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Mar 17 2024

Bloc shot. Portapique questions. Improving democracy: The Roundup

Mar 17, 2024
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Canada
Conseil général du Bloc québécois | Yves-François Blanchet décoche des flèches vers François Legault
 Le chef du Bloc québécois Yves-François Blanchet a profité du conseil général de son parti à Québec pour décocher plusieurs flèches à l’endroit du premier ministre du Québec François Legault – sans le nommer – alors que ce dernier vient de subir un nouveau revers de la part d’Ottawa en matière d’immigration et que le gouvernement a annoncé un déficit de 11 milliards dans son dernier budget. [La Presse]
Hundreds of migrants and their supporters marched through the streets of Montreal demanding regularization for all and for an end to the scapegoating of migrants. [Global]
BQ picks Duclos' opponent in Québec Centre
The current riding of Québec gets a slight adjustment for the next federal election, a few blocks in the neighbourhood of Bergerville, in the riding's southern tip, have been added. Now, the Bloc Québecois have a candidate - Simon Berubé - to go up against Liberal incumbent Jean-Yves Duclos. After transposing 2021 results on to the new riding, Duclos, first elected in 2015, won in 2021 by 6 points or 3,500 votes over the BQ's Louis Sansfaçon. BQ have not won this riding since 2008 but in my model right now: This is pure toss-up between the two but I have to pick one so: LPC HOLD -- by 30 votes! - DA

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stormed into New Brunswick Friday, building more momentum for his campaign to cancel the carbon tax while also lending a much-needed hand to Premier Blaine Higgs. [CBC]
The Conservative leader did not directly answer a Brunswick News question whether he thought Energy East could be revived and if so, what he’d do as prime minister to get it done. His handlers did not allow reporters to ask follow-up questions and they only got five questions in. Several journalists didn’t get to ask anything. [Telegraph-Journal]
From the Provinces
"What we really are doing is creating a health home environment where people can have their needs met by a variety of different health-care practitioners. And in many ways, it immunizes us against being afraid that we would lose a doctor or lose a nurse practitioner because our health home will be where we go to get care." [Global]
Paul W. Benntt reviews Mass Murder, Police Mayhem: The Mass Casualty Commission; The Facts, the Findings, and What Must Be Done: "Beeby ... tries to sort out the complex events while wading through the commission’s voluminous research and mostly indigestible findings. The result is a well-written précis of the full report, with little embroidery." [Literary Review of Canada]

PSPP estime que les médias n’ont pas respecté sa vie privée en publiant des images de lui émotif alors qu’il parlait des menaces de mort à son endroit. [JdeQ]
Elsewhere
What People Think Would Improve Democracy in 24 Countries
Amid growing discontent with the state of democracy globally, we asked over 30,000 people -- including people in Canada -- what changes would make their democracy work better. [Pew Research Center]

A strong majority of Canadians want to see U.S. President Joe Biden re-elected in November, but many expect a Donald Trump return is more likely, according to a Nanos Research survey. [Globe and Mail]
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Media
William Deresiewicz: The main thing that I learned in journalism school was that I didn’t belong in journalism school. The other thing I learned was that journalists were deeply anti-intellectual. They were suspicious of ideas; they regarded theories as pretentious; they recoiled at big words (or had never heard of them). For a long time, I had contempt for the profession on that score. In recent years, though, this has yielded to a measure of respect. For notice that I didn’t say that journalists are anti-intellectual. I said they were. Now they’re something else: pseudo-intellectual. And that is much worse. [Persuasion]

Some experts say one of the best ways to fight a rising tide of medical misinformation on social media is to drown it out with captivating content backed by science. [Global]
Science and Tech
Radioactive waste, baby bottles and Spam: the deep ocean has become a dumping ground
The ocean’s depths are not some remote alien realm, but are in fact intimately entangled with every other part of the planet. We should treat them that way. Good Sunday long read ... [The Guardian]
The Calendar
  • 1230 ET: Halifax - Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to supporters.
Issued this day ...
… in 1973: Scott # 601. Landscape Definitives: Quebec. Design: Reinhard Derreth.

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