Canada

New Prime Minister, new relationship with China.

China's playbook seems to consistently follow this pattern. If they get in a spat with anther country, the grudge continues until a new state leader comes into play, then all past grievances are reset. Sort of like Union-management - when a new collective agreement is signed, past active grievances tend to be voided.

Given that Carney is devout Catholic, we shall see if his dedication to the Pope, given the very tumultuous relationship between the Roman Catholic Pope and China, gets in the way of Good Governance in Canada's policy decisions towards China.

Ottawa says it has banned the largest contractor that worked on the ArriveCan app from entering into contracts or real property agreements with the government for seven years.

Public Services and Procurement Canada has announced that GC Strategies Inc. has been deemed "ineligible" after an assessment of the supplier's conduct.

Last year, the department suspended the security status of GC Strategies, which the auditor general says was awarded more than $19 million for the project.

A report by Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan found the government's record-keeping was poor and its reliance on outside contractors allowed the cost of the project to balloon to $60 million.

The first ArriveCan contract was initially valued at just $2.35 million.

For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Nova Scotians dying from influenza exceeds the number of COVID deaths.

According to the province's latest respiratory watch report, 124 Nova Scotians have died from influenza during the 2024-25 respiratory season, which runs from Aug. 25, 2024, and will go up until Aug. 29, 2025. There have been 108 COVID deaths so far this season.

"Some people have said, 'Oh, thank goodness, we're back to normal,'" (Dr. Lisa Barrett, an infectious diseases doctor) said. "And I'm like, 'Well, now we've got two viruses — not just one — that are still in the really important category for hospitalizations, bad lungs and deaths."

Antivaxxers in Ontario have now helped kill a baby.

Who and how much:

Consider an annual tax on the net wealth of families with rates of one per cent above $10 million, two per cent above $50 million and three per cent above $100 million.

This means the first $10 million of any family’s wealth is entirely unaffected by the wealth tax. Based on modelling of the first year of this wealth tax, the bottom 99.4 per cent of Canadians would pay nothing, while only the richest 0.6 per cent would pay any amount. This means that only about 100,000 families across the country would pay any amount under the wealth tax, with 10,000 wealthy enough to fall into the second-highest bracket and 3,700 in the highest bracket.

This narrow tax on the wealthiest few would raise an estimated $39 billion in its first year, $62 billion by its 10th year and $495 billion cumulatively over a 10-year window.

How:

an effective wealth tax must make use of extensive third-party reporting of assets, particularly from financial institutions, rather than relying too heavily on self-reporting as in the case of some older wealth taxes.

A University of British Columbia Okanagan campus student who raised more than $3,000 for a pro-choice billboard is stumped on where to post her message.

Sophie Harms says she wants to create a billboard that says “Abortion is safe, normal and common” to counter the anti-abortion billboard messaging that peppers the Okanagan region.

Harms’ request to purchase a pro-choice billboard has now been turned down or ignored by all four billboard companies in the region.

Harms points out that though abortion has been decriminalized in Canada, there are still issues with stigma and access that prompt a need to counter anti-abortion messaging.

What Canadians can do

We don’t control U.S. policy, but we do control our response.

• Speak up: When Pride visibility is under attack—even elsewhere—we need to be louder in our solidarity. Local businesses, schools, and governments should reaffirm their support explicitly.

• Support queer media and organizations: From Rainbow Railroad to The 519, Canadian orgs are doing frontline work that often fills in the gaps left by political inaction.

• Challenge imported rhetoric: Whether it’s book bans or “parental rights” bills, we must recognize when American talking points show up in Canadian debates—and push back accordingly.

PM2.5 is at 104ug/m3 indoors with an open window.

Toronto now first as of post update time

• Invidious
• Youtube

Ontario's Ministry of Health has announced the first recorded death of a measles patient from the current outbreak that started in October.

Dr. Kieran Moore, chief medical officer of health, issued a statement Thursday saying a southwestern Ontario infant has died after being born prematurely and infected with the highly contagious virus through the mother.

Moore offered few other details.

Southwestern Public Health, which covers Oxford and Elgin counties, confirmed the child was from a community in their coverage area.

The House of Commons unanimously voted in favour of the Liberals' promised income tax cut on Thursday.

The Liberals promised to bring in a one percentage point reduction in the lowest marginal tax rate — taking it from 15 per cent to 14 per cent — during this spring's election campaign.

The government introduced a "ways and means" motion to make the tax changes last week and all MPs voted in favour of the motion on Thursday.

A ways and means motion allows the government to start making changes to the tax code before such changes are passed in legislation — but a bill will still need to be passed.