Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott will meet with representatives from the provinces and territories to discuss health-care funding n Oct. 17, 2016.
POLITICS BRIEFING
By Chris Hannay (@channay) and Rob Gilroy (@rgilroy)
The Globe Politics is pleased to include a roundup of news and opinion on U.S. politics, through until this year's election in November. As always, let us know what you think of the newsletter. Sign up here to get it by e-mail each morning.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IN OTTAWA
> Federal and provincial health ministers meet in Toronto today and tomorrow to talk funding for Canada's health care. While the provinces are responsible for the file, the federal government transfers billions every year to help them pay for it. Some experts say the country's aging demographics have not caused a significant increase in the cost of health care.
> Canada will soon pass strong regulations on the emissions from air conditioners, refrigerators and other products that rely on hydrofluorocarbons after a deal was signed between 170 countries in Kigali this weekend.
> Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says it is about to issue a "red" warning for the country's real-estate market.
> There are more vacant positions for judges in Canada right now than at any time Stephen Harper was in power, data show, and there is concern in the legal community that a lack of lower-court judges is leading to unreasonable trial delays. A CBC count of vacancies across government show about 300 open positions waiting for appointments.
> Why the Liberals are working so hard to create an infrastructure bank — and what, exactly, that bank would do.
> Why one union -- the Public Service Alliance of Canada -- is starting to run an ad campaign against the Liberals.
> And The Globe's look back at the life of former Alberta premier Jim Prentice. Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife remembers the hike he shared with Mr. Prentice after he had left politics.
U.S. ELECTION 2016
> The end of the GOP?: In The Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee looked at the week that was in the Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan, and wonders if there's a future for the Republican Party. "Political parties prize unity above all. Breaking apart is their worst nightmare. The picture of one of the world's most venerable political formations appearing to fracture just weeks before a critical election made for a startling sight."
> Stuck in the past: Also in The Globe, chief foreign affairs columnist Doug Saunders says both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are stuck in the 1990s when it comes to their views on trade. "Globalization was a 30-year trend that is now almost over. Sending manufacturing to China is no longer worth the expense: Its wages have risen, and companies nowadays use technology rather than people to make things (a modern refrigerator, for example, is made using about two hours of human labour), so it's more convenient to do it at home."
> All about the racism: At Vox.com, Dylan Matthew pushes back on the idea that Trump supporters are driven primarily by economic anxiety. "The press has gotten extremely comfortable with describing a Trump electorate that simply doesn't exist. … What's needed is an honest reckoning with what it means that a large segment of the U.S population, large enough to capture one of the two major political parties, is motivated primarily by white nationalism."
> What if Hillary was the groper?: In The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof looks at the double-standards for women in politics. "Imagine if it were Hillary Clinton who had had five children by three husbands …. Imagine if 15 men had accused Clinton of assaulting or violating them, with more stepping forward each day."
> The value of a free press: When The Arizona Republic endorsed a Democrat for president for the first time in its 125-year history, it sparked some angry and hateful blowback from some residents in the mostly Republican-leaning states. But publisher Mi-Ai Parrish gave her detractors a lesson in civility with this editorial tour de force in the importance of a free press.
> The feuding founders: This U.S. election, we're told, is the most polarized and nasty in the history of the U.S. republic. Not so, writes Alan Taylor. "In fact, politics were even more divided and violent in the era of the founders, when one minister worried that the 'parties hate each other as much as the French and English hate' each other in time of war.
> The unrigging: At Politico, Edward-Isaac Dovere writes on the growing fears in Washington — on both sides of the political fence — over Donald Trump's increasing rhetoric about rigged elections. "If Clinton does win, most agree that the immediate burden will likely fall on Republican leaders — particularly House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — to quickly and vocally insist on the legitimacy of her election."
> Hope over hate: If you've got the time for a long dive, be sure to read Eli Saslow in The Washington Post on Derek Black, a young man who was groomed to follow his father as a leader of a white nationalist group but instead turned his back on hate.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Susan Blight and Hayden King (Globe and Mail): "While symbols matter, they also have a tendency to become superficial. In our work, we've drawn attention to the original, or possible, Anishinaabemowin places names in Toronto. But even place names that originate from indigenous languages can be void of authentic connections to the roots of that place. Those in the Greater Toronto Area may know that Mississauga, Toronto, Mimico and Etobicoke have their origins in indigenous languages, but know nothing of the history and meaning of those words."
Andre Picard (Globe and Mail): "In Canada, the health-care debate is too often about money, and not often enough about improving the delivery and quality of health services, and that's one of the main reasons that the system remains mired in mediocrity. What the ministers of health need to be is priority-setters and visionaries, not kids whining for a bigger allowance."
Jaime Watt (Toronto Star): "If attracting the interest of Canadians — and enough Canadians to win the next general election, as well as mining data, are central objectives in a leadership race, both the Conservative Party and NDP are failing."
Michael Den Tandt (National Post): "In 2016 politicians are expected to be as sleek, glib and compelling as rock stars, combative enough to motivate their true believers to fork over multiple small donations (required by campaign finance regulation), inured to the toxicity that flourishes online, while also possessed of the judgment, wisdom and fairness to keep their constituencies off the rocks, once elected. It is a nigh-impossible order, getting tougher by the day."
Aaron Wherry (CBC): "Regardless of the precise degree, Trudeau's legacy of change will be what new direction he takes the national conversation — on resource development, climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, economic policy, the health of our politics and all the other unresolved issues of the Harper era — and whether his successors have to accept those terms."