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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Barrick swallows Randgold in deal to create gold mining giant
Canada’s Barrick Gold is buying African operator Randgold Resources in a takeover worth roughly US$6-billion that will ensure its status as the world’s biggest gold company (for subscribers). In addition, the company will have a chief executive officer for the first time since 2014: Mark Bristow, Randgold CEO, is a former conscript soldier in South Africa’s apartheid army whose hobby is riding motorcycles across the most dangerous and remote corners of the African continent (for subscribers).
Under executive chairman John Thornton, Barrick has opened its doors wide to Chinese investors. “Bristow may be less keen to see outside interests buying up great chunks of the company,” writes Eric Reguly. “Barrick may be about to go through another personality change. Which of the two alpha males’ views will emerge victorious?” (for subscribers)
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New Brunswick is in a ‘death spiral’: Why this election is more serious than you think
It’s election day in New Brunswick. Polls close at 8 p.m. AT. Brian Gallant’s Liberals and Blaine Higgs’s Progressive Conservatives have been mostly steering clear of alarming economic statistics on the campaign trail, but after election day, whoever wins will face a hard reckoning, Jessica Leeder explains. Over the past decade, New Brunswick’s net debt has doubled to more than $14-billion, and the Auditor-General recently tabled a damning report on provincial finances that declared getting “a handle on this problem will be like turning the Titanic.”
Rod Rosenstein still has a job; he will meet with Trump on Thursday
After widespread speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump would fire U.S. Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, the White House announced the two would meet Thursday to discuss Rosenstein’s future. On Friday, a New York Times report said that in 2017, Rosenstein had suggested secretly recording the President and recruiting cabinet members to invoke a constitutional amendment to remove him from office. Rosenstein denied the report as “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”
Dellen Millard found guilty of murder in death of father
Nearly six years after 71-year-old Wayne Millard was found in his bed with a bullet to the head, his son, Dellen Millard, 33, has been found guilty of his murder. The month-long trial heard that Dellen Millard told police he found his father dead in bed around 6 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2012. The death was initially deemed a suicide. The murder trial was the third for Dellen Millard, who has been convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Hamilton man Tim Bosma.
Concordia engineering school becomes first in Canada named after a woman as alumna donates $15-million
“Hear me now – my name is Gina Cody and I am a woman and I am an engineer. This is my school and I say engineering and computer science is for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity or wealth.”
In 1979, with her homeland in the throes of revolution, Gina Cody arrived in Canada on the last flight out of Iran with little else but a dream to become an engineer. Ten years later, she became the first woman at Concordia to earn a PhD in building engineering. Today, she donated $15-million to the school, a gift that will annually support four PhD entrance scholarships of $20,000 each, and 10 undergraduate entrance scholarships of $5,000 each.
MARKET WATCH
Canada’s main stock index fell slightly despite a 2.5-per-cent jump in energy stocks with the rise of oil prices to a four-year high. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index fell 16.82 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 16,207.32, with 9 of 11 sectors closing lower.
Around the world, markets retreated amid concerns over the potential wider impact of a trade spat between China and the United States. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 181.45 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 26,562.05, the S&P 500 lost 10.3 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 2,919.37 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.29 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 7,993.25.
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WHAT’S TRENDING ON SOCIAL
Will an Aspirin a day really keep the doctor away?
A tenet of modern medicine tells us that Aspirin prevents heart attack and stroke. An Aspirin a day keeps the doctor away, the saying goes – a belief so deeply ingrained that about half of older adults take low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) daily. But a flurry of new research is throwing cold water on Aspirin’s reputation as a panacea. - André Picard
TALKING POINTS
The Liberals are nervous about a handgun ban, but it’s Conservatives who should worry
It’s not just that events such as July’s Toronto Danforth shooting have renewed focus on gun crime. It’s also that many Canadians shake their head at the U.S. failure to tighten gun laws after a series of school shootings, and want this country to be different. Many Canadians would be happy to see fewer handguns around, even if it doesn’t have much of an impact on crime. But many, it appears, intuitively believe it will. - Campbell Clark
Will the alienation of Western Canada find a new political home?
In the past, Canada’s political leadership too often failed to heal the rift between the West and the rest, and indeed may have intensified that disconnect in the pursuit of electoral success in other regions. National values – Canadian values – became defined in ways that failed to reflect Western Canadian experiences and aspirations. The West was written out of the Canadian vision. Unfortunately, this strategy is not off the table today. - Roger Gibbons, former president of the Canada West Foundation
LIVING BETTER
Seven things you’re probably doing wrong with your portfolio
With numerous online tools available to investors, do-it-yourself portfolios are on the rise. So are costly investing mistakes, which is why we asked financial advisers to point out the common errors many of us make with our portfolios. The most surprising mistake: paying too much attention to the markets. It may sound counterintuitive, but closely watching every up and down stocks experience can cause investors to make rash, emotional decisions. Go here to read the other expensive errors investors are making.
LONG READS FOR A LONG COMMUTE
Illustration by Winnie T. Frick
I wanted an abortion in Nova Scotia, but all around, barriers still remained
Globe and Mail reporter Jessica Leeder was 36 and a married mother of two when she chose to end a pregnancy. She had suffered postpartum depression after her first baby, and it worsened with her second. Leeder writes: “It cut a long shadow, one that dogged me throughout the day, from the time I dragged myself out of bed until I collapsed on the couch at day’s end.”
Getting an early-stage abortion in Nova Scotia, however, turned out to be a real battle that left her brimming with feelings of powerlessness, shame and disbelief. Read her story.
JOHN WOODS
Men’s Sheds: Where guys tinker and improve ‘health by stealth’
Upon retirement, men sometimes feel their sense of self-worth diminishing as they no longer bring home a paycheque, writes Wency Leung. Enter Men’s Shed, a growing international movement to end the boredom and social isolation senior men experience when work life ends. Begun in Australia in 2007, Men’s Shed has spread across New Zealand, the U.K., Ireland and Canada. The groups of mostly retired men work on projects aimed at contributing to their communities, such as carving wooden canes for stroke-recovery patients or building gardens, and in the process make friends and have fun.
Evening Update is written by Dianne Nice. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.