News roundup, 8 July 2026

- A new bill before the US Congress would direct the US Trade Representative to investigate the bans on American alcohol by most Canadian provinces. In the modern American tradition of contrived backronyms, the bill is called the Combating Attacks on our National Alcoholic Drinks by Allies (CANADA) Act. It was introduced by Claudia Tenney, who represents a large part of rural and small-town New York State and who is a rabid Trump supporter. Curiously, the bill makes no mention of the annexation threats and tariffs that led to the bans in the first place.

- Markus Chambers has become the latest Winnipeg city councillor to announce that he will not be running again this fall. Chambers, who represents the suburban St. Norbert-Seine River ward, says that he wants to spend more time with his family, which is fair enough. However, the sheer number of veteran councillors who are quitting is significant - Janice Lukes, John Orlikow, and Brian Mayes are also not running again. One thing all those councillors have in common is that they represent suburban (or largely suburban) wards; I wouldn't be surprised if they know darn well that continuing to insist on car-centric design and exclusively single-family neighbourhoods is financially unviable (you just don't have enough taxpayers per kilometre of street, water main, etc to properly maintain the infrastructure) but for these councillors to acknowledge this in front of their constituents would be politically unviable.

- Mark Carney has appointed Conservative MP Richard Martel to the Senate. This creates a vacancy in the riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, which Martel narrowly won in the last election.

- The leader of a rightwing fringe party, the Freedom Party of BC, has been charged with vandalizing a Pride crosswalk in Surrey. Amrit Birring, 58, was arrested along with a 67 year old man and charged with mischief over $5,000.

- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has resigned his seat and announced that he will run for reelection in the resulting byelection. Some may remember when Canadian Liberal MP Sheila Copps did that in 1996; she had promised in the previous election campaign to resign if the GST wasn't abolished, but then ran again, winning without difficulty. In Farage's case, his critics believe this is a way of distracting the public from an investigation into his finances; all the other parties, from the Greens and Labour on the left, to the Liberal Dems in the centre, to the Conservatives and Restore Britain on the right are refusing to contest the seat and give him the attention he seems to crave. He won't be acclaimed, though; comedian Jon Harvey, aka Count Binface, has said that he will contest the seat.

News roundup, 24 June 2024

- An outbreak of violence in the Russian republic of Dagestan has killed 15 police officers and several civilians. An affiliate of ISIS has claimed responsibility, but that's not stopping the Russians from making oblique references to Ukraine. No question this is good news for Ukraine of course; if anything is going to stop the Russians it's internal divisions.

- Research on geoengineering continues. This is probably necessary, unless we manage to convince millions of people to fly a lot less and billions to eat a lot less meat, but the potential for unintended consequences is great. One recent study concluded that seeding clouds with sea salt could enable them to reflect more sunlight away from the Earth. The problem is, their modelling concluded that while this could be useful to cool the western US, it could have the side effect of causing heat waves elsewhere (Europe in this case) as well as disrupting rainfall in the US as well as in far-flung places such as the Sahel region of Africa. Now imagine a geoengineering project by one country that negatively impacts a hostile country, or is perceived as having done so. Best hope the countries involved aren't nuclear powers.

- A scientist working for the federal government is alleging that the federal government, along with the provincial government of New Brunswick, has shut down an investigation into the cluster of cases of a mysterious degenerative brain disease. This follows similar allegations from another scientist; one has to conclude that the governments are trying to protect someone (one is inclined to suspect that it's a company whose name begins with I).

- An investigation has concluded that Winnipeg councillor Markus Chambers (St. Norbert - Seine River) violated conflict of interest rules by failing to recuse himself on a motion concerning changes to a residential development recommended by city planners. Chambers, who also serves as deputy mayor and chair of the police board, had also failed to reveal his personal connection to one of the owners of the property involved.

- Naheed Nenshi has won the Alberta NDP leadership in a landslide, receiving over 86% of the vote.

- A byelection in the federal riding of Toronto-St. Paul's is being held today. The riding has been a Liberal stronghold for decades, so if they lose, or even if they win by a narrow margin, the pressure on Justin Trudeau to step down is expected to increase. That would probably be the best outcome actually; a new leader probably won't be enough to save the Liberals, but it might offer some slim hope for a hung parliament rather than a Conservative majority next year.

- Calgary has been having serious problems with its water distribution network for over two weeks. Many are pointing out that this problem is not limited to Calgary; I would add that it's not limited to water distribution either. The approach most North American cities have taken to growth, with low-density suburbs, means that there isn't enough tax base to maintain the infrastructure needed to support said suburbs. Curiously, though, the CBC article avoids using words like "sprawl" and "density", but that's the real issue here and elsewhere.