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Florida has overtaken California as America's political trendsetter – The Globe and Mail

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Disney’s employees protest against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill, in Glendale, Calif., on March 22.RINGO CHIU/Reuters

Florida, Pied Piper of politics.

Once it was a matter of conviction that the American future came first in California. It’s where hippies first surfaced, where the word “like” first appeared as a linguistic filler, where the first motion-picture theatre opened, where the first laser and the first skateboard were used, even where the first right-turn-on-red law was passed.

But look out, California. Here comes Florida to compete as the American trendsetter, at least in politics.

It is in Florida that the country’s political deadlock became visible: The cadre of lawyers who descended on this state to battle over the outcome of the overtime 2000 election signalled the emergence of a new era of extreme acrimony. It is here that the dramatic alteration in the Republican Party is most visible: The replacement in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee of the mainstream Jeb Bush with the populist Ron DeSantis is symbolic of a larger movement that has recast American politics.

It is here that the rebellion against mask mandates was most virulent; the death rate from COVID-19 is in the middle of the state rankings and 47 states have lost more school days. It is here that the first “stand-your-ground” law was passed granting citizens immunity from prosecution if they use deadly force “to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm”; since then, 37 states have followed Florida’s lead. It is here that “Don’t Say Gay” legislation to prevent schools from teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation got its start; now a dozen other states are considering such restrictions.

And it is here that Donald J. Trump has moved in his exile from Washington and may be planning for his White House return in the 2024 presidential election.

“Florida is the gift that keeps on giving,” Susan MacManus, an emerita University of South Florida political scientist, said in an interview. “This is the state that best represents the country as a whole as measured by race, generation and county of origin. We are an immigrant magnet – we attract people from other parts of the country as well as abroad. We are the leading indicator of things good – and the leading indictor of things bad.”

Right now the pirouette of politics set by Florida is on the dance card of states across the country. This month, Alabama has taken up legislation resembling the Don’t Say Gay measure signed into law by Mr. DeSantis, adding a provision making it a felony for physicians to aid young people under 19 to proceed with gender transition.

“Those policies are highly popular,” said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist. “They poll well. A big slice of Democrats even are supporting it. That’s why DeSantis thinks he has a winning policy. Florida is the leading the country on these kinds of bills.”

Mr. DeSantis is a likely presidential candidate – one of the few Republicans who have signalled a willingness to run in a GOP primary even if Mr. Trump attempts a White House comeback. That has produced something of a political chill in the Sunshine State, particularly since Mr. Trump has claimed credit for the Governor’s victory in a difficult race four years ago.

“Ron was at 3 per cent, and the day I endorsed him, he won the race,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post this month, adding, “As soon as I endorsed him, the race was over.” Mr. DeSantis, while respectful of the former president, doesn’t see it precisely that way.

Politics wasn’t always a preoccupation in this state of hurricanes and hustlers, of astronauts, alligators and the aging.

Since the days of Juan Ponce de León, people have come here to escape reality; the Spanish explorer and conquistador landed here in 1513, hoping to discover a fountain of youth. Later visitors found the antidote to aging in the state’s sunshine; there are on average 101 days of full sun here, a marked contrast with New York’s 63 (and Toronto’s 44).

Throughout the past century, the state’s conversation has been dominated by real estate. Fortunes were made and lost in the 1920s, mostly lost after the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, and again after the Great Recession of 2008, and now have climbed into the stratosphere. The average price of a home sold in Palm Beach County is about the same as the average home sale price in Toronto.

But since the turn of the century it has been politics, politics, politics in the nation’s third largest state.

The issue of immigration is full of tension here. One in five Floridians were born in another country; the state took in the equivalent of Saskatoon’s population in a wave of foreign immigration in the past two years. Like Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was swept into office last year on the issue of parental control of schools, education has emerged as an important, and divisive, issue. “Parents’ rights have been increasingly under assault around the nation,” Mr. DeSantis said as he signed a “parental Bill of Rights” measure late last month, “but in Florida we stand up for the rights of parents and the fundamental role they play in the education of their children.”

The parental Bill of Rights won plaudits in national conservative circles. “For years, the socialist democrats have been pushing hard to indoctrinate children with critical race theory,” Matt Schlapp, the Conservative Political Action Coalition chairman, said in a statement, saluting Florida for taking steps to assure that the state’s children would not be vulnerable to “ultra radical misinformed policies of sex and gender.”

And of course Florida is a classic swing state, which makes its 29 electoral votes a valuable prize, especially since the state is a bellwether, having voted for the eventual winner in 21 of the 24 presidential elections since 1928.

But in 2020, Mr. Trump defeated Joe Biden here by a 51-48 margin. The Republican got the state’s electoral votes but that wasn’t enough to win a second term. So it is here, in the fortress of elegance and excess built by Marjorie Merriweather Post a century ago, that Mr. Trump is plotting his comeback, or at least contemplating it. That alone affirms Florida’s position at the centre of American politics.

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‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

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REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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