Canada
What's Poilievre's next challenge after his byelection victory?
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will soon return to the House of Commons as an MP after decisively winning the Battle River-Crowfoot byelection in Alberta. Mackenzie Gray reports on Poilievre's victory, and what his next challenge will be. | Global National
Nepean-area city councillors meet with Carney at Barrhaven pub
Carney represents the federal riding of Nepean, covering an area that overlaps the Ottawa wards of Knoxdale-Merivale, Barrhaven West and Barrhaven East. The Prime Minister's Office did not set an agenda in advance of the roughly one-hour informal meeting, but councillors said they discussed topics ranging from combating vehicle theft to establishing a federal working space in Barrhaven. | CBC News
5 Canadian military members suspended over video showing Nazi salute
The commander of the army, Lt.-Gen. Michael Wright, called the video’s contents disturbing and said that hate and extremism “have no place in the Canadian Army. I am deeply disturbed and profoundly disappointed with the content of the video — the behaviour is completely unacceptable, and swift action will be taken,” Wright said in a statement provided to media. | Globalnews.ca
Elizabeth May says she won’t lead Green Party into next federal election
May said she wants to grow the party’s parliamentary caucus before stepping down, while focusing on the climate crisis, affordability and justice and peace in conflict-ridden areas.May also said a key responsibility of her leadership has always been fundraising and that she plans to “meet the challenge of closing the books on 2025 in a strong position.” | Globalnews.ca
Revisiting the Sectoral Cleavage in Canada: Evidence From the Canadian Election Studies
We find that the public sector holds more economically leftist attitudes than the public and that a sectoral cleavage has emerged, with public sector employees increasingly supporting the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP). We also find that social class moderates these two relationships, as professionals and managers in the public sector are significantly more likely to vote for the NDP and hold more leftist economic attitudes than their counterparts in both the private sector, and the routine non-manual and working class in the public sector. I’m glad there’s some data on this question but I must say it’s about the least surprising academic finding I can think of! That said, in the National Capital Region, home of tens of thousands of public sector employees, the Liberal Party of Canada enjoyed a clean sweep on both sides of the Ottawa River in that last general election — and that included taking the seat of the Leader of the Official Opposition. | Canadian Review of Sociology
The Provinces
Ontario signals changes to fund that helps municipalities get housing built
The fund rewards municipalities that achieve at least 80 per cent of a housing target the provincial government assigns and gives them money to put toward housing-enabling infrastructure – often coming by way of a novelty cheque from Flack or Premier Doug Ford. This past year, just 23 of the 50 municipalities with assigned targets hit their thresholds, down sharply from 32 the previous year. | Globalnews.ca
Manitoba PC byelection candidate apologizes for 2020 Twitter post professing hate for unions
Over the past weekend, a series of old posts Robbins deleted from Twitter were collected in a Reddit thread. In one of the posts, dating back to the Ontario teachers strike in 2020, Robbins said "this is actually why I hate unions." | CBC News
Indigenous Services Canada conducts forensic audit at Poundmaker Cree Nation in Sask.
The audit will examine spending on federally funded programs over the last seven years, with a focus on social assistance, education and Jordan's Principle, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. | CBC News
Montreal mayor wants Quebec government to appoint a homelessness minister
She made the request at a news conference on Tuesday during which she also proposed to spend nearly $22.5 million to tackle homelessness. Plante asked Premier François Legault "to make a strong gesture, up to the magnitude of the crisis raging throughout Quebec." | Globalnews.ca
Elsewhere
Ukraine hopeful Canada will ‘actively’ be part of future security guarantee
Ukraine would like to see Canada “actively participating” in future security guarantees as part of a long-term peace deal to end the Russian war, a top diplomat said Tuesday as allies began discussing what such a plan could look like. | Globalnews.ca
The GOP spent millions supporting mail ballots. Now Trump’s attacking them again.
Republicans poured tens of millions of dollars last year into convincing their voters that casting ballots by mail was safe after Trump spent years bashing the practice and baselessly insisting it was rife with fraud. And it worked, with GOP voters closing or even reversing the mail voting gap with Democrats in several states. | Politico
Trump said the US is the ‘only country’ that uses mail-in voting. That’s wrong.
Data compiled by a Sweden-based organization that advocates for democracy globally found in an October 2024 report found that 34 countries or territories allow mail-in voting, which it refers to as "postal voting." And Canada (and its provinces) of course, is one of those countries. | PolitiFact
Trump shows his '4 more years' hat after meeting with Zelenskyy
The photo shows Trump holding the red "4 more years" cap, while Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron look on, inside a room in the White House that contains Trump's hat collection and other memorabilia. Another hat in the collection says, "Trump 2028.” Under the U.S. Constitution, Trump is barred from running for a third term. | USA Today
For sale: A used U.S.-Canada border crossing
An online auction for the property starts on Wednesday, Aug. 20. The asking price is US$25,000. Bidding for the old Port of Entry (POE) will increase in $1,000 increments. | National Post
Media
Roadzen stock falls after AI-written Motley Fool article posts incorrect data
The stock of an insurance company took a huge dip after multiple media outlets shared an AI-generated article that reported inaccurate analyst estimates in regards to the company’s recent earnings. | Quartz
Science and Technology
Sweden moves entire church across Kiruna city
After years of careful planning, there's now a huge, precarious operation to move an entire 600-tonne church to a new location within the town of Kiruna, Sweden. The journey to relocate the 113-year-old church is unfolding along a five-kilometre route over the span of two days. Mike Armstrong explains the incredible challenge of moving the historic building and why the move is happening. | Global National
Google Gemini can now read your Docs aloud
This feature isn’t just for a document’s creator, as Google says readers can access a shared document’s AI-generated audio by selecting the Tool dropdown menu and selecting Audio > Listen to this tab. Authors can also add a customizable audio button directly in a document by choosing Insert > Audio, which readers can click to start listening. | The Verge
The Calendar
930 ET : Stockholm, Sweden - Industry Min Melanie Joly speaks to reporters.
1030 ET : Kingston, ON - Veterans Affairs Min Jill McKnight makes an infrastructure funding announcement.
1100 ET : Havre-Aubert, QC - BQ Leader Yves-François Blanchet and BQ MP Alexis Deschènes meet officials from the Musée de la Mer
1200 ET : Edmonton - PRAIRIESCan Min Eleanor Olszewski makes a funding announcement
1300 ET : Surrey, BC - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to reporters.
1330 ET : Montreal - PM Carney meets with Mayor Valérie Plante.
1500 ET : Montreal - PM Carney speaks to business leaders about artificial intelligence.
1645 ET : Montreal - PM Carney speaks to business leaders.
1830 ET : Montreal - PM Carney meets with Premier François Legault.
The Federal Liberals are arguably a leftist party. Depending upon the leader at the time just how far left they are. I doubt they will ever return to being a centrist party.