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Apr 22 2023

Car talk. Ferry fine. DeSantis Done?

Apr 22, 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
Is Canada’s support of Volkswagen’s EV battery plant worth it?
Volkswagen, the world's biggest car company, said Friday it will build its first manufacturing facility in Canada near the southwestern Ontario town of St. Thomas. Volkswagen says it will spend $7 billion to build a plant that will make batteries for the electric vehicles of the future, and the federal government is promising to backstop that investment and give Volkswagen as much as $13 billion over 10 years. From last night's Global National, Mike Drolet reports from St Thomas and I'm in Ottawa explaining how you can blame Biden for the size of that subsidy. [Global Nation
Securing VW's first plant outside of Europe at the St. Thomas, Ont. site also leaves room for more potential investment from the automaker, one expert says.
leRToyota’s new president Koji Sato has promised what he called an aggressive shift on “electrification,” while acknowledging criticism that Japan’s top automaker has fallen behind. Sato stressed that Toyota's future EVs will have special “value,” including intelligence and entertainment features, although he declined to go into specifics. [AP]
The federal labour board has found low turnout and irregularities of ``significant concern'' with the strike vote that led more than 100,000 public servants to walk off the job.
From the provinces
MV Saaremaa 1 will be back on the run for Northumberland Ferries Ltd. [SaltWire]
The approval comes with 370 binding conditions, designed to minimize the project's environmental impact, but conservationists say it will have major impacts on biodiversity.
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Elsewhere
Trump touts authoritarian vision for second term: ‘I am your justice’
The former president is proposing deploying the military domestically, purging the federal workforce and building futuristic cities from scratch.  [WaPo]
The Republican Florida governor's polling is down, his donors are distressed and his prized endorsements are flowing toward Donald Trump. Can he turn it around? [CBC]

Kyiv asked Paris for a digital map of its neighbor's territory, which would allow fighter planes or drones to carry out low-altitude missions.[Le Monde]
The first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the populations of many of [America's]’s largest cities and metropolitan areas. During the peak pandemic year ... [U.S.] population growth dropped to a new low ... but it was the movement of residents within the U.S. -- from cities to suburbs and away from large metro area -- that made the biggest impact on urban population declines. This trend occurred in Canada -- and could have an impact on our national politics, i.e. downtown Toronto residents (who tend to vote Liberal) moving to a smaller city like Peterborough (where the Conservatives eked out a narrow win last time around). [Brookings]
Media

Magazine app Flipboard announced its plan to establish its first editorial desks to curate news for the wider federated community. [TechCrunch]

The CBC will leave its Twitter accounts “on pause before taking any next steps,” a day after the social media platform removed the “government-funded media” tag that caused the public broadcaster to stop tweeting earlier this week. [National Post]
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Tech
“Function explains itself”—Bugatti’s designer talks EVs with us
As Bugatti builds the last of its W16 engines, it's getting ready to go electric. The Bugati Bolt? :) [Ars Technica]
The OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock supports all the latest ports and connections, but its biggest selling point puts it above the competition. But it's US$350! [ZDNet]
Issued this day ...
Issued this day in 2009: Scott #2328. Beneficial Insect - Definitive: Monarch Caterpillar. Design: Keith Martin.

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