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Jun 19 2023

Byelections matter. Russia’s dead. Job massacre.

Jun 19, 2023
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
Canadians are voting in 4 federal byelections. Here’s what to watch for
Four new MPs are set to be elected to the House of Commons Monday in a handful of byelections that political watchers say could expose rifts within the Conservative party. [Global]
There's a lot at stake for the federal Conservatives and Liberals when voters in two Manitoba ridings choose new MPs on Monday. But not because any seats are expected to change hands. [CBC]
Taylor C. Noakes: Progressives need to begin the process of organizing a new political movement. [Canadian Dimension]
The byelection will be held on July 24 in the southwest Calgary riding. [Global]
Former Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole said he did not think Beijing interference cost him the 2021 election – he congratulated Trudeau – but said it was a close election. [Global]
A committee report urges the government to make administrative changes to the process for sending people to face prosecution and incarceration abroad.
From the provinces
Guilbault en haut de la liste pour succéder à Legault
40% des Québécois la voient, un jour, première ministre. Ce score est impressionnant. [JdeM]

Ted Hsu, who was the second candidate to formally enter the race, announced high-profile campaign co-chairs and more than $100,000 of fundraising in a 15-day period. [Global]
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Elsewhere
Inside a conservative confab for young women, where feminism is a lie
For the modern MAGA woman, happiness might mean being a “trad wife,” fearing trans women and buying anti-woke tampons. [WaPo]
Counting Russia's dead in Ukraine - and what it says about the changing face of the war
Russia has a history of extraordinary secrecy over its wartime losses. So when it invaded Ukraine, the BBC and its partners began painstakingly verifying and counting as many deaths as possible, identifying more than 25,000 named individuals, setting a bare minimum for Russia’s total losses. The count provides hard evidence of the war’s impact on Russian forces. But it has also given answers to grieving families and relatives who did not know what had happened to their loved ones until the BBC traced them. [BBC]

Finland’s election-winning National Coalition Party picked eight of its members as ministerial candidates including Petteri Orpo for prime minister’s position, which has been widely expected. [Bloomberg]
Media

True crime is the most common topic, making up 24% of top-ranked podcasts; 15% of the top podcasts focus on news. The next most common topics are politics and government (10%); entertainment, pop culture and the arts (9%); and self-help and relationships (8%). [Pew Research Center]

Media educators say teaching students to be storytellers will prepare graduates for careers that might have to withstand several shocks. [Global]
Tech

Bot detection models may return a high rate of accuracy, but that’s due to a critical limitation in the data used to train them, a new study finds.[MIT Sloan]
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Issued this day ...
Issued this day in 1970: Scott # 515: Louis Riel. Design: Reinhard Deneth. Based on a photograph by William James Topley. 
Even if you didn’t know this stamps date of issue, what decade would you have put this in? The 1970s? Exactly. 

Meanwhile: I’m interested in the photographer who snapped the pic of Riel that this stamp used. The photog is William James Topley (1845-1930) and he apparently made a decent career as a portrait picture taker in Ottawa. In fact, his first studio in the nation’s capital was opened in 1868 on Wellington Street right across from those brand spanking new Parliament Buildings. The DCB entry about Topley says he was getting 2,300 sittings a year at that location! Every prime minister from Macdonald to King sat in front of his camera.

All that said: It’s hard to find details about when, where, and how Topley got the portrait of Riel. Library and Archives Canada’s online collection has pics credited to Topley of Riel and his councillors taken in or near Winnipeg around 1870 -- but LAC's collection does not seem include the photo that ended up on this stamp.

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