- Winnipeg city council has approved the changes to zoning in order to unlock federal funding for housing. No surprise that Brian Mayes and Shawn Dobson voted against it, I'm a bit surprised by John Orlikow's vote though.
- The provincial government has introduced a bill to fulfill their campaign promise to temporarily lift the gas tax. While I understand the populist appeal of this, I disagree with the way it was done. I'd much prefer that they temporarily reduced the PST; that would have helped affordability for everyone, not just the people who drive, and would not incentivized people to buy big stupid trucks because they'll be a bit cheaper to fill up. Perhaps they decided that doing anything with the PST would have reminded people too much of the time the Selinger government increased it back in the day.
- On the other hand, the government is considering deferring their plan to freeze Hydro rates, citing a possible deficit at the Crown utility as a result of the dry summer.
- The RCMP officer who got slapped with his third violation of the force's code of conduct for speaking to a wanted criminal, not arresting him, and lying about it will keep his job. Kinda makes you wonder what it takes to get a Mountie actually fired.
- Real estate investors in BC who jumped on the Airbnb bandwagon are freaking out because the province is making them obey municipal by-laws. Because god forbid that they should have to actually follow the rules.
- BC is, however, deferring plans to require municipalities who want to remove homeless encampments to ensure that there is somewhere for the residents of said encampments to go before doing so. Perhaps they're hoping that the courts will do the work for them, as they did in Waterloo Region earlier this year.
- The people who died in that spectacular crash on the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls have been identified. Sure enough, no sign of terrorism, despite what Poilievre said about it at the time. For his part, Poilievre is blaming the media for making him shoot his mouth off.
- Poilievre and his party have voted against a trade agreement with Ukraine, because it makes reference to carbon taxes. He's accusing the Liberals of "imposing" a carbon tax on the downtrodden Ukrainian people, conveniently ignoring the fact that Ukraine has had a carbon tax since 2011. I think his real fear is that it could normalize putting environmental provisions in trade agreements, something he wants to avoid at all costs.
- Peru has lost over half of their glaciers since 1962. This does not bode well for the country's water supply, and we can expect a lot more migrants to show up at the US-Mexican border in coming decades as a result.
- The temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war has taken effect, and the release of hostages has begun. How long it will last remains to be seen; Gwynne Dyer suggests that both the US and Hamas would like to see it become permanent, but that Israel (or at least its government) does not. He does think that the situation could conceivably make a two-state solution possible eventually, though it's hard not to think that this is just wishful thinking. On the other hand, there is the odd vaguely hopeful sign. When a former head of Israel's secret service says that continuing the occupation of the territories could lead to the end of Israel as we know it, maybe Israelis will actually listen. Who knows?
- Geert Wilders is having difficulty putting together a coalition government. Whether he will eventually succeed, or whether sanity will prevail, remains to be seen.
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