Danielle Smith, leader of the United Conservatives in Alberta, has promised to allow for mandatory drug treatment if elected. This comes as both the United Conservatives and New Democrats focus their campaigns on the issue of healthcare in the Alberta election. The NDP criticized the UCP for not supporting the only hospital in the town of High River, which is facing potential closures in its emergency department. The two party leaders are scheduled to debate on Thursday, with the election taking place on May 29.
The Canadian government's decision to eliminate historical imagery from its new passport, replacing it instead with pages featuring images such as a man raking leaves and a squirrel, has been criticised as disrespectful to Canada's heritage. Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser suggested that consultations with Indigenous communities and other government departments had shifted the passport's focus. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being out-of-touch and egotistical, claiming he could not "imagine there are any Canadian stories bigger than him". The Vimy Ridge Memorial, dedicated to fallen Commonwealth soldiers, is among those images no longer included on the travel document.
The UK has practised a policy of mass migration without the necessary preparation for it, causing voter dissatisfaction for Conservative supporters who feel let down and Brexit voters. The government has not prepared public services and has instead offended liberal supporters with its tough talk on migration while offending others who view it as a threat to public service and the standard of living because of its lack of control over migration.Silicon Republic recently reported that the UK tech sector may also suffer from Brexit immigration reforms.The number of workers applying for permanent residency in the UK has increased as a result.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced that he will run for re-election in the city’s 2024 contest using the first past the post electoral system, instead of the supplementary vote used in the five previous contests. His opponents will include former Liberal Democrat council member Duwayne Brooks, Conservative former City Hall leader Susan Hall, Samuel Kasumu, previously an advisor to Boris Johnson and Daniel Korski, a former special advisor to David Cameron. Kahn, a Labour Party member, is seeking to become the first three-term mayor of London in history.
South Korea and Canada are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on youth mobility having discussed strengthening their economic, military and cultural ties. The two countries have both issued Indo-Pacific strategies aimed at countering China's influence. South Korea is Canada’s seventh-largest trade partner, with $16.7bn in merchandise trade in 2021, while Korean companies are said to be keen on the critical minerals and clean fuel sources that Canada can provide. Trudeau's visit is also expected to address concerns of South Korea over reliance on Chinese suppliers and seek increased investment in Canada’s green technologies.
Sir William Cash, the chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, has criticised Rishi Sunak’s plans to scrap 600 EU laws that will be removed from UK statutes. Sir William dismissed these as “trivial” regulations and argued that removing them would “not…spur economic growth". Many of the laws came from various EU regulations that provided for the upkeep of various environmental and consumer standards. The UK government had pledged to remove 4,000 EU laws by the end of the year, but rowed back to just 600.
The effectiveness of international sanctions is being challenged as Russia, China and Iran implement alternative financial systems, which blunts the impact of US policies and allows them to hide questionable behaviour. While the alternative financial system is currently limited, more nations will enter Beijing's orbit as China's economy grows, and the alternatives to the dollar will rise in popularity. It is essential that the US revitalises domestic manufacturing and makes and keeps friends. The US must build a coalition of its own to balance Beijing’s growing anti-American coalition, and to keep the dollar as strong as possible.
UK Housing Secretary, Michael Gove has said immigration levels are so high there is an “inevitable pressure” on housing supply and public services. Gove argued the Government’s ability to cap the number of people entering Britain must be a vital part of its Brexit freedoms. He cites pressure on housing and public services, as well as issues with traditional milestones such as starting a family and building a home, as reasons for stricter migration controls. Gove also admitted it had become “increasingly difficult” to achieve these milestones due to a lack of affordable housing.
The UK government has refused to renegotiate the Brexit deal reached with the EU in February, dealing a blow to Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which is campaigning to change the Windsor Framework. The DUP wants changes made to protect Northern Ireland's place in the UK, but James Cleverly, Foreign Secretary, said there would be no alterations to the deal. The DUP has urged voters in Thursday's local elections to support it in pushing the issue with the government. The result will also affect the crisis surrounding the lack of a functioning Northern Ireland Assembly for 15 months.
A former Scottish Minister of Justice, Kenny MacAskill, has called for an inquiry into why the police had to wait two weeks before they were allowed to conduct a search at Nicola Sturgeon’s home. The search warrant, which was eventually approved by a sheriff on 3 April, was required by the police in order to investigate the SNP’s finances. Questions have now been raised as to whether “political considerations” were responsible for the delay, as key leadership contests and appointments may have been affected by the raid. An official investigation into the matter has yet to be approved by senior officials in Scotland.
Russia claims to have destroyed a $1.1bn US air defence system during its rocket attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The Kremlin said that a hypersonic Kinzhal missile destroyed the Patriot missile battery. Ukraine, however, stated that it had downed all six Kinzhal missiles. This comes as a top Russian official is in a coma in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine following an attack in a barber shop when a grenade was thrown at him. In response, France has decided to send longer-range missiles to Ukraine just days after the UK sent its Storm Shadow munitions.
Despite conceding that it would be cheaper to construct a new vessel at a different yard, SNP ministers have directed that Ferguson Marine – a nationalised shipyard that has struggled to oversee the construction of two scandal-ridden ferries on time and within budget – completes a ferry. The decision came after the Scottish government’s most senior civil servant responsible for economic matters, Gregor Irwin, said that he could no longer support ongoing construction at Ferguson Marine. The nationalisation of the yard was ordered in 2019 after it went into administration.
Ontario has announced contracts for seven grid-scale batteries designed to unlock the potential of renewable energy as it moves toward a net-zero grid. However, the Canadian province also plans to expand natural gas generation to produce more electricity in the short-term before more stringent green regulations are introduced in 2035. “At the moment the grid is at about 90% capacity for non-carbon emitting energy. The new storage facilities are a welcome addition,” said Lana Goldberg of Environmental Defence. “But we are concerned they could be charged with gas plants (instead of wind and solar)". While renewables, including wind and solar, represent the cheapest form of electricity, more storage is needed due to an intermittent supply. The new storage will enable renewables to provide more electricity at moments of high demand, which should help decrease reliance on natural gas plants. California, a world leader in electricity storage, last year leveraged battery power to allow renewable energy to provide 45% of peak demand.
Canada's province of Alberta will go to the polls to elect a government on May 29. The United Conservative Party has pledged to create a new tax bracket and contribute $330m toward a new National Hockey League arena for the Calgary Flames, among other promises. Meanwhile, the Alberta New Democratic Party is seeking to ensure that each resident has access to a family doctor, bring back the Rapattack program of aerial firefighters who battle wildfires in remote areas, and table an eastern slopes protection act to ban coal mining projects in mountainous areas.
Canada and the United States are joining forces to construct an electric vehicle (EV) corridor of charging stations to promote EV adoption. The corridor will have charging infrastructure every 80 kilometres from Quebec City to Kalamazoo, Michigan, covering 1,400 kilometres. The 215 charging stations will fuel one of the busiest passenger and trade routes between the two countries. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed on a cross-border EV charging network in March. The move will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which the Canadian government says accounts for 23% of Canada's total emissions.
The UK is experiencing a shortage of labour in key sectors such as farming, hospitality and social care, causing some commentators to question why the country is importing labour from abroad when there are millions of people out of work. Some suggest their unwillingness to take up these opportunities comes down to benefits payments that allow them to live off the state, a situation that was never the purpose behind the welfare state. While everyone agrees that society needs a safety net to help those who genuinely need it, when there are families in which two or even three generations have never worked, there is clearly a problem. However, incentivising employment by linking benefits to work has had little success. Another suggested solution is to address educational deficits and upskill people so they are better equipped to take on the work that is available.
The UK’s Conservative Party has been told its MPs who are nominated for a peerage will be able to serve in the House of Lords only if they stand down before the next election. Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, former Cabinet Minister Nigel Adams and President for COP26 Alok Sharma were listed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for inclusion in the House of Lords in his resignation honours list. They had planned to continue as MPs before retiring at the next election. However, the House of Lords Appointments Commission has argued that such a move would be “constitutionally improper”.
The UK's Labour Party has said local authorities and residents should have more power to build on green belt land to meet local housing needs. The party's leader, Keir Starmer, said the Conservative party had "killed the dream of home-owning for a whole generation". He said a discussion was needed over whether green belt land could be used, but this could not be "reduced to a simple discussion of will you or will you not build on the green belt". The Conservative government agreed in December 2020 to drop mandatory housebuilding targets.
Several letters published in The Telegraph this week have seen landlords from across the UK complain about the negative impact they believe the Renters’ Reform Bill, proposed by UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove, will have on the private rented sector. Criticisms include that the bill will favour tenants over landlords and will lead to fewer landlords entering the property market, thus causing a shortage of rental properties for those looking to live in the sector. Previously, rents had steadily risen at rates around the same as inflation, however, following recent legistlation, rental prices have begun to soar, with one landlord claiming that his most recent let was 45% higher than its going rate several years ago. It is thought the RRB is a way of coercing more young voters into leaning towards the Labour party as the proposed legislation was thought to be more appealing to them and thus unlikely to secure Conservative support in the general election. A spokesperson for Gove has yet to make an official statement regarding the criticisms.
Meanwhile, academics at the University of Oxford have condemned the decision by the Oxford University Student Union to sever its relationship with the Oxford Union, which was due to the latter’s decision not to back down on an invitation it made to feminist Kathleen Stock. Saying that Professor Stock’s views were “illicit” had dangerous connotations, and calling outright for her prohibition was an “unacceptable” alternative, the academics argued. Instead, they said universities needed to remain places of open discussion, even for contentious views that could be questioned and debated.
The UK government is planning a crackdown on “renegade landlords” through reform of the private rental sector. Renters will enjoy greater protection and the right to evict tenants without a fault having been proven will be removed under the Renters’ (Reform) Bill, launched by Michael Gove, Communities Secretary. Repossession will be permitted when needed to sell a property or because of tenant behaviour. Additional proposed measures include the creation of a new ombudsman and digitising the court process. The UK private rental sector doubled in size between 2002 and 2019, with 11 million people now living in rental accommodation.
