Mark Carney has been Prime Minister of Canada for more than seven months, now. In politics, that represents several lifetimes.

So, the past few months have given us lots of time to learn about the political strengths and weaknesses of the former banker.

His main strengths are obvious: he’s intelligent, he’s experienced, he’s calm, and he’s not Justin Trudeau or Donald Trump.

But Carney’s personal shortcomings have become evident, too. There are five. Arrogance; under-delivering; contradictions; fuzziness; Ottawa-washed. All five weaknesses were seen in his Wednesday night State of the Union-style speech to the nation (which reminded us of another failing: he has a fetish for glitzy American-style governance.)

My take, as a former speechwriter to a guy who became Prime Minister: much of the speech reads like as first-year university history lecture. But much of it tells a story – about the man.

Arrogance. Arrogance, conceit, solipsism, condescension: whatever you call it, it all represents the thing that always defeats Liberals. In his 3,000-word and too-long speech, Carney showed flashes of that: on the future, Carney actually said he and his government are “going to give it back to you.”

Really? We don’t have a future unless and until Mark Carney “gives” us one? The forthcoming budget, meanwhile, “will be about…winning.” Charlie Sheen might approve of that sort of mission statement, but history is littered with the metaphorical remains of politicians who promised “winning” – and then only delivered the opposite.

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I have to say the antisemites still have the capacity to surprise me.

I thought I could usually predict what they’d do next. But, since the ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump, they’ve surprised me.

Writing a book about their global campaign (The Hidden Hand, out in February) and being the centre of a documentary about that (The Campaign, ditto), I had studied them enough to know they didn’t love Palestine. In truth, they hated Israel.

But, I give them grudging credit: they were pretty good at disguising that. They probably seemed authentic to a lot of witless people – in the media, in government, in unions, in academia, amongst Gen Z and Millennials.

But I know what campaigns look like – and it was a campaign. And, like just about every campaign, it had a glossy and impressive exterior, designed to obscure a darker and uglier objective at the center. In their case, it was isolating, delegitimizing and then eliminating the Jewish state. Destabilizing Western democracy, too.

They’d slip, occasionally. Lying about casualties, lying about famines, lying about what Hamas and its legions really are. But, most of the time, their campaign was very effective and efficient. They didn’t make a lot of mistakes.

You can see the proof in public opinion research. Throughout the West, polls now show majorities or near-majorities believe Israel is a genocidal, fascist, white supremacist state, bent on the utter destruction of a powerless dark-skinned minority. Like apartheid South Africa.

They were greatly assisted, of course, by Israel’s total inability to tell its own story. Too many Israelis have convinced themselves that their lot in life is to be hated by everyone, so they just take it. They shouldn’t, but they do.

And, so, the global antisemitic campaign was winning – exceeding the expectations of even those who were behind it (Iran, the campaign manager; Qatar, the banker; a web of NGOs, charities and non-profits staffing it all – and Hamas and its cabal, of course, providing muscle.)

Anyway. All that changed with the (unlikely, unexpected) Trump-devised ceasefire. The curtain was pulled back on the evil Wizard of Oz. We got to see who they really are.

Around the world, however, the protests have continued – even though there was a real, actual ceasefire in place. Even though Israel did everything they demanded.

The haters didn’t celebrate that. They just kept on hating Israel.

And, of course, they said nothing – literally nothing – about the orgy of murder Hamas has unleashed on the innocent Palestinian people they had once professed to care about. They said, and did, nothing.

So, like I say: I didn’t expect to see them get sloppy. I didn’t expect a campaign as disciplined and as well-organized as theirs to stumble, and for the mask to slip. To show everyone who they really are – which is Jew-hating bastards who don’t give a sweet damn about Palestinians.

That’s who they are, that’s who they’ve always been.

But now they’ve revealed themselves, so that all can look ant them and see.

So: look.

It’s important.

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“Know the star you are. And see yourself as part of a galaxy.”

So sayeth the Mother of All Influencers, the Hashtag Highness, the Rich Stick Insect, Paris Hilton. Paris – who I met at a Super Bowl Playboy party in Texas once, full disclosure, and who couldn’t put two words together without a team of ghost-writers – is right, says a new report.

Influencers – at least in Canada, and at least in respect of politics – are the new galactic stars, says a report written by assorted tall foreheads. Influencers rule, dude. They slay.

The detailed, 80-page report, which had many big words in it, was authored by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, with the assistance of some brainy people at the McGill University and University of Toronto-led Media Ecosystem Observatory. Its main conclusion can be stated thusly:

Influencers had a bigger impact on the 2025 Canadian federal general election than the mainstream media and the politicians and political parties put together.

Like, way more.

The report found that influencers produced almost half, 47 per cent, of the political content that pinged around the Internet during the election. News organizations made up only 28 per cent, and politicians a piddly 18 per cent. Ouch.

Way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and when Stockwell Day allegedly interacted with them, the mainstream media dominated the discourse. So, too, politicians and political parties, who spent truckloads of dough on ads. Not anymore.

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Here.

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My Daisy Group email has been hacked. Please don’t open it. Apologies.

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Dani Miran stopped shaving when his son Omri was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. As far as I know, he hasn’t shaved it off yet, but he could.

That’s because his son was finally freed over the weekend. Freed, after 737 days living in 23 different places, above ground and in dirty, dark tunnels.

His father, Dani, was 80 years old when I interviewed him at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Dani’s hair was gone on top, but the beard was impressively white and full, like Santa. Unlike Santa, Dani didn’t smile much. Understandably.

The sun was blazing, so we sat in a tent at Hostages Square, which is across the street from the IDF headquarters. Other hostage family and friends were with us, listening to Dani speak about his son, the hostages and Israel. They would nod as he spoke.

“I’m not here about anyone or anything else,” Dani says. “I’m here for my son.”

He looked around. “I want the whole world to know my son, to remember my son. And I want my son back.”

On October 7, Omri Miran and his family – wife Lishay and two very young daughters – lived at kibbutz Nahal Oz in Israel’s South, near the border with Gaza. On that fateful morning, Hamas terrorists forced the family to open a locked door by threatening to shoot a 16-year-old neighbour in the head. As Omri was taken away, his wife Lishay told him: “Don’t be a hero. I love you, and I’ll take care of the girls. I’ll wait for you.”

She, and Dani, did. For two years, they tirelessly advocated for Omri and the other hostages, imploring Israelis and the world to remember them. At one press conference outside the home where Omri was taken, they spoke directly to him, telling him his daughters loved him, they all loved him, and to “just come back.”

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