News roundup, 1 Sept 2026

- Three federal byelections were held yesterday, in the ridings of Vancouver-Capilano, Beaches-East York, and Chicoutimi-Le Fjord. All three were won by the Liberals. In the case of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, the byelection was necessitated when the Conservative incumbent Richard Martel was "kicked upstairs" earlier this year, so this is a net gain for the Liberals.

- Kevin Klein, a former councillor and Tory MLA (and current CEO of the Winnipeg Sun's parent company) has entered the race for mayor of Winnipeg. Hopefully this means there will be a split in the rightwing vote between him and Mike Vogiatzakis (and maybe also Brad Gross) but this remains to be seen.

- Russia has responded to Ukraine's strikes on the warehouses of online retailers by hitting food distribution centres, leaving many grocery store shelves empty. 

- Another tornado has been reported in Manitoba. This one touched down near the community of Elkhorn in the RM of Wallace-Woodworth.

- A pedestrian was killed after walking in front of Waterloo's ION LRT over the weekend. The victim has not been identified and it is unclear if this was an accident or a suicide.

- Montreal's former anti-racism commissioner is suing the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) for defamation after the organization allegedly compared her to Hitler. Bochra Manaï says that the comparison was made in materials published by the organization; she is asking for $125,000 in damages.

- A 68 year old man has been charged with arson following a fire that destroyed a church in St. Simon, New Brunswick. Several social media posts subsequently made false allegations about the suspect, some saying that he was Israeli while others said he was Palestinian.

News roundup, 24 Feb 2026

- Most folks associated with the Republicans will vehemently deny any Nazi sympathies. Maybe some of them are even telling the truth and are just extremely ignorant, but it's getting harder and harder to give them the benefit of the doubt. The Trump regime seems to be very clearly copying Nazi aesthetics and phrasing, for instance. It's getting to the point where thoughtful, reasonable conservatives like the author of this article - of whom there seem to be fewer and fewer these days - are leaving the Republican Party in disgust.

- The Conservatives have introduced several proposed amendments to the Carney government's budget implementation bill, which would impose limits on the government's proposed power to exempt corporations from some regulations. Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the Conservatives proposing something half-decent is the fact that the Liberals have accepted the amendments. Maybe politics in this country isn't quite as far gone as it is in the US.

- The would-be assassin who was killed by security at the Mar-a-Lago compound appears to have come from a family of Trump supporters in North Carolina, but left behind a bunch of writings expressing rage over the Epstein files. 

- The Macron government issued a summons to US ambassador Charlie Kushner (father of Jared) following comments regarding the killing of far-right activist Quentin Deranque in Lyon. Kushner, however, refused to attend and has had his access to French officials blocked in response.

- An 11 year old boy in Perry County, Pennsylvania apparently was displeased when his parents took away his Nintendo Switch. Police believe he was so displeased, in fact, that he shot his father to death. Interestingly, in Pennsylvania minors charged with murder are tried as an adult by default, though the case can be moved to juvenile court under some circumstances. In Canada he couldn't even be charged criminally, though one would hope other measures would be taken.

News roundup, 4 Feb 2026

- Bill Blair has resigned his seat as the MP for Scarborough Southwest in order to take up a new position as Canada's high commissioner to the UK. Doly Begum, who has represented the seat for the NDP at the provincial level since 2018, has announced that she will be running for the Liberals to replace Blair, sparking condemnation from the federal party.

- The seven states that depend on the Colorado River basin are at an impasse about how to manage the long-term drought the area is experiencing. The upstream states - Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming - are refusing to cut their own consumption, saying that the problem lies with the other three states in the basin (Nevada, California, and Arizona), which consume far more water but which, on the other hand, have taken some measures to cut their consumption. The New York Times article on the matter takes the position that this is entirely the fault of the upper basin states. I'm not so sure; while those states should doubtless be making cuts, one has to question whether growing alfalfa in a desert for the Saudis is a wise or sustainable industry.

- Colorado is challenging the Trump regime's order to keep an aging coal-fired power plant open. Even the state's power utilities want to close the plant, but Trump can't tolerate any kind of move away from coal, so...

- Thousands of Epstein-related documents have been removed from the Department of Justice website after some of his victims said that they were identified in the documents.

- At least 17 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in response to an Israeli soldier being wounded by gunfire. Israel seems to take "one of ours, all of yours" seriously.

- The federal government is considering amending the Canadian Migratory Birds Regulations to allow the hunting of Tundra Swans in the prairie provinces. This has raised concerns among some that this will lead to collateral damage to the more vulnerable Trumpeter Swan, which looks very similar and could easily be mistaken for the more common species.

News roundup, 12 Dec 2025

- Michael Ma, the up-till-now Conservative MP for the GTA riding of Markham-Unionville, has crossed the floor to the Liberals, a month after his colleague Chris d'Entremont did the same thing. I'm wondering if someone like Michael Chong might follow. After all, Carney is a neoliberal who would have fit in quite comfortably in Brian Mulroney's cabinet, and isn't mean and petty and reactionary like Pierre Poilievre. It kind of says a lot about both parties and their leaders, really. Fortunately we still have alternatives to both, in theory at least. Meanwhile a recent poll by Angus Reid suggests that 58% of recent Conservative voters want Poilievre to stay on as leader, though that is a decline from 68% in August. That means that Carney is likely to remain prime minister for some time to come; sadly while he's doubtless better on purely social issues (not to mention decorum) than Poilievre, he's not much of an improvement on economic matters - not to mention environmental ones. Ma's move brings the Liberals to within one seat of a majority.

- Yves Engler, a self-described "agitator", has been barred from running for the NDP leadership by the party's federal council. Party president Lucy Watson said that candidates "need to uphold values of integrity, honesty and respect for human rights" and that Engler fails this test. The party cited "credible evidence of harassment, intimidation and physical confrontation", including following party members to their homes and vehicles to question them. Engler is also accused of denying or downplaying the Rwandan genocide, being overly sympathetic to Russia, and making comments "consistent with antisemitic attitudes". That last point is a source of contention for many, given how freely that accusation is thrown at people who speak up for Palestine - but Jordy Cummings thinks that in Engler's case there's merit to the accusation, though it's worth noting that Cummings doesn't actually think barring Engler was necessary.

- Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the US National Transportation Safety Board, has publicly condemned a section of the latest defense policy bill before Congress. The bill would effectively erase the NTSB's recommendations in the wake of last winter's disastrous midair collision over the Potomac River. The safety board had called for military aircraft to be required to use ADS-B to make them trackable. Evidently making the military follow civilian rules, even (or especially) for safety reasons, is woke. In tangentially related news, the default font in Microsoft Office is apparently too woke for the regime to use because it was favoured over the fonts like Times New Roman by those with vision problems or dyslexia, and had been made the standard in the State Department for that reason.

- Manitoba Hydro plans to increase its generation capacity by 1,760 megawatts. The corporation hopes to do this by a combination of improvements to hydroelectric plants, new wind farms and battery storage, as well as the construction of three new natural gas turbines in Brandon. Except for the natural gas part, this is a good move, but it should have been made 20 years ago. Unfortunately that would have required governments to plan ahead by more than an electoral cycle.

- Heavy rains have brought significant flooding to parts of BC, with some neighbourhoods in Abbotsford being evacuated. The situation is considerably worse south of the border, with tens of thousands of people being evacuated in various communities in Washington State.

- Jordan Peterson has created an online school full of courses that attack progressive ideas and deny climate change. The school isn't accredited, but Danielle Smith wants to change that.

- Some in the film industry fear that Netflix's bid to take over Warner Brothers could devastate the movie theatre industry, with critics saying the company's business model "does not support showing movies in theatres".

News roundup, 22 Oct 2025

- Arizona's attorney general is suing to try to force House Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who was elected in a special election last month. Of course, the fact that Grijalva would be the key vote needed to force a full House vote on releasing the Epstein files is widely assumed to be the reason for not seating her. Johnson says he will not swear her in while the House is adjourned; the adjournment, of course, was also his choice. The lack of a codified deadline by which a member-elect has to be sworn in is an unfortunate oversight in the system; it's almost as if the system were designed by someone who thought of political disputes as simply disagreements among people of good will, and who couldn't imagine any true American wanting to undermine democracy. Reality seems to be running up against this model, though.

- A poll indicates that more Americans blame the Republicans than the Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown. Paradoxically, though, Donald Trump's personal approval rating is increasing at the same time. Of course, the poll question specifies Democrats or Republicans in Congress, and members of Congress tend not to get the same level of adulation from their supporters as an actual president. Additionally, the question could be skipped, so some people who skipped it may have been among those who said they approve of Trump. This does lend support to the idea that much of MAGA's success comes from Trump's own personality and that the movement might falter if they lost him somehow; on the other hand, by the time he's out of the picture American democracy might be so damaged that charisma is no longer needed to retain power and even the likes of JD Vance could hold office with no effective opposition.

- Part of the East Wing of the White House, which was added in 1902, is being demolished to make way for a huge ballroom that Trump wants to construct. Given what we know about the president's sense of style, the ballroom will probably have a very high cost to aesthetics ratio. The work being done is visible from the offices of the US Treasury, whose employees have been told not to share photos of the work, ostensibly for security reasons.

- The federal Liberals' house leader, Steve MacKinnon, is expressing concerns about the prospects of getting the upcoming budget through the House of Commons. The Liberals only have 169 seats in the House, with 172 constituting a majority; neither the NDP nor the Bloc have shown enough willingness to suport the budget for MacKinnon's comfort. My guess is that enough NDP MPs will be come down with "diplomatic flu" and be absent from the House on the day of the vote for the budget to pass; I don't see them wanting to hold an election right now given that they only have an interim leader right now.

- Daniel Naroditsky, an American grandmaster and chess streamer, has died suddenly at the age of 29. A cause of death has not been disclosed but Redditors are reading between the lines, citing in particular the unfounded accusations of cheating against Naroditsky by Russian grandmaster (and former world champion) Vladimir Kramnik.

- Marvin Winans, pastor of the Perfecting Church in Detroit, has gone viral in a way he probably didn't want after criticizing a parishioner for tithing "only" $1,235 instead of the $2,000 he had asked for. Unfortunately for him, the service was livestreamed, and the clip was copied to various video sharing sites.

News roundup, 20 Feb 2025

- Winnipeg Transit has taken delivery of its first fuel cell powered bus. The city will be testing a number of fuel cell and battery electric buses, with some financing coming from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. A total of 16 such buses are expected to be deployed this year, and another 24 next year. The original plan was to buy 100 but supply chain issues as well as costs threw a wrench into those plans.

- Justin Trudeau has announced more details about the plans to build high speed rail between Toront and Quebec City. There will apparently be stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Laval, Montreal, and Trois-Rivieres, with top speeds of up to 300 km/h. Unless the Cons win the election, of course, or unless the Liberals squeak a majority and don't need the support of the NDP anymore, or unless the Americans invade us before it can be built...

- Speaking of the Liberals, some recent polling suggests that if Mark Carney wins the party's leadership as expected, they might actually have a shot at a majority. New polling from Mainstreet Research as well as Leger project this very result; on the other hand, the latest poll from Angus Reid puts the Cons ahead. Worryingly, in all three polls the NDP as well as the Bloc do very poorly, meaning that whoever wins will probably do so with a majority. This also illustrates that much of the increased Liberal support likely comes from tactical voters. Just in case anyone was still wondering why they broke their promise about electoral reform, you know.

- The Trump administration has cancelled all funding for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center. And the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to suspend "all election security activities" pending the results of an "internal investigation". It's often been said of the MAGA crowd that "every accusation is a confession". Given how many accusations they've made about electoral fraud, and given what they're doing to agencies that oversee elections, one does have to wonder.

- Tom Homan, the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is calling for the Department of Justice to investigate whether "know your rights" seminars run by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez constitute impeding the agency's operations. No doubt they'll be far more likely to arrest AOC than they are to arrest, say, Elon Musk, whose department appears to have just posted classified information on its website.

- New York City mayor Eric Adams, who was elected as a Democrat, suddenly seems all too keen to work with Donald Trump. Maybe because that's because Trump seems to have made corruption investigations against him go away.

- Trump and Putin, having already decided what to do with Ukraine without the inconvenience of actually having the Ukrainians' input on the matter, are now looking at joint oil and gas projects in the Arctic. Of course, a lot of sea ice will have to melt before they can proceed, but they're doing their darnedest to address that matter too.

- JD Vance gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference last week that terrified Europe's leaders. If nothing else, maybe it will ram home the idea that Europe and the US are no longer friends. The conventional wisdom up until now has been that Europe needs the US to protect them from Russia, but George Allison of the Telegraph argues that this is not the case. I'm inclined to agree with him; in fact I think it would have been a lot better if Europeans had realized this long before (say, around 2002) and gone their separate ways from the Americans back then rather than continuing to enable them until now.

News roundup, 29 Jan 2025

- A total of 6 candidates have been approved to run for the Liberal Party leadership. A seventh, Nepean MP Chandra Arya, will not be permitted to run, for reasons that are not being made public; some on this Reddit thread are alleging that far-right influencers have been telling their followers to join the party ad vote for Arya, though, which just might have something to do with it. For her part, Chrystia Freeland says she's running against the "Ottawa establishment", which does sound a bit rich coming from someone who served as one of Trudeau's top cabinet ministers from the beginning of his prime ministership. Not to say that the only other candidate anyone's heard of, Mark Carney, isn't establishment; he's more "international establishment" than "Ottawa establishment", though. Not sure which is worse in the eyes of the kind of voter Poilievre is going after.

- The public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections has found no evidence of "traitors" in Parliament; while there was some evidence of attempts by foreign interests to "curry favour" with MPs, no evidence was found of MPs helping. For his part, Charlie Angus is calling for Elections Canada to investigate possible interference by Elon Musk and X. Given that Musk seems to have no compunction about such interference, this is an eminently reasonable request.

- One of the few things Doug Ford has in common with David Eby, policy-wise, is a willingness to ban American alcohol from his province if Trump goes ahead with his threatened tariffs. And as in BC, some bars and restaurants are uneasy about this, complaining that some of their top-selling cocktails can't be made without bourbon. Nonetheless, I have to give credit where credit is due; Ford has done the right thing here, showing that he is at least no lower than the third worst premier in the country after Danielle Smith and Scott Moe. The impact may be noticeable - the LCBO is one of the biggest buyers of alcohol in the world (though not the undisputed #1 that it once was).

- School districts in the US are trying to figure out how to respond when immigration officers show up at their schools (possibly for kids born in the US but whose citizenship is no longer recognized by the current administration).

- Google has reclassified the US as a "sensitive country", meaning one that gets really worked up when you don't call things by the name they prefer (like how China gets when an airline lists "Taipei, Taiwan" instead of "Taipei, China" as a destination). Presumably this is why they've given in to pressure from the administration and accepted the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

- Gwynne Dyer would like to remind us that for the most part countries still take international law seriously, even if there are a few exceptions (Rwanda, Russia, US, etc.)

- Calgary is planning a new LRT line. Since that sort of thing does not sit well with the provincial government, due to running contrary to the interests of the only people the UCP cares about, the province imposed limits on the project that amount to a poison pill. City council, though, recognizing that the line is needed regardless, has voted to move ahead with the project anyway.

- When office space becomes vacant, it's not always feasible to convert it into apartments due to design constraints for residences. An alternative, though, is to use it for food production instead.

- The prospect of a casino opening in Tysons Corner, Virginia (a short drive from Washington) is causing unease in some former intelligence officers. They figure that, James Bond movies notwithstanding, having your spies, military, and defense contractors get the gambling bug is not a good thing from a security standpoint. It would be interesting to know who is bankrolling this casino and/or lobbying in its favour.

News roundup, 28 Jan 2024

- The latest poll from EKOS has the Liberals recovering some lost support. The party now sits at 32%, only seven points shy of the Conservatives, and is statistically tied with them in Ontario. Perhaps Poilievre's courting of the MAGA crowd will turn out to be his downfall? Doubtful, but stay tuned.

- Following Mexico's refusal to accept a deportation flight, Colombia attempted to follow suit, only to cave after Trump threatened the country with massive tariffs. Nice coffee industry you've got, it would be a shame if something happened to it...

- The EU's top military official believes that EU countries should station their own troops in Greenland instead of leaving the military presence on the island to the Americans. I guess until now it never occurred to them that they might have to defend the territory from the Americans.

- A man arrested in the UK on hacking charges has claimed to have been hired by ExxonMobil to obtain information from environmental activists - including people assisting in lawsuits against energy companies.

- The introduction by China of the low-cost DeepSeek AI chatbot has caused panic selling of AI-related stocks in the US.

- An Indiana man who was among the Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump has been shot dead in a traffic stop after allegedly resisting arrest.

- The CIA, which had previously been skeptical of the "lab leak" theory of the origin of COVID-19, has suddenly reversed their stance. I'm sure their new Trump-appointed director has something to do with this.

- BC premier David Eby has proposed a ban on the sale of American alcohol in the province as a response to Donald Trump's tariff threats. The proposal is getting good reviews from domestic alcohol producers, but some industry groups are alarmed by the idea - the B.C. Alliance of Beverage Licensees has expressed concerns that it could reduce selection for consumers (but then, that's kind of the point here). They also fear that it could force some bars to import more expensive products from elsewhere and thus cut into their profits.

- Toronto Animal Services have seized a Spectacled Caiman that was being kept as a pet. Caimans are relatives of alligators, and can grow to more than 2 metres in length. Apparently the owner had kept it for 12 years without knowing it was prohibited in the city; the animal has been turned over to a reptile zoo outside of Peterborough.

News roundup, 12 Nov 2024

- The FBI is investigating after numerous black Americans report receiving racist text messages in the wake of last week's election, telling them to report to a plantation to pick cotton. Alarmingly, many of the texts addressed the recipients by name.

- The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has given notice that they will be in a legal strike position as of Friday, though they have not formally set a date to actually walk out.

- An addictions treatment centre that had purchased numerous units in a condo complex in Winnipeg's Lindenwoods neighbourhood as transitional housing has received a cease and desist order after the condo association took them to court. The complex had a policy against using units for "business purposes", and while acting as a regular landlord was exempt, the court has ruled that this was not and is forcing the centre's clients to leave. Because "property values" or something. Some of the clients had apparently been followed by other residents and had their pictures taken. Well, that's Lindenwoods for you I guess...

- A poll has found that none of the potential candidates for the leadership of the federal Liberals is particularly popular with the Canadian public. Mark Carney scored highest, with 18% of those polled approving of him, but "none of the above" was the choice of 26% of respondents.

- Gwynne Dyer attempts to put last week's US election results in perspective, saying for instance that while the plan to push ahead with oil exploration is worrisome, the global demand for oil is declining, which might limit the severity of such moves. On the other hand Dyer thinks it likely that Ukraine will be thrown under the bus and that Gaza is pretty much finished (then again, Gaza's prospects were dim regardless of the outcome of the election).

- Century-old weather records are tumbling; last Thursday it was almost 23°C in Sainte-Clotilde, Quebec. Slightly more promising is the fact that deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by over 30% compared to the previous year. However, reading the fine print it becomes apparent that it's not as good as it sounds; fire damage is classified as "degradation" rather than deforestation, and there have been a lot of fires.

News roundup, 24 Oct 2024

- Justin Trudeau is refusing to step down as Liberal leader, despite the demands from a growing number of MPs that he do so. Some of the rebel MPs expressed concern with how quickly he dismissed the suggestion; none of this is going to help salvage the party's chances in the next election, or even with rebuilding afterwards.

- In southwestern England, recurring flooding is being addressed by buying out farmers at around £5,000 an acre and restoring the saltmarsh habitat that existed previously. Not surprisingly, this has its detractors, but more of this sort of thing is going to be necessary, since the problem isn't going away any time soon.

- The driver who hit cyclist Rob Jenner in June, then left the scene, has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and leaving the scene of the accident. He was going 159 km/h in a 50 zone. In tangentially related news, police have been cracking down on "stunt driving" to an extent, although it's an uphill battle with these people.

- Winnipeg police had to shoot a dog on Tuesday afternoon after it attacked four people, causing serious injuries to one of them.

- Many polls significantly underestimated Donald Trump's support in the 2020 election. The reasons for this are not entirely clear; one school of thought holds that low information voters are less likely to answer polls, and more likely to vote for the likes of Trump if they do vote. Notably, pollsters did better in the 2022 midterms (less engaged voters are more likely to sit the election out if the presidency isn't up for grabs). Others suggest that the 2020 election was heavily influenced by the pandemic and other factors. Pollsters are changing their methodologies in an attempt to correct for factors like these; the effectiveness of these measures remains to be seen.

- A Cambridge University study has found a significant positive correlation between the number of Airbnb locations in a neighbourhood and its crime rate.

- Post-secondary institutions in red states are having a harder time attracting students from out of state as non-crazy students balk at having to live in such a place.

News roundup, 17 Sept 2024

- The federal NDP managed to squeak out a win in the Elmwood-Transcona byelection. The Liberals weren't so fortunate, losing the longtime stronghold riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun to the Bloc Québécois.

- At the provincial level, the Manitoba NDP is facing a bit of awkwardness after Fort Garry MLA Mark Wasyliw was expelled from the party caucus. The party's caucus chair, Riel MLA Mike Moyes, was quoted as saying that this follows revelations that one of Wasyliw's colleagues in his law practice was involved in the defense of Peter Nygard. Now it's possible that Moyes was misquoted, or misspoke himself, but if not then this is a very strange and rather troubling move - even a monster like Nygard is entitled to legal representation, and this should not be seen as a stain on the lawyer who takes the job, much less their colleagues. That said, as far back as last fall concerns were raised by the party about the amount of time Wasyliw would be able to devote to the job of representing his constituents if he remained active as a defense lawyer, and he got all pissy when denied a cabinet post last fall (even though being a cabinet minister while practicing law would have been even more difficult than being a backbencher).

- Charges have been laid against the owners of Spirit Rising House, the private, for-profit foster home provider that was giving marijuana to the kids in their care.

- Amazon is completely doing away with hybrid work. They say they fear that without such measures their corporate culture could be "diluted"; as usual, they make absolutely no mention of commercial real estate. Notably, the demand for office space in Amazon's home city of Seattle is the lowest among major American cities; I have to assume that Amazon owns a fair bit of that real estate and that this is a measure to protect their investment. To be fair, there could be real issues with a crash in that market; there could be ripple effects in the economy as REITs that specialize in these products collapse, and the decline in property values could potentially starve municipalities of revenue.

News roundup, 10 Sept 2024

- Ukraine has upped the ante in the war, sending numerous drones into the Moscow area. At least one person was killed and dozens of flights were forced to divert. Russia accuses Ukraine of targeting residential neighbourhoods, which even if true is a wee bit hypocritical.

- With the NDP and Conservatives essentially tied in the polls following the Conservatives' de facto absorption of BC United, one political scientist thinks that the Cons are seeking to present a moderate image by getting former BC United candidates to represent them in the suburbs. He think the NDP still has a slight edge, though, due to their votes being more "efficient" (one of those quirks of the first-past-the-post electoral system). Meanwhile, despite their leader's move to merge with the Cons, some candidates will apparently still be running under the BC United banner, which is also potentially good news for the government.

- Federally, the byelection being held next week in the Quebec riding of Lasalle—Émard—Verdun is turning out to be a much bigger fight for the Liberals than they've generally faced there. The Bloc Québécois is within striking distance of winning. Meanwhile the NDP faces a similar fight in Elmwood-Transcona.

- A plan to open an addiction rehabilitation home in Winnipeg's suburban Lindenwoods neighbourhood is getting a lot of pushback from locals, who expressed concern that it will attract drug dealers and violence. The neighbourhood is one of the wealthier and more socially conservative ones in the city, so that's to be expected. Hopefully good sense will prevail, but you can never be sure.

- A 65 year old man has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for the death of a 38 year old man in Hartland, Wisconsin. He had apparently confronted the younger man about his tattoos, saying that "marking up God's work is a sin", then punched him, causing him to fall and strike his head on the sidewalk. Now I'm no expert on religious matters, but I'm pretty sure that killing someone because you don't like his looks would be considered a sin by most faiths.

- A Delta Air Lines A350 got a little too close to a CRJ owned by a subsidiary of the same airline, and knocked off the entire empennage. Nobody was hurt, but I suspect that at least one of the captains is going to have some 'splainin to do.

News roundup, 5 Sept 2024

- Following the incident on Monday night when a woman was run over and killed by a police car driving through a park, numerous protesters blocked the intersection of Portage and Main yesterday. One vehicle attempted to plow into the protesters, hitting one of them (though not seriously injuring her); other protesters then attacked the vehicle and driver in retaliation. Video of the incident can be seen here.

- The decision by federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh to scrap the supply and confidence accord with the Liberals may lead to an earlier election than planned - but not necessarily. Singh is keeping mum about whether he intends to bring down the government; he likely wants to delay an election long enough to benefit from being less closely tied to the Liberals, and even more important he probably wants to ensure that enough people see the benefits of the dental care plan to make scrapping it unpalatable to the Conservatives (who are virtually certain to win the election when it comes). Interestingly, recent polling suggests that the accord was supported by a slight majority of Canadians.

- A 14 year old in the Atlanta suburb of Winder has been charged with fatally shooting two students and two teachers at a local high school. The suspect had been interviewed by the FBI as recently as last year regarding alleged online threats to commit a mass shooting, but was not charged due to lack of evidence. Fun fact - guns are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 18.

- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is threatening legal action against two counties if they proceed with mailing out registration forms to enable voters to vote by mail. Not surprisingly, the two counties in question are both urban and have a large Latino population; can't make it too easy for those people to vote, you know.

- The far-right AfD has won a plurality of seats in the German state of Thuringia with over 32% of the vote; they may find it difficult to cobble together a coalition though, especially with party leader Björn Höcke hurling insults at prospective coalition partners including the Christian Democrats. Some think his real plan is to tolerate a minority government by one of the other parties until he can vote to bring it down at a convenient time.

- James Gaddis, a cartographer in Florida's state parks authority, was fired after he blew the whistle on a secretive plan to convert several environmentally sensitive areas into golf courses and the like. The plan was withdrawn after an uproar when it became public, but Gaddis was nonetheless sacked for "conduct unbecoming a public employee".

- A zoo in Toledo, Ohio had been maintaining natural prairie grass on the median of a nearby street. Unfortunately the city decided to mow it all down, apparently because the wild look upset some loudmouthed citizens' suburban sensibilities.

News roundup, 21 Aug 2024

- The Conservative Party of Canada posted a video to their Twitter/X feed which was supposed to promote their support of Canadian values. Funny thing is, the jet fighters in the video that were supposedly "defending our home and native land" turned out to actually be Russian; the party has deleted the video but not before someone found it and made a copy. You have to wonder - were they actually so sloppy as to not pay attention to what stock footage they were using, or was this meant as a dog whistle to far-right elements that actually like Putin? Hard to say, but it's not a good look either way.

- The Kinew government will allow municipalities to withdraw from the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region and the associated Plan 20-50. Not sure what the benefit for the government is; perhaps they're hoping to win Selkirk back in the next election, but I don't know if it will work.

- People in the AI industry have paid lip service to the need for caution with the technology. Now that a new bill before California's legislature seeks to actually regulate it, Silicon Valley is having a conniption.

- A Winnipeg police officer who allegedly threatened an employee of a convenience store is denying the accusations against him. Now of course you'd expect him to do that; however this isn't the first time this particular cop has been accused of abusive and threatening behaviour.

- Researchers at the University of Manitoba are working with Opaskwayak Cree Nation on a vertical farm project in the community. The crops are being tailored to improve their nutritional value, potentially reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.

- The federal Liberal Party has withdrawn from Ottawa's Pride parade following a pledge of solidarity with Palestinians by the parade's organizers.

- A man who was the subject of a protection order related to his ex forced his way into her home in McCreary, Manitoba. When she escaped, he proceeded to go to her parents' house and kill them and her brother, then himself.

News roundup, 26 Feb 2024

- A man burned himself to death in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, apparently in protest of the war in Gaza.

- Russia managed to do in two years what the US couldn't do in 74 - get Sweden to join NATO.

- Donald Trump's base can't get enough of him, but while they love the craziness he spouts, it creates a problem for him if he wants to win the votes of the non-crazy. Meanwhile his legal troubles are creating financial problems for his campaign, and now the prosecutor in the Stormy Daniels case is asking the judge for a gag order to keep Trump from siccing his sheeple on jurors.

- Even in West Virginia, people in the know understand that the coal industry isn't going to recover to its earlier strength. It's been declining for decades, long before renewables entered the picture. Unfortunately while there are new jobs in the renewable energy sector, there are a lot fewer of them, and they aren't always in the same place (the best place to mine coal often isn't the best place to build a solar or wind farm).

- The federal NDP has managed to get the Liberals to move ahead with a national pharmacare program. The NDP had threatened to withdraw their support from the minority Liberal government unless an agreement was reached by the end of the month. Among things to be covered will be diabetes medications and contraceptives; for their part, the Alberta government has announced that they intend to opt out of the whole thing. Because freedumb, or something.

- Manitoba finance minister Adrien Sala accuses the previous government of presenting an "incomplete picture" of the province's finances following an external review ordered by the new government shortly after taking office. Among the things the Tories are accused of ignoring are the impact of last year's drought on Hydro revenues, as well as the impact of their own tax cuts on revenue.

- The former CAO of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, Manitoba has been charged with theft after allegedly stealing around $30,000 from a curling club and then using municipal funds to repay it. No information about the motive, but if I were to guess I'd say gambling has something to do with it.

- Syphilis in the US is now at a 70 year high, and some doctors are rationing penicillin in order to keep it available to treat the disease.

- A number of "smart vending machines" at the University of Waterloo were discovered to be using facial recognition, for reasons that are not clear. This was discovered by accident when a software glitch led to a reference to facial recognition appearing on a screen on one of the machines. The university has announced that the machines will be removed.

- A branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Vaughan, Ontario has had its charter revoked by the national body after allegedly being taken over by outlaw bikers.

News roundup, 29 Jan 2024

- A report prepared by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and ISN Maskwa has concluded that a search of the Prairie Green Landfill is feasible, and may actually be cheaper than initially feared, however searchers could face significant risks from the asbestos buried in the landfill. Also on the MMIWG* file, police have a suspect in custody in the death of Crystal Saunders, whose body was found in a ditch near St. Ambroise in 2007.

- A curious fact - neither of Canada's two largest political parties has a mechanism for tossing out their leader unless they first lose an election. If you want to throw out your leader to reduce the risk of losing, you're out of luck.

- A new president and CEO will be announced for MPI next week. The job of cleaning up the mess made by the previous management will no doubt take some time.

- Low water levels due to insufficient precipitation are interfering with hydroelectric generation, forcing Manitoba and BC to buy electricity from other jurisdictions. Hopefully they're looking at adding more solar and wind capacity to reduce the chance of this having to happen in the future.

- Joe Biden's economic policies have had some benefits for Americans, but getting the people to believe that things are improving is a problem. The Democrats are also having a hard time selling the public on the climate benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has largely been sold to the public as a jobs program.

- Illinois is the latest state to consider keeping Trump off the ballot, however the state's elections board are looking for a court ruling to advise whether the 14th Amendment applies in this case. Presumably the board would rather judges get death threats than themselves.

- Israel is claiming that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) participated in atrocities during the Hamas attack in October. Palestinian officials have accused Israel of falsifying information about the attack; the UN is investigating, but in the meantime several countries have suspended funding to the agency.

- A Labour MP in the UK has been suspended from the party's caucus for a tweet made the day before Holocaust Memorial Day. The tweet simply said "Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza"; I guess that's too hot for Labour to handle right now.

- A teenager in Utah is facing charges of causing property damage after allegedly duct taping dead fish to bank machines. The motive is unclear.

The day after

Well, as you're no doubt aware, the election didn't go the way I expected. For that matter, it didn't go the way most other people expected, including some of the winning candidates. And indeed there are some good aspects to what happened; while part of me would have loved to see the NDP jump from fourth place to government in one fell swoop, it's probably better that these rookie MPs get the chance to learn the ropes in opposition before they take office (I suspect that was a contributing factor to the troubles of the Rae government in Ontario back in the day). I'm not unhappy to see Elizabeth May in the House either, for that matter.

But while this was a hugely successful election for the NDP, it is definitely a Pyrrhic victory, thanks to the Conservative majority. What's odd, though, is the way things played out in the final day or so of the campaign. Nearly all the polls put the Cons in the mid to high thirties, while the NDP's share of the vote is shown as pretty close to what they actually got. So what gave the Cons the boost into majority territory?

It sounds crazy, but one possibility that comes to my mind is the death of Osama bin Laden. Some people seem to see the killing as a vindication of the Afghan war, and if enough people who were right-leaning but had a bad feeling about our involvement in said war had their (obviously limited) minds changed by this, it could have made the difference. Pretty pathetic, but then a lot of Canadian voters are pretty pathetic.

What can we expect now? The Cons claim that they're not going to introduce radical changes... and maybe the government itself won't, but I bet that there will be a lot of private members' bills reopening the abortion and marriage debates. Most of them won't make it far enough to be debated, but those that do get debated have an excellent chance of passing.

And as bad as that would be, there are worse things that could happen. At least if abortion or same-sex marriage is banned it will be easy enough for a future government to reverse the decision. Indeed, if they use the notwithstanding clause to avoid constitutional challenges, such a law would automatically be invalidated unless renewed. On the other hand, if they abolish the Canadian Wheat Board, for instance, NAFTA will likely preclude reversing such a move; it will be gone forever. And that is a bad thing.

The moment of truth approaches

Firstly, my apologies for not updating this blog more frequently. Among other things, I've been working on an actual election campaign (hey, you didn't think I was nonpartisan, did you?). But in any case, as you're no doubt aware, there seems to have been a dramatic shift in the last few weeks. The chances of a Conservative majority seem to be greatly reduced, although it's not impossible that the NDP surge could pull enough votes away from the Liberals to push the Conservatives over the top.

Last week, based mostly on poking around on the Election Prediction website, I came up with the following guess as to seat distribution: Conservatives 138, Liberals 67, NDP 59, Bloc 41, Green 1, Independent 2 (André Arthur and Hec Clouthier). However, the NDP could very well do even better, and indeed some seat projections from the latest polls put the NDP firmly in second place in the seat count. In fact, many of the projections have the combined NDP and Liberal seats adding up to a majority. But what then?

My suspicion is that the Liberals would be reluctant to defeat the government and allow the NDP to take power, because this would greatly diminish the Liberals' opportunity to rebuild their party. After all, once the NDP is out of third place they, and not the Liberals, will be seen as the main alternative to the Conservatives. On the other hand, for the Liberals to prop up the Cons once again, they'd have to swallow a lot of pride, and so it's not impossible that Layton will end up in the PMO. We'll know soon enough...

Also interesting is the race in Saanich-Gulf Islands. I have a sneaking suspicion that Elizabeth May will manage to win that seat, which could be the beginning of a slow ascent for her party. On the other hand, if she doesn't win that seat it may be quite some time before the Greens are a significant force.

Elizabeth May shut out of TV debates

I wondered if this was going to happen:

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is once again getting shut out of the televised debates, but she is already rallying her troops for a fight and finding some unlikely allies.

From the Star. Interesting to see who some of these allies are:

New Democrat Leader Jack Layton — who had threatened to boycott if she took part last time — expressed dissatisfaction with the way the decision was made.

“If certain leaders are not invited to participate, I think it is reasonable for them to know why,” Layton said in a statement.

“We’re fine with her in the debate,” he added.

***

Bryon Wilfert, the Liberal incumbent for Richmond Hill and a close confidant of Dion, denounced the decision, although made it clear he was not speaking on behalf of his party.

“I think the networks are wrong,” said Wilfert, who considers May a friend and thought she contributed much to the debate last time.

It's very much to Layton's credit (and Wilfert's, but then he wouldn't have to face her in the debate) to take this stance, especially since he initially opposed her inclusion in the previous debate. The fact is, she did contribute a lot to the debate last time. Now technically, she was on much stronger ground in 2008, thanks to Blair Wilson's having crossed the floor to join her party. Technically, of course, the networks would be consistent with their previous policy if they didn't let her in, since the Greens no longer have a sitting MP, but surely having participated previously should count for something, no? It's worth remembering that the PCs came within two seats of being eliminated in 1993, and it's a safe bet that if Jean Charest and Elsie Wayne hadn't managed to cling to their seats, the PCs would still have been allowed into the debate in 1997.

Polls show a lot of volatility

A new poll has come out from Harris-Decima that completely contradicts the Ipsos poll of a few days ago:

The Conservatives and Liberals appear to be ending the year the same way they started it — in a dead heat.

A new poll by The Canadian Press Harris-Decima suggests the Tories have the support of 31 per cent of Canadians, statistically tied with the Liberals at 29 per cent.

The poll puts the NDP at 15% and the Greens at 11%, both noticeably higher than the Ipsos results. The Ipsos poll was conducted between the 7th and 9th; the Harris-Decima one was conducted between the 2nd and the 13th. So it's pretty clear that at least one of them must be wrong. Which one? On the one hand, the Harris-Decima poll has a larger sample size (2,022 respondents vs. 1000 for the Ipsos poll); on the other hand, the Ipsos poll, having been conducted in a shorter time period, might provide a better snapshot (and 1000 is still not an unreasonable size). The moral? Nothing really, except that it's hard to predict how the actual election will play out.