The Olympic rings are seen in front of the airport of Sochi, the host city for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.KAI PFAFFENBACH/Reuters
Good morning,
Calgary is confident it could host the 2026 Winter Olympics, but that doesn't get the city any closer to answering a more important question: should it? Other cities have struggled with the same calculation, and a growing number of them have decided the costs simply aren't worth it.
A committee struck by the city to explore an Olympic bid has already come back with some projections, and it wouldn't be cheap: $4.6-billion, including $2.4-billion in taxpayer money. And even if everything goes to plan, the committee says the Games could still face a deficit of $190-million. An added complication is the potential that Canada hosts part of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which could make Ottawa less inclined to also fund the Olympics in the same year.
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi set the bar for skyrocketing budgets, costing $51-billion. The 2010 Games in Vancouver cost about $7.7-billion. It took Montreal 30 years to pay off debt from the 1976 Olympics.
The list of contenders for the 2024 Summer Games had been whittled down to two -- Los Angeles and Paris -- after three other cities pulled out. The IOC now says LA and Paris can both host in 2024 and 2028 if they can agree who goes first. The contest to host the 2022 Winter Games also had just two contenders -- the fewest in more than three decades, with Beijing narrowly defeating Almaty, Kazakhstan.
And even when the Games don't saddle local governments with debt, there's considerable debate about whether the Olympics really give host cities much of an economic boost. Some supporters argue that shouldn't matter.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Mayaz Alam and Eleanor Davidson in Toronto, with James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Let us know what you think.
CANADIAN HEADLINES
Alberta's Progressive Conservatives have lost a caucus member in the wake of the weekend votes to unite the province's right-of-centre parties by merging with Wildrose. MLA Richard Starke says his party under PC Leader Jason Kenney has shown a "hardness" on a number of issues, including gay-straight alliances in schools, and he says he has no faith that will change under the new United Conservative Party. Mr. Starke ran for the PC party leadership with a platform of social progressivism, but lost to Mr. Kenney. Mr. Kenney's team declined comment. For now, the new party will have an interim leader, Nathan Cooper, until a new leader is chosen for the united party. Kenney, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, and conservative strategist Doug Schweitzer have said they plan to run.
The Trudeau Liberals hold a 14-seat majority in the House of Commons. During the 2015 Federal Election there were 14 Liberals who won their ridings by less than 2.5 per cent. The list includes three ministers — Jean-Yves Duclos (Families, Children and Social Development), Kent Hehr (Veteran Affairs) and Amarjeet Sohi (Infrastructure) — as well as Mr. Trudeau's adviser for LGBTQ2 issues, Randy Boissonnault. The Hill Times took a look at these pivotal ridings as we near the midway point of the government's first mandate.
Senator Murray Sinclair, the former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has been tasked with investigating the state of policing in Thunder Bay, Ont. The Ontario Civilian Police Commission, the accountability and oversight body in charge of Ontario's police forces, said that it had "serious concerns" about the city's police force, which has endured heavy criticism for the way in which it has investigated the deaths of Indigenous people in the city.
And Canada is expected to lead the G7 in economic growth this year, according to an IMF World Economic Outlook report. The world economy is expected to grow by 3.5 per cent this year.
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on Andrew Scheer's political smarts: "Mr. Scheer has been adept at issues-management, in particular by turning the settlement of Omar Khadr's lawsuit into the story of the summer and the worst blow the Liberals have suffered since the election… The Conservatives have succeeded at stoking public anger, leaving the Liberals sounding like, yes, condescending elitists."
Lori Turnbull (The Globe and Mail) on a united Conservative Party in Alberta: "The trick with merged parties, especially in the early days, is to develop and maintain consistent messaging that resonates with the members of both of the former entities and that attracts the support of voters. Former prime minister Stephen Harper, the first leader of the Conservative Party, was very successful at this. Paradoxically though, the thing that made him successful as the leader of a merged party was also the thing that made him unpopular in many quarters. He learned early on that message control was essential."
Kelly McParland (National Post) on Alberta's NDP threat: "People can be bought with their own money. It's a truism of Canadian politics. Albertans have resisted in the past, but Notley has two more years to get them used to it. Many Canadians still think of Alberta as a conservative province that's been hijacked by the NDP. A second Tory loss would force a fundamental reconsideration of that belief."
NAFTA UPDATE
For all the preparation and outreach the Trudeau government has conducted in the lead-up to the NAFTA renegotiations, there is one clear line in the sand.
If the Trump administration insists that Chapter 19's dispute-settlement panels be removed from the accord, the Canadian government is prepared to walk away from the talks, a senior official told The Globe.
Chapter 19 allows Canada, the United States or Mexico to request the establishment of independent, bi-national panels when their exporters or producers feel they are the victim of unfair trade rulings by another NAFTA country. In objectives released last week, the U.S. government listed eliminating the dispute-resolution mechanism as one of its top priorities for the renegotiation.
David MacNaughton, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, stood by Chapter 19, and said it is "critical to have some kind of a dispute-resolution mechanism incorporated" into the talks.
Mr. Trudeau's red line would not be the first time in Canadian history that free-trade talks were ended over dispute-settlement panels. In 1987, Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney ordered an end to negotiations on a Canada-U.S. free-trade deal unless a dispute-settlement mechanism was included.
On the periphery of those renegotiations will be the issue of softwood lumber, which isn't covered by NAFTA but has emerged as another sticking point between Canada and the Trump administration. The decades-long dispute boiled over in April, when the United States imposed duties on Canadian softwood, about half of which comes from B.C. The province's new NDP premier, John Horgan, is heading to Washington this week to meet with the U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Andrei Sulzenko (The Globe and Mail) on what Canada's NAFTA priorities should be: "Over the years, Canada has had to go cap in hand to the United States seeking exemptions from many of these measures or has had to litigate better outcomes. NAFTA II should put an end to this kind of bad-for-business arbitrariness and uncertainty. Even if Canada were able to negotiate breakthroughs on these usual suspects, there is one very big elephant in the room: the U.S. trade-remedy system, the commercial equivalent of the cherished right to bear arms. The negotiations for the 1987 bilateral Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement that preceded NAFTA almost foundered on this issue, and now NAFTA II is at some risk."
National Post editorial board on what the U.S. can teach Canada about NAFTA: "Canadians can expect a great deal of transparency about what's coming down the tubes on NAFTA. Not because the Liberals have at last decided to start delivering on their long-promised transparency agenda, but because in 2015, the U.S. Congress passed the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act, which gave the House and Senate unprecedented powers to monitor trade talks and provide input on them. The act also includes public notice and consultation requirements, which is what led to the negotiating objectives being published this week, and will result in draft changes to the agreement being released as well."
INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior adviser in the White House, testified in a closed door statement yesterday before Congress and also issued a lengthy and detailed statement in which he denied that he colluded with Russia. Mr. Kushner said he met with Russian officials four times during the presidential election. In order to get security clearance he was required to fill out forms that say false statements are punishable by imprisonment. When he initially submitted this documentation he omitted any meetings with foreign nationals. After reports emerged of contacts between members of the Trump campaign, he added more than 100 names and submitted revised documents.
After a weekend of protests across the country, Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoed two proposed laws that would have replaced Supreme Court judges with government nominees. "As president I don't feel this law would strengthen a sense of justice," Mr. Duda said in a statement on Polish national television. While his decision was unexpected, Mr. Duda did not fully reject the proposed reforms to Poland's judiciary. A third bill, which gives the Justice Minister the right to name the heads of the lower court system, was approved by the president. The European Union warned Poland that it was "very close" to triggering Article 7 last week, which would have been the first use of the rule to suspend a member country's voting rights.
The parents of a terminally-ill baby have given up a legal battle to keep their child alive. Connie Yates and Chris Gard said their son Charlie Gard might have been able to live normally if he had received experimental treatment in the United States.
"We have decided to let our son go," Ms. Yates said.
Charlie suffers from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which causes muscle weakness and brain damage, and means the child is unable to breathe unaided.
Britain's courts, with support from the European Court of Human rights, said treatment for Charlie would prolong the child's suffering. Charlie's parents, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Francis, had fought to send the child to the United States for therapy. Last year, medical experts concluded that Charlie had suffered irreversible brain damage.
Mr. Gard told an assembled crowd waving balloons and chanting "Justice for Charlie" that he and Ms. Yates "are now going to spend our last precious moments with our son Charlie, who unfortunately won't make his first birthday in just under two weeks' time."
And, The New Yorker profiled London Mayor Sadiq Khan after his first 14 months in office, a period in which London has been rocked by the Brexit vote, suffered multiple terrorist attacks and a horrific fire at Grenfell Tower that killed more than 80 people.
Jillian Stirk (The Globe and Mail) on Poland's faltering democracy: "As Poland turns back the clock on democracy and the rule of law we find barely a mention in the Canadian discourse. Home to generations of Polish immigrants, Canada has always had more than a passing interest in the fate of Poland. Canada was among those who advocated most strenuously for Poland's early entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a means of cementing its reforms and its place in Euro-Atlantic security. So where is Canada today as the Law and Justice Party (PiS) moves one step further away from the rule of law and the principles for which Poles fought so hard?"
Josh Rogin (Washington Post) on the failure of American foreign policy in Syria: "although the Trump team inherited a terrible hand in Syria, the way it is playing it repeats the same fundamental mistakes made by President Barack Obama — and it will likely have the same negative results for the Syrian conflict, as well as for American interests… The Trump administration ought not to repeat Kerry's chief mistake, which was to negotiate with Russia without leverage. That's why Trump's reported decision to cut off the CIA program to train and equip some Syrian rebel groups fighting Assad is so shortsighted. Trump is giving up what little leverage he has for nothing in return."
Pepe Samba Kane (Al Jazeera) on Emmanuel Macron's African colonialism: "Macron not only insisted on the continuity of France's economic dominance in the region as a former colonial power, but he also signalled his support for French military presence in the continent. Within the first weeks of his presidency, he has also clearly demonstrated that his assumptions about Africa and Africans are just as racist and colonialist as his predecessors.' "