A different look at the news
- What the Liberals are selling on the side
- Pipeline projects approved
- OPEC cuts production
- Minister to study takeover
- Our special Board Games report
- What to watch and read this weekend
- What to watch for in the coming days
The past week
The Trudeau Liberals have sure got that middle-class entrepreneurial spirit.
In fact, they’ve got a “Liberal Boutique” selling everything from socks to sweats. And they even had a 15-per-cent off Cyber Monday sale earlier in the week.
“It began as a pilot project at the 2012 Liberal biennial convention, which started an important focus on rebuilding the party from the ground up on the road to the historic 2015 election campaign,” said party spokeswoman Marjolaine Provost, though you don’t have to be a Liberal to buy stuff there.
I hadn’t been familiar with this online shop, or the less-stocked Conservative store, so I took a stroll through both.
The Liberals have a lot more than the Conservative. They’ve got some fancy – BPA-free, of course – water bottles and more. The Tories have lapel pins, an insulated travel tumbler, baseball caps and pens. (Though they don’t say whether there are refills for when the ink runs dry. Sort of like the leadership.) Both have shirts and coffee mugs.
The most popular in the Liberal shop are the Trudeau 2015 scarf and the Team Trudeau mug, Ms. Provost said, adding the party tries to source all items in Canada.
Here’s a look at what the Liberals are selling (aside from ideology):
This is not a cookie-cutter prime minister, but rather a prime minister cookie-cutter …
Looking at the ad, you’d think Liberal women didn’t wear socks. The Tories only have men’s sock sizes, as well. But Ms. Provost assures me that “the Liberal socks were designed to be worn by all supporters, regardless of gender ...
I didn’t ask about the apron ...
My favourite, Liberal dog accessories ...
The Tories don’t have a Conservative dog. (But, hey, they’re neutered, anyway). In the U.S., though, here’s a post-election Republican dog ...
And a post-election Democratic dog ...
And for the record, the NDP doesn’t have an online boutique ...
Pipeline projects approved
The Prime Minister gave something of a boost to Canada’s oil patch while upsetting environmentalists and First Nations.
As The Globe and Mail’s Shawn McCarthy and Jeff Lewis report, Ottawa approved the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain line to Vancouver and Enbridge Inc.’s expansion of its main line into the United States.
However, Mr. Trudeau also killed the Northern Gateway proposal that would have run through the Great Bear Rainforest.
There’s will also be a moratorium on crude tankers off B.C.’s north coast.
OPEC cuts production
OPEC surprised the markets by actually striking an agreement to cut production for the first time in eight years, a move that drove up crude prices and will mean higher costs at the gas pump.
Many observers hadn’t believed the divided factions within the group would finally reach a pact, but they did, leading to a plan to take 1.2 million barrels a day out of the system as of Jan. 1. Russia joined in, too.
“Today’s announcement is the strongest statement, with key quantifiable measures of accountability, seen from the group in recent years,” Helima Croft, Royal Bank of Canada’s head of commodity strategy in New York, and her colleagues Michael Trans and Christopher Louney said in a report, projecting oil prices will average in the “low $50s before inching into the low $60-a-barrel range by late next year.”