Good morning. The longest government shutdown in U.S. history may soon be over, but millions of Americans are still reeling from missed paycheques and lost food stamps – more on that below, along with Remembrance Day ceremonies and the end of Canada’s measles elimination status. But first:

• The next round of major projects will be named Thursday, Carney says
• Syria’s President meets with Trump at the White House to seek a permanent repeal of U.S. sanctions
• Ontario moves to block plans for a Toronto apartment complex near a Sanofi pharma plant

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history – which has now entered its 42nd day – could reach an end as soon as tomorrow. Late Sunday night, eight Senate Democrats joined Republicans to advance a bill that would reopen the government. The measure cleared the Senate yesterday, 60-40, and now heads to the House, where it’s expected to pass before moving to U.S. President Donald Trump’s desk for his Sharpie signature.

The spending agreement would fund the government until the end of January, reverse the layoffs of 4,200 federal workers made over the past six weeks, and provide back pay to 1.4 million employees who haven’t received their salaries since Oct. 1. It also funds food stamps through the 2026 fiscal year, protecting a crucial resource for roughly one in eight Americans. The shutdown suspended SNAP benefits for the first time in the program’s half-century history, leaving nearly 42 million people without full access to the stamps they rely on for groceries.

The eight defectors – two of whom will retire next year, and the rest of whom aren’t up for re-election before 2028 – defended breaking ranks with their fellow Democrats by citing the shutdown’s harm to American families. “This was the only deal on the table,” New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen said. Her own daughter, currently vying for a House seat, disagreed: “Clearly we had different approaches here,” Stefany Shaheen told The New York Times.

Much of the party backlash stems from what the legislation doesn’t do – namely, preserve the Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of December. At that point, the average cost of health insurance premiums will more than double for some 22 million Americans. Extending those subsidies had been the Democrats’ central demand throughout this whole shutdown, and instead all they got is a vague Republican promise to hold a vote on the ACA credits some time next month.

“That is a totally meaningless gesture,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said on Sunday. He argued that even if all 100 Senators magically agreed to safeguard the health care subsidies, House Republicans – hostile to all things Obamacare, as the ACA is commonly known – would never take up the issue. House Speaker Mike Johnson pretty much confirmed that yesterday, telling reporters he wouldn’t guarantee a vote.

So what exactly did this standoff accomplish, beyond a massive uptick in food bank visits, a total meltdown across U.S. airports, and a bunch of desecrated landmarks at national parks? ACA tax credits are extremely popular: Three-quarters of Americans support them, the research firm KFF found last week. And polls suggested Democrats were winning the fight over Obamacare. According to CNN’s Jake Tapper, internal data showed that a plurality of voters (and the vast majority of Democrats) believed it was more important to prevent giant hikes in health-insurance premiums than it was to end the government shutdown.

Even Trump recognized that voters held his party responsible for the political upheaval. After Democrats pulled off an unlikely electoral sweep last Tuesday, the President griped to Senate Republicans that “I think if you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor, negative for the Republicans.” For weeks, Trump had demonstrated little interest in ending the stalemate: Rather than meeting with Democratic leaders or cajoling congressional representatives, he demolished the entire East Wing and hosted an honest-to-goodness Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party hours before millions lost their food stamps. By Friday, however, he seemed to find a sense of urgency, demanding Republicans work through the weekend and kill the filibuster if necessary to get a deal done.

Eight Democrats blinked. Maybe they truly believe they’ll get a vote to extend the ACA subsidies. Maybe they know they won’t, but are banking on voters blaming Republicans when those health care costs start to go up. Or maybe they’re just keen to go through all this again after their Christmas vacation. Another shutdown looms once government funding runs out in two-and-a-half months.

Dozens of Girl Guides have been placing poppies on the graves of Canadian veterans, in a hands-on act of remembrance meant to connect a new generation to the past. Read more about the poppy ceremony here.

At home: Canada has officially lost its measles elimination status after failing to curb the outbreak of the virus for 12 straight months.