Wakenyacanada news roundup
Kenya fetes its champions; border wall for Canada-US?; Canada recession confirmed and federal campaigns continue as a Cree woman is crowned Mrs. Universe. These and other news you may want to know as you start a new month….
Kenya fetes its champions; A border wall for Canada-US?; Canada recession confirmed and federal campaigns continue while a Cree woman is crowned Mrs. Universe. These and other news you may want to know as you start a new month….
Jamhurini Kenya
A #hotbed of Champions. Congratulations Team Kenya!!
Kenya celebrates athletes: Kenya emerged top medal winners at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing for the first time, with seven gold medals, six silver and three bronze. Jamaica and the US took second and third place respectively. Following the win, President Uhuru Kenyatta tweeted: “Our young people have once again shown that they are as good as the world’s best and brightest.” Congratulations Team Kenya. You make us proud to be Wakenya!
National
The “R” Word is now official: Statistics Canada has confirmed that having had two consecutive quarters of declining GDP, the country is in recession. The federal government’s recent legislation on balanced budgets defines a recession as “a period of at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real gross domestic product for Canada, as reported by Statistics Canada.” According to StatsCan, Canada’s economy expanded in June but declined by 0.1 per cent for the second quarter as a whole, meeting the bar of that legal definition of a recession.
Liberal, Conservatives, & NDP party leaders continue to woo voters. /Image courtesy.
And as expected, the recession news hit campaign trails where political rivals continue to battle it out. Harper pointed to evidence suggesting Canada’s economy showed resilience in June, as GDP rose by 0.5 per cent for the month after shrinking for five consecutive months. The NDP say Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has presided over a “lost decade” marked by job losses, less retirement security and higher household debt for average Canadians. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said that regardless of any “technical definitions” of a recession, Tuesday’s economic news is “old hat” to Canadians who are struggling, and the Conservative leader is “completely out of touch.”
Canada-US border wall? It is worth considering, according to Republican Presidential candidate Scott Walker. Walker seems to be taking his cue from fellow Republican candidate, Donald Trump, who has promised to build The Great Wall of Trump along the Mexican border. Okay seriously, does this guy even know where Canada is? But more importantly, I doubt he’s even dared consider the logistics: For starters, does he know that the Canada-US border is the longest international border in the world? Let’s just say it would be hugely expensive to cover the 8,891 km of frontier, 40 per cent of which is water. Do the math comparing to the $3.2 billion cost of building just 1,040 km of border wall with Mexico. But more than that, it would be a logistical nightmare. According to CBC News, “An opera house would be forced to close, people’s kitchens would be cut off from their living rooms, farmers would be stranded without access to roads, a half dozen airports would have to shut down— even a golf course would lose all its players”.
Provincial
New road rules for Ontario drivers start today. These changes include a stiffer set of penalties for distracted driving, and new rules to help protect cyclists and tow truck drivers. Drivers convicted of distracted driving now face a minimum fine of $490 (up from $280) and three demerit points. The changes come in reaction to distracted driving “statistically exceeding impaired driving as a causal factor in fatal collisions.”
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario resumes negotiations with the province, one week before students head back to school. Teachers with ETFO, which represents some 76,000 members, have been in a legal strike position since May 10. Provincial negotiations broke down a day later. The province recently reached agreements with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, moves some say could bode well for the ETFO talks.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says that 35,000 oilpatch jobs have been cut this year, 25,000 from the oil services sector and 10,000 from exploration and production. This is quite a drastic change for the province considering that less than a year ago, Alberta was still complaining of a labour shortage. Schools couldn’t find bus drivers, job vacancy rates were the highest in the country.
An Edmonton cab company, Greater Edmonton Taxi Service Inc, plans to add video cameras to its entire fleet within the year; a move it says will protect both drivers and customers.
BC woes with nature continue. After months of failed rains and drought, the province over the weekend dealt with windstorms that brought down trees and power lines, interrupting hydro supply throughout the region. Thousands of B.C Hydro customers in the Vancouver area are still without power three days later.
The Cree woman is using her win to draw attention to issues facing indigenous people in Canada. /Facebook Image
And the winner of Mrs. [yes Mrs.] Universe is…..Ashley Callingbull, 25, made history becoming the first First Nations woman and the first Canadian to win the Mrs. Universe competition when she was crowned on August 29 in Belarus. A Cree woman, Callingbull is using the intense media attention she’s receiving following her win as an opportunity to discuss her life growing up in poverty on the reserve near Edmonton and to put a spotlight on the issues facing indigenous people in Canada.
Happy September!
– By Esther Essie Wambui (@westesita) for wakenyacanada.com