beach

Friday August 5, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 5, 2022

Out-of-office reply: Prime Minister Trudeau, family on holiday in Costa Rica

March 14, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to Costa Rica for a two-week vacation with his family.

The Prime Minister’s Office says the family is returning to the same place where they stayed over the Christmas holiday in 2019 and that they are paying for their own accommodations.

The prime minister must fly on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane for security reasons — even for personal travel — and the family’s flights on the last trip to and from Costa Rica cost the government about $57,000, with thousands more spent on flight crews’ stay in San Jose.

The PMO also says it consulted with the office of the federal ethics commissioner about the coming holiday.

In 2017, Trudeau was found to have violated conflict of interest rules related to a 2016 vacation he took to Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas.

The PMO says Trudeau will get regular briefings while he is away. (The National Post) 

 

Saturday September 4, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 4, 2021

Will voter engagement ramp up after Labour Day, political expert questions

The pandemic, a short election period and its timing are all having an impact on how voters are engaging in the current campaign leading to the Sept. 20 vote, says a local political analyst.

August 20, 2021

“As with everything else in our lives, the pandemic makes elections harder, the day-to-day aspects of an election,” said Michael Johns, visiting professor with York University’s department of politics. “We saw this in the U.S. (federal) election where they lost a debate.

“In the heart of the 2020 campaign, it was hard for them to even have two candidates on stage and have it aired nationally. That was hard. And now you’re trying to do it on a local level,” he added. 

The entire election process is complicated by the timing. The election was called for Sept. 20 in August, when people were still in summer or vacation mode, kids are home from school and when Johns says it’s typically more difficult to engage people.

This year, that campaign goes into the start of the school year.

“This election has been harder. It has been harder to get people motivated,” he said.

June 10, 2021

“Generally, I think, the pandemic and the timing of the election in both its duration and the time on the calendar. You put all those things together, I think this is what you end up with,” Johns added.

Even all-candidates meetings have become a challenge. 

“I think for a lot of people, they feel uncomfortable going to an all-candidates meeting,” Johns said. “Some of them might be so sick of doing everything on Zoom, the last thing they want to do is sit through a two-hour candidates meeting on Zoom”

In addition, some people might be uncomfortable using that technology, particularly seniors, who are typically the most engaged at election time.

Johns says he’s curious to see what happens after Labour Day. Will the pandemic have taken the wind out of the election, or will it ramp up in the last two weeks?

“That’s what we’ll have to wait and see,” he said. (Newmarket Today) 

Revised from a cartoon published Thursday August 1, 2013.

 

Saturday August 1, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 1, 2020

Beaches, masks, and bulges during a mid-Summer weekend in a pandemic

July 18, 2020

With weddings postponed and offices shut, business was bleak at Woodside Tailor Shop in Queens during the long months of pandemic lockdown. There was no need for party dress alterations, or any pressure for slacks to be hemmed.

But about three months in, things started picking back up in June, with one particular service in sudden demand: People needed a bit more breathing room in their clothing. 

In a city where gyms are still closed, and Netflix and couch the safest evening entertainment, the phenomenon of stay-at-home weight gain — playfully called the Quarantine 15 by some — has brought an unexpected windfall for some tailors. Some say they have seen business rise by as much as 80 percent, with customers asking for buttons to be moved, waistbands lengthened and jackets made more roomy.

“Everybody got fat!” said Porfirio Arias, 66, a tailor at Woodside. “It’s not only in New York. It’s all over the world that people got fat.” (New York Times) 

August 1, 2013

Meanwhile, Goderich Ontario’s mayor isn’t pulling any punches this weekend.

He fully expects to have to close the beach to visitors at some point on Saturday.

“I caution people because in all likelihood we’re probably going to close the beach very, very early on Saturday. It could be 11 o’clock in the morning that we close,” says John Grace.

Twice this summer, Goderich has turned people away from their beaches due to overcrowding. With the long weekend upon us, Grace anticipates closing it for a third time.

Life in a Pandemic

“We will be very strict this weekend as we’re expecting a lot of people. We will not allow any groups over 10,” says Grace, who joins OPP officers, staff, and bylaw officers in monitoring the beach on weekends.

In Sauble Beach, where they could see as many as 80,000 visitors this weekend, they’re closing Main Street to vehicles, to allow greater social distancing.

Near Grand Bend, officials are closing Waterworks Road to try and stop people from sneaking down to Port Blake beach. And in Grand Bend, they’re asking rule-breakers to stay home. (CTV) 

Thursday March 14, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 14, 2019

‘Trudeau? Scandal? I don’t believe it’: As controversy rocks Canada’s PM, the world winces — then shrugs

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s political crisis has shaken Ottawa — and now, the tremors are starting to register abroad.

December 21, 2017

Outside the white-marble Newseum building in Washington on Thursday, the morning’s copy of the Globe and Mail sat behind glass, displayed alongside the front pages of newspapers from all 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia.

Janet McCarty, a retired civil servant living in Washington, perused the headlines. Only one publication — the Globe — led with the latest on the SNC-Lavalin scandal, in which the Prime Minister’s Office stands accused of meddling in a criminal prosecution case against the Quebec engineering giant.

McCarty grimaced. Like many others on the political left, she’s always considered Trudeau an unimpeachable moral authority and darling of the international left.

“If this is true, then Justin is not the person that we thought he was,” she said.

McCarty lamented that another world leader with a global outlook, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has decided not to seek re-election. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May, a Conservative, has faced at least eight cabinet resignations in less than two years over her controversial Brexit deal.

January 18, 2019

“Justin. I mean, they’re all — Angela Merkel, Theresa May — everybody’s going down the toilet,” McCarty said.

Trudeau’s brand as a global liberal icon is strong in some parts of the U.S., which might explain why Manuel Macias, 36, was so shocked to hear about the SNC-Lavalin affair when he stopped to scan the Newseum headlines this week.

“Trudeau? A scandal? I don’t believe it.

“In this day and age, we don’t really have a lot of shining light all across the world,” said Macias, who identifies as a liberal. “Unless something really comes out that’s proven facts, why throw dirt on him when we’ve got such a good positive role model?”

March 2, 2019

If the SNC-Lavalin debacle has been slow to gain traction outside of Canada, it may also have to do with domestic-scandal fatigue, at least in Britain and the U.S.

In London, John Prideaux, the U.S. editor for The Economist, cited Washington’s woes, as well as Britain’s mismanagement of a plan to withdraw from the European Union, as reasons why some Britons and Americans might not be tuning in.

“What’s happening in Canada looks to me like a more conventional political scandal that you get in a healthy political culture, where people are really held accountable for what they’ve done,” Prideaux said.

That said, the SNC-Lavalin affair has “broken through” the British press — no easy feat. (Continued: CBC) 

 

Thursday June 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 28, 2018

Trump’s tariffs will be more painful for Canada than the U.S., economist says

The Trump administration’s tariff threats have the potential to drive companies currently operating in Canada out of the country, the president of a Canadian automotive association said Tuesday.

June 14, 2018

The United States has already imposed tariffs on the steel and aluminum industries and has threatened to impose a 25 per cent levy on Canadian-made autos.

The tariffs could make Canadian-made products uncompetitive and add $6,000, $10,000 or more to the cost of a vehicle, said David Adams, president of Global Automakers of Canada, at an event sponsored by the Economics Club of Canada.

He said a nonautomotive company he knows has decided it can’t expand in the United States from Ottawa, because of the uncertainty, so it’s opening a U.S. office and the same could happen to automotive companies.

“The uncertainty effectively does the job of … driving more investment into the United States as the safe harbour,” Adams said.

June 13, 2018

The Trump administration hasn’t necessarily realized that the its tariffs will also hurt the United States, said MaryScott (Scotty) Greenwood, chief executive of the Canadian American Business Council — pointing to a recent announcement by Harley-Davidson.

A tariff war between the U.S. and many of its trade partners has already prompted the iconic American motorcycle company to move production of motorcycles bound for Europe overseas, blaming European Union tariffs it said would add an estimated $2,200 cost to the average bike. That prompted President Donald Trump — whose own tariffs prompted the EU moves — to accuse Harley of using tariffs as an excuse for moves already planned.

March 9, 2018

“It’s a very dangerous game we’re playing here, economically,” Greenwood said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced Canada will impose $16.6 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products coming into Canada, which go into effect on Sunday.

But CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld said Tuesday the United States is far better equipped than Canada to withstand the use of tariffs as a “sledge hammer” in trade negotiations.

Some Americans will face higher costs on imported goods from Canada but U.S. producers will be at a smaller risk because their home market is so much bigger than ours, Shenfeld said during a panel discussion about NAFTA in Toronto. (Source: Toronto Star) 

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