But wait. There’s relief on the way, at least here at The Buzz.
I’m leading this summer Saturday morning with something good. Not your typical lead, but why not? We could use some good news.
As some of you know, my past CBC assignments allowed me to travel the world at various times and for various reasons. Some of those trips were chances to sit in on the Olympics (Korea, France, Italy, United States, Greece, England, Japan, Brazil, to name a few).
Many of those were good news stories for Canada as we love to celebrate gold, silver and bronze.
One of those who got his fair share of adulation was a guy who used to paddle Olympic waters by the name of Adam van Koeverden. Well, he hung up his competitive paddle a few years ago and now navigates political currents instead as Mark Carney’s Minister of State for Sport. He also wrote this “good news” piece for the Toronto Star, and good for him. It celebrates just how well Canadians are doing in all worlds of sport these days, better than ever in fact:
🔒 Canada’s Moment: Capitalizing on Sports Success to Inspire Future Generations
Okay, enough with the good news. Let’s get into the dirt now!
Week two of this debate now. Did Mark Carney cave in to Donald Trump when he reversed Ottawa’s decision on a Digital Services Tax? Now its Trump threatening 35 percent tariffs on everything Canadian, sort of.
Meanwhile, there’s a battle here at home on all this too. It‘s one thing to have your political foes go after you on flip-flops and strategy, but what happens when the attackers are wearing your own colours? That must hurt. Neil Moss in The Hill Times put it this way:
🔒 ‘A critical mistake’: former Grit ministers call out what they say is Carney’s capitulation to Trump
One of the challenges reporters face in these difficult financial times, which most news organizations face, is the money to travel to remote areas where the story is most felt.
Like northern Ontario, along the shore of James Bay.
We keep talking about the national story that involves that region, but how many of us have actually been there? Tanya Talaga has, and wrote this for The Globe:
🔒 News of a deep-sea port along the James Bay coast is a surprise to those who live there
So, when you think your opponent is fumbling the ball, what’s the right strategy?
Mark McQueen has experience in government, and some of it at the highest levels. Here’s what he considers good advice, as he wrote in an opinion piece in The Star:
🔒 As Carney stumbles in negotiations with Trump, how should the Conservatives respond?
My friend and contributor on The Bridge, former Conservative campaign chair Fred DeLorey, has a well-worth-the-read column on his Substack this week.
It’s about hard times for the NDP, and there’s been all kinds of reaction to it. But best to start with Fred’s opening salvo:
One thing about early July that’s been a given for years is just how much of a dork most central Canadian politicians look when they head to Calgary for the Stampede and try to look like cowboys.
Who will ever forget that leather outfit Stephen Harper wore one year? It was something you can’t unsee.
Well, this year was a little different. Both Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre actually looked the part.
But one can always count on Rick Bell of the Calgary Herald to go beyond the optics for his comments:
Bell: A no-nonsense Poilievre pulls no punches and stands his ground
I know some of you get frustrated with The Buzz when you get trapped behind a paywall and can’t find a way to dodge it.
Well things may soon be more difficult for all of us when it comes to paywalls – it’s something called AI scraping. The Wall Street Journal has this:
🔒 The AI Scraping Fight That Could Change the Future of the Web
Who’s afraid of Donald Trump? Apparently, some of the big companies that control some of the big TV networks are.
Scared he’ll sue them for content he doesn’t like. In other words, content that makes fun of him, calls him a crook, a liar, or a con man. Or, suggests he’s a lousy President. We’ve already seen people get fired by some companies for similar apparent transgressions. Who could be next?
Oliver Darcy has a great newsletter called Status, and here’s what he wrote this week:
🔒 Ellison's Late-Night Limbo
I’ll admit it. I’m a Titanic buff and have been since I was a kid in the fifties, where I sailed the oceans myself in voyages across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal and eventually across the North Atlantic right past the Titanic graveyard.
But as horrendous as the Titanic story was and still is, there was something worse, and it happened much closer to Canadian shores. Thanks to The Walrus for reminding us of it:
How I Solved the Century-Old Mystery of a Miraculous Shipwreck Survivor
