In The News for Dec. 14 : New poll shows Tories retaining lead over Liberals

It’s the fourth consecutive month-to-month ballot during which the Conservative social gathering has maintained a lead — and the fourth since Pierre Poilievre grew to become its chief.

Each events had been barely down general, with the NDP as much as 21 per cent from 19 per cent in November and the Folks’s Get together of Canada doubling its help to 4 per cent, up from two per cent.

Assist for each the Bloc Québécois and the Inexperienced Get together held regular within the ballot, at seven per cent and 4 per cent of nationwide voter intentions respectively.

There was no perceptible bump for the Greens regardless of the latest re-election of Elizabeth Could as social gathering chief on a joint poll with co-leader Jonathan Pedneault.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals held substantial leads in Atlantic Canada, the place they had been up 9 factors over the Tories, and in Quebec, the place their help remained six factors forward of the Bloc.

Solely 19 per cent of Quebec respondents mentioned they might vote Conservative. Solely eight per cent supported the NDP.

In Ontario, Poilievre’s social gathering enjoys a seven-point lead over the Liberals at 36 per cent, with Liberals at 29 per cent and the NDP at 26 per cent.

The Conservatives are at 47 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan — the one locations the place the NDP is in second place, with 23 per cent. Trudeau’s social gathering is in third place with simply 19 per cent help. And Maxime Bernier’s PPC had its greatest consequence with 9 per cent.

Tories additionally lead by a 15-point margin in Alberta, with Liberals and NDP only one level aside, and are besting the Liberals by a smaller, two-point margin in B.C.

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Additionally this …

Canada is battling inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is reshaping the world order and specialists are saying that provide chain points are right here to remain.

Federal ministers have mentioned that to cope with these issues, Canada ought to flip away from China and observe the U.S. in buying and selling with like-minded international locations.

The Liberals additionally outlined plans of their Indo-Pacific technique final month to attempt forming new financial partnerships with different international locations in Asia.

Consultants say that these new relationships may give Canada extra leverage in Washington, because the U.S. can present extra heft.

But it surely could possibly be exhausting to pivot away from China, because it has affect in lots of different locations and few different international locations have the identical skill to get items shifting quick.

And Canada has its personal home obstacles to clear earlier than it might stay as much as its objective of turning into a world powerhouse for electric-battery elements — one other approach to stave off future supply-chain issues.

And this too …

The function of personal cash and business in preserving sufficient pure ecosystems to maintain the planet functioning would be the focus of talks Wednesday at a global convention on biodiversity in Montreal.

Whereas negotiators proceed to attempt to hammer an general conservation deal, discussions are additionally scheduled on how international capital flows might be harnessed to work with nature relatively than exploit it.

Figures from the United Nations recommend these capital flows at the moment are extra a part of the issue than the answer.

The UN says that in 2019, industries which are eroding biodiversity obtained cash from main funding banks equal to Canada’s complete GDP — an estimated $3.5 trillion.

The UN figures say most of that cash went to agriculture, fisheries, fossil fuels and forestry.

They are saying the cash dedicated to conservation was $200 billion at most.

Delegates to the conference have already spent days speaking about how wealthy international locations ought to assist poor ones fund conservation. Many of the world’s biodiversity is concentrated within the international south.

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What we’re watching within the U.S. …

SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ California’s committee to review reparations for African Individuals will meet in Oakland Wednesday to debate what type reparations may take and eligibility necessities to obtain potential funds.

The primary-in-the-nation activity pressure beforehand voted to restrict reparations to Black California residents whose ancestors had been dwelling in america within the nineteenth century. This week, the group will discuss whether or not there could possibly be further eligibility necessities and what time-frame reparations may hinge on.

The group may also talk about how the state might tackle its affect on Black households whose property was seized by eminent area, a subject that garnered renewed consideration after lawmakers final 12 months voted to permit the return of a beachfront property generally known as Bruce’s Seaside to descendants of Black residents from whom it was taken within the twentieth century.

Kamilah Moore, the duty pressure’s chair, doesn’t count on the group to return to any last selections at this week’s two-day assembly.

“We’re nonetheless within the exploratory section,” she mentioned.

The duty pressure has a July 1 deadline to finish its last report for the Legislature itemizing suggestions for a way the state can tackle its legacy of discriminatory insurance policies towards Black Californians. The group’s work contrasts from comparable efforts which have stalled in Congress.

Lawmakers in different elements of the nation have pushed their states and cities to review reparations with out a lot progress. However Evanston, Illinois grew to become the primary U.S. metropolis final 12 months to make reparations out there for Black residents, and public officers in New York will attempt anew to create a reparations fee within the state.

Officers from Oakland, Sacramento, Los Angeles and different California cities will discuss native reparations efforts throughout a panel Wednesday.

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What we’re watching in the remainder of the world …

KYIV, Ukraine _ Russian drone strikes broken 5 buildings within the capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday at the same time as Ukrainian air defences thwarted many extra, authorities mentioned. No casualties had been reported.

The assaults underline how Ukraine’s largest metropolis stays weak to the common Russian assaults which have devastated infrastructure and different inhabitants centres, principally within the nation’s east and south in latest weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a quick video assertion, mentioned the “terrorists” fired 13 Iranian-made drones, and all had been intercepted. Such drones have been a part of Russia’s firepower together with mortar, artillery and rocket strikes throughout Ukraine in latest weeks.

The top of the Kyiv metropolis administration, Serhii Popko, wrote on Telegram that the strikes got here in two waves, and shrapnel from the intercepted drones broken one administrative constructing, whereas 4 residential buildings sustained minor harm.

The capital remained largely calm after the assault, which occurred round dawn and earlier than the beginning of the enterprise day, and the destruction appeared restricted in comparison with fallout from different Russian strikes which have taken lives and upended livelihoods throughout the nation in latest weeks.

Because the workday started in Kyiv, authorities sounded the all-clear on an air raid alert system.

The strike left a gaping gap within the roof of a three-story administrative constructing within the central Shevchenkyvskyi district, and the blast blew out home windows in parked automobiles and in a neighbouring constructing. It was not instantly clear whether or not there have been any casualties.

In an indication of Ukrainians’ reactivity and resilience to a whole bunch of such strikes in latest months, cleanup crews had been on website shortly to shovel away the rubble and roll out plastic sheeting to cowl blown-out home windows to deal with freezing temperatures within the snow-covered capital. One man, unfazed, pushed his son on a swing set on a close-by playground because the crews did their work.

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On at the present time in 2012 …

A gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and 6 educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty in Newtown, Conn., then dedicated suicide as police arrived; the 20-year-old assailant had fatally shot his mom at their dwelling earlier than finishing up the assault on the college.

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In leisure …

LOS ANGELES _ Megan Thee Stallion took the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday and instructed jurors that rapper Tory Lanez fired 5 photographs at her toes, yelled at her to bop and wounded her as she tried to stroll away from him within the Hollywood Hills greater than two years in the past.

“I’m in shock. I’m scared,” the Grammy-winning hip-hop celebrity testified Tuesday, in keeping with The Los Angeles Instances. “I hear the gun going off, and I can’t consider he’s taking pictures at me.”

Her testimony got here on the second day of the trial of the Canadian rapper Lanez, 30, who has pleaded not responsible to discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a car.

With supporters gathered each outdoors the courthouse and within the courtroom hallway, Megan walked into the courtroom carrying a purple go well with with heavy safety late Tuesday morning.

“I simply don’t really feel good,” Megan, 27, mentioned at first of questioning from Deputy District Lawyer Kathy Ta. “I can’t consider I’ve to return in right here and do that.”

She mentioned that on July 12, 2020, she left a celebration on the Hollywood Hills dwelling of Kylie Jenner in an SUV with Lanez, his bodyguard and her good friend Kelsey Harris.

Megan mentioned she and Lanez had change into shut, bonding over the lack of their moms, and had an often sexual relationship. Her good friend Harris, who had a “crush” on Lanez, tried to fire up bother between the ladies by telling Megan she wanted to cease mendacity to her good friend.

The argument spiralled uncontrolled, and have become much more heated when she and Lanez began trashing one another’s music and careers, Megan mentioned.

Lanez’ lawyer George Mgdesyan mentioned in his opening assertion that her damage confirmed she couldn’t have gotten a transparent have a look at the shooter behind her, and that he would current extra proof that countered her story in the course of the trial.

Lanez, whose authorized title is Daystar Peterson, may get greater than 22 years in jail if convicted on all counts. He may be deported to his native Canada.

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Did you see this?

A powerful and widespread air stress system coming from the U.S. will carry snowfall, wind, and icy situations to a number of Canadian provinces this week, an Atmosphere Canada meteorologist mentioned Tuesday.

Steven Flisfeder mentioned the low environment stress system — generally known as the Colorado low — sometimes types east of the American Rockies earlier than making its method northeast, in the direction of the Nice Lakes.

“The impacts related to it are going to be widespread,” he mentioned in a telephone interview. “It’s gonna be touching wherever from far southeastern Saskatchewan all the way in which to the Maritimes. Because the system progresses eastward, southern Quebec might be affected earlier than it lastly makes its method towards New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.”

Atmosphere Canada issued particular climate statements Tuesday for a lot of southern Ontario and elements of northern Ontario.

The climate company mentioned flurries will start falling on Thursday and final by Friday night, with the affected areas within the south spanning from Windsor all the way in which east to Cornwall and as far north as Gray-Bruce and Pembroke.

A few of these communities will get 5 centimetres of snow whereas others will accumulate as much as 25 centimetres by Saturday morning.

In northern Ontario, Atmosphere Canada mentioned Cloud Bay, Dorion, Kakabeka Falls, Whitefish Lake and Arrow Lake can count on between 20 and 40 centimetres of snow beginning Wednesday afternoon and lasting into Friday.

Thunder Bay is about to see 10 to twenty centimetres whereas Sault Ste. Marie and different elements of the northeast are anticipated to see wind gusts as much as 80 km/h.

Because the Colorado low storm system travels over Lake Superior, it may intensify the climate and drop as much as 45 centimetres of snow in areas southwest of Thunder Bay, Flisfeder mentioned.

Particular climate statements have additionally been issued for elements of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

In its statements, the climate company warned individuals in some areas to think about suspending non-essential journey in the course of the storm, because the heavy snow will scale back visibility and create hazardous journey situations, and to be ready for potential energy outages.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Dec. 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press