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Mar 1 2023

Twitter’s dead. TikTok Tossed. Big Budgets.

Mar 1, 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.
Prime MInister Justin Trudeau is in British Columbia today where, this afternoon, he will meet with Premier David Eby.
Canada
As attention on foreign interference grows in Canada, its allies are sounding the alarm over the scale of the issue in their own nations.

Han Dong missed voting on an Uyghur genocide motions despite being present to vote on other motions before and after it on the same day. [National Post]
An independent report on the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (the Protocol), its implementation and its effectiveness in addressing threats to the 44th General Election which took place on September 20, 2021. This report does not, as some Opposition MPs suggest, make any determination about foreign election interference. What it does do is assess the system put in place to deal with serious incidents of foreign interference during the 2021 election.  [Government report]
Herle
Canada's rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic led to strong economic growth last year, but the economy was slowing heading into 2023.
From the Provinces
‘Definitely an election budget’: Critics call out 2023 Alberta budget
“This is a budget that is appealing to everybody and only because they simply have so much money. Imagine any other province with $18 billion in resource revenue.” [Global]

With a few exceptions, Alberta governments will be required to table balanced budgets and limit spending increases to population growth plus inflation. [Global]
David Staples: The province's financial picture has gone from gloom to boom, from total bust to pumping billions into the Heritage Savings Trust Fund. [Edmonton Journal]
The B.C. budget revealed a measure to cover prescription birth control products, copper IUDs and Plan B emergency contraceptives starting April 1, 2023. [Global]
The City of Vancouver approved the 2023 Operating Budget which includes a 10.7 per cent property tax hike. The now approved property tax hike is the biggest in over a decade. [Global]
Elsewhere
Finland starts construction of Russia border fence
The Finnish government has sought to boost border security since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. [BBC]

Fractured East-West relations over Russia’s war in Ukraine and increasing concerns about China’s global aspirations are set to dominate what is expected to be a highly contentious meeting of foreign ministers from the world’s largest industrialized and developing nations this week in India. [AP]
COVID and Vaccines

The U.S. government has not reached a definitive conclusion on the pandemic's origins. [Reuters]
Media
Twitter Down, Many Users Unable to Access Timelines
Social network Twitter is experiencing an outage at the current time, with most users unable to refresh or in some cases even load their timeline. Twitter was out of action for me here in Ottawa at 0600 ET today. This 👆was the screen grab of my timeline on the desktop.

TikTok is introducing new settings that are meant to reduce how much time teens are spending in the app. [Endgadget]
Canada's former spymaster is warning that even if Canadians aren't worried about their personal information falling into the wrong hands, they should be. [Global]
Nova Scotia is banning the use of the TikTok social media app on all government-issued mobile devices, following the federal government's ban announced earlier this week. [Global]

The ban affects work phones issued by the provincial government to its employees. [Vancouver Sun]
China says a ban on the use of TikTok by official European Union institutions will harm business confidence in Europe. In the latest salvo in the battle over the Chinese-owned video sharing app, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council have banned TikTok from being installed on official devices. [AP]
Issued this day ...
Issued this day in 1913: Sc 104as: King George V “Admiral” Issue.
This part of the newsletter says “Issued This Day in …” but, to be honest, I’m not exactly sure when this stamp was issued. The catalogue simply says “March 1913” so I’ve arbitrarily put it as March 1. The straight edge on the bottom of this stamp is the giveaway that this comes from what would have been a booklet pane of six stamps (2 rows of three) (Sc 104a). My copy, a scan of which you see here, is not a a great one chiefly because the stamp itself is not well-centred. That said, the cancellation is relatively light.
In any event, this series of stamps — 22 stamps of the same design in different denominations and with different colours — is a popular one with collectors, so much so that a whole book has been written about “The Admiral Issue”.

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