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Aug 22 2023

Election fine. Strong mayors. TVO strike.

Aug 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

It's expected the housing crisis will be the central topic for ministers as they sit down to discuss their government's priorities. [Global]
Ayesha Chughtai cast a ballot in a riding where she had been told she was not eligible to vote, according to a notice posted on the Commissioner of Canada Elections’ website. [Tor Star]
Here's the list of all 19 -- including Chugtai (above) -- who received "Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs)" from Canada's Commissioner of Elections for various infractions of Canada's elections laws. [Commissioner of Canada Elections]
Hopes for a booming economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic have not materialized for China, leading some forecasters to slash growth expectations for the manufacturing hub. [Global]
From the provinces
BC wildfires: Kelowna residents facing grim reality of fire disaster
While emergency crews in B.C. are making progress fighting the wildfire threatening Kelowna, officials are beginning to assess the damage in West Kelowna.  Officials estimate at least 58 structures have been lost in the two regions due to the blaze, and that number is expected to rise as other neighbourhoods are assessed. Richard Zussman looks at the severity of the structural losses and speaks with one evacuee who lost her home in the fire. [Global National]
Manitoba's Opposition New Democrats promised Monday to temporarily suspend the province's fuel tax if they win the election slated for Oct. 3. [CP]
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expanding so-called strong mayor powers to a total of 49 communities across the province and is offering $1.2 billion in incentives for cities and towns. [CP]
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Elsewhere
How They Tried to Kill Me
In 2022, n+1 published four reports from the war in Ukraine by the Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko. In the following essay, Kostyuchenko describes—for the first time—why she fled Ukraine and reveals that she was poisoned last fall in Munich. [n+1]

Posts on Russian social media channels indicate that Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has published his first recruitment video for the Wagner Group since organizing a short-lived mutiny against defense officials in Russia. [AP]
Sci/Tech
Few electric cars include spare tires, and manufacturers cite a wide variety of reasons — space, cost, even safety. But the main factor may be drivers who won't change a tire. [LA Times]
PC makers used to need to bring their own add-on bloatware—no longer. The nerds among us will enjoy this essay. [Ars Technica]
His work revolutionized industries from publishing to video production. For mot of the 1990s, I was a technology reporter and had the good fortune of meeting and interviewing Dr. Warnock. A real gentleman -- the technologies he developed are at the core of our digital lives today. [Endgadget]
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Media
TVO employees walk off the job Monday after negotiations stall
Dozens of workers at Ontario’s public broadcaster walked off the job Monday morning. [Global]
Radio-Canada ouvre un nouveau bureau à Istanbul après une période trouble marquée par la fermeture forcée de ses installations à Pékin et à Moscou. La correspondante à l’étranger Marie-Eve Bédard et son équipe continueront ainsi de couvrir l’invasion russe en Ukraine à partir de la Turquie, mais aussi les enjeux humanitaires et culturels qui touchent ce pôle du Proche-Orient, à la frontière de l'Europe. [Radio-Canada]
The Calendar
  • 800 ET: Charlottetown, PE - PM  Trudeau meets with his cabinet.
  • 1100 ET: Guelph, ON - LPC MP Lloyd Longfield makes a funding announcement. 
  • 1130 ET: Calgary, AB - LPC MP George Chahal makes a funding announcement. 
Issued this day ...
... in 1996: Scott # 1615 souvenir sheet of 5 stamps: Cinema In Canada. Design: Pierre-Yves Pelletier. 
Canada Post issued 10 different stamps this day to celebrate important moments in the first 100 years of Canadian cinema. And those 10 stamps were grouped on two souvenir sheets of 5 stamps each. The souvenir sheets, like the stamps themselves, use a “filmstrip” motif.

From left to right, this souvenir sheet features (Sc 1615a) L’arrivée d’un train en gare (1896) which was the North American debut of the Lumiére brothers invention; (Sc 1615b) Back to God’s Country (1919), a production of Nell Shipman, Canada’s first female filmmaker; (Sc 1615c) Hen Hop (1942), the animated featured by Norman McLaren which put the National Film Board on the map; (Sc 1615d) Pour la suite du monde (1963) the film by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault which was selected for that year’s Cannes Film Festival; and (Sc 1615e) Goin’ Down the Road, the influential Don Shebib classic about two down-on-their-luck Maritimers who head to Toronto to seek their fortunes.

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