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politics briefing newsletter

Good morning,

The Quebec election campaign is slated to begin this week, for a vote on October 1. For the first time in a generation, sovereignty will not be a defining issue in the race. Polls show voters are hungry for change from the currently-governing Quebec Liberals, which puts the six-year-old party Coalition Avenir Québec in a strong position. The CAQ is a right-leaning party whose policies may line up well with the federal Conservatives.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa and 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. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

The federal Liberal cabinet are gone to Nanaimo, B.C., for a two-day retreat this week. Next year’s election will be the major topic of discussion. Justin Trudeau is, not surprisingly, running again – but what is surprising, the Canadian Press reports, is that the Liberals may try to further beef up their elections bill to guard against foreign interference.

The Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa is constructing a new collections centre that will dwarf their current facility and be accessible to the public – but it’s had its own share of building challenges.

Toronto city council will hold a special meeting today to discuss new Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s plan to slash the number of municipal politicians in the region.

Local governments in British Columbia are scrambling to find places to build housing for their homeless populations, as the province launches a new phase of funding aimed at finding 2,500 people places to live.

A group of Chinese immigrants in the Vancouver region are using advertisements targetted at ex-pats from China to bring attention to the country’s human rights record. The group has purchased a bus shelter ad along one of Richmond’s busiest routes demanding democratic reforms in China, with more advertisements planned in the future.

Calgary’s bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics is becoming increasingly dependent on bringing Whistler, B.C., and Edmonton on board. The idea of a multi-city bid was once a non-starter for the International Olympic Committee, but the strategy is now seen as essential as potential hosts try to deal with the staggering costs associated with the Olympics.

And Amazon, the e-commerce giant, is breaking ground on a new warehouse in Ottawa today. The “fulfillment centre” will create new jobs in the area, though it is an open question how good those jobs are.

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Liberal foreign policy: “Canada needs a hard rethink. Its foreign policy drifted into some lazy habits: failing to take a hard-nosed look at Canadian interests, politicking abroad for ethnic diasporas at home, shallow virtue-signalling without real legwork and a short attention span with other countries.”

Danielle Goldfarb (The Globe and Mail) on Canada-U.S. trade: “Will Americans support a continued trade war into the midterm elections and beyond? Data show that a steady majority of Americans are not against trade or in favour of tariffs. Half simply do not hold strong opinions. One out of two Americans is not even sure that trade with Canada – the largest export market for the majority of U.S. states – is good for the U.S. economy.”

Shachi Kurl (Ottawa Citizen) on diversity in politics: “Just as Francophones took a sense of meaning, belonging and long-sought equality from official bilingualism, multicultural policy has helped solidify a sense of place in the centre of society, not on the margins, for visible minorities. It provided a sense of parity.”

Allison Hanes (Montreal Gazette) on gun violence: “The majority of legal gun owners may be blameless for these worrying trends. But when painkillers started to claim lives, the government started cracking down on the misuse of opioids. Canada regulates alcohol, tobacco and soon cannabis — products far less lethal than handguns or assault weapons.”

Abdullah Shihipar (The Globe and Mail) on extreme heat: “Air conditioning isn’t a magical long-term solution to the problems we face from climate change – changing how we design buildings and addressing global emissions are far bigger issues – but it is a necessary step to mitigate the effects we are feeling at the moment. Extreme heat is a serious public health issue. It’s time we started treating it like one.”

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