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Maryam Kouchaki, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, thought there might be another important dimension to the gender leadership gap: women receive less encouragement to apply for senior positions than men do.

Pre-recruitmentthe early phase of a job search, when other employees, recruiters, and human-resources staff identify qualified contacts and encourage them to applyis an increasingly important and common aspect of the hiring process. One survey found that 82 percent of U.S. organizations use social-media platforms such as LinkedIn to contact potential candidates.

When it comes to discrimination and sexism in the workplace, a lot of the research has focused on issues like raises and promotions, which are very important, Kouchaki says. But when you think of the broader issue of underrepresentation, while there are probably many mechanisms at play, we felt like pre-recruitment was crucial in terms of whether women would get excited about a position.

Kouchaki wanted to understand whether recruiters framed positions differently depending on the gender of the prospective candidates. In particular, she was interested in how political ideology might influence pre-recruitment communications.

She and her coauthors focused on political ideology in part because of how that can impact peoples preference for maintaining the status quo. Political conservativism, research shows, strongly predicts a persons preference for the status quowhich, in many organizations, doesnt include women in leadership roles.

For that reason, Kouchaki and her coauthorsBurak Oc of Melbourne Business School and Ekaterina Netchaeva of Bocconi Universitysuspected that conservatives might be less encouraging to prospective female candidates.

And indeed, thats what they found: while conservative recruiters dont actively discourage women from applying, they offer less encouragement to women than to men during the early stage of filling senior positions.

To Kouchaki, the research shows that bias doesnt always manifest as obvious hostility or mistreatment. Subtle discouragement can result in the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, she says.

Happily, the researchers also discovered that it wasnt hard to overcome the encouragement gap between liberals and conservatives: simply reminding people that women leaders can have a positive effect on an organization was enough to eliminate the disparity in how conservatives treated female and males candidates.

Kouchaki and her coauthors started their investigation by recruiting a group of 222 working adults in the United States.

Participants were asked to imagine themselves as hiring managers browsing LinkedIn to recruit candidates for a senior leadership position. They had come across a promising prospect with strong qualifications and relevant experience: either David Thompson (for half of the participants) or Sarah Thompson (for the other half).

Next, participants were given a list of eight facts about the position to use in an initial email to either David or Sarahhalf positive attributes (e.g., good pay, friendly colleagues) and half negative (e.g., no flexible working hours, skimpy benefits). Participants indicated which of these they would include in an introductory message. They also indicated from one to five how likely they would be to immediately send the email and the probability they would continue searching for other candidates.

Finally, participants answered demographic questions, including questions about their political beliefs and endorsement of traditional gender roles.

The researchers discovered that political ideology didnt have any effect on how likely participants were to contact David or Sarah or their desire to continue searching for other candidates. But it did change the content of those introductory messages: conservative participants, they found, used fewer positive facts about the position when writing to Sarah as opposed to David. Political leaning didnt affect participants use of negative facts, however.

Conservative participants, on average, are not more likely than liberal ones to push more negative information. Theyre just not selling the position to female candidates, Kouchaki explains. That was interesting for usits not a case of hostility; its that you are less inclined to be positive.

The first study showed the researchers that political ideology does influence how decision-makers treat men and women during the pre-recruitment phase of a job search. But it didnt explain whyconservative recruiters treat female candidates differently.

Kouchaki and her coauthors suspected that anxiety about change may have played a role. Conservative political beliefs are characterized by a desire to maintain the current social orderan order that in many cases doesnt include women in leadership positions. And when faced with such a threat, the dominant emotional response is anxiety.

Anxiety here is a reaction to the threat women pose to their status or what they think is the right way to do things, Kouchaki says.

To test this theory, the researchers repeated the first experiment with a larger group of participants and a few tweaks: this time, they asked participants to rank on a one-to-seven scale how anxious they felt at the prospect of interacting with David or Sarah. In addition, participants actually wrote an introductory email, rather than simply indicating which positive and negative facts about the position they would include in one.

The researchers used specialized software to analyze these emails for positive-emotion words; for authenticity (the use of words and expressions associated with uncensored thought); and for personal pronouns (I rather than ita sign of more personal and friendly communication).

As in the first study, political ideology predicted the content of participants emails: when writing to Sarah as opposed to David, more conservative participants used fewer positive-emotion words, less authentic phrasing, and more impersonal pronouns. In other words, the emails werent just less positive; they were also less open and friendly.

Whats more, conservative participants also expressed greater anxiety about interacting with Sarah as compared with Davida feeling that statistically predicted their tendency to write less personal emails.

Having established this subtle bias on the part of conservative hiring managers, the researchers wondered if anything could be done to counter it. They ran one final study to find out.

Once again, they repeated the basic design of the first study with new participants. This time, however, instead of only assigning participants to the David or Sarah group, they added a third option. This group was told they had found a promising candidate named Sarahand were given information about the positive organizational effects of having women in leadership roles.

This information, Kouchaki says, was designed to legitimize and normalize the idea of hiring womensomething they suspected might particularly help conservatives, who feel anxious about social change.

As in the first study, participants indicated which facts about the position they would include in an introductory message. But this time, the researchers weighted each of those facts on the theory that some positives and negatives are more important than others. (After all, good pay is typically more important to job seekers than friendly colleagues, although both are desirable.) They used the quantity and weight of the positive descriptors participants selected to calculate a positivity score for each participants proposed message.

Once again, conservative participants wrote more positive messages to David than to Sarahbut this pattern disappeared among participants in the third group, who learned both about Sarahs professional qualifications and about the importance of hiring women into senior positions.

This final study showed that even small measures can help reduce gender bias.

A simple reminder that hiring women can have organizational benefits was all it took to overcome the encouragement gapa message companies can reinforce during trainings for hiring managers. The power of this small intervention is a sign that legitimizing the presence of women and minority groups in companies is really important, Kouchaki says.

Companies can also use technology to ensure they arent discouraging women from applying, Kouchaki notes. One technology startup saw its number of female employees increase by 30 percent after implementing a text-analysis tool that checks for biased language in job descriptions.

Together, these kinds of interventions can help employees become more mindful about all the interactions they have at work, Kouchaki says: Changing peoples mindsets and attitudes in these more formal ways could have a spillover effect even when it comes to personal interactions.

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Conservatives and Liberals Differ in How Aggressively They Recruit Women for Leadership Roles - Kellogg Insight

Over the past several hundred years, one moral and political philosophy has left a greater mark on the world than any other. Often opposed by other ideologies, it has defeated all those which sought to banish it to the dustbin of history. This philosophy is known as liberalism and continues to have a tremendous influence on modern life.

Somehow, despite its prevalence, a surprising number of people couldn't begin to explain what the philosophy they ostensibly support is or what the arguments in support of it are. To correct this, let's take a look at the philosophy and the ideas and arguments of some of its founders.

Before we begin, I should say that today we are focusing on classical liberalism; it differs from the term "liberalism" as Americans tend to use it and has some significant points of disagreement with its modern decedent. What those are and why they exist are the subject for another time.

Liberalism begins with the assumption that people are or should be free and that restrictions on their liberty must be justified. Liberal thinkers debate the proper role of the state and often agree that it is a limited one which would result in very few restrictions beyond those needed to secure the rights of everybody living under its jurisdiction. When this was first proposed, during an era of absolute monarchy and nearly unchecked power of institutions over individuals, it was a radical claim.

For classical liberals, "liberty" usually means what might be called "negative liberty" today. These liberties are "negative" in the sense that they can be seen as "freedoms from interference." This contrasts with "positive" liberties, which are "freedoms to do" or the capacities to accomplish something. Classical liberalism is very concerned with the right of people to be left alone to live their own lives.

This means a liberal society will let people decide things like their own religion, their idea of what constitutes a good life, and what organizations they want to be a part of, among other things. Importantly, since cohesion is not applied in these areas of choice, people are free to join a church or civic group when it suits them and leave when it suits them and face no government reprisals for it. Liberal theorists typically advocate for tolerance of others to assure that these freedoms of choice are applied to everyone.

Classical liberals also tended to argue that the economy, or some version of it, existed before or independently of the state. As a result, they maintain that the right to private property is natural and should be fairly unlimited. For some thinkers, this also ties into ideas of independence from external authority, as a person with enough property to be more or less financially self-sufficient would be able to tend to themselves and select when to engage with institutions that could help them but might infringe on their rights.

Let's take a closer look at three of the more prominent classical liberal philosophers, what they thought, and why they thought it.

Considered the Father of Liberalism, John Locke wrote two treatises on government attacking absolute monarchy and supporting a more limited view of government. While his conception of liberalism is explicitly based on a theology many people would dispute, his reasoning has been applied in secular conditions to great success.

Like many other thinkers at the time, Locke turned to an idea of what life was like before the existence of governments, known as the state of nature, to make his arguments. For Locke, people in the state of nature were free within the boundaries of "natural law" and generally get along. However, in this condition, there is nobody to turn to if somebody else violates your rights, like if they steal from you, and no neutral arbitrator to turn to if you and somebody else have a dispute.

Locke argues that these issues eventually drive people to want to create a state to protect people's rights by enforcing natural law and acting as a neutral arbitrator when people have disputes.

The state he envisions people would create in this situation is a minimal one that focuses almost exclusively on protecting people's natural rights of "life, liberty, and property." It does not try to determine how people live their lives within the confines of natural law. It tolerates various religions and worldviews- since to promote one above all others would go beyond its prerogatives. It cannot operate in ways contrary to the rule of law, features a representative legislature with majority rule, the separation of powers, and is founded by people explicitly consenting to be governed this way.

His defense of private property is noteworthy. He argues that some variation of the economy exists in the state of nature and that nobody would willingly create a state if it were going to take away their property.

However, he holds that property can only be held if it will be used before it spoils, was acquired by the labor of the person who owns it, and if after acquiring it there is still enough of the resources it is made of left in the commons for the next person. What limits these principles place on a person going into Sherwood Forest in 1690 to cut down a tree to make lumber with and a person trying to start a business today is still debated.

A German philosopher, Kant is widely considered one of the most influential thinkers of all time. He worked in every area of philosophy there was to work in, political philosophy among them.

Kant based his liberalism on the idea of freedom from other people's choices and universal rationality. He maintains that all people have a fundamental dignity as rational and moral beings. This both obligates us to act accordingly and to respect the dignity of others. From this starting point, he argues that the state should exist to assure that individuals enjoy "Freedom, insofar as it can coexist with the freedom of every other in accordance with a universal law."

This freedom is limited by what is consistent with reason but is wide-ranging; a large number of liberties are required for a rational, autonomous person to be able to utilize those capacities. These liberties include the freedom of speech, religion, and the right to pursue happiness in any way a person wants to, so long as it is consistent with everybody else being able to do the same. Anything less than this conflicts with a person's moral autonomy and borders on treating them as a child.

He further argues that no state should make a law that "a whole people could not possibly give its consent to." That means things like laws granting privileges to one group of people and not others would be prohibited, as no rational group would sign a contract giving them the short end of the stick. It allows for other things, such as a generally applied tax of debatable value, as a rational person could consent to such a thing if the arguments for it were sound.

While he thought that an elected representative government was the best option for providing these protections, but didn't rule out other models. He also strongly asserted the necessity of constitutional governance.

While most interpretations of Kant maintain that his idea of freedom is "negative," there is some ambiguity in his writings which led some commentators to suggest he is open to ideas of positive liberty as well. Given his reliance on and admiration for some of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas, this idea is not absurd, though it is difficult to prove.

While better known as an economist, Adam Smith was also a philosopher who considered the problems of society as a whole. Between how important his economics are to classical liberalism and the nuanced approach of his political philosophy, Smith remains an essential figure in the liberal tradition.

Unlike some of the other thinkers we're looking at, Smith thought it was a legitimate goal of government to help the poor and promoting the virtue of society. He went so far as to say:

"...[the] civil magistrate is entrusted with the power not only of restraining injustice, but of promoting the prosperity of the commonwealth, by establishing good discipline, and by discouraging every sort of vice and impropriety; he may prescribe rules, therefore, which not only prohibit mutual injuries among fellow-citizens, but command mutual good offices to a certain degree."

However, this isn't a call for a moralizing government. It is a call for the government to do less than it was at the time.

As he thought with economics, Smith thought society would work best when people were generally left alone to handle things themselves. He argues that people can only develop virtue on their own; if they are only doing it because the government is telling them to do so, they aren't actually virtuous. Additionally, he didn't think that politicians would be very good at promoting virtue or prosperity, suggesting that they can handle issues like defense and criminal justice while leaving other tasks to individuals with better knowledge of the conditions on the ground than far off bureaucrats.

His economics, based on the idea that markets often provide the best possible outcomes when left alone, became the basis for the classical liberal stance on capitalism. While he wasn't quite as opposed to government intervention as many people think, his arguments in favor of fewer restrictions on business meshed well with other liberal ideas on property and freedom.

This overall approach is important in how it differs from our two other thinkers. While Locke and Kant both appeal to natural rights or individual autonomy to support their ideas on liberty, Smith leans on arguments showing how a society that values liberty will be a better place to live in than one that does not, in addition to it being morally defensible.

While few people will want to base their freedom on the idea that it is expedient, the appeal to tangible benefits has proven to be one of the more convincing arguments for liberty.

Many philosophers, arguably starting with John Stuart Mill, continued to work within the liberal tradition but considered the new problems of industrial society, market failures, and what happens when there is no longer a "nature" to take resources from like there was in 1690. Their work, combined with critiques of liberalism from other ideologies, notably socialism and conservatism, led to an evolution of liberal philosophy into the modern version we see today.

Despite some elements of liberal thought dating back to ancient times, the political philosophy of classical liberalism, which changed the world by elevating the rights of man and continues to influence our thinking even as we move past it, is surprisingly young. It achieved a lot in its few hundred years of existence, and its arguments for liberty, equality, democracy, and the right to get on with our lives and business continue to resonate today.

While most people may not be classical liberals anymore, taking time to consider the philosophy is an exercise that we can all benefit from.

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Classical liberalism and three of its founders: explained - Big Think

NSW Liberal MP John Sidoti has joined the crossbench after the state's corruption watchdog announced it would hold a public inquiry into his property dealings.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will probe allegations Mr Sidoti improperly used his influence to advance developments around Five Dock, in Sydney's inner-west, between 2011 and 2018.

Mr Sidoti the Member for Drummoyne stood aside as NSW sports minister in September 2019, after ICAC began investigating his property investments.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Sidoti announced he would "remove himself from the Liberal Party Room" while the investigation was underway.

In a statement, he said he has "always acted with integrity and honour" and "absolutely rejects" the allegations raised against him.

"However, I am concerned that my presence in the Liberal Party Room may be used as a distraction by the media and my political opponents," he said.

"For that reason I have decided to voluntarily remove myself from the Liberal Party Room, and sit on the crossbench, for the duration of the ICAC investigation and I look forward to returning to it after my name has been cleared."

AAP: Joel Carrett

Earlier today, in light of the ICAC announcement, Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed Mr Sidoti had officially resigned from the ministry.

He was referred to ICAC by Greens MP David Shoebridge, just hours after Ms Berejiklian announced a separate review into Mr Sidoti's alleged dealings.

Speaking at a media conference today, Ms Berejiklian said she had limited information about the public inquiry.

"I spoke to him briefly [this morning], he offered his resignation from the ministry, which I accepted and on that basis I will be appointing a new minister in the near future," she said.

The two probes were sparked after Mr Sidoti fronted a fiery budget estimates hearing, where he was grilled over his investments and denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement, ICAC said its public hearings would focus on whether Mr Sidoti improperly influenced others to:

The properties are opposite a site designated by the NSW government for a metro station due to be completed in the next decade.

ICAC is also investigating allegations Mr Sidoti failed to disclose several business and personal financial interests between 2011 and 2019.

Chief Commissioner Peter Hall QC will preside at the public inquiry, and barrister Rob Rankin will be counsel assisting.

At the time he stood down as sports minister, Mr Sidoti said: "The allegations made against me by the media, and exacerbated by the Opposition and the crossbench in budget estimates and Parliament, are false and inaccurate."

"I deny any allegations of wrongdoing. I have no undeclared conflicts of interest or benefits."

Ms Berejiklian said Geoff Lee would continue to serve as Acting Sports Minister until she had determined a replacement.

When the ABC contacted Mr Sidoti's electorate office for comment today, staff said they had not yet been told about the public hearings.

The public hearing will begin on March 29 and is expected to last four weeks.

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NSW MP John Sidoti leaves Liberal Party to sit on crossbench after ICAC announce inquiry into his property dealings - ABC News

There was a rare display of non-partisan agreement at the B.C. legislature Thursday as debate began on bringing municipal election finance rules into line with provincial restrictions on fundraising and campaigns.

Municipal Affairs Minister Josie Osborne, who was mayor of Tofino until the October election, said the changes are mainly based on 2018 recommendations of B.C.s Chief Electoral Officer. They include extending the official campaign period for local elections from 29 to 89 days, restricting third-party donations and preventing local political slates from accepting money for operating expenses between elections.

This new framework will result in elector organizations being treated more like provincial political parties under the Election Act, but continues to accommodate the elements that make local elections unique from provincial elections, Osborne told the legislature March 4. Changes to the rules governing election advertising will enhance the transparency of advertising by making it clear who is sponsoring advertising during the pre-campaign period.

The types of activities that are captured as election advertising will be clarified. This will ensure that paid canvassing activities, such as door-to-door canvassing or canvassing by telephone and mailing election materials on a commercial basis, will be subject to election advertising rules.

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B.C. Liberal MLA Dan Ashton, a former mayor of Penticton, said he expects his fellow opposition members to support the legislation after detailed discussion. He said the inclusion of paid canvassers as a registered advertising expense and the a $1,200 cap for third parties donating are overdue reforms. He expects more debate on a change that allows campaigning politicians and canvassers into strata condo units.

It provides Elections B.C. with additional penalties to fine people who do not comply with the rules and the process, and it also removes the 30-day local residency requirement in order to vote, as that has pros and cons, Ashton said.

It allows access for strata properties and other properties for canvassing. I look upon my peers that are from the Lower Mainland and look at all those large towers inhabited by residents and wonder how they have the opportunity to be able to show those residents what they want to do for them. Thats a difficult process, and I hope that that also comes into consideration in the future.

Jinny Sims, NDP MLA for Surrey Panorama, welcomed new restrictions on pseudo-parties that operate as electoral organizations in civic elections. Osborne noted that election slates or municipal parties are mainly a Lower Mainland phenomenon now, but with technology and advertising changing quickly, the province needs to be ready to regulate elections for councils, school boards and regional districts.

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BC Liberals, NDP sing in harmony on local election reforms Coast Mountain News - Coast Mountain News

Another socially distanced legislative session began this week, this one marked by COVID-related issues, a two-month delay of the provincial budget and an Opposition bench tasked with holding a majority government in check during a pandemic.

Our job as the Official Opposition is to hold the government to account, interim BC Liberal Leader Shirley Bond said. That's going to be a challenging job with a significant majority in the legislature, but we have a skilled team.

One immediate challenge will be the delayed provincial budget. The legislative session will run until June 17, with some breaks, and the budget will be presented on April 20.

Typically tabled every year in mid-February, governments were legally bound to present a budget by the end of March. However, the Finance Statutes Amendment Act 2020, passed in December, extends the deadline to April 30 when a budget follows an October election, as it does this year.

British Columbians deserve to know the financial state of our province, Bond said. We should have had that discussion. The budget should have been tabled by now.

In December, the Liberals voted against the legislation containing the extension.

We really don't see a need why it had to happen, said BC Liberal House Leader Peter Milobar, who is also MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson. We said this would create uncertainty with groups. It was brushed off by government.

Now, as session begins two weeks after a budget would normally have been introduced, agencies, businesses and associations are starting to get worried, he said.

I've spent this week on a lot of Zoom calls with agencies and organizations that don't know what the budget delay will, or won't, mean to them, Milobar said prior to the start of the legislative session. It's incumbent on the government, they're the ones that have delayed this budget, to provide that certainty.

The December legislation also included a provision to extend special warrant spending authority to keep essential funds flowing if the budget and estimates are presented after the beginning of the new fiscal year April 1 for most businesses and institutions which will be the case this spring.

It is not intended to provide for new program spending, but, rather, to provide for continuation of the operations of government until a supply act can be passed by the Legislative Assembly, Finance Minister Selina Robinson told the legislature on Dec. 9.

Any enhanced or expanded programming cannot happen until a new budget is introduced, Milobar said.

Meanwhile, the government will have four weeks to introduce legislation prior to the Throne speech, which occurs one week before the budget.

I'm assuming the government will have work for legislators to do. We'll have to wait and see what that agenda looks like, said Bond, who is MLA for Prince George-Valemount and who will be attending the session in person for the first time since the pandemic began. Previously, she attended via Zoom, as do the majority MLAs due to public health restrictions.

The top priority is the pandemic and the health and well-being of British Columbians, but people are also concerned about economic issues, Bond said.

How is British Columbia going to emerge as we move ahead? she asked. Sectors, like the tourism sector, that have been decimated by COVID, what will the government do to support and energize that sector?

Last year, the province announced $105 million in funding for the sector, along with the creation of a task force made up of tourism and hospitality industry representatives to disperse the funding.

We're going to be highlighting the challenges that the Horgan government has created for small businesses and for British Columbians a quarter of a billion dollars sitting on the sidelines because the government couldn't manage the to get it out the door, Bond said, referencing the $280 million or so in COVID-19 relief funding still not disbursed from $300 million designated for small and medium-sized businesses.

The program is set to expire on March 31, when any remaining funding will be rolled back into the provincial government coffers, Premier John Horgan confirmed in February.

They've made lots of commitments and many of them they've yet to deliver, Bond said.

There's going to be no shortage of questionable situations around how the premier and his ministers have been handling their files, Milobar added. We're all very focused on wanting to shine a light on the shortcomings of the government's response to a wide range of issues.

Additional priorities for the Opposition will include scrutiny of the vaccination rollout and continued calls for rapid testing in long-term care and schools, said Bond, who is also the Opposition critic for seniors services and long-term care.

There will be lots of debate and dialogue, she said. It's going to be a very intense session.

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Opposition BC Liberals vow to hold government to account as new session begins - Kamloops This Week

OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are setting aside some of the billions of dollars planned in short-term transit spending to help municipalities further green their bus fleets.

The hope is that the $2.75 billion in traditional grant money will dovetail with the $1.5 billion an infrastructure-financing agency is supposed to invest toward the same cause.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says the grant money is supposed to help cover the upfront cost of purchasing electric buses to replace the diesel-powered ones rumbling through Canadian streets.

She says federal funding has helped cities buy 300 buses and the government hopes the funding will help them add 5,000 zero-emission buses over the next five years.

But she acknowledged there are added costs that need to be addressed, including having charging stations on transit routes and in existing depots.

The Liberals are hoping cities then turn to the Canada Infrastructure Bank to finance the cost of the remaining work.

The banks chief executive, Ehren Cory, says the energy savings expected from not having to buy diesel could, for instance, be used to pay off a low-interest loan from his agency.

Its quite a from-the-ground-up reinvestment and the savings will pay for a lot of that, but not for all of it, he said, via video link.

Thats why the combination of a grant from the government, a subsidy, combined with a loan against savings together will allow us to get the most done, allow us to make wholesale change quickly and do so at minimal impact to taxpayers.

Garth Frizzell, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, welcomed the funding as a way to speed up work in cities to replace diesel buses.

We are already putting more electric vehicles on our streets, and this major funding to electrify transit systems across the country will reduce GHG emissions, boost local economies, and help meet Canadas climate goals, he said in a statement.

McKenna made the same connections multiple times during an event Thursday in Ottawa, where she stood near the citys mayor, Jim Watson, with Cory and Industry Minister Franois-Philippe Champagne joining by videoconference.

Joanna Kyriazis, senior policy adviser at Clean Energy Canada, noted that the investments could help the countrys six electric-bus manufacturers scale up to compete internationally.

As Canada develops its battery supply chain from raw metal and mineral resources to our North America-leading battery recycling companies we must build the market for electric vehicles and their batteries at home, she said in a statement.

The Liberals are promising billions in permanent transit funding as part of a post-pandemic recovery, including $3 billion annually in a transit fund starting in five years.

Cities have seen transit ridership plummet through the pandemic as chunks of the labour force work remotely. Demand for single-family homes well outside urban cores suggests some workers are expecting remote work to become a more regular fixture of their post-pandemic work lives.

McKenna said her thinking about public transit hasnt been changed by that shift, saying her only thought is that Canada needs more and better systems. Its up to cities and transit agencies to set routes and priorities, she said.

The reality is many of our essential workers have no other option than to take public transit. And I think weve recognized how important it is for people to be able to get around in a safe way, McKenna said.

Conservative infrastructure critic Andrew Scheer questioned whether the Liberals could follow through on the promise, adding that the infrastructure bank hasnt completed a project.

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The Trudeau Liberals keep announcing the same money but cannot get anything built, he said in a statement.

You cant take a Liberal re-announcement to work. Electric or not, they just cant get the job done.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2021.

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Liberals tap $2.5B of promised transit dollars for zero-emission buses - TheRecord.com

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SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesBidens chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci hit back at South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noems harsh criticism of him on Sunday, saying her comments about him at this weekends Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) were not very helpful and unfortunate.Noem, who has received praise from conservatives for largely ignoring coronavirus restrictions and guidelines, got a standing ovation from the CPAC crowd when she boasted about ignoring the medical advice of experts and called out Fauci for supposedly being wrong. Appearing on CBS News Face the Nation, Fauci was asked if that sentiment was an impediment to the nations recovery.Kristi Noem Under Scrutiny for Using State Plane to Fly to NRA, Turning Points Meet-UpsIts unfortunate but its not really helpful because sometimes you think things are going well and just take a look at the numbers, they dont lie, he said. During an interview with Noem on the same program, anchor Margaret Brennan grilled the Republican governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate on her states poor performance with the deadly virus.So for your state, you have, if you look at starting in July, which was after that spring peak, you have the highest death rate in cumulative COVID deaths per million in the country, Brennan said, adding: I know youre conservative and you care about the sanctity of life. So how can you justify making decisions that put the health of your constituents at risk?Noem, meanwhile, brushed off the question, instead telling Brennan that those are questions that you should be asking every other governor in this country as well.FAUCI REACTS: Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to @govkristinoem's criticism at #CPAC that the veteran medical expert is "wrong" on hospital capacity and #COVID19 caseloads: "It's unfortunate but it's not really helpful just take a look at the numbers they don't lie." pic.twitter.com/y9Xz30lsr0 Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 28, 2021 Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Delays in the delivery of vaccines sapped Canadians' esteem for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but polls suggest there hasn't been a corresponding slippage in support for the Liberal Party he leads.

Not yet, at any rate. Voting intentions often move after other indicators of voter sentiment start to shift. But with recentannouncements aboutmorevaccine shipmentsarriving soon, the Liberals might avoid taking the hit that was coming their way.

As was the case for most governing leaders across the country,Trudeau's popularity soared at the outset of the pandemic. COVID-19's rallying effect tapered off somewhat as the pandemic dragged on, but Trudeau was still polling better at the end of 2020 than he was at the start of it.

News in mid-January that there would be delays in vaccine deliveries, and thatCanada was falling behind ininternational vaccination rankings, coincided with a decline in Trudeau's own personal ratings.

According to a recent survey from the Angus Reid Institute, Trudeau's approval rating has dropped by five points since mid-January to 45 per cent.

Abacus Data found that the share of Canadians saying they have a positive impression of Trudeau fell three points to 36 per cent, while the number of those with a negative impression increased five points to 42 per cent.

The timing probably isn'ta coincidence. Trudeau's repeated assurances that Canada would receive a specific number of vaccines by a specific date put him in danger of over-promising and under-delivering something over which his government had only limited control.

So it isn't surprisingthat after those delays were announced, Abacus reported that the number of Canadians saying that Trudeau has done an excellent or good job procuring vaccines haddropped 15 percentage points.

Lger has also found that public satisfaction with the measures put in place by the federal government to fight COVID-19 has fallen to 56 per cent from 66 per cent before the New Year, while an Ipsos/Global News poll found approval of Trudeau's response to the pandemic down six points from early January to 54 per cent.

Those are some significant drops after what had been a rather steady public opinion environment for Trudeau. But while the Liberals aredown a little, theyhave not seen as much of a shift in their own support.

According to the CBC's Canada Poll Tracker, an aggregation of all publicly available polling data, Liberal support across the country stands at 34.9 per cent, down just 1.2 percentage points since Jan. 27.

Recent polls have shown an inconsistent trend line.

The most recent Lger survey has the Liberals at 36 per cent, unchanged since mid-January, and ahead of the Conservatives by seven points. Both Abacus and Ipsos have the Liberals dropping three points since January, but still ahead of the Conservatives by one and three points, respectively.

The Angus Reid Institute pegged the Liberals at 34 per cent, down a single point since January but leading the Conservatives by three.

While it'snot a positive trend line for the Liberals, it certainly doesn't look like the bottom is anywhere close to falling out for them.

This isn't the first timewe've seen support for the Liberals proving to be more resilient than support forthe prime minister.

According to polling by Abacus Data, the share of Canadians with a positive view of Trudeau plummeted 11 points in early 2018 around the time of his controversialtrip to India. In the same polls, however, support for theLiberals slipped by just three points.

Trudeau's positive ratings tumbled by 12 points between December 2018 and April 2019 during the SNC-Lavalin affair, but the Liberals only suffered a four-point drop.

This is largely because a party leader's ratings and those of the party he or she leads are only linked to a certain point because even if voters sour on a leader, they need to prefer theoptions available to them before they take their votes elsewhere.

The Conservatives haven't benefited from the Liberals' modest drop. The party currently sits at 30.1 per cent support nationwide in the Poll Tracker down 0.5 points since Jan. 27. Instead, it's the NDP that has picked up some of the Liberals'slack.

Polls suggest Erin O'Toole, who took over as Conservative leader in August, has not made a positive first impression with Canadians.

While Trudeau's personal ratings fell, Abacus found that O'Toole's positive score was unchanged at 20 per cent, while his negatives increased by two points to 30 per cent.

The Angus Reid Institute found just 29 per cent of Canadians holding a favourable view of O'Toole (down three points since January), while his unfavourable rating increased four points to 51 per cent just one point behind Trudeau, who benefits from having higher favourables and fewer undecideds than O'Toole does.

O'Toole's problematic personal ratings make it difficult for the Conservatives to capitalize on Trudeau's own worsening numbers a phenomenonthey've experienced before.

The same thing happened to the previous Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer. Drops in support for the Liberals over the India tripin 2018 and SNC-Lavalin in 2019 did not result in big spikes for the Conservatives in part because Scheerhad problems with his own personal poll numbers.

It's clear that the appeal of the alternatives matters and that voting intentions don't always follow the leader.

According to polling by Abacus Data during the 2019 federal election campaign, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh saw his positive ratings increase by 14 points. But by the end of the campaign, Abacus had the NDP down one point from its pre-campaign standing.

Nevertheless, a leader's declining poll numbers should get parties thinking about whether their own support will be next. Had further vaccine delayscontinued to sap Trudeau's popularity, it's likelythat the Liberals would have started to feel the effects more directly.

Instead, new vaccine shipments are imminent and should put Canada on track to reach its targets by the end of March. Any rise in Canada's international vaccination rankings could correspond with a rise in Trudeau's support.

Indications of a potential rebound might already be emerging. Polling by Morning Consult, an American polling outfit that has been tracking the approval ratings of global leaders, recently reported an uptick in Trudeau's approval rating.

It could be a blip. But after a tough few weeks, there's no doubt Trudeau and the Liberals will be happy for any signal that they've made it through in one piece.

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Trudeau's poll numbers took a hit over vaccine delays but the Liberals escaped the worst - CBC.ca

WEBB CITY, Mo. The College Heights Christian boys basketball team came out of the locker room at halftime and simply refused to be denied its first district championship in program history.

After trailing 33-27 at halftime, 3-seed College Heights outscored 1-seed Liberal 42-12 in the second half to come away with a 69-45 triumph in the Class 2 District 12 boys championship game inside the Cardinal Dome at Webb City High School on Friday night.

The district boys basketball title marked College Heights first since becoming a member school of MSHSAA in 1998. It was also the Cougars first time to compete in a district championship game.

College Heights plays Crane in a Class 2 sectional at Carthage High School on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Im really excited for these kids and the school, College Heights coach Eric Johnson said. Just being here had us a little nervous in the first half because weve never been in this situation before. But we didnt really chew them out at halftime. We just told them this is what we need to do better, and they went out and did it.

The pivotal run started immediately in the second half when College Heights opened the third quarter with eight straight points. A layup in transition by Miller Long tied the game at 33-33 less than two minutes into the period, and then the Cougars took the lead on their next possession on a putback basket by Long.

Long, who finished with 19 points, had 12 points in the third quarter as College Heights outscored Liberal 21-4 for a 48-37 lead into the fourth stanza.

College Heights led by as many as 27 points in the final period before settling for the 24-point win.

The intensity picked up on our end (in the second half), Johnson said. We extended our defense even more that we did in the first half. They were shooting from 25 feet instead of the 20 they were shooting from in the first half.

The physical presence the Cougars established in the paint also wore down the Bulldogs as the night wore on. Big men Curtis Davenport and Hagen Beck standing at 6-foot-5 and 6-4, respectively finished with 21 and 18 points, respectively.

Im not going to lie, this feels awesome, Davenport said. I mean, I was really nervous before the game. I had butterflies in my stomach. I honestly felt like I was going to throw up. You just have to turn it on and use that. Just tell yourself that youre ready to go and ready to face anything that is thrown at you out there.

We didnt have the best first half, but we were going to come out and change that. Our coach, Steve Harrel, told us that were a good third-quarter team and were going to blow the doors off these guys. We went out and outscored them like 42-12 in the second half.

College Heights drew first blood in the game with a 5-0 run that included a triple by Long and a layup in traffic by Beck. But Liberal went on to make five 3s in the opening period Caleb Suschnick accounting for three of the triples as it built a 17-14 lead entering the second quarter.

The shots continued to fall for Liberal in the second period as the Bulldogs went on a 12-4 run to take a 29-18 lead with 3:46 remaining in the half. The surge saw Gunner Miller score five straight points before Kale Marti punctuated the run with a seal and transition layup.

The Cougars refused to go away, however. A quick 7-0 surge trimmed the deficit to four points after a putback basket by Beck. and after a made free throw and another 3 for Liberal, College Heights Ethan Adel ended the half with a 2-point floater to make it a six-point ballgame at halftime.

Contact Jared Porter on Twitter at @JaredRyanPorter.

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Cougars pull away from Liberal in second half, claim first district title in program history - Joplin Globe

Andrew DeVore, an Amazon vice president and associate legal counsel who manages the companys labor and employment issues, has resigned from the board of the American Constitution Society. His resignation represents a sharp turnaround from a few months ago, when the liberal legal organization voted to renew DeVore for a second three-year term.

ACS, which was founded in 2001 to help create a pipeline of liberal judges and act as a counter to the conservative Federalist Society,faced growing pressure throughout 2020 to cut ties with DeVore and condemn Amazon for its anti-union practices. In the spring, DeVores boss, Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky, had urged colleagues to tell reporters that, among other things, a fired worker who protested the lack of Covid-19 safety protections in a Staten Island warehouse was not smart or articulate.

In response, a number of left-leaning groups, including attorneys and law students affiliated with ACS, sent a letter to ACSs president, Russ Feingold, and the ACS board of directors protesting DeVores leadership role and calling for his immediate resignation. But the organization did not call for his resignation and six months later voted to extend his leadership position. At the time, ACS told The Intercept that DeVore, who had served on the board since 2017, was an engaged board member and that they saw him as helping tobring a diversity of experiences to the organization.

In a letter sent toNew York University ACS student leaders on Friday, Feingold confirmed that DeVore had resigned. Andrew is a principled person, his Board participation was exemplary, and we benefited greatly from his service, Feingold wrote. We are grateful for his dedication to the organization.

ACS did not return a request for comment, but their website has already been updated to no longer list DeVore as part of the leadership.

Feingolds letter did not say why DeVore had resigned. But since December, when ACS publicly reaffirmed its support for the Amazon executive, a major unionization campaign at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, has picked up national attention. The company has been fighting the union effort aggressively, including hiring a $3,200-per-day consultant to dissuade the some 5,800 workers there from voting for a union.

ACS has resisted pressure from its membership to speak more forcefully about Amazons labor practices for most of the coronavirus pandemic. In April, amid public backlash to Amazons warehouse conditions, ACS released a statement reiterating its support for workers rights but did not specifically mention Amazon by name. Amazon is listed as a 2020 corporate sponsor on ACSs website, though how much the company has donated to the nonprofit organization is unknown.

I think it was very concerning that ACS as a progressive organization wont make a statement that specifically calls out Amazon and its bad track record, Hooman Hedayati, a member of the Washington, D.C., ACS chapter board told The Intercept in December. It makes me question to what degree theyd really be willing to speak up in support of the labor movement.

In late January, a virtual panel hosted by ACS chapters at Harvard, New York University, and Yale was titled: Corporate Influence in Progressive Legal Spaces: Why Is an Amazon Lawyer on the American Constitution Societys Board of Directors? Among other legal activists, the event featured former Amazon worker Christian Smalls, who was fired last March for protesting warehouse conditions.

Eight daysafter the virtual panel, ACS released its first statement directed at Amazon. The American Constitution Society encourages all employers, including the Amazon Corporation, to respect the right of workers to collectively bargain and to follow the law in remaining neutral as to their employees decision to unionize or not, Feingold wrote in the statement. The upcoming unionization election at an Amazon plant in Alabama is scheduled to occur on February 8, and there have been concerning news reports outlining anti-organizing actions by the company. We are also disturbed by first-hand accounts of mistreatment of Amazon workers, particularly in the midst of the pandemic.

Voting for the Bessemer warehouse union began February 8 and will continue through March 29. It is the first union election for the company in the United States since about two dozen Delaware warehouse workers rejected forming a union in 2014.

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Amazon VP Abruptly Resigns From Board of Liberal Legal Organization - The Intercept