most consequential since the Second World War to deal with trust that “has been broken and will not be easily repaired.” There might even be, gasp, restraint.
Sure, throne speeches are the amuse-bouche for the budget entrée, but if we’re entering wartime footing, surely we should understand our supply of ammo. But economic stewardship does not come instinctively to this provincial government, and the speech was a ceremonial bout of bromides and bravura. News flash: I take it we won’t ever become the 51st state. Government says so.
Canada needs another Arctic port to access world markets
By Dorothy Dobbie, a former Progressive Conservative MP and a member of the NeeStaNan advisory board
There is global interest in the Arctic as a trade corridor and, in Canada, to secure our claims to sovereignty over North American Arctic waterways.
The proposed NeeStaNan (which translates to “All of us” in Cree) port would be the second seaport on Hudson Bay, giving Canada better access to world markets. Port Nelson on Hudson Bay has been the gateway to central North America for more than 400 years. And although a port was eventually opened at the sheltered Churchill harbour, there are many overland access problems, and the harbour is too small to handle massive modern container ships. It is functional for less than one-third of the year.
NeeStaNan, as the second port on the Bay, and in saltier water and with solid rail access, could be used all year round. LNG could be produced and ready for shipping right on-site. Natural gas, minerals, and bitumen could be exported more efficiently and achieve world prices. Products and resources could also be imported for domestic use and further developed by the value-added industry in Manitoba.
NeesStaNan would create development and economic reconciliation opportunities for isolated First Nations in northern Manitoba. It would provide an accessible world market doorway for minerals from the Ring of Fire and from Manitoba, for potash to Brazil, for the shipment of grain, timber, locally manufactured goods, and even products from the northwestern states. The port would add hundreds of billions of dollars annually to our GDP.
This would be a win-win for Canada.
