Canada
Mark Carney raised $4.5 million in two-month Liberal leadership race
All the visible signs point to a significant lead for the former governor of the Bank of Canada, with a large swath of the Liberal cabinet and caucus backing him as he leads in polls and fundraising. A reminder: With the exception of the candidate himself or herself, no person can donate more than about $1,700 to a campaign. And corporate, union, and NGO donations are also forbidden.
[Social media post] Five Days in May
Click through to read the message Mark Carney posted with this picture of him posing with members of Blue Rodeo. Is there a hint there for the date Carney will set the for the general election? Generally speaking, general elections are called on a Sunday with the vote on a Monday. Carney almost certainly will call the election before the House's prorogation ends on March 24 so let's say he calls it on March 23. A short five-week election would then conclude with an election day on April 21. But April 21 is Easter Monday so that won't work. That sets up a six-week campaign with e-day on April 28 or a seven-week campaign. Or he picks a seven-week campaign which would conclude after Five Days in May. -DA
[Social media post] Liberal Party leadership voting
Over 140,000 Liberals have already cast their ballots for the next Liberal Leader! If you're verified to vote, check your email now for your ballot and join them. The deadline to vote is [Sunday] at 3 pm ET..
I spent 15 years as Justin Trudeau’s official photographer. Here’s what I saw
As the official photographer for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Adam Scotti reflects on approaching the end of a journey that included visiting 45 countries, and capturing more than a million photos. Stephen Harper had his official photographers: The talented husband-and-wife team of Jason and Deb Ransom. The current leader of the official opposition has been using the services of a former Globe and Mail colleague of mine, John Lehmann as he travels about the country. If Lehmann is still doing that work, I expect he might be invited to take on the post Scotti and the Ransoms held should Pierre Poilievre become PM. In this visual age, the pictures these photographers take, as Scotti writes in this brief piece, really are the records of a prime minister's (or opposition leader's) time in office. Yes, they are servants of political masters and a political cause so their photography will serve that cause but Scotti, the Ransoms and Lehmann are also skilled artists with a camera and have access to scenes and settings no independent photographer does. Their work is worth watching. And, as a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery who has travelled extensively with prime ministers Harper and Trudeau, I've always found Jason, Deb, and Adam to be pleasant, affable and gracious professionals when working next to journalists.
Threats, harassment and online hate driving women out of politics, MPs warn
Liberal leadership hopeful Gould says that harassment has worsened, particularly on social media and through threats to her constituency office.
Durning 'green lit' for Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee Conservative nomination
Almost a year after she announced she was seeking the Conservative Party of Canada nomination for the Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding, it's been confirmed Vernon city councillor Teresa Durning will have her name on the ballot. This new-for-2025 riding should be an easy win for the CPC. Last general election in which a non-conservative party won this part of BC was 1988 (NDP). The riding containing the city of Vernon hasn't returned a Liberal to the House since 1972
The Secret Is Out
Graham Fraser reviews La Patente: L’Ordre de Jacques-Cartier, le dernier bastion du Canada français by Hugues Théorêt*. "La Patente ... was created so that an underground elite, with the support of the Catholic Church, could promote the interests of French Canada. Over the years, it would include an astonishing array of French Canadian politicians and activists: Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau; New Brunswick premier Louis Robichaud, along with five members of his cabinet; Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger; the Queen’s Printer Roger Duhamel; the Quebec ministers Pierre Laporte, Denis Lazure, Pierre Marois, and Jacques-Yvan Morin, as well as Premiers Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Jacques Parizeau, and Bernard Landry."
The Provinces
Doug Ford, the defiant Canadian politician taking on Trump
As the US-Canada tariff war continues, the Ontario premier faces the defining challenge of his career.
Elsewhere
China imposes retaliatory tariffs on Canadian farm and food products
China announced retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports, after Canada imposed duties on certain Chinese-made products in October.
Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 20 as U.S. cuts intelligence sharing with Kyiv
Russian air strikes have killed at least 20 people, officials say, following a U.S. decision to stop sharing satellite images with Ukraine.
Media
YouTube's 20th Anniversary: Sean Evans and More on Embracing Hollywood
Now, no major studio or network can afford not to post its trailers, clips, previews and promotional interviews on the platform. And those same studios and networks are starting to make significant money from YouTube, whether it’s in carriage fees for channels distributed via YouTube TV or by making select television shows and movies available for free viewing with advertisements.
Shattered by a perfect storm: How Trump’s cuts are crippling journalism beyond the United States
From Ukraine to El Salvador, newsrooms have been hit by cuts in USAID and other programmes. Fifteen editors on the impact and how to fight back.
Science and tech
'Cosmic Horseshoe' may contain black hole the size of 36 billion suns — one of the largest ever detected
The "Cosmic Horseshoe" is an Einstein ring, a system made up of a foreground galaxy whose mass is so great, it warps the light from a galaxy behind it. Now, astronomers know where it gets this mass from.
Issued this day ...
… in 1973: Sc 612 RCMP Centenary: Commissioner G.A. French and the Map. Design: Michael Dallaire and Jean Morin.
This stamp was one of a trio issued this day in 1973 to mark the centennial of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Here is the description of this stamp that Canada Post published in 1973, a time well before the idea of “Reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples became as commonplace as it is today: “On May 23, 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald made an historic announcement to the House of Commons: the formation of the North-West Mounted Police. It would be the task of this Force to police some 300,000 square miles of wilderness in the Canadian North-West, to suppress the whiskey trade, to calm the growing unrest among the Indians and, in general, to stamp out lawlessness in that vast territory. Fear of the Fenian raids from the south and the possibility of losing the West by default made it imperative that Canada quickly take official possession of the area. July 1874 saw three hundred raw recruits under G.A. French, the first commissioner, set out from Dufferin, Manitoba, across the plains to Old Man's River in what is now southern Alberta. There they constructed Fort Macleod, named for the Assistant Commissioner. The rigorous trek, which is portrayed on the 8¢ stamp, revealed in the men a stamina that augured will. Within a very few months the Indians came to sense the meaning of the scarlet tunic and the motto it represented: "Maintiens le Droit", "Uphold the Right". The North-West Mounted Police made an important contribution to the settlement of the West. The members of the Force soon found themselves in the roles of doctor, counsellor and friend to the influx of settlers that followed in their tracks. They were also called upon to prove themselves in dealing with Sitting Bull, who had fled to Canada after his battle with Custer, in the skirmishes of the North West Rebellion, and in the stampede of prospectors to the Yukon during the Gold Rush. In 1904 the Force became the Royal North-West Mounted Police and in 1920 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received its present name.”