The Buzz May 4th 2024: Mark Carney, toxicity in Canadian politics, presidential forecasting, and more.
Welcome to Saturday morning and welcome to another week of The Buzz.
The idea here is to give you a sense of the news behind the news as you relax for the weekend. Let’s get started.
There’s a lot of tension out there on Canada’s political landscape.
Parties and their leaders are either trying to pad their lead or dig themselves out of an ever-deepening hole. I think you’ve got a pretty good idea of who’s who in that picture.
If you are a Conservative, you’re probably wondering if there’s anything your party can do that will hurt its massive lead in the polls. After all, the party leadership has done some questionable stuff as of late, but it seems to have had zero impact. As for Liberals, especially ones who’ve been around since 2015, you know you owe your seat, and now your pension, to Justin Trudeau’s one-time popularity. But you’re not oblivious to the fact that a lot of Canadians, and I mean a lot, now want change at the top.
And for Liberals, the next breath often leads to the name Mark Carney. But then it gets difficult – Carney definitely has an attractive background, but is that enough?
While Carney has been getting some headlines and some chatter, Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre, in vying for their own attention and support, are playing a dangerous game.
That’s according to Globe and Mail columnist Konrad Yakabuski:
Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre are both playing a dangerous game 🔒
One way to know which parties are feeling confident about doing well in the next election and which aren’t is to see how many of their MPs are planning to run again.
The Tory and Bloc caucuses seem pretty intact. Not so much the Liberals and the NDP.
Is it all about fear of losing that some are not going to run again? Almost certainly in some cases, but not for Liberal Pam Damoff. Her reasons tell us a lot about the state of politics in Canada today.
Check out this piece from the Toronto Star’s Alex Ballingall:
Pam Damoff won’t seek re-election, citing fears for her safety and disgust with toxicity in politics 🔒
More on this on this week’s Good Talk with Bruce Anderson and Chantal Hebert. Connect at nationalnewswatch.com for the YouTube edition.
If you’ve been reading the Buzz for a while, then you’ll remember the name Allan Lichtman.
He’s an American university professor I told you about whose claim to fame is an uncanny ability to predict the outcome of US presidential elections. I first interviewed him almost forty years ago and he was bang on then. But how does he do it? The Guardian did a deep dive on the Lichtman method and here’s what they found:
‘A lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose’: can Allan Lichtman predict the 2024 election? 🔒
Have you been following developments in the Trump trial?
The US cable networks must feel you are because they’re sure piling up the hours standing outside the courthouse talking about porn stars, playmates, hush money, and all the exciting things that go with them.
If all this stuff about Trump is true, it’s a wonder that the former president ever had time to do what he did in the Oval Office, like suggest we all inject bleach into our bodies to ward off Covid. Anyway, I digress.
How is all this court action impacting voter intentions? ABC News was tracking that:
Okay, I know what you’re saying. “Peter, one more political piece and I’m done. Give me something else. Please.”
Fine, here’s something to make you calm down. Especially if you’ve ever taken or considered taking a winter cruise ship experience.
The historic shipping line, Cunard, has a new ship. Not that you care, but I immigrated to Canada on a Cunard ship just seventy years ago last week. The Samaria was an old tub, a broken-down former troop carrier from WW2, just one year away from being scrapped when we sailed the North Atlantic.
Not at all like the exciting new, almost billion-dollar, Queen Ann. Take a look inside with Chris Leadbeater of The Telegraph:
A look inside the £479m Queen Anne, Cunard’s first new cruise ship in 14 years
All right then. Let’s close out this week with what must, apparently, be a difficult decision young, and not so young, people have to make these days.
Here’s the scenario: you’ve been happily dating someone for a while, and you’ve proudly populated your social media feed with fabulous pictures of your partner. Ahh, but now, you’ve broken up. Are you under some obligation to delete those pictures?
This is a very pressing issue, apparently, and deserves nothing less than the investigative weight of one of the world’s finest journalistic organizations. Over to you Gina Cherelus of the New York Times:
After a breakup, does an ex get to stay on your grid? 🔒
