The News Rundown

Speech from the Throne to open the first session of the 45th Parliament of Canada

This week Parliament opened after the recent election with the Speech from the Throne delivered by King Charles III. While many see the King as an object of Britain, he is Canada’s head of state.
In 1957 and 1977 his mother delivered throne speeches in Canada and with that only happening twice before, it underscores the importance of this moment.
The King opened the throne speech by going back to 1957 citing the times: “When my dear late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, opened a new Canadian Parliament in 1957, the Second World War remained a fresh, painful memory. The Cold War was intensifying. Freedom and democracy were under threat.”
This was linked to today and the changing world order. He said, “Today, Canada faces another critical moment. Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self-determination, and freedom are values which Canadians hold dear, and ones which the Government is determined to protect.”
He’s also said that since 1957 Canada has set an example to the world and acted as a force for good and that “The True North is indeed strong and free!”
The King tied a lot to history and the impact Canada has had on him: “Every time I come to Canada… a little more of Canada seeps into my bloodstream – and from there straight to my heart.”
The throne speech was a message that Canadian sovereignty is backed by one of the oldest institutions in the world: the British crown.
The Throne speech indirectly reinforced this sovereignty and the repeated 51st state comments that Canada has been the brunt of by US President Donald Trump.
Also on display was a discussion of our opportunity as the government sees it to forge a path forward in an uncertain world with the change of our American neighbours.
The throne speech also re-hashed election campaign promises to end internal trade barriers, cut middle class taxes, invest in housing, and to boost defence spending alongside Europe.
The Throne Speech typically sets out the government's objectives for the session. This speech reads as a re-hash of the Liberal campaign platform.
There is so much that this government needs to do, they will be hard pressed to be able to do all of it or much of it depending on how the opposition organizes themselves.
There is also the question of whether or not the measures proposed will actually have an impact.
There is also the question of whether or not changes to issues like immigration will be acted upon meaningfully.
The Throne Speech with King Charles is a moment for Canada to lean into a sense of patriotism. But as we’ve discussed before is everyone welcome and is this patriotic push real?
If yes, that’s great.
The government and Prime Minister himself can lay out an olive branch to those pushed aside by the former government.
If they don’t do that, it will be business as usual.
Business as usual with the threat, perceived or real, of US President Donald Trump used to win an election.
That duplicity on display to most Conservative voters who wanted to focus on real economic issues makes the throne speech ring hollow.
This is indeed a moment for all of Canada with former Prime Ministers of both parties present.
But it doesn’t change the fact that real action is needed to show that things have changed.
Supplementals:

The federal election in April saw several close races across the country between the Conservatives and Liberals as politics polarized around the two major parties. Several recounts took up to 3 weeks after the election to decide the outcome, and while the Conservatives picked up 2 of the 4 recounts, the overall composition in the House of Commons has not changed a great deal.
Still, it's important to talk about the recounts because voting is such an integral part of Canadian democracy, and these voting outcomes can change who represents a large portion of the population.
Currently, there is no new news on the Montreal riding of Terrebonne since we last recorded a few weeks ago. Elections Canada deemed on May 10 that the incumbent Sinclair-Desgagné had been defeated by a single vote to the Liberals’ Tatiana Auguste, and the Bloc Quebecois have since filed a challenge in the Quebec Superior Court over Elections Canada creating an error on the mail label affixed to the envelope used for returning a special ballot to the local Elections Canada office.
On May 15th, a recount in Milton East–Halton Hills South, Ont., west of Toronto found Liberal Kristina Tesser Derksen was the winner, receiving 21 votes over Conservative challenger Parm Gill.
And in southwest Ontario, a recount in Windsor–Tecumseh–Lakeshore on May 22nd showed that Liberal incumbent Irek Kusmierczyk has been defeated by Conservative candidate Kathy Borrelli by four votes. Preliminary results had the margin much larger at 77.
Lastly, the recount results on May 23 confirmed that Terra Nova–The Peninsulas, Newfoundland goes to Conservative candidate Jonathan Rowe, who has beat the Liberals’ Anthony Germain by 12 votes. Initial results had the riding in Germain’s favour by the same margin.
A tiny article released by the Canadian Press teases a bit of what happened with the Terra Nova–The Peninsulas recount, which explains how a judge dealt with an “unprecedented” number of disputed ballots, 1,041 in total.
Justice Garrett Handrigan’s report, dated Monday, says “maybe as many as half” of the disputed ballots in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding were marked in the rectangular box containing the candidates’ name.
His report says lawyers for Liberal candidate Anthony Germain argued Handrigan would be disenfranchising those voters by dismissing their ballots. However, lawyers for Conservative Jonathan Rowe said Handrigan must stick to the Canada Elections Act, which says any ballot not marked in the circle next to the name shall be rejected.
Handrigan rejected the so-called “rectangle ballots,” and a table accompanying his report indicates he ultimately dismissed more than 675 ballots.
It's wild that as many as over 1000 ballots could be rejected in a riding due to being incorrectly marked when the instructions for marking a ballot are so easy to do. It also makes you wonder just how many ballots get rejected across the country for being filled out wrong.
Fabian Manning, a senator and former Newfoundland and Labrador MHA and Conservative MP, said he's never seen so many ballots rejected. He said there's no doubt in his mind that there was confusion among voters over the difference between federal and provincial ballots. Manning was in Marystown for the full two days of the recount as a scrutineer.
Manning said the Canadian Elections Act states a mark has to be made behind the candidate's name and doesn't stipulate if it's an X, check mark or initial, as long as it doesn't identify the voter.
But in Newfoundland and Labrador provincial elections, voters can use an X or a check by the name on a ballot to signify who they are voting for.
While he believes it's up to Elections Canada to educate people on the process, Elections Canada itself has been under the microscope for the wildly different vote totals between initial count, validation, and then the judicial recount. While in many cases it wouldn't make a difference, a few thousand rejected ballots certainly would in a lot of other cases.
At the end of the day, the media seems content to move on from the election and recounts, and forget all the lessons to be learned from an election that will most surely change our lives.
Supplementals:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/disputed-ballots-fabian-manning-1.7545744

Ensuring age-appropriate books in school libraries

This week the Alberta government announced that they would be ensuring age appropriate books in school libraries after a number of books with graphic sexual content were discovered.
The arc this story has taken in the media has been astounding.
At points in this story we will reference the names of the books and their authors. But we will not describe the imagery depicted. The Alberta government has provided that and you can find the text content as well as the pictures in our supplementals if you desire.
First this week the government under Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced that the Alberta government would ensure age appropriate material can be found in school libraries.
He said, “As a parent, it is extremely concerning to me to find out that books explicitly depicting sexual acts are available to students in some school libraries. We are going to do something about this serious issue by consulting Albertans and creating standards to ensure students do not have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries.”
From here the government was accused of censorship by the Alberta NDP and the Library Association of Alberta.
They stressed that professional libraries and library workers are included in the process.
Their stance though said that once the province starts limiting access to materials books are essentially being banned and they question what other books may be banned next.
The Calgary public library also expressed concern stressing the importance of access to books.
Later in the week a story was published in Alberta media penned by the Local Journalism Initiative that said that Conservative activists and parents were behind the initial tip-off to the Alberta government.
The Local Journalism Initiative is a creation of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage that receives $10m of federal funding starting in 2024 over 3 years.
The Local Journalism Initiative runs a branch called the Investigative Journalism Foundation and it was this branch that “discovered” the link to the conservative activists and parents.
From unveiling to Friday the media has consistently been looking for a way to paint the province as wanting to ban books in schools.
The topic of these books will raise eyebrows.
The titles are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thomson, and Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato.
All 4 of these books were found within schools in the K-9 range in Calgary or Edmonton as well as high schools in either Edmonton or Calgary.
The books detail sexual acts primarily of the LGBTQ+ variety both in their language and pictures used.
The Alberta government website has reference material available for any concerned Albertan.
It’s at this point we get to the insidious issue that the media has conspicuously danced around: why should any sexual content be available in a library to children under the age of 18?
Why should there be any sexual content in a school where parents have not consented?
Why are libraries and schools keen to keep this content on the shelves?
These are all very important questions that have been left to the wayside.
Instead the province is being framed as wanting to ban books while the real question is: should sexual content be allowed in school libraries at all?
This paints a worrying picture about some of our educators and decision makers present.
Albertans though can have their say until June 6th in a survey.
A survey that any Albertan who is a parent, teacher, student, librarian, author, or activist can have their say in. The province says they will take cues from the survey.
If you are concerned about this from either side please go and take the Alberta government survey and realize that this is not about banning books but a much wider and important societal question.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

How fentanyl transformed Victoria’s Pandora Avenue from downtown hub to open-air drug market

While homelessness and the opioid crisis took centre stage during the election campaign, it took a backseat to the economy and Canada-US relations. Only after the election have we seen news stories about these issues pop up again.
May 24th article in Globe and Mail titled: "Pandora’s block: As B.C. became the epicentre of a nationwide opioid crisis, fentanyl brought misery to this Victoria street. Civic leaders warn the whole downtown core could be next"
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad in question period Monday demanded treatment-focused housing that “bans these deadly drugs and restores law and order to communities like Victoria.”
B.C. Premier David Eby, in an unrelated news conference, pointed to significant new supportive-housing developments underway and the number of people already housed.
“We had 40 people living outside [on Pandora]. I think we’re down to 19,” he said, adding he’s spoken with everyone from first responders to business owners and understands “the urgency around addressing this.”
Notes from nonprofits
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“Today, Canada faces another critical moment. Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self-determination, and freedom are values which Canadians hold dear, and ones which the Government is determined to protect.” - King Charles III on the need for Canada’s government to defend freedom.

Word of the Week

Values - a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life.

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Show Data

Episode Title: Throne of Values
Teaser: King Charles reads the throne speech, the federal recounts are finally done, and Alberta is ensuring age appropriate material in school libraries. Also, BC’s drug crisis is getting even worse.
Production Code: WC-420-2025-05-31
Recorded Date: May 31, 2025
Release Date: June 1, 2025
Duration: 55:14
Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX