Politics Briefing newsletter: Floods hit Quebec, Ontario

CANADIAN POLITICS

Flooding continues in Quebec and parts of eastern Ontario. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the federal government will be providing assistance in affected regions.

The robots may be coming, but Canadians aren't worried just yet, a new poll finds. The vast majority of Canadians say that technological change has been good for the world and for their economic well-being. Only 18 per cent of adults are worried about the negative consequences associated with technological advances and the rise of artificial intelligence. A study released last summer found that 42 per cent of jobs were at risk due to smarter computers. Worried about whether your job will disappear in the next 10-20 years? This search tool helps you find out how precarious your employment situation is.

Advocates of reforming mandatory minimum sentences say that change is long overdue. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and the Liberal government are set to address the issue in the spring.

The Globe's Laura Stone profiled Kellie Leitch, who has made quite a mark in the Conservative leadership race. Ms. Leitch says she has no regrets about her contentious policies.

And Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has some advice for Mr. Trudeau on how to navigate the potentially treacherous relationship with the White House: Relax.

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Conservative leadership policies: "It's one thing to argue that the notwithstanding clause can be used in rare cases to respond to judicial overreach. But it's another to reach for it every day before breakfast. As a group, these leadership contestants sure find a lot of reasons to override the Charter."

Danielle Martin and Sandro Galea (The Globe and Mail) on universal health care and NAFTA: "Canadian governments and citizens need to remember that, not far from here, health-care insurance is a good that is sold in the marketplace like softwood lumber. If the health-care battle and the free-trade battle intersect at the Canada-U.S. border, Canadians may become more than interested observers of the Trump presidency."

Lisa Kerr (The Globe and Mail) on differing approaches to solitary confinement: "The question is why the Ontario government appears willing to do what the federal prison service has refused for decades."

Glen McGillivray (The Globe and Mail) on Canadian floods: "Once again, homes located alongside a Canadian river have flooded, affected homeowners are shocked, the local government is wringing its hands, the respective provincial government is ramping up to provide taxpayer-funded disaster assistance and the feds are deploying the Armed Forces. In Canada, it is the plot of the movie Groundhog Day, or the definition of insanity attributed to Albert Einstein: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. At least in the movie, Bill Murray's character learns from his mistakes. This can't seem to be said of how we manage flood in this country."

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B.C. ELECTION

The United States has brushed aside BC Liberal Leader Christy Clark's push for retaliation in the ongoing softwood lumber dispute. Ms. Clark called on Ottawa to ban thermal coal exports from B.C. ports, which would primarily affect American coal, and she says she would impose a tax if the federal government doesn't act. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the Trump administration won't yield to pressure from Canada, including Ms. Clark's proposal, and he described such action as "inappropriate." Ms. Clark, who has shifted her re-election campaign to focus on shielding the province from American protectionism, says the reaction of the U.S. government is proof she's gotten their attention.

The federal government is preparing to legalize recreational marijuana next year, and while British Columbia has been at the forefront of the black market industry, the issue has barely received a mention during the election campaign. The BC Liberals and the NDP are both promising to consult experts on the best approach for the province, but otherwise have few concrete ideas. Green Leader Andrew Weaver wants to bring the underground cannabis trade into the legal regime, and has suggested creating a market for small-scale "craft" growers.

The BC Liberals are facing criticism for Chinese-language ads that critics say are inaccurate and are taking advantage of some Chinese voters' limited grasp of English. Ads posted in Chinese-language newspapers say NDP candidates voted to support selling pot in liquor stores and supported growing marijuana near a school. The candidates were city councillors in Burnaby and Richmond, where the mayors say the information in the Liberal ads simply isn't true. The BC Liberal Party is standing by the ads.

From the weekend: Gary Mason profiled Christy Clark, the brash, provocative and polarizing Liberal Leader who has spent the past four weeks in her element. Ms. Clark, he writes, is a brilliant campaigner: "She is because she loves it; she feeds off the attention, the adulation."

SECUREDROP

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INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Emmanuel Macron will become France's next president after defeating far-right leader Marine Le Pen. The 39-year-old former banker and economy minister is the youngest person to lead France since Napoleon Bonaparte and won while carrying the banner of En Marche!, a party he founded last year. Mr. Macron's honeymoon period will be short, with legislative elections scheduled for mid-June and his party holding zero seats in the French legislature.

Although Ms. Le Pen lost, her anti-EU, anti-immigrant party has become in many ways the de facto opposition. Compared to 2002, when her father carried the banner in the presidential election, nearly twice as many French citizens ( about 35 per cent compared to 18 per cent) voted for the far-right. The National Front, whose name Ms. Le Pen is looking to change, has put itself at the centre of the French political conversation. 

Former acting attorney-general Sally Yates is set to testify today in the U.S. Senate about the connections between the Trump team and Russia. She is expected to say that the Justice Department explicitly warned the White House about former national security adviser Michael Flynn's susceptibility to Russian blackmail efforts.

Thomas Guénolé  (The Globe and Mail) on Brexit, Trump and now Macron: "According to most political analysts in France and abroad, Emmanuel Macron's huge victory against Marine Le Pen is the result of the fight between two opposing ideas of what France should be. It's the result of the duel between open and closed. Similar analysis has been spreading for months about the referendum on Brexit in Britain and the victory of Donald Trump in the United States. But this analysis is completely wrong. It is not one idea against another, but rather four opposing ideas. In France, just like in Britain and the United States, there is no such bipolarization. What we have is, in fact, quadripolarization of the political landscape."

Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on Macron's tough task ahead: "It will now fall to Mr. Macron to push back the nationalist tide, nurtured by growing working- and middle-class anger in the face of French economic stagnation. Is he up to the task? "

Anne Applebaum (Washington Post) on Macron's improbable rise: "He benefited both from the flameout of Socialist President François Hollande, who decided not even to contest the election, and from a surprise series of personal scandals that dragged down the center-right's candidate, François Fillon. But Macron was also extraordinarily prescient. He saw that there was an opening in France for a socially liberal, economically liberal, internationalist and optimistic voice. Fillon, like Prime Minister Theresa May in Britain, wanted to repackage nationalist policies into more acceptable language. Macron instead argued openly against the fear, nostalgia, nativism, statism and stagnation on offer from the rest of the political class. He made no populist promises, he offered no impossible schemes or unattainable riches. And then he won."

PLAYOFFS

The Toronto Raptors are out of the NBA playoffs after being swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors made a big push at the trade deadline to try and top the Cavaliers but after being swept, and with star guard Kyle Lowry's contract expiring, the franchise heads into the off-season with questions about the future.

In the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers are headed to Game 7 against the Anaheim Ducks after a resounding 7-1 victory.

Written by Mayaz Alam in Toronto, Chris Hannay in Ottawa and James Keller in Vancouver.