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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦

@jrobson.bsky.social
5.4K followers 929 following 1.7K posts

Assoc. Prof. MPM @Carleton; parent; gardener & sometime tradesperson; social & tax policy; worried about details

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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Betty White as Rose Nylund: Agreed
ALT: Betty White as Rose Nylund: Agreed
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Agree with Wherry’s point (as usual), but I think they’re also kind of a flex for the firms, showing off who can come closest to predicting the actual results - kind of a model-validation test.
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National Newswatch @nationalnewswatch.com · 03/10/2026
Elephant in the room - Alberta separatists have gone to DC offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support & Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic... Find out more at nationalnewswatch.com
theglobeandmail.com
The elephant in the room
Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province
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Reposted by Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 01/10/2026
Artificial intelligence agents tried to hack into a Canadian government site, researchers said, adding to the growing list of incidents in which AI agents probed or hacked corporate and government computer systems without being told to do so.
washingtonpost.com
AI agents tried to hack a Canadian government website, researchers say
The finding follows OpenAI’s confirmation that its misbehaving AI agents probed U.S. government websites and hacked an Australian government site.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So, Canada seems to get its EU conference sooner. Not sure about titles (associate, adjunct, fellow) but the UK may be behind us in the queue. Interesting dynamic….
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
2) Text of PM Burnham’s speech to the Labour Conference, in which he says the obvious out loud: Brexit was a mistake, and the UK needs to negotiate a closer relationship with the EU. labour.org.uk/updates/stor... It’s also just a well-crafted speech. Worth your time.
labour.org.uk
Andy Burnham's speech to Labour Party Conference 2026 – The Labour Party
Hear from Andy Burnham, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party in his full speech at Labour Party Conference 2026.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Tonight’s reading list: 1) What Politico EU reports as leaked draft text of the Canada-EU agreement to be finalized and released at the summit next month: www.politico.eu/wp-content/u... Some things that sound pretty promising (payments, competition, ++), some faffy. And (🙄) $0 in taxes to EU.
politico.eu
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Congratulations to the Cleveland Cliffs/ Stelco execs who bet on reducing capacity in Canada to expand in the U.S.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
USTR is carrying some heavy buckets of water these days. Recall (per USTR), only 2 countries retaliated against Trump tariffs: 1) China; 2) Canada. This presser suggests USD$30B in forthcoming tariff relief for imports from China. On Tuesday, ~$1B in booze from Canada will banned from import by US
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
She served 2.3 Trusses or just over 10 Scaramuccis
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Well, now the private sector really doesn’t have much excuse for sitting on dead money. I will look forward to seeing what they do.If THIS tax change doesn’t “enable” or “unleash” that capex, (on top of public $$, on top of regulatory waivers, on top of concierge service), what the hell will?
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Who let that slide in the final copy? Gah!
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
There was a federal import counter-tariff of 25% from March 2025 to August 2025 - in response to US actions on autos, steel, aluminum, lumber, ++. Saskatchewan has recently introduced an added tax. There is no import ban or targeted & national tariff on US alcohol coming into Canada.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The data suggest that consumers led on this, well before the shelf ban was put in place. It’s also a shelf ban, not an import ban which Trump has enacted. substack.com/@jenniferrob...
substack.com
If the U.S. booze goes back on the shelves, will Canadians drink it?
The White House appears to feel some pressure to show that they have made progress, as Senator Blackburn (R., Tennessee) put it in July, to “get the Canadians to put Jack Daniels back on their shelves...
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Mauricio Drelichman @mdrelichman.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Does anyone have a contact in or otherwise know something about Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in Bolivia? I have been trying to reach their librarians/archivists/historians about a manuscript preserved there. I have emailed every address I could find, to no response. Any leads apprciated!
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Pretty clearly not what’s intended. bsky.app/profile/atru...
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Money for votes
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
2/2 Given the spate of proclamations hitting 🇨🇦, one under-developed tool for 🇨🇦 might be information for US customers that 🇨🇦 exporters want to keep. Help them wade through the weeds to get clear rate calculations. White House isn’t & won’t. Likely best as private sector project.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Fascinating short article 👇 suggesting that half of effect of US tariff policy on US importers is via sheer confusion, not the rate itself. 1/2 cepr.org/voxeu/column...
cepr.org
Tariff confusion
The year 2025 was unprecedented in the frequency, complexity, and volatility of US trade policy interventions. This column uses a new database tracking US tariff announcements during the year to show ...
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
But really, the text of the proclamations seems designed to beg Congress, the media, anyone to ask the USTR for details about the « status of the circumstances » in the Canada-U.S. negotiations. And, I’m just not sure that will play out well for this White House. 2/2
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Have had a long day. Met the new MPM cohort & caught up w/ many alumni. Good start to the academic year. Now reading Trump’s latest proclamations banning Canadian motorcycles, near-beer, molasses, whey, and much booze but modifying the list of goods subjected to the s338 tariffs. 1/2
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 08/09/2026
Two extraordinary charts from today’s PISA test results: 1) School test scores continue to collapse internationally, underscoring how this is no longer a Covid effect but sustained decline. Those falls in reading and maths are equivalent to about two years of lost schooling.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The heads of SNC were reportedly amongst the largest donors in 2024 in the swing state of Nevada. www.usnews.com/news/electio...
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I have to imagine it may come as an even bigger surprise to Sierra Nevada Company, one of the HADES contractors that just paid for a Bombardier Global 6500 earlier this year, as a good faith gesture to show that the U.S. defence industrial base could move faster. www.sncorp.com/news-archive...
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I have to imagine it may also come as a surprise to the Department of War (Defence) to learn that the HADES project cannot go ahead since it is based on the Bombardier Global 6500: thedefensepost.com/2026/05/02/h....
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Priorities. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But I really don’t get “prayer as drill practice”.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
In grade school (here in 🇨🇦!), we were admonished in an assembly for not knowing the Lord’s Prayer or God Save the Queen. Out came the overhead projector and we were made to practice both, over and over, until staff were satisfied. Likewise 💯 could do in my sleep. Valuable neurons now occupied…
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La Presse @lapresse.ca · 05/09/2026
lapresse.ca
Le grand plan d’Ottawa pour son usine de micropuces
Elle est presque inconnue du grand public. Et pourtant, au cœur de la pandémie, en plein confinement, c’est l’une des premières usines à avoir rouvert ses portes au pays. Incursion au cœur d’une fonderie de micropuces unique en Amérique du Nord, que le gouvernement Carney s’apprête à privatiser en partie. Le tout dans l’espoir de renforcer la souveraineté du pays. Un dossier de Vincent Larin
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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Here is my letter to the MacDonald Laurier Institute on the subject of their appalling research. Use as you will. I recommend sending something of your own, though. And if you know anyone associated with MLI - and Board directors, say - send it to them, too.
docs.google.com
Alex Usher email to Brian Lee Crowley
(text of an email sent to Brian Lee Crowley of the MacDonald Laurier Institute on September 2, 2026) Dear Brian, I am writing to you and your board with respect to the publication “The equity excelle...
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Stephanie Carvin @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
More of us should be listening to @vassb.bsky.social talk about digital sovereignty.
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Tyler Meredith @tylermeredith.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Since we are in for the long fight with Trump, what’s the economic strategy that comes next? @jrobson.bsky.social Ginny Roth and I, tackle this great Q in 90 minutes of deep policy nerd-dom. On this week’s @airquotesmedia.bsky.social Herle Burly youtu.be/QdzRoICHz6A?... #cdnpoli #cdnecon
youtu.be
Canada's Policy Path Forward with Meredith, Robson, and Roth | The Herle Burly
YouTube video by Air Quotes Media
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
One of the better takes on the Can/US trade war, why it needs to stop, and how the US needs to take a first step. The Real Winner of the Trade War With Canada www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Real Winner of the Trade War With Canada
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FedResearch @fedresearch.federalreserve.gov · 27/08/2026
We analyze 125,000 US households' transactions to measure how the 2025 tariffs affected spending. Tariffs passed through 15-20% to retail prices, raising affected-good prices 1-2%. But households cut spending by 4%, three to four times the price increase. (1/3) www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds...
federalreserve.gov
Paying More and Buying Less: 2025 Tariffs and U.S. Household Spending
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Cheers to you. Please have a glass for me.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
But otherwise, this is promising, and with the major ship-building announcement yesterday, also a list that feels familiar. robsonj.substack.com/p/next-steps... -30-
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
If/as this drags on (and I think it may), then easing the hours threshold may need to be revisited. The EI system takes a few months to adjust if there is sudden economic downturn, using the built-in program rules. 4/n
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
It may or may not hold in electronics, plastics etc... hit by the new s.338. We'll see. The internal data is likely better than what I can quickly get my hands on. I am intrigued by the proposal to reform the Work Sharing Program under EI. Easing access & linking to training supports is wise 3/n
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
There's nothing here to adjust the hours threshold to qualify for regular benefits. I imagine that the internal analysis projected that most workers in affected sectors will already have the hours required to qualify. I think that's probably right in auto, steel, and aluminum. 2/n
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
These are the EI changes that have been announced today. Some of them address some of the more common reasons for otherwise eligible claims to be delayed (ie: separation pay) or denied (a voluntary separation before a layoff). These are long-standing. Source: www.canada.ca/en/departmen... 1/n
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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Trump is promising to boost the U.S. economy by making it harder for Americans to trade with the rest of the world. He is also promising to destroy Iran's economy by making it harder for Iranians to trade with the rest of the world.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Given Vance’s effusive praise the other day about being so helpful, and given what we now know was being demanded by the USTR/Lutnick, I can’t be the only one wondering exactly what Jivani was saying and to whom.
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Matt Blair @mjmbca.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I really can’t get over what a rookie mistake it is to look the Government of Canada in the eye and say “We’re gonna need you to piss off Quebec.”
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Hi Walter - the blog was posted before he spoke
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Kevin Milligan @kevinmilligan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I wonder if President Zelensky had some advisors saying "sir, we cannot hurt Russian GDP more than they hurt ours, therefore we should submit to all demands". Maybe, but they sure weren't in this picture. He didn't listen to such nonsense. We haven't been invaded. But we are under attack....
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
uh no take care
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
that’s not new money, it’s also not EI money that goes to workers
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Yeah, limits on other trade deals as a sovereign country, sovereign policy on language and culture, those are hard red lines.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
nothing for workers??
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Tuesday after Labour Day is a little more than 2 weeks from now for Canadian counter-tariffs. Details TBD. I would not hold my breath that negotiations resume in that time. It’s possible, but I like breathing.
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Jennifer Robson 🇨🇦 @jrobson.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I blogged. open.substack.com/pub/robsonj/...
open.substack.com
Next steps…
Trade talks are off.
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