News roundup, 26 May 2026

- A poll of Albertans conducted by Angus Reid has found that the majority of respondents would vote no to Danielle Smith's revised referendum - but by a narrower margin than a straight up yes or no on separation. Respondents were also critical of Smith's handling of the affair. The thing is, all of this needs to be taken with substantial quantities of salt, given the "shy Tory factor". In particular I think the kind of person who would vote to secede from Canada would also be reluctant to answer pollsters at all for fear of getting on some kind of "gummint list". For his part, Mark Carney has called the referendum plan a "dangerous bluff" and is drawing parallels to Brexit; it's worth noting that polls in the UK failed to predict the outcome of that referendum.

- Uber drivers in Victoria have successfully unionized. More than 1,000 drivers in the city voted to approve a contract negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers local 1518. Notably, this wouldn't have been possible without changes in provincial legislation that classifies rideshare drivers as employees rather than independent contractors, limiting their ability to do this in other provinces.

- Russia is warning foreign nationals, including diplomats, to leave Kiev as they threaten a fresh waves of "systematic strikes" against the city. Strikes on the capital have been pretty much incessant, but this new warning suggests that they plan to escalate. Most recently they tested out one of their new hypersonic missiles over the weekend as part of a heavy wave of attacks that killed four people and injured over 100. Meanwhile the US is claiming self-defense in their latest wave of attacks on Iran.

- A powwow organized with Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba created a stir after a table set up by the Sexuality Education Resource Centre, a Brandon organization, distributed materials that some parents considered sexually explicit to younger kids. One parent claims that her eight year old son was given condoms and other items by the table, and that this made him "uncomfortable". I daresay that may be a bit of projection on the part of the mum. There were also documents such as this one handed out. The school division and the SERC have apologized for the incident.

- Competition was halted at the World Surf League in New Zealand, and jet skis were dispatched to get competitors out of the water as quickly as possible, after a photographer covering the event was bitten by an unseen sea creature.

News roundup, 9 Oct 2024

- One noteworthy thing about the far-right orientation of the American countryside - it wasn't always this bad. In 2000, Republicans only had a five point lead over Democrats in rural America - but today they lead by 25 points. How much difference the folksiness of Tim Walz will make in that regard is doubtful, though the Democrats are hoping that it will help in places like Nebraska which doesn't use a winner-takes-all system for their electoral votes. One wonders how much longer this will matter; the shift of the population towards large cities may not be as pronounced in the US as in a lot of countries, but it's still happening there, and the more that happens, the more irrelevant rural voters will become. Of course they will also become even angrier than they already are as that happens.

- The Manitoba government is putting $10 million into the Collaborative Housing Alliance Real Estate Investment Trust. The trust is being created by the Business Council of Manitoba and will assist community groups in the creation of affordable housing; Housing Minister Bernadette Smith hopes to have three projects going within a year.

- The Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba, which recently passed a motion banning all flags except the Canadian, Manitoban, and school flags despite not having a quorum, says that the motion was meant to "foster inclusivity" and "promote unity". An employee of the school division believes otherwise, though, saying that this is a veiled attack on the LGBT* community. I suspect that the employee is right.

- The BC Conservatives are vowing to "end tent cities" in the province; they plan to achieve this via policing to eliminate encampments, and involuntary treatment in secure facilities. Party leader John Rustad was evasive when asked about how they plan to get around recent court decisions such as the one last year which ruled that municipalities cannot evict encampments if they don't have sufficient shelter space for the residents; the folks in this Reddit thread suspect the notwithstanding clause will likely be used if deemed necessary.

- A new Leger poll in BC has the NDP up 5 points over the BC Conservatives; perhaps the Cons' extreme positions are starting to worry voters. Let's hope so.

- The Halifax Chronicle-Herald has fired award-winning editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder, who had worked for the paper for almost 30 years. The paper's parent company was recently taken over by Postmedia, and maybe the new owners didn't like cartoons like this one.

- The Ontario government's move to allow alcohol sales in convenience stores includes fortified wine. So you'll be able to pick up a bottle of Westminster at your local 7-11 to drink under a bridge. Ain't that grand?

- A Republican candidate for the US Senate has some awkward questions to answer about a social media post from a couple of years ago in which he said that "the bad guys won" in WWII.

News roundup, 26 Sept 2024

- A recent poll gives Kamala Harris a 5 point lead over Donald Trump, which is promising news. Trump has a 52-40 lead over Harris among male voters, while Harris has a 58-37 lead among female voters. Lawrence Martin thinks this will tip the balance in favour of Harris; we'll have to see.

- A vertical farm that just opened in Richmond, Virginia is expected to produce almost 2 million kilograms of strawberries in a year, while using less than an acre of land. Meanwhile a startup in Singapore hopes to produce milk and derivatives from altered yeast cells. Hopefully this is the way of the future, though rural folks will probably not take their increasing irrelevance gently.

- Documents from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) provided to the CBC under an access to information request indicate that "public scrutiny" was a major factor in the federal government's decision to force civil servants who were working from home back to the office. The documents indicate that there was little or no indication that productivity was a factor; it seems it's just an attempt to placate voters who can't work from home, and perhaps also to placate business interests such as the owners of private parking lots.

- CTV has apologized after editing a clip of Pierre Poilievre from a policy scrum with reporters. Apparently they spliced together audio in such a way as to make it appear that the dental plan was Poilievre's motivation for a non-confidence motion; definitely not a good look, and moreover it adds fuel to Poilievre's rage that is so uncannily popular with the masses.

- Despite misgivings, the federal NDP has reactivated its TikTok account, saying that they have consulted security experts and accordingly have installed the app only on a dedicated phone that isn't taken anywhere. The fact that they went to such efforts suggests that they've concluded that there's a sizeable chunk of the electorate that can't be reached without it. Which I find quite believable, unfortunately.

- A proposed homeless shelter at the former Saskatchewan Transportation Company facility in Saskatoon is drawing fire from the chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council, due to the plan to surround it with a chain-link fence that the chief says will make it "look like a jail". He is also not happy that the new shelter, which will be run by a faith-based organization, is getting more resources than the tribal council's own facility. It's certainly not clear how the fence will actually enhance safety, though granted it will probably enhance the perception of safety. Meanwhile in Victoria, the perception of safety is a huge driver of opposition to a facility to help the homeless access treatment and long-term housing; perhaps someone should ask those people whether they'd prefer the homeless to just camp out in their neighbourhood parks instead.

- You might recall from a few months ago how the Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba fired its superintendent a few months ago, triggering the resignations of three of its nine trustees. Well, an advisory panel appointed by the province has now walked away from talks with the division, saying that they are unable to do their jobs under the terms the division has set. Following this, four of the trustees held a meeting in which some policy decisions were made despite not having quorum. The votes included a ban on all flags other than the Canadian or Manitoban flag and the flags of the individual schools; I'm pretty sure we can all guess some of the flags they're primarily concerned with.

News roundup, 6 June 2024

- UN secretary general Antonio Guterres is urging countries around the world to ban fossil fuel advertising, drawing analogies with the bans on tobacco advertising in many countries.

A report from Canada's National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) on foreign interference in Canadian politics alleges that several MPs, not named in the report, were "semi-witting or witting" participants in said interference. The chance of their identities becoming known does not appear to be high. Andrew Coyne suspects that both Liberal and opposition MPs are involved, pointing out that the Tories waited until it was clear the MPs would not be named before making an empty demand in Parliament for their names to be released.

- The cost of the proposed widening of the residential part of Kenaston Boulevard in Winnipeg has been estimated at $586 million at a minimum. A substantial part of the cost would be in the expropriation of a number of properties. One can't help but wonder if there isn't a better use for that money.

- The controlled entrances at Manitoba's Liquor Marts have, not surprisingly, been extremely effective at curbing thefts. Other retailers, however, are reluctant to follow suit, for fear of losing market share to competitors who don't.

- The superintendent of Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba was fired in a special board meeting on Friday. In response, three long-serving trustees resigned in protest. The chair of the board says this was because the superintendent had proposed a change to his salary and that his contract was expiring in June, however the Manitoba Metis Federation believe that the real reason was that he had permitted Dauphin's Pride Parade to use a school as a starting point; the board chair denies this.

- Siemens Mobility has developed a dual mode electric locomotive, capable of running either on battery power or from overhead wires. This makes the elimination of diesel trains a realistic possibility in many places.

- The popularity of diamonds has declined markedly in recent years. Competition from synthetic diamonds (which, as a bonus, can be counted on not to be "blood diamonds"), as well as shifting consumer preferences and declining marriage rates, are cited as factors.