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Jun 22 2025

The Roundup: Canadian nationalism. Alberta separatists. Spotify’s plea.

SUN JUN 22 2025
David Akin's Roundup
Note to readers: I am paddling around Algonquin Park 👆 this weekend and so, today's newsletter was prepared Saturday and there will be no newsletter tomorrow. In the meantime, may I suggest you pop by the Global News Politics page? See you Tuesday when I'm off the water. 
Canada
Canada Strong Pass expected to boost summer travel
The summer tourism season is officially underway, and the recent change in relationship change with our immediate neighbors to the south could transform just where Canadians book their vacations. Those who rely on the tourism industry hope more people spend their vacation time – and budgets – closer to home. Ottawa is betting on it too, making a new domestic travel incentive — the Canada Strong Pass. Heidi Petracek reports on this year's vacation expectations. [Global National]
Stephen Maher: The story begins in 1763, after what Americans call the French and Indian War, English Canada calls the Seven Years’ War and Quebecers call la guerre de la Conquête. It was a colonial border war between the French and British, fought with muskets and cannons, with troops in canoes and on long marches through the woods. Much of the real fighting was done by Indigenous people on both sides. The conflict ended with the conquest of New France, the expulsion of the Acadians and the British victorious but exhausted and broke. [Maclean's]
Carney is flying to Europe Sunday for a Canada — EU Summit, planned for Monday evening with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. At the G7 summit in Alberta on Monday von der Leyen confirmed that the agreement will be signed on Monday in Brussels, calling Canada a "key partner." [CP]
Much of her job, she said, involves supporting Prime Minister Mark Carney's quest to make Canada less dependent on the U.S. for trade and defence. "We are considering every option to strengthen our collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world," she said. [CP]
Lori Turnbull: Poilievre should do the right thing for his party and step aside after the review, even if he aces it. Though this was not necessarily clear on election night, the loss of Poilievre’s own seat has made him too vulnerable as leader. It’s time for him to pass the torch to someone whose political baggage won’t be a constant disadvantage in any policy debate or electoral battle. [Policy]
Of the 343 men and women who won their ridings in this year's election, 115 of them -- or 34 per cent -- were running in their first federal election.

So using that as a benchmark -- 34 per cent are first-time MPs while 66 per cent had been MPs before -- I took a look at the mix of the 22 major House of Commons committees to see how many had veterans and how many had rookies.The overall proportion of vets to newbies closely mirrors the House: 63 per cent vets to 37 per cent new. But ...
  • The chair of every single committee is a veteran. Committee chairs get an extra $14,200 a year on top of the MP's regular salary of $209,800.
  • Just three vice-chairs are rookies. Vice-chairs earn an extra $7,000 a year.
  • The Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Environment is, coincidentally, the "greenest" committee with eight of its 10 members sitting in Parliament for the first time.
  • The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development is the only committee with no fresh blood at aall. All 10 of its members are veterans.
-DA
Here's the data :
The 2025 Census Subdivision Boundary File depicts the boundaries of all 5,054 census subdivisions, which combined, cover all of Canada. It contains the unique identifier (UID), name and type, as well as the UIDs, names and types (where applicable) of selected higher geographic levels.  [Statistics Canada]
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The Provinces

Alberta's budding separatist movement could hardly have picked a better time and place for its first electoral test.[National Post]

'What we set out during the election campaign, which was in advance of the (Donald) Trump election, has shifted quite dramatically in terms of where we have to be,' David Eby said. [Global]
Aurora
Elsewhere
Can Trump Sit Through a Multilateral Meeting?
Trying to get an ornery president on board is doomed to failure. [Foreign Policy]

Whether or not there is a ceasefire in Ukraine this year, Europeans, together with the Ukrainians, should begin—now—to draw up a “beyond the horizon” plan for Ukraine in readiness for a ceasefire or a peace deal. [European Council on Foreign Relations]
Media

"To apply yesterday's tools to today's platforms risks dulling Canada's success on the global music stage," said Xenia Manning, Spotify's director of global music policy. [CP]

The American news landscape remains polarized by political party, with few news sources both used and trusted widely among Democrats and Republicans. [YouGov]
Some age-checking applications collect too much data and no product works 100% of the time, but using software to enforce a teenage social media ban can work in Australia, the head of the world's biggest trial of the technology said on Friday. [Reuters]
A court in Azerbaijan has sentenced journalist and economist Farid Mehralizada to nine years in prison on charges he says are tied directly to his critical reporting for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, known locally as Azadliq Radiosu. [Radio Free Europe]
Science and Technology

The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next. [MIT Technology Review]
Issued this day ...
… in 2007. Sc2219a souvenir sheet of 1. Captain George Vancouver. Design: Niko Potton, Fleming Design.

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