Business
BC voters ditching climate crisis for promise to unlock natural resource development

From Energy Now
The LNG Canada facility under construction in Kitimat, British Columbia
Climate Goals Face B.C. Election Backlash in Home of Greenpeace – B.C. Conservatives Have Upended Race With Focus on Unlocking Natural Resource Development
An unlikely political upstart in Canada’s third-largest province, expelled from his previous party for climate science skepticism, is within striking distance of winning power with promises to ditch environmental targets and unleash natural-resources development.
The surge in support for John Rustad’s Conservative Party of British Columbia ahead of the Oct. 19 election may have been helped by the popularity of the unaffiliated federal Conservatives. Victory would add to the roster of right-leaning premiers at odds with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in Ottawa.
A Conservative government in BC might mark a bigger shift than anywhere else in the country. The province is famous for environmentalism — Vancouver is the birthplace of Greenpeace and home to Canada’s most famous climate activist, David Suzuki. David Eby, the current premier, unsuccessfully opposed the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, and back in 2008 the province brought in one of North America’s first carbon taxes.
Although polls favor Eby’s left-leaning New Democratic Party, it’s close, and a spread between pollsters suggests the result remains unpredictable.
The public has endured inflation and strained local services, slower growth in an economy dragged by higher interest rates and lower exports, and a government that’s gone from surplus to a record C$9 billion ($6.5 billion) deficit. British Columbia, once rated AAA by S&P Global Ratings, has suffered three credit rating downgrades in three years.
Conservatives Have Surged in BC Polls
British Columbia’s Conservatives vault official opposition in election surprise
The ruling NDP — whose origins lie in labor unions — is parrying criticism of its own mixed seven-year record in office. It’s running on blunting the cost of living with subsidies, tying the minimum wage to inflation, taxing home speculation, blocking Airbnb Inc.-style short-term rentals and using hydrocarbon revenues for a “clean economy transition fund.”
Rustad’s rise is also a stunning tale of revenge. The longtime representative of Nechako Lakes — a district 600 miles north of Vancouver in BC’s deep interior — was kicked out of the BC Liberal Party in 2022 on his birthday after sharing a social media post questioning carbon dioxide’s effect on the climate. He took over the BC Conservative Party, then a marginal force in provincial politics. Before long it had leapfrogged his old party in the polls.
Acrimonious talks to merge the two groups failed, and by August the previously formidable Liberals — which had rebranded as BC United — gave up, withdrawing from the election in an effort to unite voters against the NDP.
Unlocking Natural Resources
In an interview with Bloomberg, Rustad said he won’t cut social, health or education spending — a majority of the budget. He’s also promising tax cuts and plans to deepen the deficit to more than C$10 billion in his first year.
His plan to balance BC’s budget over eight years is based on an optimistic 5.4% average GDP growth rate to 2030 — more than double the average rate of the past five years — fueled by axing CleanBC, the NDP plan to cut BC’s emissions 40% by 2030. Rustad said that would save as much as C$2.5 billion in government spending, then bring in billions in extra revenue by unlocking industrial projects.
Foremost among them is LNG Canada, a new liquefied natural gas project in the remote north that the federal government said may be worth C$40 billion — possibly the largest private investment in the country’s history. There’s a plan to double its size, but it’s proving tricky to power with BC’s zero-emission hydroelectricity instead of fossil fuels, because it would need a new transmission line, with one previous cost estimate at C$3 billion.
Not a problem if looser rules let them burn gas.
“In British Columbia, we could stop everything we do, and by next year the increases from China and India will swamp anything that we’ve done,” Rustad told Bloomberg. “So my perspective is we need to make sure we’re looking after people. And so for a changing climate, we need to be able to adapt to it.”
When he appeared on climate-skeptic Canadian influencer Jordan Peterson’s podcast, Rustad said: “How is it that we’ve convinced carbon-based beings that carbon is a problem?”
Rustad also talked up billions in extra revenue from streamlining mine permits — one of BC’s oldest industries and more prominent in the remoter parts of the province he hails from.
Asked about BC’s rural vote, Rustad says: “There’s no question, the NDP completely ignored it.”
Rustad also wants to ditch BC’s carbon tax to cut costs for businesses and consumers. That’s also the top rallying cry for federal Conservatives, who are trying to force a “carbon tax election” to topple Trudeau. Provincial carbon taxes are federally back-stopped, so to banish the tax Rustad would need the Conservative Party of Canada to take power.
“The top-of-mind issues that people are frustrated about are inflation and the cost of living, housing and health care,” Kathryn Harrison, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said in an interview. “And what we’ve seen is that the federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been able to connect those public concerns with the carbon tax. It’s given them something that they can focus their frustrations on.”
Even the climate-conscious NDP has pivoted away from defending the carbon tax to pledging they would repeal it for consumers — but unlike the Conservatives, they would shift the burden to corporate “polluters.”
In his plan to speed up business, Rustad has also taken issue with BC’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act because it causes “friction”. It requires government to seek Indigenous people’s “free, prior and informed consent” to implement measures that may affect BC’s more than 200 Indigenous communities.
Rustad’s Conservatives include Indigenous candidates, and he talks about supporting economic reconciliation — the material, financial side of redressing Canada’s colonial injustices. But some First Nations leaders have called his platform “dangerous” for pitting British Columbians against each other.
Relentless Controversies
Rustad’s biggest weak point may be the controversial things said my members of his team, leading to relentless stories since they’ve been thrust into the spotlight.
Despite his dry, phlegmatic style, the same goes for Rustad himself. He’s said he regretted getting the “so-called” Covid-19 vaccine, and a clip showed him seeming to go along with an activist’s concept of “Nuremberg 2.0” — trials for officials who oversaw pandemic health measures. Rustad apologized and said he “misunderstood” the question.
Rival party staffers gave out BC Conservative-branded tinfoil hats after a candidate’s shared posts described 5G wireless signals as a weapon, according to local media. She was ousted, but another candidate who claimed vaccines can cause a type of AIDS remains part of the caucus.
Another apologized last week for posts including one in 2015 calling Palestinians “inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs.”
In communities like Metro Vancouver, some of the most diverse in North America, that kind of thing may jeopardize Rustad’s path to power.
But Rustad is also being cheered on by what Harrison described as an “accidental collection of voters who share frustration with the cost of living, the cost of housing, emergency room closures” — which could span from suburban families who judge the economy isn’t working for them to BC’s wealthiest, including billionaire Lululemon Athletica Inc founder Chip Wilson.
If Rustad pulls it off, his unorthodox strategy to turn one of Canada’s progressive strongholds conservative will reverberate with those fighting federal politics in the nation’s capital 3,000 miles away.
Automotive
Auto giant shuts down foreign plants as Trump moves to protect U.S. industry

MxM News
Quick Hit:
Stellantis is pausing vehicle production at two North American facilities—one in Canada and another in Mexico—following President Donald Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars. The move marks one of the first corporate responses to the administration’s push to bring back American manufacturing.
Key Details:
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In an email to workers Thursday, Stellantis North America chief Antonio Filosa directly tied the production pause to the new tariffs, writing that the company is “continuing to assess the medium- and long-term effects” but is “temporarily pausing production” at select assembly plants outside the U.S.
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Production at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario will be paused for two weeks, while the Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico will be offline for the entire month of April.
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These plants produce the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, the new Dodge Charger Daytona EV, the Jeep Compass SUV, and the Jeep Wagoneer S EV.
Diving Deeper:
On Wednesday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump announced sweeping new tariffs aimed at revitalizing America’s auto manufacturing industry. The 25% tariffs on all imported cars are part of a broader “reciprocal tariffs” strategy, which Trump described as ending decades of globalist trade policies that hollowed out U.S. industry.
Just a day later, Stellantis became the first major automaker to act on the new policy, halting production at two of its international plants. According to an internal email obtained by CNBC, Stellantis North American COO Antonio Filosa said the company is “taking immediate actions” to respond to the tariff policy while continuing to evaluate the broader impact.
“These actions will impact some employees at several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations,” Filosa wrote.
The Windsor, Ontario plant, which builds the Chrysler Pacifica and the newly introduced Dodge Charger Daytona EV, will shut down for two weeks. The Toluca facility in Mexico, responsible for the Jeep Compass and Jeep Wagoneer S EV, will suspend operations for the entire month of April.
The move comes as Stellantis continues to face scrutiny for its reliance on low-wage labor in foreign markets. As reported by Breitbart News, the company has spent years shifting production and engineering jobs to countries like Brazil, India, Morocco, and Mexico—often at the expense of American workers. Last year alone, Stellantis cut around 400 U.S.-based engineering positions while ramping up operations overseas.
Meanwhile, General Motors appears to be responding differently. According to Reuters, GM told employees in a webcast Thursday that it will increase production of light-duty trucks at its Fort Wayne, Indiana plant—where it builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. These models are also assembled in Mexico and Canada, but GM’s decision suggests a shift in production to the U.S. could be underway in light of the tariffs.
As Trump’s trade reset takes effect, more automakers are expected to recalibrate their production strategies—potentially signaling a long-awaited shift away from offshoring and toward rebuilding American industry.
Business
‘Time To Make The Patient Better’: JD Vance Says ‘Big Transition’ Coming To American Economic Policy

JD Vance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” discussing tariff results
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday on Newsmax that he believes Americans will “reap the benefits” of the economy as the Trump administration makes a “big transition” on tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679.39 points on Thursday, just a day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs against nations charging imports from the U.S. On “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Schmitt asked Vance about the stock market hit, asking how the White House felt about the “Liberation Day” move.
“We’re feeling good. Look, I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition. You saw what the President said earlier today. It’s like a patient who was very sick,” Vance said. “We did the operation, and now it’s time to make the patient better. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We have to remember that for 40 years, we’ve been doing this for 40 years.”
“American economic policy has rewarded people who ship jobs overseas. It’s taxed our workers. It’s made our supply chains more brittle, and it’s made our country less prosperous, less free and less secure,” Vance added.
Vance recalled that one of his children had been sick and needed antibiotics that were not made in the United States. The Vice President called it a “ridiculous thing” that some medicines invented in the country are no longer manufactured domestically.
“That’s fundamentally what this is about. The national security of manufacturing and making the things that we need, from steel to pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, and so forth, but also the good jobs that come along when you have economic policies that reward investing in America, rather than investing in foreign countries,” Vance said.
WATCH:
With a baseline 10% tariff placed on an estimated 60 countries, higher tariffs were applied to nations like China and Israel. For example, China, which has a 67% tariff on U.S. goods, will now face a 34% tariff from the U.S., while Israel, which has a 33% tariff, will face a 17% U.S. tariff.
“One bad day in the stock market, compared to what President Trump said earlier today, and I think he’s right about this. We’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America. More importantly than that, of course, the people in Wall Street have done well,” Vance said.
“We want them to do well. But we care the most about American workers and about American small businesses, and they’re the ones who are really going to benefit from these policies,” Vance said.
The number of factories in the U.S., Vance said, has declined, adding that “millions of workers” have lost their jobs.
“My town [Middletown, Ohio], where you had 10,000 great American steel workers, and my town was one of the lucky ones, now probably has 1,500 steel workers in that factory because you had economic policies that rewarded shipping our jobs to China instead of investing in American workers,” Vance said. “President Trump ran on changing it. He promised he would change it, and now he has. I think Americans are going to reap the benefits.”
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