Mark Bourrie is one of the country’s most experienced writers, having authored books on everything from politics to the country’s great explorers.
The Walrus asked him to take on Mark Carney for a feature article on Canada’s 24th prime minister. Strap yourself in, it’s a good Saturday morning read:
Who Is Mark Carney, Really?
Carney ended the week with more hints at his developing strategy by putting out the latest statement of how he plans to transform Canada's economy and make it one of the strongest in the world.
It's a promise he first made during the election, and now we are starting to see how he thinks he can make it a promise he can fulfill. Peter Zimonjic of the CBC wrote it up this way:
Carney unveils billions in funding, Buy Canada policy to combat Trump's tariffs
Meanwhile, over in a dark, almost abandoned corner of Canadian politics sits the NDP, or at least what’s left of them.
Humbled and humiliated in the April election—not even garnering official party status—the party, which just a decade ago sat as the official opposition, now claims only seven seats. Can it ever make a comeback? James Moore is a former Harper cabinet minister, and aside from being a valued member of the Moore Butts Conversations (I say self-servingly!) on the leading Canadian political podcast The Bridge (self-serving again), he writes for CTV.ca. His latest column is on the NDP:
James Moore: The astonishing collapse of the NDP
Any NDP resurgence, but also the future of the Liberals and Conservatives, could depend to some degree on what happens to the labour vote in Canada.
Catherine Morrison wrote this for Canadian Press:
Labour vote splitting as Canada's political parties battle for workers' support
There’s a lot more on all this in our latest Good Talk with Chantal Hebert and Bruce Anderson. It’s available on our YouTube channel, so please join the tens of thousands of viewers who watch us weekly through that platform. It’s available right here.
One of my daughters is part of a campaign to get their boats back in the water on one of the 100,000 beautiful lakes in Manitoba.
Parks Canada, which oversees the lake, won’t let boats back in the water because of zebra mussels. There’s no doubt the mussels are a scourge, but it’s an incredible frustration for residents. This story isn’t about Manitoba or zebra mussels, but there is a connection, as you’ll see when you read this from Wisconsin Public Radio:
Quadrillions of invasive mussels are damaging the Great Lakes, documentary shows
The last US election, and to a lesser degree, the last Canadian election, showed the growing influence, and even power, of podcasts.
Even The Bridge, my podcast through SiriusXM, had a healthy increase in audience, which continues today. So did our YouTube audience for Good Talk, often seeing numbers greater than some television shows.
In the States, the most popular podcasts have been ones that often push a right-wing agenda, and those were very helpful in getting Donald Trump’s message across to the audience. Not so much anymore. Check this out:
Guess how many billionaires live in North Dakota.
That lonely state hugging the Manitoba border is famous for… actually, I’m not sure what it’s famous for. How about what its tourism board claims: that it’s the home of the geographical centre of North America? Okay, but now it’s famous for something else. It’s the only state in the continental U.S. that does not have a billionaire living inside its borders. The Wall Street Journal discovered that little-known fact when it did a study of billionaires in the country:
🔒 What We Know About America’s Billionaires: 1,135 and Counting
I remember the first time I drove across the Confederation Bridge to get to Prince Edward Island.
It’s a long trip, and no ordinary bridge. I kept worrying about falling asleep and driving off the edge… or worse, getting blown off. The fact that it cost fifty bucks even added to the anxiety. Well, according to Senator Percy Downe, we can thank Mark Carney for dropping one of those worries from the list. He wrote this for National Newswatch:
Fairness, Not Favour
It’s more than three years until the next US election, but that’s not stopping Americans from getting ready.
It sure hasn’t stopped the California Governor from getting out of the gate early. See this take from The Hill:
Newsom is becoming an obsession for Democrats beyond California
We haven’t run a YouTube item on the Buzz for a while, but this seems appropriate
Remember a few years ago, when, during the so-called “trucker’s protest” in Ottawa, Canadian flags were used as a protest weapon? Flown upside down, attached to pornographic slogans about Justin Trudeau. Many Canadians were deeply offended that their flag would be used in such a way, and it’s taken a few years and this year’s patriotic flag-waving to get over it. Well, guess who finds themselves in the middle of a flag-waving story now? England. This takes a few minutes, but you’ll find it interesting, I’m sure. It comes from England’s Channel 4 News:
