Monthly Archives: August 2021

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The federal Liberal candidate for Perth-Wellington says we are at a point where we need to decide how the post recovery from COVID-19 will present itself.

Brendan Knight says the election will allow voters to decide what direction they want Canada to go as we get close to the end of the pandemic.

He says, locally, voters will get to choose who they want to represent them in Ottawa.

Knight says the arts and culture sector is one area that needs to be well supported at a federal level.

Its going to be a long time before we get back to a pre-pandemic state and thats going to need some flexibility for the riding.

Also running in the September 20th election are Conservative candidate John Nater, NDP candidate Kevin Kruchkywich and Peoples Party of Canada candidate Wayne Baker.

We will be profiling all of the declared candidates this week.

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Liberal candidate Knight says election is about who people want to represent them in Ottawa - My Stratford Now

Afghanistan: Women protest against Taliban in Kabul

Britons and Afghan refugees are beginning to arrive in the United Kingdom after Taliban troops seized control of Kabul on Sunday. Passengers arrived at RAF Brize Norton in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Boris Johnson stressed Britain owed a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.

He added: Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid yesterday made his first public appearance in 20 years after insurgents defeated the Afghan government.

He outlined how Afghanistans future will abide by the nations national ethics and national tradition under strict Sharia Law.

He said: Islam is important in Afghanistan and anything against Islam will not be accepted!

READ MORETony Blair called out for 'deafening silence' on Afghanistan crisis

All will have rights under the umbrella of Islam.

Fears have emerged that women will be stripped of their freedoms under Taliban control.

During their brief stint of control in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, women were forced to wear the all-covering burka and were not allowed to work.

Girls could attend school, but had to leave when they turned 12.

Labour MP for Tooting, Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, yesterday tweeted: World leaders washing their hands of Afghanistan, is shameful.

There are women and girls who have led lives incompatible with Taliban beliefs for two decades - to turn our back on them now would be a catastrophe.

Television, music and cinemas were also banned.

The BBC yesterday reported public music in shopping centres had already been turned off following the insurgents takeover.

DON'T MISSHorror chart shows how reign of terror in Afghanistan never ended[INSIGHT]Biden said Afghanistan not like Vietnam: No one will be air-lifted'[QUOTES]Iran paid Taliban bounties to attack US airbase intelligence[INSIGHT]

However, astonishing photos have emerged of life in Afghanistan in the Sixties, with a seemingly more liberal and westernised society.

While the nation has been fractured by internal conflict and foreign intervention for centuries, it made tentative steps towards modernisation in the Fifties and Sixties.

There was a brief, relatively peaceful era when modern buildings were constructed in Kabul alongside older, traditional mud structures.

Burkas became optional for a time and women were allowed to attend university and go to work.

One photograph from 1962 shows female Afghan medical students and their female professor examining a plaster showing a part of a human body.

While two more, both from the same era, show young girls being taught at school.

Arguably the most astonishing of all, taken in 1967, is a photo of four young Afghan women outside the Kabul Airport dressed in western fashion.

Their outfits present a vivid change from the tradition of years gone by.

While Afghanistan appeared to be on a path towards an open, prosperous society, progress was halted in the Seventies as a series of bloody coups, invasions and civil wars became, reversing almost all the positive steps taken forwards.

In 1973, King Mohammed Zahir Shah was deposed and the Republic of Afghanistan established.

The coup was executed by then-Army commander and prince, Mohammed Daoud Khan, assisted by leftist Army officers and civil servants.

The King decided not to retaliate and remained in exile in Italy.

Then, in 1978, Afghan communists known as the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew President Khan in the Sowr Revolution, killing him and most of his family at the presidential palace.

The revolution resulted in the creation of a Soviet-aligned government with Nur Muhammad Taraki as President.

The revolution, which was ordered by PDPA member Hafizullah Amin, who would become a significant figure in the revolutionary government, marked the onset of 43 years of conflict in the country.

In the Eighties, the US and the Soviet Union waged a war of proxy in Afghanistan, with the USSR finally withdrawing troops in 1989.

This is when Taliban influence dramatically increased and their strict laws on women began to be enforced.

By 1996, they had control of Kabul and ruled with an iron fist for five years, before the US-led intervention from the West in 2001.

The current situation looks set to erase any progress for womens rights made in the last 20 years.

Boris Johnson will lead a debate in Parliament today on the ongoing crisis.

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Astonishing photos show more liberal and westernised Afghanistan in Sixties and Seventies - Daily Express

I thought I should reflect a bit before deciding on who would get my vote.

Compassion and the desire to do the right thing for the people is an important quality in a political leader, as is courage, respect for all people, and humility. I think our members should be well educated, and have skills in listening and planning. Probably one of the most important things in a leader is respect for the democratic process.

Here in Nova Scotia, we need leaders who will protect nature and reverse current destructive practices.

For most of the last seven years of Liberal government, former premier Stephen McNeil ruled like a 17th century monarch. After COVID-19 struck, he appeared almost daily on TV with Dr. Robert Strang, and showed a more compassionate side. A cynic would say he used the power of television to remake his image.

On TV we saw a leader talking about hugging our loved ones, a sharp contrast to the premier who bullied doctors, denigrated teachers, disrespected nurses, tried to flatten prosecutors, and dismissed the media.

McNeil used legislation to abort the collective bargaining process. His centralization policy resulted in the disappearance of local autonomy in education and health care, and ensured centralized control with handpicked yes-people who suffered from central-office syndrome." It also ensured a lack of common sense from locals who had a better grasp of local needs.

McNeils priority was to balance the budget, a laudable goal. However, he ignored people who tried to tell him what the needs were in health and education, the two highest expenditures in a provincial government. In doing so, he made a major mess of health care, as the doctor debacle clearly illustrated, and he moved the progression of education backwards.

His controlling approach to health resulted in the creation of a duplicate health administration, the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), the board of which had more accountants than doctors. When doctors were later added, their voting capacity was limited. The new health authority dismissed common practices in the hiring of doctors, and made recruitment a joke.

In education, he removed school principals from the teachers' union, which was like removing the heart from a school. The same move in Ontario spawned lost cohesion and morale in staff. He also demolished local school boards, saying the department of education would provide the administrative leadership. Well the department didnt, leaving a huge hole in the chain of command.

At a time when research skills are paramount, he removed the librarian technicians from middle schools, a very regressive move in my opinion. To top it off, he did not cap class sizes, leaving teachers of overly-large classes, and their students, severely disadvantaged.

Democracy took a dive under McNeil. Liberal MLAs did as bidden by their leader, and the cries of constituents were ignored. Transparency did not exist as the media was shut out. As one Halifax journalist said, they want your written questions in advance and promise to respond, but that doesnt mean you get an answer."

So, why the review of the Liberal governments record? The concern I have is that many of the Liberal MLAs began their political run under McNeils tutelage. Its like being a self-taught skier where youve put a lot of bad techniques into your muscle memory. If reelected, will they all of a sudden embrace transparency, respect for constituents, and communication with the media? In short, if reelected, can and will Premier Iain Rankin retrain himself and others to walk the democratic path?

Jane MacNeill

Ben Eoin

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LETTER: Don't dwell on the past N.S. Liberal government but don't forget it about it either | Saltwire - SaltWire Network

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Kevin Carmichael: Second snap election amid a crisis in 18 years pits Conservatives against Liberals in recession response

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Justin Trudeau was hardly the first prime minister to force an election in the midst of a crisis. Stephen Harper, who also was leading a minority government, did the same thing in the autumn of 2008 as the Great Recession was gathering momentum. Harper asked Governor General Michalle Jean to dissolve Parliament on Sept. 7. Legendary Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. dissolved eight days later.

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You know what came next: an economic calamity that wed still be talking about if not for the pandemic. Harper led a greater number of Conservatives to victory in 2008, but not enough to win a majority. He would govern as if he had one, though, and a disenchanted opposition was in no position to get in his way. Harper ran up a big deficit to finance short-term stimulus that helped bring about a recovery and he was rewarded with a majority in 2011.

The Sept. 20 election will be a confidence vote on Trudeaus handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Comparisons with the Great Recession are imperfect. The global financial system froze in 2008 and some of the worlds biggest banks collapsed. This time, the banking system was a firewall when governments shut much of the global economy in 2020 because financial institutions had been ordered a decade ago to keep enough cash on hand to absorb extreme shocks.

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Another difference is the death toll. The COVID-19 recession was caused by the rapid spread of a virus that has so far killed some 4.4 million people. The Great Recession left death in its wake, but not at the scale of the coronavirus, and not in real time.

Harper and Trudeau approached their respective recessions in much the same way, albeit with different degrees of enthusiasm. Harpers budget deficits peaked at about $56.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March 2010, while Trudeau ran up a $314-billion shortfall in the 2020-21 fiscal year.

The Conservative approach meant sacrificing a vigorous recovery to preserve fiscal stability. As the accompanying chart shows, it took three years to get total hours worked back to where they were on the eve of the Great Recession. The COVID-19 crisis wiped out those and subsequent gains in a matter of weeks.

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But the economy should be back to where it was before the pandemic by the end of the year, if not sooner, assuming vaccinations blunt the fourth wave of coronavirus infections. Trudeau will have reversed his recession faster, but at the cost of more debt that could impede the economy in the future. Harper accepted a slower recovery in order to ease the strain on public finances, a decision that made balancing the budget in 2015 possible, but at the expense of shifting the burden of the recovery onto businesses and households.

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Most (but not all) economists tend to prefer Trudeaus approach to crisis fighting. A rapid recovery could avoid the sort of long-time economic and societal scars that were caused by the weak recovery from the Great Recession. Now, voters are about to have their say. Their decision will influence how the Canadian political class confronts the next recession.

Financial Post

Email: kcarmichael@postmedia.com | Twitter: CarmichaelKevin

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Harper vs. Trudeau: This election will be a confidence vote on Liberal-style crisis fighting - Financial Post

Seven per cent would vote for the Bloc Qubcois, which is fielding candidates only in Quebec, while five per cent supported the Greens and two per cent the Peoples Party of Canada.

The online survey of 2,007 Canadians, conducted Aug. 13 to 15 by Leger in collaboration with The Canadian Press, cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered truly random samples.

Trudeau quickly framed the election that began Sunday as a referendum on the party most able to guide the country through the months and years after COVID-19 subsides.

The 36-day campaign, the shortest allowed under the election law, concludes Sept. 20.

Also this

Nova Scotians are heading to the polls today following a midsummer election campaign that was waged as the province started to emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incumbent Liberals, led by 38-year-old Iain Rankin, tried to capitalize on post-pandemic optimism while preaching fiscal conservatism.

His party, which he took over after replacing Stephen McNeil as leader in February, has been in power since 2013.

The Progressive Conservatives, led by chartered accountant Tim Houston, tried to set themselves apart by unveiling a big-spending platform focused on improving the health-care system.

The New Democrats, led by United Church minister Gary Burrill, campaigned on a traditionally progressive platform that called for a $15 minimum wage, 10 paid sick days for all workers and rent control.

A total of 28 seats are needed to secure a majority in the provinces newly expanded 55-seat legislature.

What we are watching in the U.S.

WASHINGTON _ A defiant President Joe Biden rejected blame Monday for chaotic scenes of Afghans clinging to U.S. military planes in Kabul in a desperate bid to flee their home country after the Talibans easy victory over an Afghan military that America and NATO allies had spent two decades trying to build.

At the White House, Biden called the anguish of trapped Afghan civilians gut-wrenching and conceded the Taliban had achieved a much faster takeover of the country than his administration had expected. The U.S. rushed in troops to protect its own evacuating diplomats and others at the Kabul airport.

But the president expressed no second thoughts about his decision to stick by the U.S. commitment, formulated during the Trump administration, to end Americas longest war, no matter what.

I stand squarely behind my decision to finally withdraw U.S. combat forces, Biden said, while acknowledging the Afghan collapse played out far more quickly than the most pessimistic public forecasts of his administration. This did unfold more quickly than we anticipated, he said.

Despite declaring the buck stops with me, Biden placed almost all blame on Afghans for the shockingly rapid Taliban conquest.

His grim comments were his first in person to the world since the biggest foreign policy crisis of his still-young presidency.

Emboldened by the U.S. withdrawal, Taliban fighters swept across the country last week and captured the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, sending U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country.

Biden said he had warned Ghani _ who was appointed Afghanistans president in a U.S.-negotiated agreement _ to be prepared to fight a civil war with the Taliban after U.S. forces left. They failed to do any of that, he said.

What we are watching in the rest of the world

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ The Taliban announced Tuesday an amnesty across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, trying to calm nerves across a nervous capital city that only the day before saw chaos at its airport as people tried to flee their rule.

The comments by Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Talibans cultural commission, represent the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country after their blitz across the country.

While there were no major reports of abuses or fighting in Kabul, many residents have stayed home and remain fearful after the insurgents takeover saw prisons emptied and armories looted. Older generations remember their ultraconservative Islamic views, which included stonings, amputations and public executions during their rule before the U.S-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The Islamic Emirate doesnt want women to be victims Samangani said, using the militants term for Afghanistan. They should be in government structure according to Shariah law.

He added: The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.

Samangani remained vague on other details, however, implying people already knew the rules of Islamic law the Taliban expected them to follow.

Under the Taliban, which ruled in accordance with a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, women were largely confined to their homes. The insurgents have sought to project greater moderation in recent years, but many Afghans remain skeptical.

On this day in 1896

The discovery that led to the Klondike gold rush was made. George Washington Carmack and two Indian companions, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie, found gold at Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Yukons Klondike River. After news of the strike reached the outside world, thousands of miners poured into the territory. Its estimated more than $100 million in gold was recovered in the region during the next eight years.

In entertainment

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Selma Blair says shes in remission from multiple sclerosis as a result of undergoing a stem cell transplant.

The 49-year-old actor, best known for such movies as Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde and Hellboy, was diagnosed with the disease in 2018.

My prognosis is great. Im in remission, Blair told a Television Critics Association panel on Monday.

She underwent hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation which uses stem cells derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood.

It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down, so I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed, she said. I dont have any new lesions forming.

According to the Mayo Clinic, multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the protective myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers. It can cause vision loss, pain, fatigue and impaired coordination. Its cause is unknown.

Theres still maintenance, treatment and glitches, and wonderful things, said Blair, who at times spoke in a halting voice on Zoom.

Cognitively, Im very changed and thats been the harder part, she added.

The actor reveals her fight with MS in Introducing, Selma Blair, an intimate documentary directed by Rachel Fleit. It debuts Oct. 15 in theatres and begins streaming Oct. 21 on Discovery+.

ICYMI

SAULNIERVILLE, N.S. _ The chief of Sipeknekatik First Nation was taken in for questioning by federal Fisheries Department officers on Monday, moments after he announced the expansion of his bands self-regulated lobster fishery in St. Marys Bay.

Chief Mike Sack says he was pulled over and arrested by fisheries officers shortly after he held a news conference at the Saulnierville Wharf, in southwestern Nova Scotia. He says he was held at the detachment in Meteghan, N.S., for about 45 minutes and questioned about the fishery before he was released.

Its kind of a pity, he said in a phone interview after he left the detachment, adding that the band had been in conversations with federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan last week about Sipeknekatiks fisheries. Its not very neighbourly.

Debbie Buott-Matheson, a spokesperson for the Fisheries Department, said in an email Monday, fishery officers arrested an individual at the Saulnierville Wharf for alleged violations of the Fisheries Act. As this matter is now under investigation, no further comment will be provided.

Anyone found to be fishing without proper authorization may be subject to enforcement action, she added. Improperly or untagged lobster traps will be hauled and seized.

Before being taken in for questioning, Sack had launched his First Nations lobster fishery _ months ahead of the start to the federally regulated season, adding that he expected Fisheries Department officers to pull some of his bands traps out of the water because they arent licensed by Ottawa.

Sack said his band, located 65 kilometres north of Halifax, issued 13 fishers with so-called treaty fishery licences for boats operating in the provinces southwest. He said he expected up to 20 fishers to participate with 50 traps each.

Federal regulation dictates that the area in question, LFA 34, has a season that runs from the last Monday in November until the end of May. Sack said the plan is for the bands fishers to stop harvesting on Dec. 15. The community says it will operate under the guidelines of its own fisheries-management plan, which Sack has said is based on sound conservation principles.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2021.

The Canadian Press

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Poll shows slight Liberal lead, N.S. election day : In The News for Aug. 17, 2021 - CHAT News Today

The Liberals in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo will be represented by lawyer Jesse McCormick, who will carry the party's flag after the partys original acclaimed candidate withdrew four days after his candidacy announcement.

While neither the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding association nor the federal wing of the party has announced the new candidate in a press release, McCormick (and the party) tweeted the news on Twitter.

McCormick announced the news on his Twitter account on Saturday, Aug. 14: I am honoured to stand with #Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo as your @liberal_party candidate for #elxn44. Lets work together to build a strong economy, fight climate change and advance reconciliation. We need to keep Canada moving #ForwardForEveryone.

McCormick's arrival as candidate comes after acclaimed candidate George Petel bowed out on Aug. 11, four days after he was acclaimed. Petel said he wanted to focus on work and family.

Calls to the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Liberal riding association have been referred to the national party, which told KTW prior to McCormicks tweet that the nomination process was continuing. KTW is awaiting a response from both the local riding association and the national wing of the party.

In the 2019 federal election, McCormick was brought into the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding in Ontario at the last minute after a local Liberal candidate could not be found. He finished second in the race, 14,000 votes behind Conservative Lianne Rood.

According to the Sarnia Observers coverage of the 2019 federal election, McCormick is the Haudenosaunee-Ishinabe son of an off-reserve couple with ties to the Chippewas of the Thames and Oneida First Nations, and at the time was a resident of Mt. Brydges, west of London, Ont.

According to his LinkedIn profile, McCormick was director of rights implementation at the office of the minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from December 2019 to June of this year.

Prior to that, he spent almost four years with the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change. In his role as the department's drector of Indigenous relations and regulatory affairs, McCormick visited Kamloops in 2016 to meet with KGHM Ajax, the City of Kamloops, the Kamloops Area Preservation Association (KAPA) and the Stkemlupsemc Te Secwepemc Nation as part of the Ajax mine proposal, which was later rejected by the provincial and federal governments.

McCormick also spent three years at the Donovan and Company law firm in Vancouver.

Read more here:

Liberals find candidate to run in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo - Kamloops This Week

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Canada needs to learn to look out for its own interests no matter who is in the White House

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The unmitigated disaster, and tragedy, that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has turned into will likely soon fade out of the news cycle. But the consequences of the disaster are likely to be long reaching, and spell trouble for Canada. An increasingly unreliable and inward looking America is a dangerous reality we need to quickly adjust to.

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Pierre Trudeau once said that living next to the United States is like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. Its an apt quote. Trudeaus use of an elephant in this case is, unintentionally, extremely symbolic of a pervasive facet of the Canadian psyche and how we view America. The mascot of the Republican party, the party of red state America, is an elephant (the Democratic mascot is a donkey). Mainstream Canadian opinion, both among ordinary Canadians and Canadian elites, is marked by a strong anti-American streak. But calling it anti-Americanism doesnt quite do it justice. It would be better to describe this sentiment as being more about being anti-red state America.

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When you drill down into what parts of America we tend to focus our smug sense of superiority on it is overwhelmingly the bits that are associated with red state America. Guns, evangelicals, MAGA hats, lack of public healthcare, social conservatism. The things we look down on America for and build our were not American identity around are things that contrast us with red state America. Were not anti-California. Were anti-Alabama. Whenever a Republican is in charge, Canada must be wary. When Democrats are running the show, we can relax.

This is a mindset we must shake off. The last eight months, and last week especially, demonstrate why. Bidens presidency was seen in many capitals, including Ottawa, as a sort of return to normal. The America first attitude of the Trump administration, bluster about NATO, trade deals, and reneging on Americas global commitments would fade and some semblance of normalcy would return.

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But what we need to realize is that normalcy has returned, and it isnt the old consensus. The speed at which Afghanistan fell to the Taliban is stunning. But what is even more stunning is that the Americans seem to have genuinely had no idea this was coming. In July Biden was insisting a collapse like this couldnt happen, and evenlast weekintelligence still suggested Kabuls fall was 90 days away. None of the explanations for how this happened are comforting. Either their intelligence just had no idea what was going on. Or maybe intelligence and military officials knew and werent saying anything. Or maybe Biden and other officials knew and just didnt care.

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Its probably a combination. But what that signals is disturbing. America is increasingly ambivalent about its global commitments, and a nation increasingly divided into two warring political tribes. Biden appears ready to continue the America first approach of Trump, and while there remain differences between Republicans and Democrats on foreign policy, a new America first consensus is emerging. It might be safe to describe this new America as a rogue superpower.

The way the Biden administration has treated Canada since January is a perfect illustration of what this looks like. One of Bidens first decisions was to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. But Biden had no problems waiving sanctions on the company building the Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2. Just last week Biden asked OPEC to increase oil supply. Biden has strengthened a Buy American pledge that may freeze out Canadian companies fromthe U.S. government procurement market. The Americans were unwilling to reciprocate on the borderreopeningsearlier this month, when we decided it was time to open the border to fully vaccinated Americans for non-essential travel.

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The point is not that Biden is uniquely bad and a Republican would be good. Its that this kind of mindset needs to die if we are to protect our interests dealing with a rogue and unreliable America. We still have a safe relationship, our survival isnt threatened. But after the last week there are plenty of countries wondering whether they can rely on the Americans when push comes to shove. In Taiwan these questions take on an existential urgency.

Geography means that Canada is tied to America, for better or for worse. It doesnt matter whether the president has an R or a D after their name, a realism is needed here to recognize that as American hegemony fades we need to be ready to be able to defend and protect our own interests without always being dependent on the Americans. Sharing a bed with an elephant is dangerous, but we shouldnt be complacent about sharing a bed with an unstable donkey either.

Ben Woodfinden is a doctoral candidate and political theorist at McGill University.

National Post

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Ben Woodfinden: Smug liberal Canadians should realize Joe Biden is no friend of the world - National Post

A re-elected Liberal government is promising to extend federal pandemic aid to help companies rehiring workers through until the end of next March.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau visited a machine manufacturing firm on Montreals south shore this morning to make his first policy announcement of the campaign.

It was the second day in a row Trudeau held an event at a business that has benefited from some of the federal pandemic financial supports provided by the Liberals since March 2020.

Trudeau said the Liberals would extend the Canada Recovery Hiring Program that covers up to half the wages of rehired workers.

For hard-hit businesses who get the workers they need, to workers who get the jobs they need to support their families, this is a win-win, he said.

From Day One, we focused on having your back, because thats what weve always stood for.

Trudeau is also promising targeted support for the tourism and arts industries hit hardest by the pandemic.

Tourism companies would get additional wage and rent supports to help them get through the winter, while Trudeau says a Liberal government would match ticket sales for performances to compensate for pandemic restrictions on venue capacity.

Canadians have worked too hard to see change since the Harper government era to settle for what the Conservatives are offering, Trudeau said.

The Tories would cut the programs that families, workers and businesses rely on, he said.

These are the same people who wont commit that all of their candidates will be fully vaccinated. That approach wont protect Canadians or create jobs.

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Trudeau promises tourism and arts would get more aid from Liberals | News - Daily Hive

It's Day 30 of Nova Scotia's 31-day provincial election.

In the final days of the election, NDP Leader Gary Burrill is sticking with the issue his party believes is resonating the most with voters: affordable housing and rent control.

Burrill made an appearance on the Dartmouth waterfront on Sunday with Dartmouth South candidate Claudia Chender and Dartmouth resident Mike Sangster.

Sangster has lived in the same Dartmouth apartment building for 25 years. But he's preparing to move out after receiving notice in the spring that his rent will increase by $850 a month to $1,850 on Sept. 1 if rent control is no longer in place, or in the month following whenever it is lifted.

Sangster's landlord also plans to increase the monthly parking fee to $150.

When Stephen McNeil's Liberal government introduced rent control last fall in the face of a housing crisis, its shelf life was tied to the removalof the COVID-19 provincial state of emergency or Feb. 1, 2022, whichever came first.

Chender and Burrill said Sangster's story and those like it have become increasingly common and the necessaryresponse is permanent rent control, something the NDP has promised if it forms government.

"One of the most common things I find people say is, 'They're not allowed to do this, are they?'" said Burrill.

"And we have to say that for most people in Canada in most parts of the country they're not allowed to do it, but they are allowed to do it in Nova Scotia because we don't have permanent rent control."

While the Liberals and Tories both oppose permanent rent control and focus insteadon the need to increase affordable housing supplysomething the NDP is also promisingthere are differences between their two positions.

As he did in the spring, Liberal Leader Iain Rankin, who replaced McNeil as leader in February, said on Sunday that he would not tie the existence of rent control to the state of emergency. He said letters such as the one Sangster and other tenants have received would not be considered accurate if his party is re-elected to form government.

"Rent control will stay in place until we have a better supply mix in the market," said Rankin, adding it could be for a period of years.

"I think that it was an effective tool to use and we will use it to protect Nova Scotians."

Tory Leader Tim Houston said he's sympathetic to Sangster's story and, if his party forms government, it would study whether rent control needs to be extended in the short term even after the state of emergency is lifted.

But Houston said he continues to believe the best answer is to increase the housing supply as quickly as possible.

"We need to fix the housing crisis. I don't feel that rent control fixes it, so I'd rather move right to actual solutions."

Rankin campaigned through the Annapolis Valley on Sunday, including a stop at the family farm of Kings West candidate Emily Lutz.

Rankintalked about improved health care for women.

Herevisited the party's promise to spend $1.75 million a year to increase the number of midwives in the province from 16 to 24. The increase was determined based on a needs assessment that showed service gaps in the Annapolis Valley and Cape Breton, said Rankin.

The issue, which Kings South Liberal candidate Keith Irving pushed for the party to champion, is a close one for Rankin because he and his wife, Mary, plan to use a midwife later this year for the birth of theirchild.

Rankin said they made the choice after hearing positive feedback from people they know who have used midwives, including his sister.

"Just the fact that they are so caring and they go through the whole process from beginning to end and everyone I've talked to had a positive experience [with] it," he told reporters while standing in an apple orchard.

The aim of the promise is to ensure equitable access to the service around the province, said Rankin.

Houston spent his Sunday campaigning in Cape Breton where he continued to talk about health care.

Health care has been the central focus for the Tories from the beginning of the campaign, with a pledge to increase spending by $423 million in the first year alone of a mandate as the Tories work to expand primary care access, build more long-term care beds and attract thousands more health-care professionals.

Change won't happen overnight, but Houston said he thinks it won't take long for the public to begin noticing a difference.

"I think, you know, in the first few months as we travel the province and work with health-care professionals, I think there's a lot of things that can be changed relatively quickly," he said.

People understand it will take time to increase access to primary care and build long-term care beds, but Houstonsaid the party's plan gives people the sense that "there's light at the end of the tunnel."

"We're committed and we're going to be completely focused on it," he said.

"I think certainly in one mandate I would expect that we would see significant, positive improvement. I feel very strongly about that and that's the measuring stick that I'll be holding myself to."

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NDP rolls on with rent control, Liberals and Tories talk health care - CBC.ca

Professor Holden and Dr Hamilton, Blueprints chief economist, and others decided to leave after being presented with plans to poll Coalition-held electorates to test attitudes towards climate change, according to two sources familiar with events inside the organisation.

The research team and advisers were unhappy with the design of the project, the sources said, which was the culmination of differences over a question that faces many think tanks: should they concentrate on policy or politics?

The research department wanted to concentrate on in-depth policy. Professor Holden, who was a Blueprint adviser, is close to Warwick McKibbin, an Australian National University economist and one of the countrys intellectual leaders on climate policy.

Three former Liberal ministerial advisers, Harry Guinness, Lachlan Crombie and Ian Hancock, designed Blueprint as the only right-wing think tank in Australia to advocate for a more interventionist climate policy. Blueprint became a registered charity, which meant donations to it are tax deductable.

Even the left-wing Australia Institute offered to collaborate. Helping get research and evidence into policy-making and politics is key and Blueprint plays a role, executive director Ben Oquist said on Tuesday.

Mr Crombie and Mr Hancock both work at Sydney lobbying firm PremierState, which represents renewable energy companies and lobby groups, including the Australian Solar Energy Society, the Climate Council of Australia, Genex Power and the Smart Energy Council.

The connection has led to allegations in the NSW Parliament of conflicts of interest. One Nation MP Mark Latham asserted in February that Blueprint was hired by the state government to provide energy production forecasts as a political favour to the Liberal Partys left faction.

Mr Hancock, who is PremierStates managing director and Blueprints chairman, has emphatically denied any connection between the think tanks advocacy and his lobbying.

A source close to the organisation said Professor Holden and Mr Hamiltons departures were more related to personality differences than disagreements over strategy.

The resignations happened a month ago, but became public on Monday when Dr Hamilton referred to them on social media.

These resignations followed several weeks of dissatisfaction with a Blueprint research proposal, to which I along with the Director of Research and Operations had objected internally, he said in a tweet.

After sending his tweet, Dr Hamilton received a legal threat from a lawyer hired by Blueprint, Rebekah Giles (who represented Industry Minister Christian Porter when he sued the ABC for defamation).

Mr Hamilton, who has deleted the tweet, said he was unable to comment when contacted on Tuesday.

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Pro-Liberal think tank another victim of the climate wars - The Australian Financial Review