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The Buzz March 2nd 2024: Brian Mulroney, vaccines, electric vehicles, and more.

It really was, as many have suggested, the passing of a political titan.     

Brian Mulroney died Thursday at 84 and the tributes and memories came in from around the world.

I have many memories, having covered him since the early eighties before he became leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Good times and tough times, but the most poignant was this.  

Standing together on a second-floor Johannesburg balcony watching the pre-funeral procession of Nelson Mandela pass by beneath us. It was December of 2013. Mulroney was, and always will be, a revered hero in South Africa. It’s entirely possible that Mandela would have stayed, and died, in prison and apartheid would have continued, had Mulroney not pressured the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to join the voices of those calling for change. He believed in the cause to his core and he never let that belief go until he succeeded. What he did was not just a tribute to Mandela, it was a tribute to the country he loved – Canada. 

As I stood next to him on that balcony more than a decade ago, I was struck by the moments of history we had both witnessed – both in Canada and around the world.  He as a participant, I as an observer. The Prime Minister and the Journalist.

(Picture taken December 1986.)

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Brian Mulroney wasn’t perfect. He had his flaws, and he paid a price for them. 

 
But he believed in big ideas and big change when it was needed. Some of his ideas worked – free trade, the GST, the environment. Some didn’t – Meech Lake, Charlottetown. But big ideas provoke debate, discussion and at times division. But oh, those were the days when political debate in Canada was constructive and about the big things, not the minor personal, purely political stuff that seems so trivial these days. As Jean Chretien implied the other day, Mulroney and he were political foes and they both fought hard, but they respected each other when the fight was over.
 
My friend, Anthony Wilson Smith, CEO of Historica wrote this fabulous piece Thursday night just after the news broke – in my view, it truly captures the real Brian Mulroney:

Above All, a Transcendent Talent for Friendship: Brian Mulroney, 1939-2024

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There’s a lot more about Brian Mulroney on this week’s Good Talk available on YouTube at nationalnewswatch.com: Bruce Anderson, Susan Delacourt (filling in for the vacationing  Chantal Hebert) and me --- join us if you can.

 

Aside from the former prime minister’s passing, when history looks back at Canada this week two things will likely stand out as moments that changed our lives.   

The federal government introducing Pharmacare as a new building block in the country’s social safety net was one. The other, legislation to protect children from online content that could harm them. 

While both are important and a bit controversial, I found something else that could have an equally important impact on Canadians for generations to come.

Measles. If you, like me, thought this was a story from the past, think again. Measles is back and in some parts of the world, it’s back in significant numbers.  Why is this happening when only a few years ago we thought measles had been wiped out for good, thanks to vaccines?  Ahh the V word.

The country’s best-known and most respected health journalist, Andre Picard of the Globe and Mail, had the story this week – it’s not fearmongering, it’s letting the facts tell the story:

The return of measles is cause for concern, not disdain 🔒

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So, are Canadians backing off vaccines in the post-pandemic period?  

New research data from the Angus Reid Institute suggests we are: 

Parental opposition to childhood vaccination grows as Canadians worry about harms of anti-vax movement

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Defence budgets and defence policies are rarely a major Canadian issue.   

You don’t often see elections fought over how much we spend on defence: what equipment we should buy and what contributions we should make to the alliances we belong to. Why not?  And what does it say about us?  At a time when many analysts feel the world is sleepwalking into a global catastrophe, should we be getting our defence act together?
 
Some have compared the current situation to the 1930’s when Winston Churchill wrote his 1938 book, “While England Slept,” arguing that his country had to wake up to the threat posed by Nazi Germany. We know where that led.
 
So, read this from Daniel Lauzon in National Newswatch and think about whether you agree.

While Canada Sleeps

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“If you’ve got the money, why not spend it?”   

That’s what some in the political advertising business argue, while others say, “Wait ’til the election - it’s just a waste of money when no one is thinking about an election.”
 
Maybe, but then look what Pierre Poilievre has achieved since his party started spending millions on changing his image in the last year. Dump the glasses, put on a tight black t-shirt to expose the abs, modernize the hairstyle, play with the kids and bring it home (you know, the multi-million dollar public housing location he and the family call home). Bingo, that and more swipes at that Justin guy and suddenly you have a twenty-point lead. No election but what if there was one? Say what you want, but it’s working.
 
That must be the thinking among the Conservative strategy group (translation – Pierre Poilievre, Anaida Poilievre, and Jenni Byrne) because they are pushing the money out the door for advertising now at a far greater pace than the Liberals. Mark Ramzy of the Toronto Star has been calculating:

Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives ad spending far outpacing Justin Trudeau's Liberals, data shows 🔒

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Remember back in the heyday of newspapers, when if you were a car enthusiast you’d look forward to Saturdays because many big papers had one major section dedicated just to car news?  

They’d have had a field day this week. So, in their place, I have a few auto stories to share from this week.
 
Just a few years ago electric vehicles were seen as a sure thing for the future. We would all be plugging in, and gas guzzlers would be cars of the past. A lot of people bought into the idea and still do. I was convinced my next car would be an EV. Manufacturers pushed hard to get into the Tesla-led EV business, but there’s been a noticeable backing off in the last year with some automakers and auto dealers saying controversies on price, questions about batteries and cold weather performance have hurt the market.
 
Now Apple, who was working on its entry into the EV market and making cars overall, is said to be shutting it all down.  
 
Here’s how Mark Gurman of Bloomberg put it:

Apple to Wind Down Electric Car Effort After Decadelong Odyssey

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Now if that news wasn’t bad enough, this didn’t help EV enthusiasts either. 

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (no, I’d never heard of them either) impressed Shannon Osaka of the Washington Post with this award for the most energy-efficient car of the year. It’s not an EV:

The ‘greenest’ car in America might surprise you

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Okay, one last auto story and I turn to my favourite personal finance columnist, Rob Carrick of the Globe. 

Guess what? EV or not, auto sales are soaring – what should that tell us about the economy? 

If money is tight right now, why are vehicle sales soaring? 🔒

Read >

 

Can you tell I used to work at a gas station? Fill ‘er up, Ma’am?

That’s The Buzz for this week …. See you in seven days. Have a great week.

The Buzz is a weekly publication from National Newswatch that shares insights and commentary on the week’s developments in politics, news and current affairs.

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