To understand the state of the Conservative party after a turbulent summer, the Star spoke to more than a dozen sources from inside caucus, outside operatives, insiders and supporters, granting them the ability to speak on background to express themselves freely. What emerged was a picture of a party struggling to define its path forward. MPs and insiders described low morale, lingering frustrations about the party’s loss in the last election and deep uncertainty about how Conservatives can close the gap with a Liberal government that continues to lead on the question of who Canadians trust to be prime minister. | TorStar (🎁 link)
Dan Robertson: If a Liberal prime minister has annexed the brand of stability and economic competence that used to belong to the Conservative Party, and more Canadians believe he is governing from the right of centre, that is not a commentary on Carney. It is a commentary on what has happened to the party Harper built. Stephen Harper would not win a leadership race in today’s Conservative Party of Canada. The author, Dan Robertson, was a core Harper advisor during Harper’s early years in office. | CTV
Environmentalists are doubtful that a proper balance can be struck between the environmental and economic considerations at play, pointing to sustained evidence that the whales’ already-small population continues to decline and will be put at further risk by additional tanker traffic in the Salish Sea. “I see no way for them to be able to thread that needle,” Anna Johnston, a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law, said in an interview. | Globalnews.ca
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s summer reading titles include an award-winning true story of a homeless encampment in Toronto (Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Maggie Helwig) and a novel by one of Canada’s most famous astronauts (The Apollo Murders: A Novel by Chris Hadfield). In between, there’s a biography of a British chess prodigy who grew into a Nobel Prize-winning tech visionary, central to the development of AI. Also on Carney’s reading list: The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence by Sebastian Mallaby| Globe and Mail
My reading list ,for those interested: Halfway through Paul Litt’s Elusive Destiny: The Political Vocation of John Napier Turner. Also: halfway through Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Talking books on the go: Ian Leslie’s (fantastic) John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs and Max Hastings’ Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War - DA
The Coalition Avenir Québec and Parti Québécois have launched pre-campaign ads, and analysts believe these messages provide a better idea of the parties’ priorities. Public relations consultant Victor Henriquez says a key focus for the CAQ is the economy, while the PQ is aiming to win back voters from the governing party. | CBC
Members of the Quebec Liberal Party’s youth wing are gathering this weekend in the Montreal area to prepare for the upcoming provincial election. Several workshops will be held in St. Lambert, across the St. Lawrence River from downtown, to train young Liberals in managing a riding campaign, using social media and beefing up their networks. | CP
With the election campaign set to begin imminently, young people want political parties to listen to the issues that particularly affect them and ensure that these issues are included in the platforms to be presented to the public over the coming weeks. To raise greater awareness of these issues, the campaign tour will travel to Quebec City and another city to be determined before Election Day on Oct. 5 | CityNews Montreal
Democrats trying to unseat Republican senators in deep-red states have pursued a new strategy this year: dropping out. The Democratic Senate nominees in Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota — all heavily Republican states — withdrew from the ballot after their primaries, clearing the field for independent candidates. Some Democrats hope that these moderate independents will draw enough crossover support from Republicans and centrist voters who would never back a Democrat to make the races competitive. | WaPo (🎁 link)
Tusk also noted that nearly 5% of national income goes toward Poland’s defense needs. He noted that countering Russian sabotage in the Baltic Sea requires cooperation with NATO, and that Ukraine must also be supported in its fight against Russian aggression. “We can debate our Polish-Ukrainian relations, but no one can doubt that supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia is a matter of our own security. We are doing this for ourselves, for the Polish people—and for no one else,” said Tusk. Tusk added that Poland does not want war, “but only those who are strong, well-prepared, truly independent, and sovereign will be able to avoid war.” | Liga.net
Mathew Ingram: Merket says that he wants his site (which as far as I know consists of him and a bunch of AI agents) to be as journalistic as possible, and he seems devoted to publicizing not just his breaking-news success stories but also his misses, which I think is admirable. But it would be naive to assume that others aren’t interested in doing the same thing but for other purposes, especially given the obvious financial incentives: Merket told Wired that the site costs him about $100 a day to run (which is about what a single human reporter would make in several hours) and he’s able to operate it while on the go – even while camping at Big Bend National Park. “I didn’t have any internet except for my phone, and I managed the whole site through iMessage,” he told Wired, adding that he published over 80 articles that week. Some of the stories on the site get virtually no traffic, he said, but the “hits” can rack up pageviews and unique visitors similar to the audiences that midsize technology-news websites see, with tens of thousands of readers. | MathewIngram.com
Canada is also trying to prepare for the new age of warfare. This week, Defence Minister David McGuinty met with leading military equipment suppliers, as the Canadian Armed Forces look to increase their own supply of drones and robots. It’s part of the federal government’s push to bolster defence spending. Jillian Piper was at the meeting and has a behind-the-scenes look at what companies had to offer. | Global National
Axios publisher Nicholas Johnston: AI has become my reading buddy as I’ve plowed through my summer book list, helping me keep track of plots and characters, unpack themes, and make sense of wordy, old prose. Why it matters: The way many of us actually read books — a few pages before bed, a chapter at the beach, another on a plane — makes it easy to lose the thread. AI can help you pick it back up without starting over.
1000 ET : Toronto - International Trade Min Maninder Sidhu speaks about an air transport agreement with Türkiye.
1030 ET : Vancouver - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to reporters.
1300 ET : Waterloo, ON - LPC MP Bardish Chagger hosts a constituency summer social event.
… in 2006. Sc 2167 Society of Graphic Designers. Design: David Coates.
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