Quebec police investigate shooting at upscale resort in Laurentians

VICTORIA – Premier David Eby’s new cabinet is set to be sworn in Nov. 18, almost one month after British Columbia’s election that saw the New Democrats win a bare, one-seat majority, pending recounts.

The cabinet-building job for Eby involves leaning on a reduced list of steady, veteran hands and taking chances on a fresh batch of exuberant but untested New Democrats, largely from urban ridings, said David Black, an associate professor in communications and culture at Greater Victoria’s Royal Roads University.

“You want people, especially in the more senior ministries who you can trust to have the managerial competence, and have presumably had a time in office previously, cabinet if at all possible,” Black said Wednesday.

He said he estimated Eby could have up to a dozen cabinet positions to fill, including new ministers in finance, transportation, labour, Indigenous relations, education, environment and agriculture.

But Black said the bedrock ministers of housing, health and public safety were all re-elected, giving Eby a strong cabinet foundation.

He said he expected Ravi Kahlon to retain his post at housing, Mike Farnworth to stay on as solicitor general and public safety minister, but Adrian Dix could move from health.

Black also expected the environment, despite pressure from two Green members, could take a lower profile within cabinet now that Eby promised to drop the carbon tax if federal regulations are relaxed.

But a major cabinet issue, and one Eby has spoken about since Oct. 19, is the NDP’s lack of an elected presence in B.C.’s rural and northern communities, he said.

The New Democrats elected five members from outside of Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, but the defeat of former cabinet minister Nathan Cullen in Smithers was a huge blow, said Black.

“Vernon is not the North in the way that Nathan Cullen was the North,” he said. “He’s going to have to find, and it’s hard, somebody who’s going to be his minister for the North.”

A statement from Eby’s office on Wednesday said the swearing-in dates of cabinet and members of the legislature have been set based on the judicial recounts in three ridings and reporting information from Elections BC.

Eby is conducting interviews this week with every member of the NDP caucus ahead of the cabinet swearing in.

The 47 New Democrats, including Eby, give the party a one-seat majority in the legislature, pending the recounts.

Of the NDP’s new caucus, 29 are returning members of the legislature and 18 are newly elected.

Among those new to the provincial government are: Tamara Davidson, of North Coast-Haida Gwaii, a Council of the Haida Nation elected representative; Steve Morissette, of Kootenay-Monashee, a former mayor of Fruitvale; and Randene Neill, of Powell River-Sunshine Coast, a former Global BC broadcaster.

Among the re-elected New Democrats who were not in the government’s cabinet or held parliamentary secretary positions are: Brittny Anderson, Kootenay Central; Harwinder Sandhu, Vernon-Lumby; and Ravi Parmar, Langford-Highlands.

Eby said in the statement that the judicial recounts taking place Thursday and Friday will ensure every vote is counted.

After those recounts, he said B.C. residents want to see “urgent action” on priorities including affordability and housing, health care, and building a strong economy.

The first step will be swearing in the new cabinet at a ceremony in Victoria, where he will present his recommendations to Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin, he said.

The statement said a transition team co-chaired by Eby’s special counsel on Indigenous reconciliation, Doug White, and Shannon Salter, the premier’s deputy minister and head of the public service, will make recommendations about selection of ministers and the formation of ministries in the new government.

Newly elected members of the legislature are set to be sworn in and formally invited to take their seats before cabinet’s swearing in, it said.

The Opposition B.C. Conservative caucus and the two B.C. Green Party MLAs are scheduled to be sworn in on Nov. 12, while government caucus MLAs will be sworn in the next day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

TORONTO – Police say one man is dead and two others are injured after a pit collapsed during sewer pipe repairs in Toronto.

Toronto police say the men were fixing a sewage pipe when the pit collapsed on them.

Police say it happened at around 5:25 p.m. Wednesday near Bayview Avenue and Ruddington Avenue in the city’s north end.

Toronto police, paramedics and emergency crew are on the scene.

Police say the two people injured in the pit collapse are recovering in hospital.

Ontario’s Ministry of Labour is investigating.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Four years ago, Fox News precipitated an internal crisis with a bold election night call that President Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in the crucial state of Arizona. This year illustrated the difference that four years can make.

Fox News wasn’t the first network early on Wednesday to declare Trump had sealed his victory over Kamala Harris — upstart NewsNation, conservative rival Newsmax and Scripps Networks led the way — but its ultimate call came nearly four hours before ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and The Associated Press made theirs.

Judging by the cheers that erupted when Fox’s call was shown to the Trump faithful gathered at his West Palm Beach victory party, it was a decision that surely was received much better by its viewers than the 2020 call was.

“When you don’t like how the cake tastes, you’re not going to like the recipe,” said Chris Stirewalt, politics editor at NewsNation. “When you like the cake, you’ll love the recipe.”

Trump, Fox can both claim comebacks on election night

Fox’s Bret Baier called Trump’s victory “the biggest political phoenix from the ashes story that we have ever seen,” and Fox can claim a comeback of its own.

Fox’s Arizona call in 2020 infuriated Trump and many of the network’s viewers. While it ultimately proved correct, it set in motion furious internal second-guessing and led some Fox personalities to embrace conspiracy theories, which ultimately cost the network a staggering $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems.

NewsNation, which used information from the elections forecasting company Decision Desk HQ, made its call at 1:22 a.m. on Wednesday. Scripps and Newsmax, which also use DDHQ, were within a minute of making the same declaration.

At about that time, Baier said that “we’re not there yet,” but noted there was no path to victory for Harris. Fox made its call at 1:47 a.m.

The AP called the election for Trump at 5:34 a.m. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the AP all made their calls within a few moments of each other. The AP explained that its declaration that Trump had won came after awarding Wisconsin to the former president by determining that remaining uncounted votes from around the Milwaukee area would not be enough for Harris to overcome Trump’s lead there.

For NewsNation’s Stirewalt, his network’s early call on Wednesday provided a rich irony. He was politics editor at Fox News in 2020 and he and a fellow executive, Bill Sammon, were essentially fired following the outcry over the Arizona call — even though they were proven right.

“It would be easy to overstate the results and I want to be careful not to do that,” he said. “I will say this, it is a victory for the way things used to be done and a personal vindication.”

Letting the numbers do the talking

He said Decision Desk HQ and NewsNation let the numbers do the talking with their calls. He would not criticize rivals for waiting longer, saying it was a natural reaction to be careful in making race calls following what happened in 2020.

The happiness of some viewers at Fox’s call was evident in some social media posts. Fox rejects any suggestion that its calls are politically motivated and its decision desk, led by veteran Arnon Mishkin, is widely respected in the industry. Stirewalt called Mishkin “superb” and said “it is to Fox’s credit that they kept him when they didn’t keep Bill Sammon and me.”

A vigorous conservative media ecosystem has built up in recent years to compete with Fox. But the network remains king of the hill, illustrated again Wednesday by the Nielsen company’s preliminary ratings of television election night coverage.

Fox averaged 9.7 million viewers for its coverage in the prime-time hours, well above second-place ABC News, which had 5.7 million. Newsmax, Fox’s chief rival for conservative viewers, had 947,000 viewers and NewsNation had 237,000, Nielsen said.

“I am extremely proud of our team’s commitment to delivering the top reporting and analysis to the largest and most politically diverse audience in news,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said of Tuesday night’s ratings, according to the network.

Trump’s complicated relationship with the network also attests to its continued influence. The Republican candidate was a regular guest on its shows during the campaign, particularly the morning “Fox & Friends,” yet also complains bitterly on social media if he doesn’t like something that is said there.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.