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Aug 21 2023

House hunting. NDP promises. Political bias.

Aug 21, 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
Liberal cabinet meeting in P.E.I. after shuffle. Here’s what to expect
It's expected the housing crisis will be the central topic for ministers as they sit down to discuss their government's priorities. [Global]
Mike Moffatt: The key to an effective housing strategy is speed. The federal government must avoid setting up new approvals processes and micromanaging the system. [The Hub]

Confidential information from the RCMP and FBI allege Majcher collaborated with another former RCMP officer, Kenneth Marsh, to support the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. [Globe and Mail]
Battery factories are popping up across North America. Here's where they are and how the [U.S.] Inflation Reduction Act influenced the boom. [TechCrunch]
Christopher Sands: To what extent does Canada’s defence spending, falling significantly short of NATO’s 2% GDP target, challenge the perception of Canada as a credible and reliable partner within the U.S.-Canada relationship, and how might this impact the overall strategic calculus of the two nations? [Conference of Defence Assns]
From the provinces
Manitoba election: NDP promise year-round $10-a-day child care
“Right now, you might see $10-a-day on a billboard ... it’s not truly $10 a day,” NDP leader Wab Kinew said at a press conference Sunday. [Global]
Government officials are urging everyone to share accurate and factual information on social media from trusted sources, such as government websites and social media pages. [Global
Alberta's seven-month pause on approving new renewable power projects in the Canadian province has caused four major international companies at various development stages to stop work on their plans, an industry official said. [Reuters]
Two years after Valérie Plante's administration said a new housing bylaw would lead to the construction of 600 new social housing units per year, the city hasn't seen a single one. Meanwhile, the housing affordability crisis continues to grow. [CBC]
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Elsewhere
At the time, [the authors] were interviewing conservatives and monitoring conservative media as part of an effort to understand the Right’s alienation from reliable sources of information. In interviews and media both, we heard this same theme again and again. Some on the right believed the “Big Lie” that the election was stolen; others did not or weren’t sure. Some contended that Trump had behaved responsibly; others disagreed. But virtually all concurred that conservatives writ large were being unfairly blamed, demonized, and ostracized for the events at the Capitol. And virtually all were quite emotional about it. [LA Review of Books]

The number of people the Islamic State claims it killed in Africa in two weeks of the last month is more than the number it claims to have killed in the rest of the world combined.   [HumAngle]
Sci/Tech
The failure of Luna-25, a symptom of Russia's decline in space
On Sunday, Roscosmos announced the loss of its probe, which was due to reach the Moon's south pole in the coming days. It is another setback for Russian space exploration. [Le Monde]
The bottom line is: Pollution is very hard to destroy. “It never goes away,” researcher Keith Bein says. “It goes somewhere.” [Bloomberg]

... AI language models contain different political biases, according to new research from the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University. Researchers conducted tests on 14 large language models and found that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4 were the most left-wing libertarian, while Meta’s LLaMA was the most right-wing authoritarian.  [MIT Technology Review]
New approach combines ECDSA with post-quantum algorithm called Dilithium. [Ars Technica]
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Media
Our ongoing wildfire coverage plans
This is an important read: Everything you need to know about how we're going to continue covering the NWT wildfires and help evacuees over the weeks ahead. [Cabin Radio]

The police chief who led the raid of a Kansas newspaper alleged a reporter had either impersonated someone or lied, according to court documents.
The Calendar
  • 730 ET: St Peter's Bay, PE - ACOA Min Gudie Hutchings tours the the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation
  • 930 ET: Charlottetown - ACOA Min Gudie Hutchings meets with departmental staff
  • 935 ET: Cornwall, PE - PM Trudeau , Families and Social Development Min Jenna Sudds, Veterans Affairs Min Lawrence MacAulay and Premier Dennis King make a child care announcement and take questions from reporters.
  • 1200 ET: Charlottetown - PM Trudeau meets with Premier Dennis King
  • 1530 ET: Charlottetown - PM Trudeau meets with his cabinet
Issued this day ...
.. in 1963: #Scott #412: Martin Frobisher. Design: Ephrum Philip Weiss.
Canada’s Post’s normal tradition when putting a historical personage on a stamp is to do it mark an anniversary of the individual’s birth/death/notable exploit. Not so in this case. This stamp was issued for no other reason tthan to create “interest” in Canada’s history, particularly the history of its Arctic regions.

In the 1960s, Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-1594) would have been credited with the “discovery” of the bay in Nunavut that now bears its name. (Nunavut’s capital Iqaluit is at the head of this bay). In our more enlightened age, we may remember Frobisher for being the first European to be associated with travel up the bay that many Indigenous (and possibly Norse) peoples were already familiar with. 

In any event: I had the very pleasant and special experience of sailing up and down Frobisher Bay one warm August day several years ago as a guest of the HMCS Toronto while I was covering one of former PM Stephen Harper’s summertime Arctic tours. The water was smooth as glass  The summer light — which comes in at such a flat angle because of the latitude — is something to behold, warming up everything it colours. Breathtaking scenery. Mind you: I’ve also stood on Frobisher Bay’s ice in February,  just off Iqaluit, waiting for a Harper photo opp to happen. (Separate trip, of course). With the wind whipping us, I can’t remember ever feeling so cold. 

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