Politics Briefing: New leader of the New Democrats could be crowned Sunday

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Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, Guy Caron and Jagmeet Singh are all vying to be the next leader of the federal NDP. This Sunday, one of them might be named as Tom Mulcair's replacement and helm the third-place New Democrats. Party members have been voting since September 18 and will continue to do so online until Sunday at 2 p.m. Then the first-ballot leadership results will be announced in Toronto. There are 124,000 eligible members and each has the option to fill out a preferential ballot ranking the four candidates. If no candidate has a majority of the vote on the first ballot, then the one with the fewest votes will be dropped and the second-round results will be announced the following Sunday. If necessary, a third round of results come Sunday, Oct 15. (The Conservative leadership race earlier this year held all 11 rounds in one day.) If you want to learn more about the candidates, check out our guide on the topic.

One NDP member who isn't voting in the leadership race? Tom Mulcair, who has led the party since 2012. In an exit interview with The Globe's Gloria Galloway, Mr. Mulcair takes a look back at his tenure in charge. Mr. Mulcair took over the party from the late Jack Layton and took it to the brink of forming government in 2015. He has no plans to resign just yet, but is in conversation with "a number of universities and research institutions." He also has no plans to run for government at any level ever again.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto 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.

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CANADIAN HEADLINES

The Globe's new Atlantic correspondent Jessica Leeder is in Moncton today for the final verdict of the RCMP labour code trial following the mass shooting by Justin Bourque in 2014. In the aftermath of the deadly shooting spree, several officers have publicly testified that they were ill-equipped, in terms of both weapons and tactics, to handle the situation. We've laid out the implications of the trial and how residents in Moncton have been coping in the wake of the tragedy.

In Ottawa, opposition MPs, still critical of the Liberal government's tax proposals, say the tax-the-rich rhetoric that the party has been using is offensive to small-business owners.

The federal government has signed a landmark deal with Inuit in Labrador for those Indigenous communities to manage a huge swath of Arctic waterway.

Illegal border crossings in Quebec are down to 50 people a day, but the government says that could go back up in the future.

The announcement that Netflix would invest $500-million in Canada is still leaving quite a few unanswered questions.

The group that represents criminal lawyers in Canada says provincial governments have ignored legal aid as they look for ways to shorten delays and ensure charges aren't tossed out. Courts across the country are under pressure after the Supreme Court of Canada's so-called Jordan decision imposed strict time limits for when cases should be brought to trial. The Criminal Lawyers Association says much of the focus has been on hiring prosecutors and judges, but the group says increasing legal aid funding  would also speed things up considerably.

The federal government says it's followed most of the recommendations from a public inquiry into the collapse of West Coast sockeye salmon, but stocks remain low. The Harper government launched the inquiry after sockeye salmon stocks in B.C.'s Fraser River collapsed. A 2012 report included a series of recommendations including better fisheries management and habitat protection. Despite these efforts, officials say only 1.5 million salmon have returned to the Fraser River this year, well below the 4.4 million predicted.

A new Parliamentary Budget Office report estimates that a universal pharmacare program could cut more than $4-billion a year in costs. Canada has some of the highest prescription drug costs in the world and is the only country that has a universal healthcare program without having a corresponding pharmacare program.

Nova Scotia is committing $2.7-million to help black residents get titles to land that has been in their families for generations.

And Governor-General David Johnston has said "adieu" to Parliament.

John Doyle (The Globe and Mail) on the Netflix deal: "It's peachy that some creatives involved in Canadian TV and movies will have their work seen around the world via Netflix but that is neither new nor is it the rescue of Canadian TV that the federal government wants you to believe."

Kate Taylor (The Globe and Mail) on Creative Canada: "The [Netflix] deal, which coincides with a commitment not to tax online services, is merely political cover for Joly as she fails to resolve the central issue her review was supposed to address: how to update analog-era supports for Canadian creators so that they can thrive in the digital age."

Rita Trichur (Report on Business Magazine) on the CRTC: "Canadians love to hate their wireless carriers—and with good reason. The three-year contract is dead, but monthly bills keep rising. Switching carriers is a nightmare, add-on charges multiply like cockroaches, and being off contract doesn't guarantee that you'll find a substantially better deal if you shop around.Many blame the CRTC. The regulator has tinkered with the rules, but it has largely failed to keep major carriers in check. Now there's a new guy running the shop, and suddenly, there's hope." (for subscribers)

David Suzuki (The Globe and Mail) on whales in captivity: "Whales, dolphins and porpoises are intelligent, social and acoustically sensitive marine mammals. The evidence indicates they need to roam widely and dive deep in a rich, complex environment to thrive. This is not possible in aquarium tanks."

Don Martin (CTV) on the Finance Minister's future: "Staff confide Bill Morneau avoids the obligatory MP glad-handing in his Toronto riding. Maybe it's understandable. This extremely wealthy businessman didn't enter politics to deliver small talk in church basement dinners. But the Finance Minister's apathetic attention to his Toronto Centre turf is noticeable enough for inside whispers to suggest he might not seek re-election two years from now."

Governor-General David Johnston in The Globe: "What I've also learned is that Canada is a more complex country than I thought. It's even more diverse than I thought. Change is occurring more quickly than I thought. And the world in which we live is more complicated than I thought. We are living at a hinge point, not just in our own history but in the history of the world. It's an age of disruption marked by powerful global trends. Globalization, the fourth industrial revolution, climate change, demographic change, challenges in governance and the rise of distrust in many of our institutions are reshaping our world in fundamental ways."

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

A Canadian government insider told The Globe's Robert Fife that the U.S. insistence on including Buy American provisions in the NAFTA renegotiations was the "worst proposal in any trade agreement" that has ever been presented. Needless to say, the sides are far apart and hardball is very much being played.

In Spain, intense debate on Catalonia's independence referendum is fuelling a cry for democratic reform. Ahead of an Oct. 1 vote that the Spanish government has declared illegal, the Catalan government isn't backing down. The Globe's Paul Waldie breaks down what's at stake.

British and EU trade officials say that progress has been made on Brexit talks but not enough to move to the next phase of negotiations.

And British Prime Minister Theresa May has issued a warning to Boeing over its ongoing trade dispute with Bombardier. The Montreal-based company says it's preparing for another large tariff on top of the 220 per cent countervailing duty it was slapped with earlier this week in a preliminary ruling by the U.S. Commerce Department.

Simon Johnson (The Globe and Mail) on what Puerto Rico needs: "The federal government's role should be to make Puerto Rico a hub for investing in clean, renewable energy that is resilient to weather shocks. New technology that results from this investment could be commercialized and sold to a world that is struggling to adapt to climate change and extreme weather."

Karen Connelly (The Globe and Mail) on Aung San Suu Kyi: "t's not really a surprise that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's beloved leader, has not condemned the military's attacks on the Rohingya, a beleaguered, mostly Muslim population. While politicians and human-rights groups are talking up a storm of outrage and indignation, Ms. Suu Kyi's silence on the Rohingya dates back to at least 2012, two years after she was released from house arrest and three years before she won the national election."

R.M. Vaughn (The Globe and Mail) on the rise of Germany's far right: "Germans who were already triggered by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of newcomers, people they would have to get to know and thus be open to, people who might make them vulnerable to disappointment (or joy, the problem being the act of opening oneself up at all), swarmed in panic to the AfD's reassuring message of same-old/same-old."