B.C. Premier Christy Clark addresses Liberal MLAs during a caucus meeting in Vancouver on May 16, 2017.Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
BC Liberals denied majority
All the votes have been counted and the initial seat tallies in B.C.'s May 9 election have remained the same. The BC Liberals finished with 43 seats, the NDP stand at 41 and the Green Party at 3. All eyes had been on the Courtenay-Comox riding that the NDP won by nine votes on May 9. Elections BC finished counting absentee ballots yesterday, giving the NDP a 189-vote margin of victory. If Courtenay-Comox had flipped to the Liberals, Christy Clark would have had a slim majority government. Instead, her party is in a vulnerable position with the Greens holding the balance of power.
Green Leader Andrew Weaver is aiming to decide by next Wednesday how his party will approach the minority legislature. If Weaver doesn't throw his support behind Clark, the Liberals would lose a confidence vote in the legislature and their government would fall. Things would then be in the hands of Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon to decide whether to allow for a new provincial election, or instead give NDP Leader John Horgan a chance to form government. Horgan, though, said there's a possibility he may approach Guichon with an accord that could avoid the need for a confidence vote.
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4,000 troops to patrol Britain's streets
Close to 4,000 soldiers are expected to start patrolling streets across Britain in the wake of Monday's attack in Manchester that left 22 people dead, including children. Soldiers have already been deployed to guard key landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. The country elevated its terror threat level to "imminent" on Tuesday. So far, British police have arrested seven people associated with 22-year-old alleged suicide bomber Salman Abedi. Among them is Abedi's older brother Ismail. Abedi's father and younger brother were also arrested in Libya. Police said the bomb that went off at Manchester Arena, where pop star Ariana Grande had just finished performing, was designed for massive destruction. It was filled with nuts and bolts that shot out across the arena's foyer.
Russians reportedly talked about influencing Trump through aides
Russian officials discussed the possibility of influencing Donald Trump through his advisers, U.S. officials say. That information was reportedly collected by U.S. spies last summer. Conversations among Russian intelligence and political officials focused on Michael Flynn and then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Flynn, the New York Times reported. It's not clear whether Russian officials ended up trying to directly influence Flynn and Manafort. Flynn, who was fired from his role as Trump's national security adviser in February, recently declined to appear in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. The panel is planning to subpoena Flynn as part of its investigation into Russian interference in last year's election.
How CEO Guy Laurence fought the Rogers family — and lost
In the latest Report on Business Magazine, reporter Christine Dobby takes a deep dive into Guy Laurence short-lived tenure as CEO of Rogers. Here's a brief excerpt of the story, which is available in full for subscribers: "[The] main reason Laurence lost his job may have come from within: Blinded by an oversized ego, he had a pattern of underestimating his opponents. He was no fool—he knew that Rogers was still a family-owned company at heart, and that the family was still very much in charge. He knew that Ted Rogers not only founded the company but still loomed over it, larger than life, even after his death in 2008. But Laurence seemed to ignore all that and treat Rogers as a regular public company. One where he, as CEO, was allowed to make decisions without constantly checking with [Rogers family members] Edward and Melinda and the creaking friends-of-Ted who still littered the upper ranks."
MORNING MARKETS
Global stocks hit record highs on Thursday and the U.S. dollar dipped after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled caution in raising interest rates, while oil prices slide after OPEC extended its production cuts by nine months but did not broaden the cuts. Tokyo's Nikkei rose 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.8 per cent, and the Shanghai composite 1.4 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.1 and 0.3 per cent by about 5:45 a.m. (ET). New York futures were up, and the Canadian dollar was just shy of 74.5 cents.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
What the Bank of Canada didn't say speaks volumes
"A couple of the biggest turns toward the positive came in things that the rate announcement, conspicuously, did not say. In its previous statement, in mid-April, the bank said it was 'too early to conclude that the economy is on a sustainable growth path'; that glass-half-empty skepticism has been expunged from the latest statement. The bank also dropped its practice, in each of the previous four rate statements, of specifically contrasting the near-full-capacity U.S. economy and the 'material slack' in the Canadian economy. It can be dangerous to read too much into the words that aren't there, but one inference from all this is that the Bank of Canada, albeit tentatively, is clearing the route to an eventual rate increase." – David Parkinson (for subscribers)
Police deserve to march at Pride. The Manchester attack reminded me of that
"Every part of who I am is left a little more afraid after every terror attack. It is because of this multifaceted fear that I am reminded how fortunate I am to live in a country that has police willing to protect people like me. … While I find strength and comfort from the police of this country, it is also true that others find fear and intimidation. None of my identities comes with enough privilege to be immune or blind to the injustices that warrant police reform and improvement. But this is about more than whether police officers should march in the parade in uniform. Police deserve to march at Pride because they are not, as the rhetoric would have you believe, 'terrorists.'" – Shawn Ahmed, queer, Bangladeshi-Canadian Muslim activist
Has the gender revolution stalled?
"For women, the need to work has changed dramatically – try buying a house in Toronto these days – but their personal preferences haven't changed as much as you might think. Just over a quarter of Canadian working women hold part-time jobs, primarily, they say, because they choose to. They'd rather have more time for the kids, avoid the crappy commutes and let their husbands work the overtime. Their model isn't Sheryl Sandberg. It's Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Yet, the preferences of actual women do not figure in the thinking of government policy makers, or of feminists. What they want women to do is work more like men." – Margaret Wente
HEALTH PRIMER
The best way to dispose of prescription medication
If you have pills in your medicine cabinet that you don't need, think twice before flushing them down the toilet. Pharmaceutical products have the potential to harm aquatic life; one study found birth-control hormones can affect fish reproduction. Instead, your best bet is to return the medication to pharmacies, after which they'll likely be incinerated.
MOMENT IN TIME
Star Wars premieres
May 25, 1977: Theatre owners worried it would be a kiddie movie no one wanted to see. And so, 40 years ago today, Star Wars opened on a Wednesday in only 32 theatres across the United States. The safe bet, they thought, was Smokey and the Bandit, which opened that week in more than 300 theatres. But then crowds started – a tidal wave of fandom that is now commonplace but was born that day. At its peak that summer, George Lucas's film (it was only his third) played in more than 1,000 theatres. The space opera would become – arguably – the most important pop-culture film of all time. But it only earned a measly $254,809 (U.S.) on opening day. The galaxy wasn't just far, far away back then, it was in a completely different universe. – Dave McGinn
Morning Update is written by Arik Ligeti.
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