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Aug 8 2025

The Roundup: Métis pushback. Byrne speaks. Most disliked.

FRI AUG 8 2025
David Akin's Roundup
Métis pushback. Byrne speaks. Most disliked.
Canada
Métis leaders push back at Carney’s major projects bill
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Indigenous rights are central to making Canada's economy less reliant on the U.S., including Bill C-5, also known as the One Canadian Economy Act, his new law aimed at fast-tracking major infrastructure projects. Mackenzie Gray reports on how a four-hour meeting between Carney and Métis leaders seemingly went, the work that's still required, and some of the pushback Carney is receiving. [Global National]
Carney said there is a lot to do in Canada and his government is focused on “what we can control. Yes we are having discussions with the Americans but Canadians want us to focus here at home,” the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa. [Global]

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of “bending over backwards” to please U.S. President Donald Trump amid ongoing trade negotiations, alleging that Canada “has gotten nothing in return.” [Global]
For the first time ever, Elections Canada says voters must fill out a blank ballot. The agency lists a record 214 candidates running in the rural riding, with voting day on Aug. 18. [CP]
‘People are very upset’: Independent candidate challenging Poilievre in Alberta byelection
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is trying to get back into the House of Commons by winning a byelection in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, which is considered a safe Tory seat. But not everyone is happy about it. Heather Yourex-West explains why independent candidate Bonnie Critchley is working hard to defeat Poilievre. [Global National]
Poilievre says the country can’t wait for complete agreement on the idea, calling it a “basic fact” that a new pipeline is needed. Eby has repeatedly said there’s no point discussing or supporting a pipeline that is being pushed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and others, until there is a proponent for such a project. [Global]
Canadian Tire said retail sales jumped 6.4% in the second quarter, with more shoppers going to its stores as part of a “Buy Canada” wave. [Calgary Herald]
The Girl Guides of Canada says it's pausing all trips to the U.S. starting in September, with plans to choose alternative locations, amid restrictions by the Trump administration. [Global]
Byrne stands by the decision to stick to a cost-of-living message track. “The Liberals wanted to talk about Trump, I think they were trying to bait us into talking about Trump. And from a practical point of view, I don’t know what we would have said every day. What do you say?”  A hard pivot to Trump would have “demotivated” parts of the Conservative voter coalition more concerned about housing and affordability, she said. [Politico]
The Provinces
Carney’s softwood lumber tariff help doesn’t go far enough: Holt
The words are a rare criticism of the feds, but come as one of New Brunswick’s largest industries now faces immense new pressure. [Telegraph-Journal]
Arbec Forest Products... says it has informed 113 affected employees and 29 positions are expected to be “permanently eliminated” following the shutdown. Its general manager says it’s unclear if the oriented strand board plant can take advantage of newly announced federal softwood lumber subsidies. That said, the Holt government says it is now talking with Arbec, while referencing its $162-million tariff response program, money it set aside in its March budget. [Telegraph-Journal]
When citizens in the central Quebec riding of Arthabaska go to the polls Monday after what has been a surprisingly intense campaign, they will be choosing a new MNA but also setting the scene for what promises to be a tumultuous fall political season that will include a cabinet shuffle by Premier François Legault. [Montreal Gazette]
Les chiffres rappellent ceux de l’époque du deuxième référendum. Dans une « montée spectaculaire » du souverainisme qui se poursuit chez la jeune génération, 56 % des 18 à 34 ans sont maintenant favorables à l’indépendance du Québec. [La Presse]

Doug Ford made the comments about Donald Trump on CNN Thursday morning, where the Ontario premier was asked about Canada's response to tariffs. [Global]
Aurora
Elsewhere
Trump’s Tariffs Could Raise Prices on Many Consumer Goods
The sweeping tariffs target nearly all U.S. trading partners and push the average tax on imports to more than 18 percent, the highest since 1934 and a steep jump from 2.4 percent in January, according to Yale’s Budget Lab. While the taxes are levied on importers, exporters and retailers, many economists warn that consumers will bear much of the cost. [NYT] (🎁 link)
The world’s top-selling carmaker joins a growing list of companies reporting profit hits because of US tariffs. [Al Jazeera]
Media

Glenn Kessler: I’m not sure the world needs another article about the travails of The Washington Post — where many reporters work hard to produce excellent work — but I wanted to record, fairly and honestly, what I witnessed. I built and maintained one of the marquee brands of The Post and I fear it may be permitted to wither away. The author spent 27 years working at WaPo and ran its Fact Check column. [Substack]
Science and Technology
‘A disaster for all of us’: US scientists describe impact of Trump cuts
Donald Trump’s assault on science – but particularly climate science – has led to unprecedented funding cuts and staff layoffs across federally funded agencies and programs, threatening to derail research tackling the most pressing issues facing Americans and humanity more broadly. A generation of scientific talent is also on the brink of being lost, with unprecedented political interference at what were previously evidence-driven agencies jeopardizing the future of US industries and economic growth. [The Guardian]
Ethan Mollick: Excellent review of ChatGPT 5 including a demonstration of just how good this latest model from OpenAI is. -DA 
With a dramatic new design and big updates to the most-used apps, this will feel like a bigger change than previous iOS updates. [Macworld]
The Calendar
  • 1130 ET : CFB Trenton, ON - PM Carney makes an announcement.
  • 1300 ET : North Saanich, BC - GPC MP Elizabeth May participates in a bocce tournament.
  • 1600 ET : Ottawa, - LPC MP Yasir Naqvi makes a funding announcement
Issued this day ...
… in 2011. Sc 2486 souvenir sheet of 2. Miss Supertest. Design: Ivan Novotny. 
Canada Post: “Fifty years ago, on August 7, 1961, tens of thousands of excited spectators stood on the banks of Lake Ontario at Long Reach, near Picton, Ontario, and held their collective breath as Canadian hydroplane Miss Supertest III made history by capturing the International Harmsworth Trophy for a third time in a row. Her story is almost mythic in that it combines both triumph and tragedy, and is still told again and again by those who were there to witness her historic win.

The first non-U.S. winner in 39 years, the innovative Miss Supertest III, designed by James (Jim) Thompson and piloted by southwestern Ontario chicken farmer Bob Hayward, combined grace and beauty with indomitable speed and horsepower.

At the age of seven, Thompson told his father that he wanted to win the Harmsworth for Canada someday. He inspired pride throughout the nation and caught the attention of the world when he made good on his childhood ambitions, capturing the prestigious international Harmsworth Trophy in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Miss Supertest III became a powerful example of Canadian ingenuity that still lives on in the hearts of hydroplane enthusiasts.

Supertest Petroleum, founded by his father, J. Gordon Thompson, lent its name to three of the Thompson hydroplanes. Despite his Vice-presidential responsibilities at the then family-owned business, the younger Thompson dedicated much of his energies to speedboat racing. He achieved lesser triumphs with Miss Supertest I (formerly Miss Canada IV) and Miss Supertest II, which broke the world’s straightaway record with a speed of 297 km/h (184.495 mph).

Miss Supertest III was specifically designed for the Harmsworth Trophy competition. Like her predecessor, she featured a 2000 hp Rolls-Royce Griffon motor, originally used to power the Royal Air Force’s Supermarine Spitfire single engine fighter. With other incremental innovations, Miss Supertest III quickly proved herself well suited to the Harmsworth Challenge.

Her first and only non-Harmsworth race, with Hayward driving, was the 1959 Detroit Memorial Cup. Later that year, in August, Hayward piloted Miss Supertest III to a successful Harmsworth Trophy challenge on the Detroit River, with an average speed exceeding 185 km/h (115 mph). She and her racing team successfully defended the Harmsworth Trophy the following two years at Picton. In the 1960 competition, Hayward set a world lap speed record of 203 km/h (126.226 mph) on the 8 km (5 mile) course.

Hayward drove Miss Supertest III in only four races, but was undefeated in all. In a tragic accident on September 10, 1961, during the U.S. Silver Cup race on the Detroit River, and only weeks after winning his third Harmsworth race, Hayward was moving at an estimated 249 km/h (155 mph) in the older Miss Supertest II when she flipped, killing him.

The Thompson team retired from racing, and Miss Supertest III was permanently dry-docked. In tribute, a bay in Lake Ontario near Picton was named Hayward Long Reach. Both Hayward and Thompson have been inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.”

Growing up as a kid in southern Ontario, seeing the magnificent machine that was MIss Supertest was always a highlight of any visit to the Ontario Science Centre.

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