Daily Archives: July 31, 2022

Populism, development, and the drama of White Rock politics What happens when a populist movement storms into office on a platform of change, and then has to govern?

The City of White Rock has proven an interesting case study the last four years.

In 2018, it was one of those towns where the all-candidate meetings were packed and the comments on the local political Facebook pages were angrier than most.

Campaigning primarily on issues of development (too much) and transparency (too little), a new political party called Democracy Direct White Rock swept to power. Former B.C. General Employees' Union (BCGEU) president Darryl Walker became mayor, all four council candidates were elected, and they set out to reshape how the seaside community of about 20,000 people was run.

But then an interesting thing happened: after initially working together as a team to restrict tower heights in the centre of the municipality, the coalition began to splinter. Walker started voting more often in favour of new housing, saying he had evolved his thinking.

Before this term, I didn't realize how slow and arduous municipal politics can be, he said, talking about the work to rebuild the pier and the need to upgrade roads and sewers.

We've got developers that come before us that are willing to work with us on affordable housing. And the tendency from a couple of councillors has been to turn it down.

Those councillors have primarily been Erika Johanson and Scott Kristjanson, who ran with Walker. Not surprisingly, they tell a different story.

There's a honeymoon. And then when you get to the nitty gritty, the day-to-day stuff, he was terrible, said Johanson, who argues Walker turned his back on what he campaigned on, and allowed staff to control too much of the citys agenda.

They only answer questions very specifically as we ask them, they don't volunteer any information. Thats got to change, she said.

Johanson and the city are in the midst of a protracted legal battle over whether Johanson bullied and harassed staff or not. Walker has been unable to convince the majority of his colleagues to support him on a number of votes.

And Democracy Direct has been dissolved: Walker is asking for a council thats progressive and will support more mid-rise developments, while Johanson promises a mayor candidate who will challenge Walker.

In short, its been messy and it's another example that campaigning is a lot different fromgoverning.

Walking in the first day as a mayor three and a half years ago, said Walker, I didn't know what I know now.

In their final major week of meetings prior to the election (there willbe a couple of smaller housekeeping things closer to the vote), council approved a social housing tower next to an incoming SkyTrain station at Broadway and Arbutus after six days of meetings. It was the last of this council's famed marathon meetings, which led us to explore just why Vancouver has become known for inefficiency at the council table. Meanwhile, one of Kennedy Stewart's chief rivals for mayor unveiled his park board candidates platform which reversed his promise to try and get rid of the board.

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Populism, development, and the drama of White Rock politics - CBC

Lets talk about housing. Specifically what's up with Rishi Sunaks new housing policy.

He pledges to preserve the green belt in aspic, banning councils from amending it, preventing development around the dozen or so cities the green belt currently covers.

He also says that any new housebuilding should be done on brownfield land.

Which may come as a surprise to his local council, as the very same Rishi Sunak applied for planning permission to build a new single storey sporting complex on a field near his grade II listed home only last year.

In Rishi Sunaks world only he is allowed to build on fields. No one else can.

But beyond the hypocrisy lets explore this idea in its own terms.

Because to most of us, preventing any green belt amendments might at face value seem like a nice thing.

Well let's turn to a case study in York, where controversy erupted earlier this year, when a developer proposed to construct up to 158 homes on land sandwiched between a housing estate, a duel carriageway and the railway lines. Why was there uproar? Well this scrap of land had been designated as part of the green belt back in the 1940s.

Tom Harwood has criticised the Tory leadership hopeful's housing policy. Dominic Lipinski

Fortunately the council in the end saw sense, the green belt amended, and the homes were approved. Yet under Rishi Sunaks policy, this peculiar cut off bit land by the road and the railway would stay forever undeveloped and unloved.

But surely that is just an anomaly, right? The rest of the green belt is in reality the rolling fields our minds go to when we think of England?

Not quite.

This is where the green belt actually is.

Frozen land around a dozen or so cities that are deemed to be important.

It does not include those areas of outstanding natural beauty in England that we know so well.

It does not cover the Chilterns, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, the Peak District, the Cotswolds, the South Downs, Dartmoor, Thetford, or the New Forest.

Rishi needs a rethink, says Tom Harwood Image: GB News

None of those areas are greenbelt. Most green land is not green belt. And some green belt is not green land.

No, the most beautiful parts of our country, the parts that protecting perhaps matters most are entirely distinct from the green belt.

Yet I get the sneaking feeling that when we think of the green belt, our minds erroneously but understandably go to those Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

But what did I mean when I said that some green belt is not green land?

A project to build 40 social rented homes was rejected from this scrap of concrete because it has green belt status.

This junk yard is some of Londons green belt.

And so is this tip.

And even this car wash.

In fact, a former Bradford Councillor took to social media yesterday to dispel some green belt myths.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are vying for the top job in Government. Jacob King

Simon Cooke was a councillor for 24 years, and took to Twitter to share the reality of what the green belt just in his ward really looks like.

It included the site of an old mill, several scrap yards, a car park, an empty chicken slaughterhouse, and some empty unused buildings. Unable to be redeveloped of course.

And remember, all of this is green belt, all in just one council ward.

Yes, some green belt simply isn't green at all. And we might all be better off with a rationalisation, a reclassification.

Classifying some of our genuinely precious areas of natural beauty as Green Belt, and freeing up some of the ugliest most concrete blighted, road or rail-side bits of what is erroneously called the green belt right now.

Here's a perhaps surprising fact: In 1979 the green belt covered 721,500 hectares of England

By 2020 that had more than doubled to 1.6 million hectares of England.

It is possible to enhance protections, to rationalise the system, but none of that can be done with unthinking pledges that the green belt can never ever be touched. Not even the concrete bits.

Sunak's desperate attempt at populism is wrong. It doesn't protect green land in the way he would like you to think it does. And it will make it even harder for younger people to get on the housing ladder.

And that in and of itself an existential question for the Conservative Party. Without enough homes, with young people stuck in renting traps, with nothing of their own to conserve. The Tory Party will find it harder and harder to win their votes.

Any leader serious about a home owning democracy, serious about winning elections, and frankly serious about Conservatism - would not trumpet big government clumsy planning policy that prevents sensible development.

Rishi needs a rethink.

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Rishi Sunak's desperate attempt at populism doesn't protect green land in the way he would like you to think it does, says Tom Harwood - GB News

Former president Donald Trump tosses hats into the crowd before addressing attendees during an event in on July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

BY Agata Mirowska, Raymond B. Chiu, and Rick Hackett

Testimony to the House of Representatives Jan. 6 committee about the insurrection at the United States Capitol in 2021 has allowed us to delve deeper into the humanity of Donald Trumps supporters.

As the hearings reveal, the outgoing president and his supporters seemed to be on different wavelengths as he hesitated to stop the violence while his followers were hell-bent on doing his bidding.

Given his influence, it seems clear that Trump knows what makes his followers tick. The allure of Trumps populism isnt an isolated phenomenon, but something connected to the way people think about their leaders.

Trumps populism has now become bigger than Trump himself. The success of tyrants worldwide suggests that we should take them more seriously when theyre praised as smart, at least when it comes to manipulating our minds.

Although populist movements have been around a long time, there has been considerable interest in explaining why populism is different now why its paired with authoritarianism and unapologetically tinged with nationalism and xenophobia.

The emotions underlying the passions of disenfranchised masses are rooted today in an us-versus-them fear of national demise that increasing immigration, liberalization and globalization are damning signs that once-trusted institutions can no longer protect our collective well-being.

In many countries where authoritarianism has gathered steam Russia, Belarus, Hungary, Turkey and Poland to name a few this populism is also accompanied by a push by leaders to suppress press freedom or spread rampant misinformation aided by social media.

In a nod to the cleverness of such autocrats, Nobel laureate Maria Ressa describes the political use of such misinformation as diabolically brilliant.

Ressa, a journalist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.

Years before Trumps rise to power, we started to investigate these elements to understand how they drive peoples tolerance of tyranny. We began with a simple premise: that the appeal of tyrants is not an aberration, but a phenomenon tied to how our minds work.

Tyranny, however, is distinct from authoritarianism, which speaks to political beliefs or actions. The defining features of tyrannical leadership traits described as domineering, pushy, manipulative, loud, conceited and selfish are prototypical characteristics that catch followers attention in the absence of more substantive information about what the leader is really like.

In this 2016 photo, a couple kisses in front of graffiti depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump kissing in Vilnius, Lithuania. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

As Trump rose to power, elements of our research were playing out in reality: fear of a threatening world, traditional morality the type commonly expressed in North America through conservative politics and religion and reliance on scarce information about the leader.

Based on surveys of 1,147 North Americans, our findings revealed that sensitivity to threats, as reflected in a belief that the world is dangerous, is linked with traditional or conservative morality. American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls this morality the binding moral foundations.

Those who focus on group protection have a stronger preference for tyranny as defined by the well-established theory of implicit leadership, which says that we dont always see leaders for who they really are, but according to mental prototypes we have in our heads.

Additionally, we discovered that the significant relationship between the binding foundations and tyrannical leadership is stronger for men than women. Its no wonder, then, that ardent supporters of Trump throughout his presidency included hypermasculine, anti-feminist, anti-left groups such as the Proud Boys.

Proud Boys members walk toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S. author and filmmaker Jackson Katz attributes the overwhelming support of Trump by high-school educated, working-class white men to a deep-seated desire for respect and a return to patriarchy.

The masculine nature of leadership today, especially in times of crisis and uncertainty, has not necessarily changed over the centuries. When bad people show up to invade our fields, corrupt our children or pollute our streams, the gut reaction is to welcome the strong man who demonstrates his skills by successfully manipulating others for personal gain.

That means aggression, guile and greed are coveted if those qualities can be turned against outsiders.

Our research suggests that simply railing against tyrants isnt enough. There are three areas where more action is necessary.

First, the nasty traits of tyrannical leaders send vitally important information about leadership effectiveness to followers paradoxically, more information than if a leader were to act with kindness and compassion.

The medias revulsion to tyranny and obsession with reporting every shocking curse or tweet has only served to telegraph those traits far and wide, reinforcing the allegiance of followers.

Second, concerned citizens need to do less recounting of every nasty incident on behalf of tyrants and instead spend a lot more time explaining the nature of good leadership and how it compares with todays leaders.

Some business schools do a good job of teaching the meaning of sustainable, effective leadership, yet the typical young person gets little education on moral character and the strengths of trustworthy, virtuous leaders of the past.

Third, peoples fears whether they pertain to economic loss, foreign adversaries or cultural demise need to be taken seriously. The average person becomes overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of audacious attempts at social change, as evidenced by the discontent over German leader Angela Merkels welcome of Syrian refugees.

Protesters in eastern Germany demonstrate against Germanys welcome of immigrants and refugees in 2015. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Such efforts dont always address the fundamental need for the conservative population to feel safe, because they fail to appreciate that people on both ends of the spectrum share a common desire for the collective good, although they may prioritize aspects of that good differently and approach those aspects via different means.

Elements of everyday human psychology are driving our shared global future. For our societies to survive, the dialogue must change rapidly to address this reality, or else the sole voices well be forced to hear will be those of fear-mongering, war-mongering tyrannical liars.

Agata Mirowska, Assistant Professor, Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, Neoma Business School; Raymond B. Chiu, Assistant Professor, Business and Organizational Behaviour, Redeemer University, and Rick Hackett, Canada Research Chair, Organizational Behaviour & Human Performance, McMaster University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Analysis: From Trump to Putin: Why are people attracted to tyrants? - Brighter World

Ottawa Playbook will be off on Monday for Ontarios Civic Holiday, but will be back in your inbox on Tuesday at 6 a.m.

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WELCOME TO OTTAWA PLAYBOOK. Im your host, Maura Forrest, with Zi-Ann Lum and Nick Taylor-Vaisey. Today, we take a final look at the popes pilgrimage of penance. National Defence is looking to science-fiction writers to help with a public image boost (yes, really). And is PIERRE POILIEVRE really a populist?

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Pope Francis. | Cole Burston/Getty Images

THE PONTIFF DEPARTS POPE FRANCIS will head back to the Vatican today, after a brief stop in Iqaluit to meet with residential school survivors, leaving a host of questions in his wake.

Chief among them: What now?

On Thursday during a mass at the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupr basilica outside Quebec City, the pope delivered perhaps his strongest comments to date on the role of the Catholic Church in Canadas residential schools.

We too feel the burden of failure, he said. Why did all this happen? How could this happen in the community of those who follow Jesus?

The reactions to the popes apologies have been as varied as you might expect. I felt he was speaking from his heart, NORMA DUNNING, an Inuk scholar and author and the daughter of a residential school survivor, told the Edmonton Journals KEITH GEREIN. Unlike what I have read by others, I do not think he had to go into a painful litany of what the many harms were. He did not have to name them.

On the other hand: It's not enough just to apologize, activist SARAIN FOX told the CBCs ANTONI NERESTANT. "Indigenous people are looking for action and our elders have very little time left to see that action."

Fox took part in a protest ahead of the popes mass in Quebec, holding up a banner demanding the Catholic Church rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, which was used to justify European colonization of North America.

But as POLITICOs NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY reports this morning, the Pope didnt promise action. Francis didn't broach the topic of reparations, didn't commit to disclosing records that would help locate the final resting places of many Indigenous children, and didn't say a word about revoking the Doctrine of Discovery, he writes.

One development: On Wednesday, organizers of the papal visit said Canadas bishops are working with the Vatican in the hope of issuing a new statement from the church on the Doctrine of Discovery.

If this is a watershed moment in Canadas journey toward reconciliation, it certainly isnt the first. There was former prime minister STEPHEN HARPERs 2008 apology for residential schools. There was the landmark report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015, and the 2019 final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Then there was last years discovery of hundreds of potential unmarked graves at residential school sites.

And every time, the same question: What now?

I work on reconciliation every day. And I just call it the paradox of reconciliation, CYNTHIA WESLEY-ESQUIMAUX, the chair on Truth and Reconciliation at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, told POLITICO. We say all these things, but what are we doing? Whats the end goal? How will we know when we get there?

Here is what happened this week: The head of a church not known for contrition came to Canada and apologized for residential schools before Indigenous people, on land inhabited by Indigenous peoples for millennia. Nothing less, but nothing more.

What now?

IS PIERRE POILIEVRE A POPULIST? Conventional wisdom says yes. His railing against the elites and the gatekeepers, his rallying cry for freedom, his hostility toward the media its all there. Isnt it?

On Thursday: The CBCs AARON WHERRY claimed Poilievre has taken up the populist torch from former prime minister STEPHEN HARPER, who has said his government practiced populist conservatism.

But while Harper has argued for a populist approach to make conservative ideas relevant to working-class people, Wherry wrote, Poilievre has fully embraced the language of populism.

In practice, populism seems to have less to do with proposing practical solutions to real problems than it does with finding someone to blame or resent, Wherry wrote. It is anti-establishment in a way that can threaten traditional institutions.

Also on Thursday: Quebec MP and JEAN CHAREST supporter ALAIN RAYES published a call to arms in newspapers across the province that was basically one long subtweet of Poilievre and his populist approach.

Do we want to favor the establishment of American-style populism and guarantee power for JUSTIN TRUDEAU and his New DemocratLiberal coalition? Or do we prefer to give our party a real chance to form a majority government to serve the interests of Canadians? he wrote. Canadians will never trust a Conservative leader who fosters division and who courts the extremes.

But on the other hand: On the latest episode of Hub Dialogues with SEAN SPEER, a leading expert on populism says nah. Poilievres politics? I guess I would still see that as pretty much a standard conservatism, more of an establishment conservatism, says ERIC KAUFMANN, a Canadian professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London.

(We wonder how Poilievre would react to being called establishment.)

Why isnt he the real deal? Kaufmann says real populism is fixated on cultural issues: immigration and social justice politics, for example. Poilievre, for all his angry rhetoric, has shied away largely from those issues except in a few places, Kaufmann told Speer. Hes largely about economics, which in my view is a relatively safe topic.

Safe. Ouch.

By the way: Poilievre and LESLYN LEWIS are officially out of the final leadership debate, the CBCs CATHERINE CULLEN reports. They will face C$50,000 fines for being no-shows.

Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is in the National Capital Region for private meetings.

The 24th International AIDS Conference begins in Montreal.

8:15 a.m. (9:15 a.m. ADT) International Trade Minister MARY NG will highlight a development regarding the Canada Digital Adoption Program in Halifax, N.S.

10 a.m. Liberal MP YASIR NAQVI will make an announcement about the future of downtown Ottawa.

3:50 p.m. POPE FRANCIS will arrive in Iqaluit for a meeting with residential school survivors and a public event. He will depart Canada at 6:15 p.m.

NOW WHAT The text of the $700-billion spending deal brokered between Sen. JOE MANCHIN and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is out and the reception from Canadian cabmins and politicians has been predictably cheery.

Amended language in the deal would extend tax credits to electric vehicles assembled in North America, not just in the United States.

Since day one weve worked tirelessly to position Canada as a global leader in the EV market, Industry Minister FRANOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE said Thursday on Twitter. The proposed US Senate deal is a testament to our skilled workers and our strong EV ecosystem.

Industry reaction: POLITICOs ZI-ANN LUM spoke with BRIAN KINGSTON, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, who called the deal great news for Canada. But he also said theres more work ahead.

We need a serious plan on electric vehicle adoption: We don't have one, Kingston said. That's what we need to do now that we know what the Americans will be doing through the Senate bill.

The ask: A serious plan, from the auto industry perspective, would raise the retail price cap under the iZEV program so more EVs, including pickups, SUVs and vans, are eligible for federal incentives.

We are not keeping pace with the Americans, Kingston said, pointing out the U.S. consumer incentive is equivalent to C$10,000 while the one on offer in Canada is C$5,000.

Last years fall economic statement poured another C$73 million into the federal EV rebate program. The Liberals have budgeted nearly C$660 million for the program since 2019.

Together or bust: Kingston also took aim at the Liberals plans for a zero-emission vehicle sales mandate.

He believes the policy proposal, included in Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULTs mandate letter, is out of step with the U.S. EV sales target a potential problem given the new U.S. spending bills revamped focus on North American-produced EVs.

That cannot happen, Kingston said of the proposed Canadian EV sales mandate. We benefit when we align our regulations with the U.S., when we work with the Americans to build out and strengthen our auto industry.

Are you CHRYSTIA FREELAND or a SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL who knows what industry or consumer EV incentives are cooking for this years fall economic statement? Drop us breadcrumbs: [emailprotected]

OPEN AND CLOSED H/T to Global News journalist ASHLEIGH STEWART for pointing out that Canadas embassy in Kyiv, despite having been ceremonially opened by Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU in May, still appears to be rather closed.

The blinds are drawn, gates are padlocked & a sign out front says services are still suspended, she tweeted Thursday. A security guard told us no one is currently working inside.

In a statement, Global Affairs Canada told Stewart that Canadas ambassador to Ukraine, LARISA GALADZA, returned to Kyiv to resume in-person high-level diplomatic engagement. But the statement also says diplomatic personnel is at reduced capacity, and consular services are being provided from Poland and other European cities.

OUT WITH THE NEW, IN WITH THE OLD ELIZABETH MAY is set to run for the Green Party leadership, which she relinquished in 2019 after 13 years at the partys helm, the Toronto Stars ALEX BALLINGALL reports.

According to Ballingall, May plans to pitch herself as a co-leader of the party, alongside former human rights worker JONATHAN PEDNEAULT. That wouldnt be unprecedented Qubec Solidaire, a left-leaning provincial party, is led by two spokespeople, one male and one female.

Related: SaltWires STU NEATBY also reported this week that another likely Green Party candidate, P.E.I. climate advocate ANNA KEENAN, is planning to run on a co-leadership platform with Montreal-based CHAD WALCOTT.

Leadership hopefuls arent allowed to publicly announce their candidacy until Aug. 31.

The background: May is one of just two Green Party MPs in the House of Commons. The party was mired in internal conflict during the ill-fated tenure of Mays successor, ANNAMIE PAUL, and has struggled with its finances since Pauls resignation last year.

Todays picks come from Liberal MP NATHANIEL ERSKINE-SMITH.

BRAIN FOOD

Innovation in Real Places Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World, by DAN BREZNITZ

Home of the Floating Lily, by SILMY ABDULLAH

Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology, by TARA DAWSON MCGUINNESS and HANA SCHANK

Riding the Third Rail: The Story of Ontario's Health Services Restructuring Commission, 1996-2000, by DUNCAN SINCLAIR, MARK ROCHON and PEGGY LEATT

GUILTY PLEASURE

No particular book in mind, but I'll keep reading anything and everything I can about the Jays.

Heres our summer 2022 reading list so far.

Send us your reading suggestions your brain food and your guilty pleasure! We'll share them in the Playbook newsletter.

Justice SAMUEL ALITO, who penned last months Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, took aim during a speech in Rome last week at foreign leaders who lamented his opinion including JUSTIN TRUDEAU. POLITICOs JOSH GERSTEIN has the story.

For CBC News, JONATHAN MONTPETIT reports that Quebecs upstart Conservative party, led by former shock jock RIC DUHAIME, has attracted a slew of candidates who have used their social media accounts during the pandemic to amplify medical misinformation, conspiracy theorists or to engage with far-right extremists.

For The Logic, DAVID REEVELY looks at how new proposed regulations for Big Tech led to a flood of activity, and a flush of cash, for lobbyists.

The CBC's CATHERINE TUNNEYreports this morning: Top N.S. Mountie wanted an officer dismissed for sexual misconduct but Commissioner Lucki disagreed.

After a brutal year dominated by economic angst, legislative setbacks and sinking approval ratings, President JOE BIDEN is back in the game, POLITICOs ADAM CANCRYN, JONATHAN LEMIRE and CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO report.

People who call 911 are facing hours-long delays for ambulances in some parts of Canada due to staff shortages and overcrowded hospitals, CARLY WEEKS and JAKE KIVANC write for the Globe and Mail.

CHANGE THE NARRATIVE The Department of National Defence is calling in a group of beltway bandits who can help the perpetually PR-challenged corner of government improve a public image somewhat lacking in positivity.

For a mere C$76,800, a "teaching team" of "world-class futurists, science fiction and entertainment creators, and military and business leaders" will "teach the how of forecasting and narrative communication, in order to better reach and influence target audiences."

The contractor's name: Useful Fiction.

What is that? "The use of research and narrative to build 'synthetic environments' as a tool for analysis, prediction, explanation, and communication Research is turned into insightful character-driven stories that can help individuals and organizations understand complex concepts, distill key themes, explore alternative points of view, reveal analytical blind spots, and/or project future issues and dilemmas."

The roster: Useful Fiction once trained United States Air Force mid-career leaders "on forecasting and narrative for more effective communications."

Their trainers included: "New York Times best-selling authors, a venture capitalist investor, a corporate futurist, the head of Australian military officer training, the former Commander of US Special Operations, the co-writers of Game of Thrones, the producer of Hunger Games and Crazy Rich Asians, and the team behind The Walking Dead and Good Lord Bird."

The company lists Giller Prize-winning author OMAR EL AKKAD on its list of contributors.

Client list: "Useful Fiction has provided such classes to organizations that range from the NATO military alliance to Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs training program for US government executives."

For POLITICO Pro subscribers, catch up to our latest policy newsletter from ZI-ANN LUM and ANDY BLATCHFORD: What Manchins deal means for Canada.

In other news for subscribers:

Canada 'encouraged' by EV tax tweak in Manchin deal. 'Easter eggs' in climate bill delight oil and gas industry. Alaska Republican to delay DoD nominees over rare earth minerals. Ukrainians doing everything we can to make Russia grain deal work. Arabic social media remains an unchecked Wild West.

Birthdays: HBD to Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth MARCI IEN and former MP DAVID DE BURGH GRAHAM.

Saturday celebrations: Ottawa Mayor JIM WATSON, Quebec MNA LORRAINE RICHARD, Alberta MLA JOE CECI, former Conservative MP KELLIE LEITCH and former trade minister JIM PETERSON.

Sunday: Bloc MP and dean of the House LOUIS PLAMONDON, Conservative MP TOM KMIEC, Saskatchewan Premier SCOTT MOE and SHEILA MARTIN, wife of former PM PAUL MARTIN.

Monday: Senator WANDA THOMAS BERNARD.

Send birthdays to [emailprotected].

Spotted:MICHAEL GEIST was so struck by how similar CRTC Chair IAN SCOTT sounded to Rogers CEO TONY STAFFIERI during this weeks parliamentary committee hearings on the Rogers outage that he created a quiz with quotes from both men to see if people could tell the difference.

A day later, more than 600 people had taken the quiz and a grand total of zero people had managed to get all 12 quotes right. (Your Playbook host, who didnt watch the hearings, took the quiz and scored a modest nine out of 12 nothing to humble-brag about.)

GEORGE SOULE, double-boosted.

Media mentions: Postmedia chairman PAUL GODFREY is stepping down at the end of the year, to be replaced by board member JAMIE IRVING. Godfrey will serve as a special adviser following the end of his term.

Thursdays answer: The RCMP consulted the British MI5 security agency (and Soviet defector IGOR GOUZENKO) while attempting to plant microphones in the new Soviet embassy while it was under construction in 1956.

Props to BRAM ABRAMSON, ROBERT MCDOUGALL and ROBERT BOSTELAAR.

Fridays question: LOUIS PLAMONDON, the longest-serving current member of the House of Commons, turns 79 on Sunday. Plamondon has won his seat in a whopping 12 consecutive elections. What two federal parties has he represented?

Send your answers to [emailprotected]

Playbook wouldnt happen without Luiza Ch. Savage and editor Sue Allan.

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The 'paradox' of reconciliation- POLITICO - POLITICO

This is all to say that in the United States, a successful third party isnt necessarily one that wins national office. Instead, a successful third party is one that integrates itself or its program into one of the two major parties, either by forcing key issues onto the agenda or revealing the existence of a potent new electorate.

Take the Free Soil Party.

During the presidential election of 1848, after the annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a coalition of antislavery politicians from the Democratic, Liberty and Whig Parties formed the Free Soil Party to oppose the expansion of slavery into the new Western territories. At their national convention in Buffalo, the Free Soilers summed up their platform with the slogan Free soil, free speech, free labor, free men!

The Free Soil Party, notes the historian Frederick J. Blue in The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848-1854, endorsed the Wilmot Proviso by declaring that Congress had no power to extend slavery and must in fact prohibit its extension, thus returning to the principle of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It is the duty of the federal government, declared its platform, to relieve itself from all responsibility for the existence of slavery wherever that government possesses constitutional power to legislate on that subject and is thus responsible for its existence.

This was controversial, to put it mildly. The entire two-party system (the first being the roughly 30-year competition between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans) had been built to sidestep the conflict over the expansion of slavery. The Free Soil Party which in an ironic twist nominated Martin Van Buren, the architect of that system, for president in the 1848 election fought to put that conflict at the center of American politics.

It succeeded. In many respects, the emergence of the Free Soil Party marks the beginning of mass antislavery politics in the United States. It elected several members to Congress, helped fracture the Whig Party along sectional lines and pushed antislavery Free Democrats to abandon their party. The Free Soilers never elected a president, but in just a few short years they transformed American party politics. And when the Whig Party finally collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, after General Winfield Scotts defeat in the 1852 presidential election, the Free Soil Party would become, in 1854, the nucleus of the new Republican Party, which brought an even larger coalition of former Whigs and ex-Democrats together with Free Soil radicals under the umbrella of a sectional, antislavery party.

There are a few other examples of third-party success. The Populist Party failed to win high office after endorsing the Democratic nominee, William Jennings Bryan, for president in 1896 but went on to shape the next two decades of American political life. In the wake of the defeat of the Peoples Party, a wave of reform soon swept the country, the historian Charles Postel writes in The Populist Vision: Populism provided an impetus for this modernizing process, with many of their demands co-opted and refashioned by progressive Democrats and Republicans.

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Opinion | Why Andrew Yangs New Third Party Is Bound to Fail - The New York Times

Opinion: There are still stark and important choices to make in the Aug. 2 primary, even if key issues have been drowned out by nastiness and disinformation.

Editorial board| Arizona Republic

Arizona is facing a host of critical questions about education, our water supply, our continued well-being as a state.

But this election hasnt focused much on answers.

Thatsdisheartening. If the issues that voters say they care most about and that matter most to our statesfuture cant rise above thenastiness and disinformation that has flowed from candidates, why even vote?

Because there are still stark and important choices to be made in the Aug. 2 primaryelection. Voters will nominatethe Republican and Democratic contenders whowill face offin the November general election.

Most posts are up for grabs this year. That includes governor, the 90-member Legislature, secretary of state, education chief, attorney general and one U.S. Senate seat.

Here are fourquestionsyou can answer about our states direction as you vote.

The Arizona primary for governor is a bellwether for the future of politics in Arizona and the United States.

It will help answer one of the most pressing questions before the country:

Will the Republican Party continue down the trail of disruptive national populism blazed by Donald Trump, or will it return to its more sober traditions of Goldwater, Reagan and McCain?

Key battleground: What Trump, Pence visits mean for GOP's future

The two candidates still standing and competitive are Kari Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson.

Lake is the female embodiment of Donald Trump, who took the bit of Stop the Steal and never let go. She is pugnacious and iron-eyed like Trump and has sowed doubt about the election results to come should she lose, just like Trump.

She has Trumps endorsement and his appetite for border politics, and she plays politics like a game of Mortal Kombat.

Karrin Taylor Robson is a harder read.

She comes from a family of Arizona Republicans.Hers is an old-school Republicanism. Less bare knuckled and more buttoned down. Less impulsive and more competent.

The fighting spirit of Kari Lake is attractive to the impassioned base. It wants to blow up the old politics.

The calm demeanor of Karrin Taylor Robson would steady the party ship. But that may be unsatisfying in revolutionary times.

And there stands the key question:

Are Republicans still in a fighters crouch, or do they crave the more stable politics of an earlier time?

Arizona hasnt had a Democratic governor since Janet Napolitano resigned in 2009 to work for the Obama administration. But given all the turmoil in the GOP, could this be the year that changesthat?

Democrats will choosebetweenSecretary of State Katie Hobbs or Marco Lpez, a former mayor andObama administration official.

Hobbs has earned national attention defending the 2020 election, but also for her role in a lawsuitby a former Senate staffer. Two juriesfound the employee was racially discriminated against on the job.

Thats going to be a powerful weapon against Hobbs should she win the Democratic nomination. Shes been a no-show on many campaign gatherings and refused to debate Lpez, a huge disserviceto voters who deserve to see candidates face off.

Lpez is seeking to become the first Latino elected governor in half a century, though he has faced an uphill battle to gain recognition, particularly after he was linked to an international bribery investigation.

Lpez maintains his innocence.

The choice is simple in the state House and Senate:

Will voters retain conservatives like Sen. Tyler Pace, Rep. Joanne Osborne and House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who are running for Senatelawmakers who werent afraid to workwith others andvotetheir conscience?

Or will they choose a slate ofAmerica First candidates thatwant to boot them, who along with a newly formed Arizona Freedom Caucus have promised to vote unquestionably as a bloc, no matter the issue?

If the latter, voters can bet that this bloc will pressure and intimidate others to steamroll itsagenda one that could plunge the state even deeperinto the ultrapopulist playbook.

And in that case, it wont matter who wins the governorship, or where others say they stand on the issues. Lawmaking will become the America First way, or the highway.

Kari Lake and others are already crying voter fraud without offering a shred of evidence.

Dont believe them. Theyre just setting themselves up for a fight should they lose on Tuesday.

But its no less dangerous, because theirfalse claims further erodeconfidence in the election process.

Theyve tried everything to discredit voting. A multimillion-dollar bogus election audit, lawsuits, selecting fake electors to overturn 2020 election results. All of that failed because theres no proof of widespread fraud.

Arizonans must fight back with their vote.

Thats how our representative democracy works. People vote freely,without any threat of intimidation. Whoever gets the most votes in a particular race wins.

Thats why it is important to know that voting is safe and that nobody is stealing or messing with your ballot.

More than half amillion voters in Maricopa County have already cast their ballot. Those with early ballots can still do so before Tuesday.

Its too late to mail them. But you can still vote in person or drop off your early ballot at any of the voting locations listed at Locations.Maricopa.Vote.

Polling locationswill beopen from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

This is an opinion of The Arizona Republic's editorial board.

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4 reasons to vote in Arizona's Aug. 2 primary election - The Arizona Republic