In The News for Dec. 14 : New poll shows Tories retaining lead over Liberals

It’s the fourth consecutive monthly poll in which the Conservative party has maintained a lead — and the fourth since Pierre Poilievre became its leader.

Both parties were slightly down overall, with the NDP up to 21 per cent from 19 per cent in November and the People’s Party of Canada doubling its support to four per cent, up from two per cent.

Support for both the Bloc Québécois and the Green Party held steady in the poll, at seven per cent and four per cent of national voter intentions respectively.

There was no perceptible bump for the Greens despite the recent re-election of Elizabeth May as party leader on a joint ballot with co-leader Jonathan Pedneault.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals held substantial leads in Atlantic Canada, where they were up nine points over the Tories, and in Quebec, where their support remained six points ahead of the Bloc.

Only 19 per cent of Quebec respondents said they would vote Conservative. Only eight per cent supported the NDP.

In Ontario, Poilievre’s party enjoys a seven-point lead over the Liberals at 36 per cent, with Liberals at 29 per cent and the NDP at 26 per cent.

The Conservatives are at 47 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan — the only places where the NDP is in second position, with 23 per cent. Trudeau’s party is in third place with just 19 per cent support. And Maxime Bernier’s PPC had its best result with nine per cent.

Tories also lead by a 15-point margin in Alberta, with Liberals and NDP just one point apart, and are besting the Liberals by a smaller, two-point margin in B.C.

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Also this …

Canada is struggling with inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is reshaping the world order and experts are saying that supply chain issues are here to stay.

Federal ministers have said that to deal with those problems, Canada should turn away from China and follow the U.S. in trading with like-minded countries.

The Liberals also outlined plans in their Indo-Pacific strategy last month to try forming new economic partnerships with other countries in Asia.

Experts say that those new relationships could give Canada more leverage in Washington, since the U.S. can provide more heft.

But it could be hard to pivot away from China, since it has influence in many other places and few other countries have the same ability to get goods moving fast.

And Canada has its own domestic barriers to clear before it can live up to its goal of becoming a global powerhouse for electric-battery parts — another way to stave off future supply-chain problems.

And this too …

The role of private money and industry in preserving enough natural ecosystems to keep the planet functioning will be the focus of talks Wednesday at an international conference on biodiversity in Montreal.

While negotiators continue to try to hammer an overall conservation deal, discussions are also scheduled on how global capital flows can be harnessed to work with nature rather than exploit it.

Figures from the United Nations suggest those capital flows are now more part of the problem than the solution.

The UN says that in 2019, industries that are eroding biodiversity got money from major investment banks equal to Canada’s entire GDP — an estimated $3.5 trillion.

The UN figures say most of that money went to agriculture, fisheries, fossil fuels and forestry.

They say the money devoted to conservation was $200 billion at most.

Delegates to the convention have already spent days talking about how rich countries should help poor ones fund conservation. Most of the world’s biodiversity is concentrated in the global south.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ California’s committee to study reparations for African Americans will meet in Oakland Wednesday to discuss what form reparations could take and eligibility requirements to receive possible payments.

The first-in-the-nation task force previously voted to limit reparations to Black California residents whose ancestors were living in the United States in the 19th century. This week, the group will talk about whether there could be additional eligibility requirements and what time frame reparations could hinge on.

The group will also discuss how the state may address its impact on Black families whose property was seized through eminent domain, a topic that garnered renewed attention after lawmakers last year voted to allow the return of a beachfront property known as Bruce’s Beach to descendants of Black residents from whom it was taken in the 20th century.

Kamilah Moore, the task force’s chair, doesn’t expect the group to come to any final decisions at this week’s two-day meeting.

“We’re still in the exploratory phase,” she said.

The task force has a July 1 deadline to complete its final report for the Legislature listing recommendations for how the state can address its legacy of discriminatory policies against Black Californians. The group’s work contrasts from similar efforts that have stalled in Congress.

Lawmakers in other parts of the country have pushed their states and cities to study reparations without much progress. But Evanston, Illinois became the first U.S. city last year to make reparations available for Black residents, and public officials in New York will try anew to create a reparations commission in the state.

Officials from Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles and other California cities will talk about local reparations efforts during a panel Wednesday.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

KYIV, Ukraine _ Russian drone strikes damaged five buildings in the capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday even as Ukrainian air defences thwarted many more, authorities said. No casualties were reported.

The attacks underline how Ukraine’s biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks that have devastated infrastructure and other population centres, mostly in the country’s east and south in recent weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a brief video statement, said the “terrorists” fired 13 Iranian-made drones, and all were intercepted. Such drones have been part of Russia’s firepower along with mortar, artillery and rocket strikes across Ukraine in recent weeks.

The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, wrote on Telegram that the strikes came in two waves, and shrapnel from the intercepted drones damaged one administrative building, while four residential buildings sustained minor damage.

The capital remained largely calm after the attack, which occurred around daybreak and before the start of the business day, and the destruction appeared limited compared to fallout from other Russian strikes that have taken lives and upended livelihoods across the country in recent weeks.

As the workday began in Kyiv, authorities sounded the all-clear on an air raid alert system.

The strike left a gaping hole in the roof of a three-story administrative building in the central Shevchenkyvskyi district, and the blast blew out windows in parked cars and in a neighbouring building. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.

In a sign of Ukrainians’ reactivity and resilience to hundreds of such strikes in recent months, cleanup crews were on site quickly to shovel away the rubble and roll out plastic sheeting to cover blown-out windows to cope with freezing temperatures in the snow-covered capital. One man, unfazed, pushed his son on a swing set on a nearby playground as the crews did their work.

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On this day in 2012 …

A gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then committed suicide as police arrived; the 20-year-old assailant had fatally shot his mother at their home before carrying out the attack on the school.

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In entertainment …

LOS ANGELES _ Megan Thee Stallion took the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday and told jurors that rapper Tory Lanez fired five shots at her feet, yelled at her to dance and wounded her as she tried to walk away from him in the Hollywood Hills more than two years ago.

“I’m in shock. I’m scared,” the Grammy-winning hip-hop superstar testified Tuesday, according to The Los Angeles Times. “I hear the gun going off, and I can’t believe he’s shooting at me.”

Her testimony came on the second day of the trial of the Canadian rapper Lanez, 30, who has pleaded not guilty to discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

With supporters gathered both outside the courthouse and in the courtroom hallway, Megan walked into the courtroom wearing a purple suit with heavy security late Tuesday morning.

“I just don’t feel good,” Megan, 27, said at the beginning of questioning from Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta. “I can’t believe I have to come in here and do this.”

She said that on July 12, 2020, she left a party at the Hollywood Hills home of Kylie Jenner in an SUV with Lanez, his bodyguard and her friend Kelsey Harris.

Megan said she and Lanez had become close, bonding over the loss of their mothers, and had an occasionally sexual relationship. Her friend Harris, who had a “crush” on Lanez, tried to stir up trouble between the women by telling Megan she needed to stop lying to her friend.

The argument spiralled out of control, and became even more heated when she and Lanez started trashing each other’s music and careers, Megan said.

Lanez’ attorney George Mgdesyan said in his opening statement that her injury showed she could not have gotten a clear look at the shooter behind her, and that he would present more evidence that countered her story during the trial.

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, could get more than 22 years in prison if convicted on all counts. He could also be deported to his native Canada.

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Did you see this?

A strong and widespread air pressure system coming from the U.S. will bring snowfall, wind, and icy conditions to several Canadian provinces this week, an Environment Canada meteorologist said Tuesday.

Steven Flisfeder said the low atmosphere pressure system — known as the Colorado low — typically forms east of the American Rockies before making its way northeast, towards the Great Lakes.

“The impacts associated with it are going to be widespread,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s gonna be touching anywhere from far southeastern Saskatchewan all the way to the Maritimes. As the system progresses eastward, southern Quebec will be affected before it finally makes its way toward New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.”

Environment Canada issued special weather statements Tuesday for much of southern Ontario and parts of northern Ontario.

The weather agency said flurries will begin falling on Thursday and last through Friday evening, with the affected areas in the south spanning from Windsor all the way east to Cornwall and as far north as Grey-Bruce and Pembroke.

Some of those communities will get five centimetres of snow while others will accumulate up to 25 centimetres by Saturday morning.

In northern Ontario, Environment Canada said Cloud Bay, Dorion, Kakabeka Falls, Whitefish Lake and Arrow Lake can expect between 20 and 40 centimetres of snow starting Wednesday afternoon and lasting into Friday.

Thunder Bay is set to see 10 to 20 centimetres while Sault Ste. Marie and other parts of the northeast are expected to see wind gusts up to 80 km/h.

As the Colorado low storm system travels over Lake Superior, it could intensify the weather and drop up to 45 centimetres of snow in areas southwest of Thunder Bay, Flisfeder said.

Special weather statements have also been issued for parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

In its statements, the weather agency warned people in some regions to consider postponing non-essential travel during the storm, as the heavy snow will reduce visibility and create hazardous travel conditions, and to be prepared for possible power outages.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

In The News for Dec. 14 : New poll shows Tories retaining lead over Liberals

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