Blacklock's Reporter

The Green Party acknowledges several candidates withdrew from today’s election to avoid vote splitting that could benefit Conservatives. The admission came in a Federal Court application protesting the Party’s disqualification from televised debates for failing to field a minimum number of candidates: "A small number of candidates, no more than 15, decided to withdraw their candidacy to avoid splitting the progressive vote."

The Conservative Party if elected today will bring Parliament into session all summer if necessary to pass tax cuts and reform bills, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters. “Change cannot wait,” he said: "The bad news for politicians is your summer vacation is cancelled.”

A British Columbia First Nation was deemed “a priority client” for federal funding after claiming to find 215 children’s graves at an Indian Residential School, records show. The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation prior to its announcement was repeatedly told by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government it did not qualify for grants: "It was with a heavy heart that Tk’emlups te Secwepemc confirmed an unthinkable loss."

Compensation for victims of Covid vaccines is expected to go over budget, says a Department of Health memo. The document is dated only days after new figures showed more than $16 million was paid to date to families of patients medically certified to have suffered death or injury after taking a government-approved shot: "The overall cost of the program is dependent on the volume of claims."

Liberals if re-elected will improve disclosure of public records, says Prime Minister Mark Carney. Canadians deserve access to information regardless of who runs the government, he said: "I’m happy to commit to having a review."

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Electricity in Ontario, costlier than ever. Some must choose between hydro and buying food, paying rent…”

Ask oldtimers what pre-industrial life was like in Yukon and Northwest Territories and they recall the sound of sled dogs galloping through the snow, the blue gleam of moonlight in winter and smell of fresh caribou steaks drying on spruce boughs.

Anthropologist Leslie McCartney asked twenty-three Gwich’in elders as old as 99. Their stories are chronicled in Our Whole Gwich’in Way Of Life Has Changed, a big, beautiful volume, 848 pages. It is warm and human.

There is a blank space in all history books dotted here and there with guesswork and anecdotes. Missing are accounts of daily working lives prior to the 18th century. There are no written descriptions by workaday Norwegian sailors or Hessian miners or Mongolian herders since ordinary people had no means of writing it down.

New Democrat Party headquarters yesterday would not comment over its refusal to answer a B’nai Brith campaign questionnaire on public disorder. It was the only Party that would not comment when asked, “If elected, what steps will your government take to ban hate rallies?”

Crime data analysis suggest a spike in church fires coincided with First Nations claims of hidden graves at Indian Residential Schools, an Ottawa think tank said yesterday. “Few Canadians understood the full scope and scale of these attacks,” said a report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute: 'This must have an explanation.'

Electric car mandates set to take effect in 2026 will be repealed if Conservatives are elected, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Car buyers must not be compelled to drive vehicles they do not want or cannot afford, he said: "This is not a ‘tomorrow’ problem, this is a ‘now’ problem."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday depicted Justin Trudeau as an unserious figure who invited ridicule. Relations with the United States are not a photo op or “a visit to Mar-a-Lago,” said Carney.

Cabinet has declared a New Brunswick island the nation’s only tariff-free zone. Campobello Island was a special case since residents have to buy their groceries in Maine, said the Department of Finance: "Residents have no practical choice."

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is asking a federal judge to censure Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon for imposing a six-month ban on lawful strike action. The unilateral order breached the Charter Of Rights, Union lawyers told the Federal Court: "Right to strike is an indispensable component of a meaningful collective bargaining process."

Voters should read for themselves a “jaw-dropping” federal report warning of social and economic collapse, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. The Liberal Party has not commented on the report: "It’s not surprising Liberals would want to shut out discussion on that."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday dismissed a Conservative proposal to clear public lands of tent cities as “a typical American-style approach.” Carney’s own housing minister has complained of public disorder caused by homeless people tenting in parks and on sidewalks: "Typical American."