Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks in Ottawa on Nov. 9, 2016.Sean Kilpatrick/The Associated Press
POLITICS BRIEFING
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS MORNING
> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended a $1,500-per-person fundraiser at the home of a wealthy Chinese-Canadian businessman earlier this year. Among the guests were one man who donated $1-million to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the University of Montreal Faculty of Law shortly after the fundraiser, and another who had his bank approved by regulators weeks later.
> The prime minister of Tibet's exiled government is urging Canada to be a bulwark against rising nationalism in many countries. Lobsang Sangay is seeking Canada's support of Tibetan autonomy, though Canada is also pursuing closer economic ties with China.
> The Liberals are examining Super Hornets as an option for Canada's fighter jets, but a recent purchase by Kuwait may be instructive: the Middle East country just bought the jets at an average price of $335-million per plane, whereas the Liberals said the jets would cost about $65-million apiece during the election.
> Mr. Trudeau heads to Liberia and Madagascar this week. Here's a detailed look at his strategy on engaging Africa.
> The New Democrats may finally get their first leadership contender in Charlie Angus.
> And if you thought "fart" was a bad word to say in the House of Commons, Bloc Québécois MP Simon Marcil said something worse on Monday and Speaker Geoff Regan put him in the penalty box.
SCANDINAVIAN TWEET STORM
Sure Twitter can be full of misinformation and trolling, but it can be a place for fun, too. On Monday afternoon, the official accounts of the Scandinavian countries or their embassies had a little brag-off about which country was the coolest. Here are a few highlights. (Click on a link to a tweet and scroll down to read the full – very long – conversation.)
@NorwayInCanada: "#CoolNordicCanada is coming up. Who's the coolest?"
@IcelandNatural: "@DenmarkinCanada has wind, but 85% of our #energy comes from renewables like geothermal and hydro"
@DenmarkInCanada: "@IcelandNatural Bravo! But we not only have #windmills, we break world records with wind energy"
@FinlandInCanada: "@DenmarkinCanada Keep on passing wind! We're the greenest country"
@IcelandNatural: "@FinlandinCanada tops literacy but 1 in 10 Icelanders will publish a book in their lifetime"
@DenmarkInCanada: "Re: rankings, we are no 1 on the world's #happiness index. Sad @SwedeninCanada only no 10!"
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail): "Whether Mr. Trudeau will risk putting his political weight behind a campaign to sell the [Trans Mountain] pipeline to voters is still a key question. That does not just mean approving it, but trying to win over public opinion in B.C. When push comes to shove, that will probably be crucial to determining whether Trans Mountain ever gets built – and there will be a lot of shoving, starting soon." (for subscribers)
Nik Nanos (Globe and Mail): "When citizens feel democracy is failing them, they punish the establishment. We saw it with the Brexit referendum and with the U.S. presidential election. The results of both of those events were symptoms of a larger problem in both the United States and the United Kingdom." (for subscribers)
André Picard (Globe and Mail): "Why does Canadian law still allow parents to spank their children? Why has the Liberal government not yet moved on its vow to outlaw corporal punishment, made a year ago as part of a promise to implement all 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?"
Althia Raj (Huffington Post): "Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef is misleading you. She is misleading your elected representatives. And she is casting doubt on the sincerity of the Liberal government's pledge to change the way Canadians elect their MPs."
Stephen Gordon (National Post): "The economies of post-war industrialized countries produced a unique set of circumstances that favoured unskilled men. For one thing, women were still largely excluded from the labour market. And the decline in fertility during the Great Depression meant there was heightened competition for a relatively few men who entered the labour markets of the 1950s. This era of low skills and high wages remains powerful in men's imaginations, even if its lessons have been flatly contradicted by the experience of the past 40 years."
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Compiled by Chris Hannay. Edited by Steven Proceviat.