Good morning,
These are the top stories:
Canada, U.S. reach tentative NAFTA deal; Trump approves pact
President Donald Trump signed off on the agreement late Sunday night, said four sources with knowledge of the closed-door negotiations. Canada preserved the Chapter 19 dispute settlement provision, said one Canadian government source, satisfying Mr. Trudeau’s long-standing red line in the negotiations. The deal will also keep in place protections for Canadian cultural industries. Mr. Trump, for his part, gained the right for American farmers to sell more products into Canada’s tightly-controlled supply managed dairy system, his major trade complaint with Canada over the last year and a half. Three sources said a side agreement, meanwhile, would see American tariffs lifted on Canadian steel and aluminium, and a guarantee the Trump administration will not impose tariffs on most auto imports from Canada.
As details of the 11th-hour deal between Canada and the U.S. began to leak, there was a sense that Canada has done Mexico a major favour. As Stephanie Nolen reports from Mexico City, of the three nations, Mexico may have gained least – or lost most – in the new deal. But the overall feeling among Mexicans is perhaps best characterized as relief. Mr. Trump is seen as so unpredictable – and so irrationally convinced that Mexico was disproportionately benefiting from NAFTA at U.S. expense – that achieving any sort of a reasonable trade deal with him is seen as a victory.
Campbell Clark writes Canada made concessions on NAFTA but the new deal avoids major damage to economy: " No deal is better than a bad deal, Justin Trudeau often said. But when a mediocre deal comes along, you try to grab it and run."
Independence not on table at Quebec election as Liberals, Parti Québécois vie for seats
Quebeckers will choose today between the six-year-old Coalition Avenir Québec and the 151-year-old Quebec Liberal Party, with the PQ fighting for its survival as an official party after driving the Quebec independence movement since the 1970s. Polls published as recently as Saturday showed the CAQ slightly ahead of the Liberals in popular support, yet a couple of trends add uncertainty. The CAQ holds a big advantage among the French-speaking voters who form the majority in swing ridings, but the Liberals traditionally benefit from voters who decide at the last minute or don’t want to tell pollsters their preference.
Beside a bustling four-lane highway, 18-wheelers whizzing noisily by, Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault is holding a news conference with two of his star suburban-Montreal candidates. A CAQ government, Legault said, would widen the thoroughfare to six lanes within its first mandate. Legault’s speech is one that any right-leaning politician, campaigning anywhere in Canada, might deliver. For the first time in decades, writes Konrad Yakabuski, Quebeckers get decisions at the polls other than a yes-or-no reckoning about remaining in Canada. That’s divided and disoriented people in ways no one can predict.
Here’s a primer on the election, including who’s who and five charts you should look at before you vote.
Rescuers struggle to reach victims in Indonesia amid fears the death toll of more than 800 will rise
With the area largely cut off by damaged roads and downed communications lines, military and commercial aircraft were delivering some aid and supplies to the hard-hit city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, and others in the region. At least 832 people were confirmed killed by the quake and tsunami that struck Friday evening, Indonesia’s disaster agency said, with nearly all of those from Palu. The regencies of Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Moutong – with a combined population of 1.2 million – had yet to be fully assessed.
Veterans association calls Pension for Life program a ‘betrayal’ of community
The National Council of Veteran Associations maintains former military personnel are angry that the federal government’s new lifetime pensions will not meet what they thought was a Liberal campaign promise to bring compensation for Canada’s newer disabled vets in line with what is paid to those who claimed benefits before 2006. The organization conducted an analysis of the proposed program coming to the same conclusion as veterans’ advocate Sean Bruyea – disabled veterans who applied for benefits prior to 2006 and fall under the old plan will get more than those who qualify for the Pension for Life.
Husky makes $3.3-billion hostile bid for MEG Energy
Husky Energy said in a statement issued Sunday, it would pay $11 in cash or 0.485 Husky shares for each MEG share, a premium of 37 per cent over MEG’s closing price of $8.03 on Friday. It would also assume MEG’s $3-billion debt. The combined company would have total production of more than 410,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and refining and upgrading capacity of approximately 400,000 barrels per day. The company has scheduled a conference call for Monday morning.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
In search of Big Country: Documentary by Grizzlies ‘superfan’ seeks out her reclusive hero, Bryant Reeves
Bryant Reeves was hard to miss as a star player for the Vancouver Grizzlies NBA team based in B.C. from 1995 until a 2001 exit for Memphis. Seven feet tall, the affable Reeves weighed between 275 and 300 pounds. He was nicknamed Big Country. After the move, Reeves was plagued by back injuries and didn’t play much. He retired in 2001 and adopted an extremely low profile. Self-described ‘superfan’ and filmmaker Kat Jayme, wasn’t content to leave Reeves in obscurity and chronicled her journey to find him.
MORNING MARKETS
Stocks rise
Optimism about a reconstituted free-trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico and what it could mean for trade relations elsewhere helped world markets kick off the fourth quarter of the year in a positive vein. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.5 per cent, while Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets were closed. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and the Paris CAC 40 were up by between 0.1 and 0.7 per cent by about 6:30 a.m. ET. New York futures were also up. The Canadian dollar was at 78.12 US cents.
WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT
Toronto raised my friend. Then it failed him
“I can’t believe Nick was killed so avoidably, and so stupidly. Stolen from us. Because Toronto, Nick’s hometown, wouldn’t protect him. As a favour to a company. Yeah, I’m angry now. But I also know Toronto can redeem itself. There’s a municipal election coming up. Tell your candidates about what happened in that Uber on March 21. Tell them we can do better. Toronto should be proud to have raised someone like Nick. Even acting now, too late, would honour him.” - Eric Andrew-Gee
The resistance to Donald Trump is not what you think
"There is not, and has never been, a unified, hierarchical resistance in the United States – nor should there be. There are simply millions of Americans who know they deserve better. It is less a resistance than an insistence that privileged impunity will no longer stand. If there is a unifying theme, it is against corruption – a rallying cry for white-collar crime to finally be punished, a repudiation of policies that steal from the poor to line the pockets of predators. " - Sarah Kendzior
Having helped sex assault survivors, I know Dr. Blasey Ford’s impossible burden
“Theoretically, in a bedroom in 1982 that contained just Dr. Blasey Ford, her alleged offenders and a locked door, what other evidence exists? If there is none for Dr. Blasey Ford to present, does this mean that an assault did not occur? That is: If a powerful, entitled man attempts a rape and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” - Nicole Pietsch, co-ordinator of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres
LIVING BETTER
As a long-time runner, Alex Hutchinson is well aware that running doesn’t use many part of the body. He has lifted weights at the gym and done pushups in the park, but those always felt like a chore so he looked into the benefits of paddling. He writes that you shouldn’t expect to get jacked, but it is still a good workout – especially for your core, if you’re doing it right. It improves your balance and boost pain tolerance, especially if you are on a team.
MOMENT IN TIME
GREAT PUMPKIN IS STILL GROWING, ELUSIVE 500-POUND MARK NEAR -- There was no joy in Windsor, Nova Scotia, last year when local farmer Howard Dill lost the world pumpkin championship. This year, Mr. Dill, hopes to win the prize with a huge, 11-ft wide pumpkin growing in his fields, September 28, 1984. The four-time champion is hoping to break the 500-pound pumpkin mark with this year's offering. Photo by Michael Harris / The Globe and Mail. Originally published September 29, 1984.Michael Hans/The Globe and Mail
(Michael Harris/The Globe and Mail)
In 1984, Howard Dill had a dream: to grow a 500-pound pumpkin at his farm in Windsor, N.S., surpassing his world record of 493½ pounds. Globe and Mail reporter Michael Harris marvelled at the care the hopeful farmer took hand-pollinating the best pumpkins, then providing protection against "their greatest enemy: wind.” A million growers took part in the international weigh-off on Oct. 8. Sadly, Mr. Dill’s dreams were dashed: American farmer Norman Gallagher tipped the scales with a 612-pound specimen. Mr. Dill could boast, however, that it was his own seed strain that had sprouted into Mr. Gallagher’s prized pumpkin. He later patented the seed and, to this day, nearly every record-winning pumpkin starts off as an Atlantic Giant seed. At more than 2,000 pounds (or 900 kilograms), today’s Atlantic Giants are bigger than Howard Dill could ever have dreamed. - Dianne Nice
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