Some days you write a front-page headline that you tell the boss is just a joke, a placeholder soon to be replaced with the actual headline, but he erupts with, "No, that's brilliant! Awesome! Let's go with it!" And 99.5 per cent of the time he doesn't, which explains why the big, bold words atop the front page of today's National Post do not say: Boissonnault-no leads to minister's resignation." It won't make sense if you don't know how to pronounce French surnames, so it was probably a wise call in the end.
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Ron Wadden, Posted compiler-in-chief
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In a move that surely has nothing to do with plummeting poll numbers, the Liberal government is planning to temporarily cut the GST on a range of everyday items as of Dec.14, for two months. (Including Christmas trees, for the few who haven't already bought them by then.) It's just one of the financial gifts being offered in the name of affordability. Catherine Lévesque has all the details on what's covered, not to mention the size of the cheques Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering to send millions of citizens. Thank you to all taxpayers for providing the money to fund the cheques that we will be sending ourselves.
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The steady drumbeat of stories by the National Post politics bureau about cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault, shifting stories about his heritage and his company's claim to be Indigenous-owned while bidding on federal contracts led to the inevitable announcement yesterday that he is stepping away from his role as employment minister. Michael Higgins bids Strong Eagle Man a not-so-fond farewell.
There's concern in the oil industry about policies that might be on the table under the Trump administration. We're talking in this case about the major Canadian export that plays a significant role in the food, not energy, industry. Yes, seed oils are evil in the eyes of Donald Trump's nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that could be bad news for canola farmers. In other Trump news, his pick for the next U.S. ambassador to Canada is Peter Hoekstra, a former member of Congress for Michigan.
- When Jordan O’Brien-Tobin texted to friends that he "stabbed someone and got away with it," he spoke too soon. The 22-year-old pleaded guilty in a Toronto courtroom this week to the unprovoked killing of a 16-year-old in a city subway station last year.
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Ukraine is accusing Russia of using an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in the war, with an airstrike on the city of Dnipro. The massive range of ICBMs, as well as their capacity to carry atomic payloads, suggest this is a major warning sign from the Kremlin.
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The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, "for crimes against humanity and war crimes," reports The Jewish News Syndicate. At the same time, it is also seeking the arrest of Mohammed Deif, the supreme commander of Hamas’s military wing. One slight obstacle to the latter court order is that Deif has likely been dead since mid-July.
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"I believe it is a meaningful act of public service to my adopted home province of the last 46 years. I also feel uniquely positioned to help the organization improve its governance." — Former prime minister Stephen Harper, confirming earlier reports that he will lead the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), the Crown corporation that manages public pensions and public investments in Alberta. Tyler Dawson has the story.
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With eight weeks of basic infantry training ahead, Sterling Downey is excited to walk in the military footsteps of his father, eager to provide his service to the Canadian Armed Forces as a reservist. You can decide which of the following makes Downey most distinguishable from the typical recruit: he is a skateboarding graffiti artist, he's got more tattoos than your average punk band, he's 51, and he's a Montreal city councillor.
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Eyare: A two-year-old female western lowland gorilla who was born at the Calgary Zoo in April 2022, and, sadly, died there earlier this month after being struck in the head by a closing door. Zoo officials say a staff member's error was to blame. Steven Wilhelm has more on how the tragedy happened.
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Congratulations, of sorts, to Toyota for having the most popular vehicle in Canada ... to car thieves. The Highlander edges out the Dodge Ram 1500 Series on the list of most stolen vehicles. Honda will have to up its appeal to the criminal sector if it wants to regain top spot, but it's still in the top five. As Stewart Lewis points out, what's most interesting is how much the list varies by region.
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US$6.2 million: The price paid by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun at auction in New York for Comedian. That's the conceptual artwork we've referenced a couple of times recently. You know the one, the banana (actually a rotating cast of bananas, due to rotting) duct-taped to a wall — wall not included in the purchase price. This seems like as good a time as any to let everyone know that Gotcha!, our new (first, and hopefully only) conceptual art sculpture is now available at the low, low price of $3.1 million (Canadian!), or best offer. It features an eggplant glued to a banana that's Velcro-ed to a pumpkin.
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This was the scene a couple of days ago, when Jyoti Amge, the world's shortest woman, according to Guinness World Records, at just a smidge over two feet, and Rumeysa Gelgi, the tallest at just over seven, got together for tea at The Savoy Hotel in London. We have just barely caught our breath now, about an hour after a colleague uttered this comment when the photo was shown at a morning news meeting: "I just hope they get along." Take a bow, Swikar Oli.
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Iceland's Public Defence Department of the State Police / AFP |
Last but not least, the world is not literally on fire, exactly, but it is pretty molten in some places, such as the Icelandic peninsula of Reykjanes, where the Grindavik volcano is expressing itself, colourfully.
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Click on the puzzle icon to get the daily crossword from The New York Times. (Please note, it works best on desktop.) Enjoy. |
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