John Last

🇨🇦 writer & journalist in 🇮🇹 | regular contributor @NoemaMag | covers Europe for @CBCNews | bylines all over

[Noema Magazine @NoemaMag]

“The notions of borders, nations, alliances & war that helped sustain ‘the long peace’ of the late 20th century are crumbling. In their place, something far less stable has emerged: a world in which the gray zone is no longer the exception, but the rule.”

—@johnwlast

https://t.co/diew745wZi

[John Last @johnwlast]

With an increasingly erratic U.S. breathing down our necks, Canada feels a lot like Finland in 1948 — only our options are a lot, lot worse.

⬇️ New from me in @ForeignPolicy⬇️
https://t.co/0MzOsF6trW

[John Last @johnwlast]

My latest for @newrepublic, in which @jkenney says definitively he would leave an independent Alberta: https://t.co/ONGN1SzV4F #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

[The New Republic @newrepublic]

“What we’re looking at here is a radical conservative attempt to reshape American foreign relations,” Michael Williams, an expert on the radical right at the University of Ottawa, told me. “The West is a cultural and political entity, and its greatness … is being undermined by liberalism. So you need to find ways to attack liberalism in any way that you can.”

[The New Republic @newrepublic]

Figures like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, who has explicitly compared Canada to Ukraine, see Canada as a bastion of decadent liberalism in the West that must be broken and subdued, one way or another. https://t.co/jhfPbwUIr5

[Sean @seanhhm]

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. … That rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”
— Mark Carney, PM of Canada

[John Last @johnwlast]

@David_Moscrop I actually think Idlout abstaining in this vote is doing exactly what she should as a local MP: ensuring Nunavut's interests (Nukkiksautiit hydro) are protected without selling out her party's principled position (opposed). You could make the same case for Johns.

[Noema Magazine @NoemaMag]

“Building a stage worthy of God is one of humankind’s most ancient obsessions. But in the West at least, it is a dying art.”

—@johnwlast

https://t.co/eEcA5EaDWM

[John Last @johnwlast]

Back in @NatGeo with an article that's been in the works for some time, about wolfdog hybrids and the dangers they present to owners and conservationists alike.

Read it here:
https://t.co/NF1JRgluCa

[Noema Magazine @NoemaMag]

Once upon a time, “it went largely unquestioned that government experts, working for no one but the public, could help define the best products & practices in the marketplace,” @johnwlast writes.

What happened?

https://t.co/418feiXbrE

[Long Now Foundation @longnow]

The Catholic Church has been undergoing a long, slow shift, playing out on the timescale of centuries: a shift to distance itself from the popular enthusiasms of its most devout parishioners.

Read @johnwlast on the tensions within sainthood: https://t.co/tlZ2U2UMGa

[John Last @johnwlast]

@HumbleFlow There used to be a government department that did this kind of thing.

It was good for business, and good for consumers.

Republicans gutted it.

https://t.co/msPW9sh93h

[John Last @johnwlast]

The "great" America MAGA traditionalists harken back to was built on the bones of this exact kind of government. So why are they trying now to tear it down? https://t.co/msPW9sh93h

[John Last @johnwlast]

The reason the U.S. is the way it is now is because Americans have deeply internalized the idea that all government is bad government.

But the best governments have been big governments that spend lots of money on making life better. /1

[John Last @johnwlast]

This used to be uncontroversial: government had a role to play in the market. It wasn't supposed to be run like a business. It was the thing that made business possible. /2

[Noema Magazine @NoemaMag]

“For an administration that campaigned on making America ‘great again,’ there is remarkably little curiosity about what version of government, exactly, elicited such widespread acclaim.”

—@johnwlast

https://t.co/bXmAeVmL9A

[Foreign Policy @ForeignPolicy]

As Ottawa’s ties with Washington fray, the Commonwealth could be increasingly valuable for Canadian foreign policy, @johnwlast writes. https://t.co/RdvTwdZiOa

[Kylie Cheung @kylietcheung]

Saying the government should be run like a business lmfao

[Stephen Maher @stphnmaher]

The CBC has provided vital coverage during the American attack on our sovereignty, really drilling down on, for example, questions around our military vulnerabilities. Getting rid of CBC now, during a sovereignty crisis, would be insane.

[John Last @johnwlast]

Danielle Smith tiny box of shame

[Doug Ford @fordnation]

Team Canada is strong and united.

Today, Prime Minister @MarkJCarney and Canada’s premiers agreed on the need to cut red tape and streamline approvals to get big things built faster, including unleashing the enormous economic potential of the Ring of Fire. The prime minister answered Ontario’s long-standing call and agreed to end needless duplication by recognizing provincial environmental assessment processes for nation-building projects. This will let us get shovels in the ground years sooner.

Business as usual is over. Let’s get building.