Politics Briefing: Looking back at the inspiring stories of 2017

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Good morning,

It's been a long year. Before the Politics Briefing goes on hiatus for the holidays, we thought we'd highlight some of the positive stories from 2017 that make us hopeful for the new year. Got any suggestions? Let us know.

"I stand with girls, as someone who knows how it feels to have your right of education taken away and your dreams threatened. I know where I stand. If you stand with me, I ask you to seize every opportunity for girls' education over the next year," Malala Yousafzai told Parliament earlier this year. Five-and-a-half years after being shot in the head for being an outspoken education advocate, Ms. Yousafzai was made an honorary Canadian citizen, the sixth person to receive such a designation. The government of former prime minister Stephen Harper announced that it would be conferring the honour to Ms. Yousafza and MPs and senators unanimously approved a motion to bestow citizenship in 2014. Although she was set to receive her citizenship that year, the shooting on Parliament Hill forced a rescheduling and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ultimately introduced her in the House of Commons in April of this year, when she became the youngest person to address Parliament. In her speech, she urged the Canadian government to act by prioritizing learning for girls and school for refugees and to use its G7 presidency next year to highlight gender equality and education.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

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CANADIAN HEADLINES

What will the new Ethics Commissioner do about some of the investigations he'll inherit in his office, such as into Justin Trudeau's vacation with the Aga Khan? Just "watch me," he tells the Hill Times.

Meet the Scheers: how Jill and Andrew Scheer intend to put family more front and centre for the Conservative Party.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he's not making commitments to balanced budgets (something his predecessor did in the last election).

The federal government is asking venture capitalists to help fix the gender disparity among startups if they want access to hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney says he wants to recruit more women and members of the LGBTQ community as candidates. Mr. Kenney, who easily won a by-election last week that gives him a seat in the legislature, says he wants a "diverse" roster of candidates to broaden the party's appeal in Edmonton, considered an NDP stronghold. Mr. Kenney has faced criticism for his record on social issues, and the 27-member UCP caucus only has two women.

François Legault, a former businessman and head of the Coalition Avenir Québec, is trying to be "more pragmatic than left or right" as the province heads into an election year. Mr. Legault, who would arguably become the most conservative Quebec premier in the last half-century if the CAQ wins the election, is a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister. The former co-founder and CEO of Air Transat started the CAQ in 2011 as an alternative to the two main parties in Quebec politics, the federalist Quebec Liberals, who have held power for over a decade, and the sovereigntist PQ. His party leads in polling 10 months before the fixed election date.

Police forces in Ontario want the provincial government to protect officers who administer naloxone to overdose victims. Several police forces and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police have warned that officers may be reluctant to intervene in an overdose if it means they could be investigated by the Special Investigations Unit if the drug user dies. B.C.'s police watchdog agency has changed its policies to exempt officers in such cases, but there are no similar plans in Ontario.

Vancouver's housing crisis is hitting renters, and it's not just young people. Advocates say skyrocketing rents and low vacancy rates have pushed some seniors to the brink of homelessness. Seniors' advocates want the B.C. government to do more to control rents and help seniors manage the rising cost of living.

An environmental group is calling on British Columbia to do more to protect old-growth forests from logging after the discovery of one of the largest Sitka spruce trees in the country. The Ancient Forest Alliance says a member discovered the 11-foot-wide spruce on Vancouver Island land owned by TimberWest Forest Corp. The company says it's protecting old-growth spruce, but the Ancient Forest Alliance says the province should buy the land.

And as the federal Liberals work to recruit staffers from Quebec, the flood of young professionals is taking to couchsurfing when they arrive.

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on the new ethics commissioner: "The unfortunate little secret in Parliament is that none of the political parties have an interest in drawing attention to the dysfunction in the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. They want to fight each other, so they don't take swings at the referee. But it's the public who should really care if the umpire makes bad calls. It should be obvious now that that's been happening."

Adam Radwanski (The Globe and Mail) on backlash against free trade: "There has been a near-consensus, among opinion leaders and the two parties that have governed us federally, that globalization is good. Free trade went from the hottest issue in the 1980s to a seemingly boring one by the start of this century. But there is no inherent reason it will stay that way. Many of the same perceptions that have fuelled the backlash elsewhere – traditional industries upended, jobs less reliable and quality of life harder to attain, as benefits of economic growth are concentrated among a relatively few elites – are lurking in plenty of this country's corners." (for subscribers)

Robert Everett-Green (The Globe and Mail) on Quebec, Ottawa and media: "In Quebec, all francophone media are instruments of language preservation. From that perspective alone, it's not surprising to see the Quebec government in recent days announce two separate measures to deal with the crisis in print journalism – while the federal government continues to do nothing."

Mark Milke (The Globe and Mail) on trade: "Canada needs some consistent free-trade political parties. Right now, from the provincial legislatures to the federal parties, it has zero." (for subscribers)

Justine Hunter (The Globe and Mail) on the Site C dam: "While the B.C. NDP government is taking a pounding from its environmental wing over its decision to finish the dam, those in the party's labour camp are quietly celebrating that the remainder of the $10.7-billion is to be built under a new model that will change the face of the workforce." (for subscribers)

Dave McKay (The Globe and Mail) on trades skills shortage: "We'll also need to start recognizing core skills and competencies, rather than the job skills that will change faster than ever. And we'll need to reform our education system to meet the unforgiving demands of a skills-first marketplace instead of a job-first one."

Vicky Mochama (Metro) on MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes: "Caesar-Chavannes' message should inspire all the political parties and the organization around the Hill to think about the barriers and humiliations that prevent Black women from taking up space. As she writes, 'Glass ceilings do not get broken by sitting on the sidelines and watching. They break when you stand up.'"

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

South Africa's ANC is counting ballots to determine who will be the party's new leader.

The special counsel investigation has obtained thousands of Trump transition emails.

Australia's governing conservative coalition has retained its razor-thin parliamentary majority after a crucial by-election victory in Sydney. The race featured a diplomatic spat between Australia and China, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull accusing Beijing of interfering in a riding where one in five voters has Chinese heritage.

Sebastian Pinera, a conservative who governed Chile from 2010 to 2014, is the new president of Chile. Heading into election day the race was viewed as a toss-up between Mr. Pinera and centre-left Alejandro Guillier but the former ultimately won by nearly 10 per cent of the vote. He is seen as pro-mining and friendly to business and has pledged to kick-start economic growth in the world's largest copper exporter.

And an Australian man has been arrested and is being accused of trying to sell missile parts and coal on behalf of North Korea.

Matti Friedman (The Globe and Mail) on life in Jerusalem: "Jerusalemites – Jews and Arabs – don't necessarily have much in common, but we've all hewed out private lives in an immensely complicated political environment, and share an acute sense of the fragility of those lives. People here aren't bears in a political circus who dance on call. Every act of bloodshed here is heavily covered, which creates the impression that Jerusalem is a violent place, but that's misleading. If you count every single violent fatality reported here this year in this city of 860,000 – not just political violence but apolitical homicides, too – the number is 27. That's 27 too many, obviously. But it's worth pointing out that 27 is less than a quarter of the homicide number last year in Jacksonville, Fla., a U.S. city the same size."

Eric Reguly (The Globe and Mail) on the U.S. tax plan: "Mr. Trump's trickle-down tax plan will not only make the rich richer, it could hurt the long-term health of Corporate America. Believing the plan will boost growth and competitiveness as buybacks accelerate is nothing but a fantasy."

Barrie McKenna (The Globe and Mail) on TPP, NAFTA and WTO: "The rules-based system created by NAFTA and the WTO allow countries, and companies, to do what they do best, where they want. These deals enhance economic certainty for countries and help hedge against bullying and politicized trade attacks. There was a time the United States saw it that way, too."

Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on lessons from Alabama: "The danger of the Democrats' victory in Alabama is that they'll take all the wrong lessons from it. They'll keep believing they don't need the white-guy vote to win. They'll keep deluding themselves that they can ignore the elemental forces that propelled Mr. Trump into power. They'll keep dismissing the economic and cultural concerns of Trump voters as racist, ignorant and backward. And they will ignore the possibility that contemporary conservatism, with all its authoritarian impulses, has a good long way to run."

Rafal Rohozinski (The Globe and Mail) on nuclear war: "As the digital and nuclear worlds become increasingly entangled, reality is catching up. The strategy of deterrence is being redefined and the implications are deeply worrying.The launch of cyberattacks and precision nuclear strikes using EMP against the weapons systems of adversaries no longer seems as far-fetched as it once was. We are clearly entering uncharted waters."

Justin Ling (OpenCanada.org) on Ukraine: "The situation in Eastern Ukraine deserves the unenviable distinction of being the world's smoldering crisis, with a steady drone of fighting continuing along the front lines of what have become, effectively, trenches. And that's not a good sign. Because it seems increasingly likely that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — perhaps Canada in particular — is going to have to step up to implement a lasting solution."