It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, October 30, 2021
HI TECH HOT SPOT & TOURISTIAVILLE Microsoft acquires Kelowna’s Two Hat Security tech company The acquisition is designed to protect the safety of the global online experience
Microsoft announced on Friday (Oct. 29) that they have purchased Kelowna-based tech company Two Hat Security to help strengthen and protect the safety of the online experience for users across the globe.
Dave McCarthy, the corporate vice president of Xbox Product Services, said that both Microsoft and Two Hat share a vision for using advancements in moderation technology to “nurture and protect” global online communities.
“Globally, growing amounts of harmful content shared online have increased the need for effective and proactive content moderation,” said McCarthy. “For any online community to thrive, content moderation is a critical investment to ensure positive user experiences and maintain engagement over time
He added that the acquisition of Two Hat is “an important evolution” of the relationship between the two companies, which will combine innovative technology, research capabilities, highly skilled teams and advanced cloud infrastructure.
“For the past few years, Microsoft and Two Hat have worked together to implement proactive moderation technology into gaming and non-gaming experiences to detect and remove harmful content before it ever reaches members of our communities,” he said.
Two Hat’s technology, he continued, has helped to create safer global online experiences for communities in Xbox, Minecraft and MSN.
“This is thanks to its highly configurable technology, which allows the user to decide what they are comfortable with and what they aren’t,” he said.
“I’ve witnessed the impact they’ve had within Xbox, and we are thrilled that this acquisition will further accelerate our first-party content moderation solutions across gaming, within a broad range of Microsoft consumer services, and to build greater opportunity for our third-party partners and Two Hat’s existing clients’ use of these solutions.”
‘Highly polluting’: Why lawn care can be hazardous to health, environment
By Saba Aziz Global News Posted October 27, 2021 WATCH: Are gas-powered leaf blowers damaging to your health? – Oct 25, 2019
Canadians should rethink the way they upkeep their lawns and move towards more eco-friendly options, experts say.
With fall in full swing across Canada and winter not far away, many will be dusting off their leaf and snow blowers.
While these gadgets may help polish off the yard’s look in record time, gasoline-powered garden equipment — including lawn mowers and hedge trimmers — can be hazardous to the environment and our health, polluting the air we breathe.
“People may be surprised to think that a leaf blower actually produces a lot more pollution than a pick-up truck,” said Michael Brauer, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.
According to some estimates, using a leaf blower is equivalent to 100 cars on the road, he said.
This is because gas-powered garden equipment tend not to have a well-developed emission treatment system that most modern vehicles do, said Greg Evans, a professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the University of Toronto.
“These are quite primitive engines, not very different than they were 30, 40, 50 years ago, and they’re really, highly polluting,” added Brauer.
Lawn machines that use a two-stroke engine, where the oil and gas is mixed, spew a combination of gases including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides.
They also emit polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are known to be carcinogenic as well as fine particles, called PM2.5, that can penetrate deep into the lungs, affecting organ function.
In the case of the leaf blowers, they end up stirring a lot of dust as well.
What makes the use of such equipment particularly hazardous is the proximity to the person handling them and others living in the area.
“They do have very high emissions of pollutants per amount of fuel burned,” said Jeffrey Brook, an environmental health expert and assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
“Plus they’re operating very close to us, so our own individual exposures can be quite high.”
In the United States, in 2011, approximately 26.7 million tons of pollutants were emitted by gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment — accounting for 24 to 45 per cent of all non-road gasoline emissions, according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
A 2020 report by the California Air Resources Board found that emissions from small off-road engines, such as leaf blowers, lawn mowers, trimmers and chainsaws, were higher than those emitted from the state’s 14.4 million passenger cars.
In most urban areas, Brauer estimates that lawn equipment would be contributing 10 to 20 per cent of overall emissions.
Besides that, noise pollution is another concern — not just in terms of annoyance but the health impact, as it can trigger strokes and heart attacks that could prove to be fatal, said Brauer.
“I think we just need to take this a little bit more seriously,” he said.
“Even though there may be a benefit in terms of having the equipment that can keep leaves off … there is a cost to using them.”
4:21 Tech Talk: Eco-friendly ways to care for your lawn – Jul 7, 2021
In 2018, Canada amended regulations for small off-road spark-ignition engines, imposing stricter emission standards in alignment with the U.S. EPA.
Over the years, on a local level, some jurisdictions have imposed bans on the use of leaf blowers, but the equipment is still widely used across the country.
Given the health hazards, moving toward cleaner and quieter electric and battery-powered options is highly recommended, experts say. Where possible, manual push mowers can also come in handy.
Evans said leaving some leaf cover on the lawn can also have ecological benefits.
“I think there needs to be a rethink about our love affair with green lawns,” said Brook.
“We should step back and think about more sustainable ways to grow our yards and maintain them.”
GOOD NEWS Number of Canadians reporting religious affiliations at all-time low: StatCan
CTVNews.ca writer Saturday, October 30, 2021 The pews at St. Mary's Parish Catholic church are empty shortly before
the Easter Vigil mass on Saturday, April 11, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
TORONTO -- A new report from Statistics Canada has found that Canadians are becoming less religious.
StatCan data released on Thursday shows that in 2019, only 68 per cent of Canadians 15 or older reported having a religious affiliation.
It's the first time that fewer than 70 per cent of Canadians reported being religiously affiliated since StatCan began tracking the data in 1985. Between 2000 and 2017, the percentage of religiously affiliated Canadians hovered around 77 to 82 per cent, before declining to 75 per cent in 2018
Read the StatCan report Only 23 per cent of Canadians in 2019 reported attending group religious activities, such as church service, at least once a month. Between 2000 and 2009, that figure was around 30 per cent.
StatCan also found that religion was becoming less important for more Canadians. The percentage of people who reported that religious or spiritual beliefs were somewhat important or very important was 54 per cent in 2019. In the mid-2000s, it was around 70 per cent.
Individual religious activities, such as prayer or meditation, are also on the decline. Only 30 per cent of Canadians reported engaging in such activities at least once a week, compared to 46 per cent in 2006, when the data was first collected.
Religiosity was also found to be stronger among women compared to men. StatCan found that 72 per cent of women reported being affiliated with a religion compared to 64 per cent of men. Women were also more likely to say they pray or engage in a personal religious activity at least once a week (18 per cent, compared to 14 per cent for men).
The report also talked about differences among age groups. Religious affiliation was the highest among Canadians born between 1940 and 1959 at 85 per cent, compared to 32 per cent for those born between 1980 and 1999.
Within the youngest age group, 62 per cent of those born outside of Canada reported a religious affiliation, compared to 39 per cent of Canadian-born individuals. The differences between those born in and outside Canada were less pronounced in older age groups.
Being religiously affiliated was not necessarily correlated to placing a high importance on religion, StatCan said. Between 2017 and 2019, 18 per cent of Canadians reported a religious affiliation while also indicating that rarely or never participated in group religious activities and considered their religious beliefs to be of little importance to how they live their lives.
The numbers also vary greatly across regions. Quebecers, for example, had a high percentage of religious affiliation, but a low percentage of religious activities.
"It is quite possible that regional differences will continue to grow in the future, especially given the widely varying levels of immigration and composition of immigrants across different regions of Canada," StatCan wrote.
CUSP holds protest against RBC financing of fossil fuels
Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet held a protest in front of the Royal Bank of Canada branch located on Memorial Ave on October 29
By: Justin Hardy CUSP's #RBC is Killing Me protest against RBC financing of fossil fuels
Justin Hardy
THUNDER BAY - Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet held a protest in front of the Royal Bank of Canada branch on Memorial Avenue on Friday.
"We've got a code red climate emergency and everybody knows about that by now, we've had heat waves in Western Canada, huge rain drops in different parts of the world, so the fact that we're in a climate emergency is really clear," said Paul Berger, Meetings Chair of CUSP.
"And the International Energy Agency has said to get through the climate emergency, to tackle climate change, we have to stop exploring for new fossil fuels, and building new massive fossil fuel infrastructure projects."
The demonstration of roughly 30 people was part of over 30 actions held at RBC branches across canada and was held to urge RBC to cease financing of fossil fuel and fossil fuel infrastructure companies, especially those that would operate on Indigenous lands without free, prior and informed consent.
Since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015, RBC has provided $208 billion in finance to fossil fuel and fossil fuel infrastructure companies.
"They're killing my grandchildren," said protestor Jacqueline Boileau.
"I'm gonna be out of this before the full effects of climate change hit, I'm almost 60 years old, but my grandchildren with have to live with the consequences of our poor decisions. As a society and as individuals, we need our governments to make changes so that there is a future for our grandchildren and even our children, people in their 30s are going to be profoundly affected."
#RBCIsKillingMe was featured on many of the signs at the demonstration and is a slogan by the Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders at the Gidim’ten Checkpoint.
As part of the protest CUSP demanded that RBC stop financing the LNG Coastal Gas Link Pipeline across Wet’suwet’en land.
Climate protesters in Waterloo urge RBC to divest of fossil fuels at Uptown RBC branch By Leah Gerber
Record Reporter Fri., Oct. 29, 2021
WATERLOO — More than 50 people attended a climate action rally in uptown Waterloo Friday to demand the Royal Bank of Canada divest of fossil fuels.
Two University of Waterloo student groups, Fossil Free and Banking on a Better Future, organized the event with Leadnow Kitchener-Waterloo. The protest was one of several organized at various RBC branches with the hashtag #RBCisKillingMe on Twitter.
The Royal Bank of Canada invests more than any other major Canadian bank in fossil fuel, activists say. According to “Banking On Climate Chaos,” an annual report from multiple environmental groups, RBC has invested over $200 billion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement in 2016.
RBC is also a major financier of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project which faces Indigenous opposition, and a global leader in funding coal projects, the groups say.
“RBC is a bank trying to profit off of growing concern over climate change, while at the same time financing its perpetuation,” student organizer Guy Brodsky said in an email
“We think that as the largest funder of fossil fuels in the country, if we can get RBC to change, then the rest of the sector will have to follow suit.”
Protesters are encouraging Royal Bank of Canada customers to let their branches know they will be closing their accounts within six months unless the bank makes significant progress toward climate accountability.
“RBC believes climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our age and we are committed to supporting the transition to net zero,” wrote Andrew Block, a spokesperson for Royal Bank of Canada, in an email to The Record.
The Royal Bank of Canada has committed to directing $500 billion to sustainable financing by 2025, and has a goal of becoming net-zero by 2050, Block said.
“Canada’s journey to net zero represents the largest economic transition in our lifetime,” wrote Block. “It is critical that the transition occur in an orderly, inclusive manner. Given our significant involvement in all aspects of the economy, we are in a unique position to provide insights and ideas on how to transition.”
The bank will work with clients, including heavy emitters, on transition plans, and measuring progress, he said. “We recognize there is a need for many types of energy solutions to meet growing global energy demands as we make the transition to a lower carbon economy.”
Canada's big banks are using your funds to play footsie with fossil fuels
By David McKie | News | October 29th 2021 #63 of 63 articles from the Special Report:Canada's Clean Economy In Canada, the Big Six banks are among the country’s largest and most influential institutions. They also intersect with fossil fuel companies in many ways.
Illustration by: Matthew Billington
Antonia Ramirez was finishing her bachelor of fine arts program at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., and enduring her second COVID-19 lockdown.
So, she figured she’d use the time to get caught up on some reading, especially material about the environment, which she describes as a “passion.”
She recalls “stumbling” onto a report called Banking on Climate Change, “which compelled me into a five-day deep dive … that led me to the realization that RBC, the bank that I had been with at the time (and) the bank that my family banked with, was pumping billions of dollars into fossil fuel expansion projects.
“I was angry and I felt betrayed ... and so I turned to my closest group of friends, who I have known since I was a kid, we went to middle school together … they all happened to be involved in the environmental sector to some capacity … ”
Last August, the group of friends designed an Instagram campaign called BankSwitch, which urged people to withdraw their accounts from five of the Big Six banks — National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Scotiabank, and Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) — and move their money to more environmentally friendly institutions such as credit unions.
Ramirez created a slideshow for each bank, with information about their fossil fuel investments. The final slide urged her followers to take further action once they had made the switch.
JOIN A CREDIT UNION INSTEAD OF BANKING
BankSwitch, which urged people to withdraw their accounts from five of the Big Six banks.
“It was important for us to target that demographic of people because we understood that this cohort of young people would one day have mortgages that banks would profit off of, or have big loans that they would have to take out,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez explains how her group's Instagram campaign was received.
Ramirez and her bank-switchers are not alone. Discontented voices are also emerging from within the financial sectors of the world’s richest countries, including Canada.
In the 2021 report Banking on Climate Chaos, RBC, TD, Scotiabank, and CIBC, were identified as being among the top 25 funders of fossil fuel companies between 2016 and 2020. #Divestment #ClimateFinance #SustainableFinance
Calls for action began after the 2015 United Nations climate summit in Paris, which saw countries commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to keep global warming under 1.5 C. No easy feat, given the reliance on fossil fuels — which emit greenhouse gases when burned and are the primary contributor to climate change — to power vehicles, heat buildings, put money into government coffers and reward investors.
Back then, there was a realization that financial institutions needed to change the way they did business. But decreasing fossil fuel investments wouldn’t happen overnight. The institutions needed to decarbonize their portfolios, which meant divesting from fossil fuels without incurring too much risk, and then finding cleaner energy options, such as wind, hydrogen and solar.
A task force composed of leaders and central bankers from G20 countries concluded that financial institutions such as banks needed to do more if they wanted to honour their commitments.
“There’s a growing demand for decision-useful, climate-related information by a range of participants in the financial markets,” concluded the 2017 task force report, which recommended ways to tell investors about the risks associated with their fossil fuel investments and how the institutions intended to transition to a lower-carbon economy.
But the recommendations were just that: voluntary calls for action.
While they concede banks say all the right things, activists argue the time for voluntary, incremental action is over. They’re demanding immediate moves: divest from fossil fuels, stop lending to people and institutions that refuse to reduce their carbon footprint and put more money into renewable sources of energy, to name a few.
The demands were reflected in a recent international campaign that amounted to what the activists dubbed a “global call on banks,” including Canada’s Big Six.
Maaike Beenes, the co-ordinator of the climate team with the Netherlands-based group BankTrack, was one of more than 200 advocacy groups across the globe that signed on to the pressure tactics aimed at banks, including those in Canada.
Their list of demands is also detailed: stop financing the coal industry, stop pumping money into shale and fracked gas in Canada, and consider the human rights impacts of projects on Indigenous peoples.
Beenes concedes immediate divestment is tricky and can’t be phased out “tomorrow.” However, “(banks) should be demanding from their clients that they have a transition plan in line with Paris. So, that means short-term goals, intermediate goals for 2025 and 2030 … that is very possible,” said Beenes in an interview with Canada’s National Observer.
In the lead-up to COP26, this year's UN climate conference, Beenes, Ramirez and other experts and activists who we interviewed are hoping the international spotlight will increase the pressure on banks.
Canada’s National Observer sought interviews to discuss the movement with all Big Six banks. National Bank, Scotiabank and the Royal Bank of Canada responded with written statements reiterating their publicly stated net-zero commitments that have been made in recent financial filings and news releases.
“... Our climate strategy … will support efforts to define how we achieve our goals as we work in close partnership with our clients to meet their sustainability goals,” wrote RBC director of corporate communications Rafael Ruffolo.
“As the world is still largely dependent on fossil fuels, we have begun the delicate work of helping clients in the energy business to transition to low carbon, while also working to help drive down demand within certain sectors of the economy with high energy use,” wrote Scotiabank’s senior manager of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) communications Fiona Johnston.
As far as Beenes is concerned, these commitments are a good start, but only that.
“I also want to believe that they are trying to do their best, but it seems like these (semantics) are used to make things look better than they are.” Why are banks being targeted?
In Canada, the Big Six banks are among the country’s largest and most influential institutions. They intersect with fossil fuel companies in many ways.
As Donald Gutstein explains in his report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Fossilized Finance: How Canada’s banks still enable oil and gas production, when oil and gas companies don’t have enough cash to cover their expenses, they look to banks to borrow, raise capital, advise or invest.
Their size and reach also make them key players in the country’s bid to pivot to a greener economy.
“They could be playing a crucial role in helping Canada achieve its Paris Agreement commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions … below 2005 levels by 2030,” writes Gutstein in his report.
As far as activists are concerned, key investment numbers tell a different story of a banking sector that says one thing publicly, but continues to invest in fossil fuels away from the spotlight.
Though they diminished in 2020, largely because of the pandemic, the fossil fuel investments of many of the world’s largest banks steadily increased between 2016 and 2019.
In the 2021 report called Banking on Climate Chaos, RBC, TD, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, and CIBC were identified as being among the top 25 funders of fossil fuel companies between 2016 and 2020, as you can see in the graphic below.
(Click on the tabs to see the numbers for each year.)
Canada’s National Observer once again attempted to contact the banks on the Rainforest Action Network’s list for their reaction. At the time of publication, only RBC responded.
Spokesperson Ruffolo wrote: “The methodology used for the .... report is not in line with our own accounting practices, which presents challenges in commenting on the figures.”
Canada’s Big Six banks are pushing back against suggestions they are laggards. On Oct. 15, they issued a joint news release announcing something they had been criticized for avoiding up to that point: joining the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
Initiated by Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, the alliance is designed to help banks move towards net-zero by “financing the climate transition and (supporting) collaborative approaches between the public and private sectors to reach the goal of net-zero by 2050.”
And once again, the criticism from advocates has been the same. Vague words that do little to address their demands, which call for more immediate and concrete action. ‘It's all about Scope 3’
There’s also a debate between banks and advocates about the kinds of emissions being targeted, in large part because not all emissions are created equal.
They fall into three broad categories: Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3. The first two are emissions caused by the direct activities of a bank, such as the energy used to heat the building.
As my colleague John Woodside explained in his recent article about Canada’s dirtiest emitters, “because the majority of emissions from the oil and gas industry arise when the product is burned, Scope 3 emissions are the most critical from a global perspective — and they are typically left out of the industry’s net-zero plans ... Scope 3 emissions don’t only apply to fossil fuel companies, but to a broader range of clients who borrow from banks.”
While RBC’s Ruffolo says in his written statement the bank is “accelerating (its) efforts to calculate and disclose Scope 3 clients' emissions and the setting of interim goals,” advocates express doubts.
“It’s all about Scope 3 emissions,” says BankTrack’s Beenes.
“We see a lot of problems with the net-zero commitments and the fact that they may not cover underwriting, for example. If as a bank you say, ‘We have a net-zero commitment for 2050’ and it only covers your Scope 1 and 2 emissions, then nobody will really take you seriously.”
If banks are going to have to someday provide more details about Scope 3 emissions from clients, a number of questions arise.
For instance, should you lend money to a small business that has no plans to reduce carbon emissions, or that has no desire to retrofit its energy-inefficient building?
These are the kinds of questions Canada’s largest credit union grapples with every day. “Just because we don't fund fossil fuels doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do in front of us. We’re at a different starting point,” says Jonathan Fowlie, Vancity’s chief external relations officer.
“Scope 3 can cover many things. When a bank or credit union loans money to an individual or organization, what are the emissions emerging that are resulting from that loan?”
Fowlie says before financial institutions were seized with concerns about climate change, typical questions included: “Do you have a good business plan? What access to capital do you have? Is this going to be a viable business?”
Now those questions Vancity poses have expanded to climate-related issues: “What is your emissions profile? How are you looking to play a part in creating a clean and fair world?”
Where do we go from here?
The road ahead for banks will be difficult as they try to navigate the expectations to decarbonize with concerns about divesting too quickly, especially at a time when oil prices are rising.
For their part, advocates say their pressure will only intensify because while banks may be too big to fail, they are too important to ignore. That means more annual report cards on fossil fuel investments, more rallies in front of bank branches and head offices, and more campaigns on social media platforms such as Instagram.
Ramirez has no plans to let up. She and her young colleagues will continue to press their case because as they see it, there’s no time to lose.
Manitoba's newly elected Progressive Conservative leader and the province's incoming premier, Heather Stefanson, speaks at a victory party after defeating Shelly Glover in a leadership race in Winnipeg. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
Heather Stefanson will be the first woman to lead the province of Manitoba as premier, party members decided on Saturday, although her opponent is so far refusing to concede.
Under a slim margin, Progressive Conservative Party members chose Stefanson — the favourite of the governing party's establishment — as their next leader. She will, by extension, become Manitoba's 24th premier.
Only 363 votes separated the two candidates.
"I am truly honoured and humbled to stand here with all of you, making history in Manitoba," Stefanson said, after her victory was announced at a party convention at the Victoria Inn in west Winnipeg.
Stefanson won 8,405 votes of the votes cast — 51 per cent — beating the 8,042 votes earned by her opponent, Shelly Glover.
Stefanson, right, embraces opponent Shelly Glover. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
But her victory may be undermined by the ongoing controversy with missing ballots. At least 1,200 people did not receive their mail-in ballots days before the vote, but the party brushed aside those concerns.
Opponent refuses to accept results
In a scrum after the vote count, Glover wouldn't say whether she'll accept or challenge the results.
"I'm not conceding," she said, vowing to celebrate with her family and supporters before considering her next steps.
George Orle, chair of the PC leadership election committee, told convention attendees the party issued replacement ballots for every member who said they did not receive any.
"I want to ensure you that no system is perfect, but ours was very far away from inept or disorganized and that there is no one who was deliberately disenfranchised in this process," he said.
Stefanson and Glover embraced after Stefanson gave her victory speech.
Stefanson, second from left, walks on stage after she was declared the next leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and, by extension, Manitoba's 24th premier. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
The premier-designate, a veteran provincial cabinet minister, says she told Glover it is time to unite the party. It is the same message she extended to other party members in her victory speech.
"A strong PC party is vital for a strong Manitoba and together," she said. "I know we will come out of this race more united than ever, with a focus on earning a third consecutive majority government in 2023."
Asked about the tight margin of victory, Stefanson said her campaign "never, ever, for one day, took this for granted."
Pallister's resignation set off race
The leadership race was triggered after former premier Brian Pallister, whose popularity was in a tailspin in his final months in power, announced in August that he planned to step down. Cabinet minister Kelvin Goertzen took over the job in the interim.
The new premier-designate will be sworn in at a later date.
Stefanson has repeatedly promised a more conciliatory approach to leadership than Pallister, her sometimes brash predecessor who was never one to avoid confrontation.
She said she heard from Manitobans who want a different tone from government.
"I heard loud and clear that they want to see us take a much more collaborative approach when it comes to working with other levels of government and with stakeholders in our community," she said.
Nearly every member of the party caucus — who wasn't required to remain neutral — backed her leadership bid. She also curried the favour of Conservative MPs, government staffers, party elites and business leaders.
Stefanson said addressing the surgical backlog in the health-care system and rebuilding the economy as two of her priorities.
Stefanson holds her first scrum with reporters after being chosen by PC party members as their next leader. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
The historic nature of her selection as Manitoba's first female premier isn't lost on her.
"I'm excited to embrace that. I've worked in other areas in my life where I've been the only woman around the table, so that's nothing new to me," Stefanson said.
"But what I also want to do out of all of this is to encourage more women not only to run but to get involved in politics."
Although Stefanson was the overwhelming choice of Tory opinion-leaders, she carries baggage as a stalwart supporter of Pallister's government, which became unpopular in large part due to its handling of the pandemic.
Political opponents have wasted no time tying Stefanson to what they perceive as the party's past mistakes. The NDP, the Official Opposition in Manitoba, already launched an attack website against Stefanson on Saturday, claiming she is a "bad repeat" of Pallister's reign.
"People who were fed up and frustrated with Pallister, angry even toward him … may say, 'She should have spoken up,'" Paul Thomas, a professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said on Friday.
Tories celebrate their 2019 election win under the leadership of Brian Pallister. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
Stefanson was health minister during the pandemic's disastrous third wave in the spring, during which Manitoba had to send patients out of province.
Meanwhile, Glover, her only opponent in the leadership race, ran as an outsider, promising to shake up the status quo.
Glover, a former Conservative MP in Stephen Harper's government and Winnipeg police officer, was the underdog candidate from the beginning, but Thomas says she cherished her outsider status. She argued the party has lost touch with Manitobans and warned if its approach didn't change, it risked losing power.
She said she was crushed some party members didn't get a chance to vote.
Number of voters encouraging: PCs
With more than 16,000 ballots cast of a possible 25,000, the return rate is "something to be proud of, not something to be ashamed of," George Orle, chair of the leadership election committee, said.
It has been rare in Manitoba's history for political party members to select their next leader and, by extension, the premier at the same time.
Ahead of Saturday's leadership announcement, Thomas said the Tories, who won back-to-back elections in 2016 and 2019, have a challenging road to climb to win over Manitobans regardless of who leads the party.
The PCs appear to have made gains, according to a recent Probe Research poll after Pallister's retirement, but the poll suggests they trail the NDP in support.
"When bonds of trust are broken, they're exceedingly difficult to repair," Thomas said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement he looked forward to working with Stefanson on the issues that matter most to Manitobans, including "infrastructure priorities, strengthening the health care system, delivering on $10-a-day child care, accelerating climate action, and advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples."
This Alberta doctor dad and teen want you to know climate change already harms health
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Youth climate activist Sadie Vipond and emergency physician Joe Vipond to lobby at COP26 climate conference
CBC Radio ·
Sadie Vipond and her father, Dr. Joe Vipond, are attending COP26, the international climate conference, in Glasgow, U.K. (Submitted by Joe Vipond)
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
Sadie Vipond was just seven years old when she first experienced the negative effects of extreme weather, the kind expected to happen more often with climate change.
Her Calgary neighbourhood was evacuated because of severe flooding in 2013, the most destructive in Alberta's history.
"I remember being woken up in the middle of the night by my grandmother saying, 'We have to go.' And I remember driving up to a family friend's house and staying there for three days, I believe, and school had been cancelled at that point."
Though their family home survived, Sadie, now 15, told White Coat, Black Art host Dr. Brian Goldman she was old enough to sense the danger in the situation and "definitely was very worried."
An aerial view of the Calgary flood of 2013 that forced Sadie and her family to vacate their home. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
"And now I am worried that in the future, because of the impacts of the climate crisis, the floods are going to get worse and next time … we might not be as lucky."
This week Sadie is attending COP26, the international climate conference, in Glasgow, Scotland, with her father, emergency physician and climate crusader Dr. Joe Vipond.
He said he's declined invitations to the conference in the past out of concern he couldn't make enough of an impact to offset the carbon emissions associated with the flight, but "this time Sadie's going, and I think she can make a difference. I think her voice is important."
Through sharing ideas and leveraging Sadie's viewpoint as a young person, the pair hope to draw attention to the need for decisive climate action, including the very real dangers a warming planet already poses to human health.
Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us: ask@cbc.ca.
Sadie, 15, says she's worried about the future and the impacts of the climate crisis. (Submitted by Joe Vipond)
"There was so much smoke this summer that I could not do the regular activities that make my mental health stable, as in going outside hiking, biking, running, all those things," said Sadie.
Her dad says smoke from wildfires is one of two main ways the climate is affecting the health of people in Western Canada in recent years.
"That wildfire smoke will recurrently wash over our city and has impacts on, in particular, the pulmonary diseases like COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and asthma," Joe Vipond told White Coat, Black Art.
Dr. Joe Vipond is a Calgary emergency physician and president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. (Submitted by Joe Vipond)
He said he distinctly remembers seeing a patient one October a few years ago whose asthma was still unmanageable months after that summer's wildfires. "It just hadn't gone away."
The other major climate issue is the frequency of extreme heat events, including the "heat dome" that so badly impacted the western provinces this summer.
"I don't think anybody expected things to get that hot that fast," Vipond said.
A global team of scientists found the temperatures reached were "virtually impossible" without climate change, on the order of a once-in-a-millenium event. But if the planet warms to 2 C above pre-industrial levels, that kind of extreme heat event could happen every five to 10 years.
A sign at Canadian Tire stating the store is sold out of AC units and fans is pictured in Vancouver on June 28 during a deadly heat wave. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
"A lot of people haven't assimilated this knowledge, but this is the worst weather mortality event since Confederation … and yet we're not really even talking about it," said Vipond, who is also the president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Not only does the public not understand the risks of climate change to human health, it's not even taught to physicians in medical school, says Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency physician for Northwest Territories Health and Social Services in Yellowknife, and a leading expert on climate and health.
"In 2009, the Lancet, which is one of the world's most prestigious health journals, said that climate change is the biggest health threat of the 21st century," said Howard, who is also the advocacy co-chair for the World Health Organization's civil society working group on climate change and health, and a board member of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
At the time Howard was a recently graduated emergency room physician trained at the University of B.C. and McGill, filling in for another doctor in Inuvik, one of the most rapidly warming places in the world.
"And I was like, what? How did you forget to tell me about the biggest health emergency?"
'We've kept health and the environment in these two silos, and we urgently need to connect them,' said Dr. Courtney Howard, pictured here at the Pilot Monument overlooking Yellowknife. Howard is advocacy co-chair for the World Health Organization’s civil society working group on climate change and health. (Submitted by Courtney Howard)
Although that was more than a decade ago, climate health risks still aren't part of curricula at most medical schools, she said.
"We've kept health and the environment in these two silos, and we urgently need to connect them."
The Lancet's latest report on climate and health, published October 20, says the health impacts will get much worse if leaders fail to commit to more ambitious targets at COP26.
Not only is managing climate change necessary for our own individual health, it's key to keeping our health systems up and running, said Howard.
Think of the hospital in Fort McMurray that had to be evacuated during wildfires in 2016, she said, or the major saline manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico that was taken out by Hurricane Maria in 2017, causing a saline shortage in hospitals around the world that lasted more than a year.
The Fort McMurray wildfire in 2016 is the costliest insured disaster in Canadian history, with other impacts that are hard to calculate — including on health and mental illness. (Terry Reith/CBC)
To date, climate scientists haven't done a great job of encouraging people to take action, she said. "We were using images like polar bears to try to evoke emotion. But when we look at the communication studies that have since been done, it turns out, nobody's going to change what they do next Tuesday on behalf of a polar bear."
What does work is presenting climate change within the context of health, letting people know that anytime we phase out fossil-fuel-related transport or electricity, in favour of a low-carbon option, we decrease air pollution, Howard said.
In jurisdictions such as Ontario where coal-fired power has been phased out, she said a lot of the rationale has been centred around keeping kids out of the emergency department with asthma.
Sadie, left, her mother Erin Grier, and her sister Willa, stand next to Greta Thunberg and her father, Svante Thunberg, in Calgary in Oct. 2019. (Joe Vipond)
Small changes add up
Likewise, every small decision to ride a bike instead of drive, eat a plant-based meal instead of meat or divert a piece of waste from landfill makes a difference, said Howard.
"What the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us is that every degree matters a tremendous amount in terms of preventing the feedback loops that could take us into a planet where the climate system spirals out of control. So what that means is every single change saves lives."
At COP26 to take part in a documentary about youth climate activists in which she is featured, Sadie Vipond said, "I really hope that I can make some of a difference, even if it's just being another one of the participants in the protests, or educating my friends in talking about the climate crisis and telling them why this is so important to me."
British and UN flags fly in in London ahead of the UN climate conference COP26 which will be held in the Glasgow. (Alberto Pezzali/ The Associated Press)
Written by Brandie Weikle. Produced by Colleen Ross with help from Rachel Sanders and Amina Zafar.
DR. VIPOND HAS BEEN THE VOICE OF ALBERTA DOCTORS DURING THE SUMMER WHEN THE KENNEY AND HIS UCP GOVT OPEN THE PROVINCE FOR THE CALGARY STAMPEDE AND THE LEFT IT OPEN TO A MASSIVE FOURTH WAVE OF COVID. WORST IN CANADA AND AT ONE POINT WORST IN NORTH AMERICA
HE GAVE DAILY UPDATES ON THE CONDITION OF THE COVID CRISIS AND THE CONDITION IN OUR HOSPITALS
