2022-10

Friday March 25, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 25, 2022

Ottawa and Ontario to invest in electric vehicle battery plant

October 16, 2020

Ontario’s auto industry is getting a much-needed jolt.

The provincial and federal governments are plugging hundreds of millions of dollars into a new electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor in an attempt to offset a much larger flow of EV investments to the United States under President Joe Biden’s “Buy America” push.

The $4 billion factory — to be announced Wednesday by automaker Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) and its battery partner LG Energy — will see contributions larger than the $132 million each level of government gave Honda last week to expand its plant in Alliston, sources told the Star.

Locating the plant in Ontario raises the odds of building more electric vehicles in the province as car companies speed their transition from internal combustion engines, said Flavio Volpe of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.

“We’ve landed a big one. This is major investors doing a generational investment on this side of the Detroit River,” Volpe added.

Thursday March 24, 2022

March 24, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 24, 2022

Patrick Brown and Jean Charest have a deal that could make one of them the next Conservative leader

November 28, 2017

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown — who is expected to announce his bid Sunday — and former Quebec premier Jean Charest — who launches his candidacy Thursday — have forged a pact, sources familiar with the strategy tell the Star. Opinion by althiaraj

Brampton’s mayor and the former Quebec premier have forged a pact in the federal Conservative leadership race, sources say.

Brown and Charest — who launches his candidacy Thursday — have forged a pact, sources familiar with the strategy tell the Star. Could it lead the party to elect a more moderate leader?The men have been friends for more than 25 years. Brown credits his involvement with the Conservatives to Charest, whom he met as a teenager while visiting his aunt, Charest’s next-door neighbour in North Hatley, Que.

The two have spoken at length about the leadership race. I’m told to expect neither will say a bad word about the other — a non-aggression pact, if you will — and that they will “publicly” help one another.Their goals are similarly aligned: a united but more inclusive party that represents the country. Each anticipates the other’s supporters will mark him as their second choice on the party’s ranked ballots, and they may make that expectation clear when members start receiving their ballots this summer.

Wednesday March 23, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 23, 2022

What the Liberal-NDP deal could mean for ‘aggressive options’ on defence spending

September 23, 2021

The prospects for a significant increase in Canadian defence spending in the coming federal budget looked a little less likely as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was set to head to Europe after announcing a stunning political deal with the New Democrats.

The Liberal government had been hinting that it was looking at aggressive options for injecting more money into the Canadian military in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Canada has been under heavy pressure to meet the NATO military alliance’s target, set in 2006, of spending at least two per cent of its national gross domestic product on defence, as a growing number of allies have since promised to do.

Trudeau was largely noncommittal on Tuesday as he announced the new confidence and supply agreement with the NDP, which will see the fourth-place party support the Liberal minority government through to 2025 in exchange for new investments in other areas.

Those include the creation of a dental-care program for lower-income Canadians, national pharmacare, affordable housing and phasing out subsides for fossil fuels, among others.

Tuesday March 22, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 22, 2022

Putin holds rally in Moscow, praises Russian troops as Ukraine fights back invasion

August 15, 2008

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a rally before a packed soccer stadium on Friday to justify the invasion of Ukraine, promising tens of thousands of people waving Russian flags that all the Kremlin’s aims would be achieved.

“We know what we need to do, how to do it and at what cost. And we will absolutely accomplish all of our plans,” Putin told a rally at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in an invasion on Feb. 24. Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.

Putin, who recently condemned what he called “scum” and “traitors” in Russia, said the soldiers fighting in what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine had illustrated the unity of his country.

Saturday March 12, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 12, 2022

Bye-bye to the Big Mac: Russia’s war heralds a dark, isolated economic era

August 10, 2007

The big western brands showed Vladimir Putin how to do it. While the Kremlin’s army was getting bogged down in Ukraine, Coca-Cola and Starbucks lost no time in closing their doors to Russian customers.

But the most emblematic move of all came from McDonald’s, which has shut all 850 of its outlets in Russia. The availability of Big Macs in the Soviet Union was seen in 1990 as evidence that the west’s old cold war foe was turning its back on communism, but the past fortnight has rekindled memories of the bad old days. There were queues outside McDonald’s when it first opened in Moscow. Last week, Russians queued for one last burger before the pull-out began.

One of Putin’s predecessors in the Kremlin – Lenin – once said there were decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen, and that’s true of the period since Russian troops moved across the border into Ukraine on 24 February.