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SNOBELEN: Canadians quietly smug about U.S. politics – Windsor Star

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In this file photo taken on Dec. 4, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump (L) talks with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the plenary session of the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, U.K., northeast of London.


NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP via Getty Images

Canadians seem to take quiet pleasure in the political goings-on south of the border.

You might say we are quietly smug.

This is particularly true for the majority of Canadians who aren’t tainted by politics.

Our American cousins aren’t offended by our smugness. Heck, they barely notice us.

For their part, Americans seem to enjoy the daily reality show streaming from the White House, Congress and the Presidential nomination trail. It’s must watch stuff.

Who would have guessed that electing a reality television star to the Oval Office would generate an endless stream of tweets assailing the made-up character of cartoonish politicians?

Even more entertaining is the daily commentary from political experts who dissect every tweet, sorting through the entrails to find hidden meaning.

I suspect the Trump White House reality show confuses many Canadians. The season-long episodes wherein the President faced the horrors of impeachment were particularly baffling given that Trump was never in any danger of being removed from office.

American political drama is kinda like British humour — sometimes you have to be in the culture to get the joke.

But it isn’t the tawdry nature of American politics that spawns a feeling of superiority in Canadian social circles.

It’s the way Americans nominate their candidates for president that inspires Canadian cheekiness. Heck, if Canada had a population of 300 million people, we would certainly find a better cadre of leadership aspirants.

Trump pounded and belittled 16 other contenders to win the Republican nomination four years ago. The smart folks said he couldn’t win the presidency, but they didn’t factor in the Democrats nominating the one candidate Trump could beat — Hillary Clinton.

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Four years later, the Democrats seem determined to reelect Trump. Their long, confusing path to the nomination convention puts proof to the Will Rogers observation that he wasn’t a member of any organized political party — he was a Democrat.

American politics are sometimes comical, often entertaining and always messy. We the north are vastly superior, unless you consider a small issue — hardly anyone participates in our political process.

At this very moment, unbeknownst to the media, the Ontario Liberal Party is conducting a leadership race. The combatants in this contest are unrecognizable to anyone outside of their immediate families.

But, at some future date, a tiny sub-fraction of the Ontario electorate will bestow the leadership crown on one of the candidates. We may be notified of the result by tweet. No one will notice.

The same is true of the ongoing contest to find a leader for the Conservative Party of Canada (a race made a little less interesting this week when my friend John Baird declined to toss his hat in the ring).

The next CPC leader has a pretty good shot at being our next prime minister, but only a small fraction of Canadian voters will participate in selecting that leader.

Why? Because most Canadians don’t care.

Whenever I go to a political event, I make a point to thank the folks who get off the couch and try to make their party better. There aren’t many of them and they matter.

I have less time, and fewer kind words, for the legions of people who are doing well and have firm opinions on policy, but who decline to stoop so low as to join a political party.

It would be impolite to ask the politically un-soiled to shut up, but perhaps they could be just a little less smug.

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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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Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in ‘Baywatch’ for Halloween video asking viewers to vote

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NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.

In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”

At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.

“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.

She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.

“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.

“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.

“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”

The Harris campaign has taken on Beyonce’s track “Freedom,” a cut from her landmark 2016 album “Lemonade,” as its anthem.

Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.

Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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