Canada
Canada to cut immigration numbers for next 3 years
The federal government is making major changes to its immigration targets, by reducing the number of people granted permanent residency per year starting in 2025. Mackenzie Gray breaks down the numbers, what's behind the changes, and the reaction as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces questions about his future.
Trudeau says he’s staying on as Liberal leader after caucus revolt
Asked directly if he would stay on and lead the party into the next election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with just one word: 'Yes.'
N.S. finance minister Allan MacMaster to resign, seek federal nomination
Nova Scotia's deputy premier and finance minister Allan MacMaster announced Thursday he is resigning from cabinet and will seek the federal Conservative nomination for Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish. This is huge news. If a sitting finance minister in any province quit to run for Trudeau, that would be national news. And this should be too. One of the big tipping points for Stephen Harper in 2005 was getting a former Ontario finance minister, Jim Flaherty, to sign on. Flaherty's move gave the Harper Conservatives credibility and momentum. MacMaster's move should do the same. Justin Trudeau is losing cabinet ministers -- six since July -- and no "star candidates" are stepping up. Pierre Poilievre is gaining potential cabinet ministers including a provincial deputy premier. Mind you, MacMaster still has to win the nomination but I can't possibly see how he would quit as deputy premier without some nod from the federal party that he's good to go in the riding currently held by Liberal MP Mike Kelloway. Bad news for Kelloway: Even before this announcement, my model had him losing by 13 points to a generic CPC candidate.
5.4M adults don’t have primary care, CIHI report says
A new report says 17 per cent of Canadian adults (or about 5.4 million people) don't have a primary care provider. As Katherine Ward explains, federal funding was introduced this year to help increase access, but only time will tell how much those tax dollars will help people trying to find a doctor or nurse practitioner.
B.C. Liberal MP Weiler read a letter to Trudeau and caucus on behalf of dissenting MPs, calling for the prime minister’s resignation
Patrick Weiler (West Vancouver--Sunshine Coast--Sea-to-Sky Country, BC) -- pictured above -- led off the speaker's list of the anti-Trudeau group Some of the MPs who openly called for Trudeau’s resignation at the meeting are Weiler, Yvan Baker (Etobicoke Centre, Ont.), Wayne Long (Saint John—Rothesay, N.B.), George Chahal (Calgary Skyview, Alta.), Sameer Zuberi (PIerrefonds--Dollard, QC.), Ali Ehsassi (Willowdale, Ont.), Parm Bains (Steveston-Richmond East, B.C.), and Ken McDonald (Avalon, Nfld.).
Some of the MPs who spoke in favour of Trudeau remaining as party leader include Health Minister Mark Holland (Ajax, Ont.), and Liberal MPs Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre, Ont.), Taleeb Noormohamed (Vancouver Granville, B.C.), Chandra Arya (Nepean, Ont.), Sukh Dhaliwal (Surrey—Newton, B.C.), and Adam Van Koeverden (Milton, Ont.).
In my model, if an election were held today, the only MPs on either list, dissenters or loyalists, who would hold their seats are Zuberi, Holland and Dhaliwal.
Prise de bec linguistique aux Communes | « La question est en anglais » : Jean-Yves Duclos fulmine
Le ministre Jean-Yves Duclos est sorti de ses gonds lors de la période des questions en Chambre après qu’un élu conservateur lui a reproché à mots couverts d’avoir répondu à sa question en français. One tiny bit of context to add to Mélanie's report is that: Minister Duclos is perfectly bilingual. He did seem to be taking advantage of a very dumb comment by the English-speaking Conservative Larry Brock. And watching the entire affair in the House, it's pretty clear Québec Conservative MP Gerard Deltell, who sits nexst to Brock and is also perfectly bilingual, knew it was a dumb comment and helped Brock try to right the ship even while sniping back at Duclos et al. Quite an exchange.
The Provinces
Holt announces transition team with familiar faces from Gallant era
The Holt Liberal cabinet will be sworn in on Nov. 2 along with all MLAs elected Monday night. That's getting right to it...
Holt's first headache: Choosing a cabinet from a large Liberal caucus
Premier-designate must balance experience with regional, linguistic and gender factors — and a few egos
Feds reveal dramatic cut to immigration with impact on Atlantic stream
t’s a decision that was immediately criticized by premier designate Susan Holt on Thursday. And prominent New Brunswick economist Richard Saillant suggested the new federal immigration plan will “dramatically alter New Brunswick’s demographic, economic, and political landscape. “An agenda-changer for Holt,” Saillant said. Included in the moves is a scaling back of the Atlantic Immigration Program.
Key ridings to watch in the Saskatchewan election
Murray Mandryk: Any NDP win in rural Saskatchewan where it hasn't held more than four seats since 1995 would be historic.
Premier says pending N.S. election would create strong position to deal with Ottawa
Amid a flurry of Nova Scotia government announcements that included Wednesday’s news of a one per cent cut in HST and the government covering the full cost of tuition and books for 30 future licensed practical nurses (LPNs) who agree to work in continuing care in Nova Scotia for two years after graduating, Premier Tim Houston maintains that he has not yet decided to call an election. Popular wisdom suggests he will make the call Saturday.
Houston government announces one percentage point cut to HST to take effect in April 1
The provincial government will lower the harmonized sales tax by one percentage point in April, a move that Premier Tim Houston says will put more money in in the pockets of Nova Scotians.
Ontario close to announcing final details of watered-down Peel Region split
The minister in charge of the file said he was expecting to finalize the process soon after Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga were given a briefing.
Elsewhere
Georgia election official says battleground state fended off cyberattack likely from a foreign country
The state’s cyber defenses — aided by tech firm Cloudflare — repelled the hackers’ attempts to knock the absentee ballot website offline, and there was no disruption to voters’ ability to request ballots.
Austrian parliament elects first far-right speaker over left's objections
Austria's lower house of parliament on Thursday elected its first ever far-right speaker after his Freedom Party won last month's parliamentary election and many conservatives backed him over the objections of the left and the Jewish community.
G20 finance chiefs express economic optimism, urge resistance to protectionism
The communique contained no mentions of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, long a point of division for the group, nor the conflicts involving Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. A separate chair's statement issued by Brazil, which holds the G20 presidency this year, said however that members had differing views on whether the conflicts should be discussed within the group.
Moldova president alleges vote-buying tainted EU referendum results
Sandu claims that "criminal entities" had the goal of buying 300,000 votes and that "the state institutions documented 150,000 people being paid to vote," as the justice system failed to do enough to prevent vote theft and corruption.
Efforts by Russia, Iran and China to sway US voters may escalate, new Microsoft report says
A new threat intelligence report from Microsoft says foreign adversaries have showed continued determination to influence the U.S. election and there are signs their activity will intensify as Election Day nears.
Media
Majority of Canadians want to preserve CBC and continue funding it: survey
But respondents did have some concerns. When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with prepared statements covering common criticisms, about a third agreed CBC "shouldn't have ads," while 31 per cent agreed with the criticism of "biased reporting" and 27 critiqued it was "too woke."
Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement
Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza said. At one of the six newspapers I've worked at, the publisher was small-c chamber-of-commerce conservative but his editorial page editor was 60s hippie progressive and our readers tended to elect New Democrats or Liberals. So when it came time for an official endorsement in an election, the unsigned editorial of the "editorial board" encouraged readers to vote for the conservative on the ballot while a signed op-ed from the editorial page editor published at the same time would push readers to the progressive candidate. Seemed like a reasonable compromise to me. Not that I think anyone ever has read a newspaper editorial and decided, "Gee, I had it all wrong about X. I should vote for Y!"
Reader Notes
This newsletter is curated by David Akin, chief political correspondent at Global News. The headlines, excerpts, and photos are generated by the publishers of the clipping. The publisher is at the bottom left of the clipping. If I've got a comment, you''ll see that in italics. But if I've generated the headline and the excerpt, you'll see me taking attribution by finishing with -DA in bold. The stuff about the stamps at the bottom — that’s all me.
Science and tech
A world without passwords is in sight
Passkeys are a new kind of credential that you can use to sign into web accounts without the use of a password. This new authentication standard is making passwords irrelevant by introducing a new, simpler, but more secure workflow. There’s a logo and everything.
How to Find Your X/Twitter Followers on Bluesky
If you're looking to finally leave Elon Musk's X, Bluesky is one of your best alternatives—and there's a web extension that will easily help you find all of your X followers there. I tried it. It works. But if you follow a pile on X, as I do, it's still gonna take a while to go through your Follow list. But give it a try.
The Calendar
- Toronto - PM Trudeau visits a police station.
- 0930 ET: Quebec City - Public Services and Procurement Min Jean-Yves Duclos makes a funding announcement
- 0930 ET: Gatineau, QC - LPC MP Sophie Chatel makes an infrastructure funding announcement.
- 0930 ET: Montreal - Mental Health Min Ya'ara Saks and Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada make a funding announcement.
- 1000 ET: North York, ON - Public Safety Min Dominic LeBlanc speaks about the National Crime Prevention Fund.
- 1000 ET: Salisbury, NB - ACOA Min Gudie Hutchings makes a funding announcement
- 1015 ET: Washington, DC - Deputy PM and Fin Min Chrystia Freeland meets with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
- 1215 ET: Winnipeg - PrairiesCAN Min Dan Vandal makes a funding announcement
- 1400 ET: Surrey, BC - PACIFICCan Min Harjit Sajjan makes a funding announcement
- 1430 ET: Windsor, ON - Labour Min Steven MacKinnon meets with workers on the Gordie Howe International Bridge worksite.
- 1700 ET: Washington, DC - Deputy PM and Fin Min Chrystia Freeland attends the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting
Issued this day ...
… in 1984: Sc 1037a se-tenant pair. Canadian Locomotives (1860-1905). Design: Ernst Roch.
Part of a series of stamps Canada Post issued for train nuts, like me, to highlight train technology through the ages. This pair features, left (Sc 1036) the Scotia 0-6-0 type and (Sc1037) the Countess of Dufferin 4-4-0.
Do you know what those numbers after the locomotive's description mean? It denotes the number of little wheels, BIG WHEELS, and then, little wheels. So, looking at the Scotia, you see no little wheels at the front so — 0 — but then come those BIG WHEELS, there’s three on each side so — 6 — but that’s it, there’s no wheels after that it so — 0. Hence: 0-6-0.