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Rachel Notley's NDP government is facing a new threat in Alberta. Wildrose and Progressive Conservative party members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger between the two parties, creating a consolidated right-of-centre force. Both parties gave the merger over 95-per-cent support. Later today, the two parties will meet in Edmonton to choose an interim leader for their united caucus. Three months later, on Oct. 28, the new party will choose the leader who will take them into the 2019 election. In the last provincial election, the NDP won 41 per cent of the popular vote, with 28 per cent for the PCs and 24 per cent for Wildrose. The new merger gives Alberta's right a far greater chance of returning to power, but the road ahead could still be bumpy for Alberta's newest party. Many Wildrose members are still weary of the "entitled" PCs, while small-c conservatives are wary of the socially conservative factions of the Wildrose.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Mayaz Alam and Eleanor Davidson 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. Let us know what you think.

CANADIAN HEADLINES

Among G7 countries, Canada comes last when it comes to protecting its land and fresh waters, according to a new report. As it stands, we're currently lagging well behind where we need to be if we want to meet the international commitment we made seven years ago to double the size of protected regions by 2020. 

An overhaul of this country's citizenship exam could include questions about Canadians' obligations to respect treaties with Indigenous Peoples, pay taxes, and fill out the census. A draft copy of the new study guide removes controversial references to "barbaric cultural practices" introduced by the previous Conservative government. Instead, it refers to voluntary responsibilities of citizenship, such as respecting the human rights of others, participating in the political process; and mandatory responsibilities that include obeying the law, paying taxes, and respecting treaties with Indigenous Peoples.

Lisa Raitt is now the second-highest ranking MP in the Conservative caucus. The new deputy leader is a feminist, but says she won't be running around talking about her own feminism. "I don't think it's about me. I think it's about our policies," Ms. Raitt told The Globe's Laura Stone. Instead, Ms. Raitt wants to encourage qualified women to run for office. "I'm hoping what women see is that they can see themselves in me, and the understanding that I know what they're going through," she said.

B.C.'s new NDP government says it will continue pursuing liquified natural gas, despite the party's previous criticisms of the Liberals' approach to the industry. Former Liberal premier Christy Clark made LNG a major priority, promising to foster an industry that would fuel a job boom and wipe of the provincial debt. But revenues have yet to materialize and only one small project has been given final approval. Government spokesperson Jen Holmwood says the province will ensure any LNG project respects the concerns of First Nations and protects the environment. Adam Olsen of the Greens, whose party is supporting the NDP through a power-sharing agreement, says the Greens remain deeply skeptical of LNG.

And 50 years ago today French president Charles de Gaulle shouted "Vive le Québec libre" from a balcony at Montreal's city hall. The infamous words sent shockwaves reverberating through Canada's political landscape during the centennial. Fifty years and two referendums later, Quebec remains a part of the federation but Gen. de Gaulle's rough style of diplomacy is making a comeback.

Peter Stockland (The Globe and Mail) on a Muslim cemetery in Quebec: "If you are not free to believe, and that necessarily contains the freedom to share your personal and communal sense of the sacred in a respectful way, then you are not free at all. At best, you are licensed to act. You are granted permission to behave. You are allowed, whether by the state or by the limits at which your fellow citizens will inflict blunt-force democratic trauma, to be what others say you can be."

Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) on Canada's chemical weapons legacy: "Canada's shift from a country staunchly opposed to weapons of mass destruction, then almost overnight into a key user and producer, and then back again, is a lesson in how quickly we can abandon our most closely held principles if we do not firmly protect them in law. At a moment when mustard and nerve gases are once again killing people at the hands of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, we should take this lesson to heart."

Emma Teitel (Toronto Star) on Trudeau marching in pride parades: "Broad gestures of support by politicians and businesses matter a great amount to people who aren't yet integrated into a tight-knit queer community, and they matter to closeted kids who are watching and reading about Pride from a distance, absent the support of such a community. It's a very good thing for these kids to know that their banks, hardware stores, coffee shops, internet providers and, yes, their leaders, take a public stance in favour of their rights."

NAFTA UPDATES

When negotiators meet next month, one of the most hotly-contested topics of conversation will be Chapter 11 of the trilateral trade deal, which deals with investment. The investor-state dispute settlement mechanism located within the chapter is a common feature in trade and investment deals across the world and is designed to protect multinational companies from being discriminated against by governments in the jurisdictions in which the corporations are investing. The Trudeau Liberals are being urged to significantly reform the provision or remove it altogether.

The Republican Party was long synonymous with free trade until U.S. President Donald Trump's upending of the primary process. In Kansas and Missouri, 56 per cent of voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump. But many did so despite his virulent anti-trade views, not because of them. The Globe's Adrian Morrow found that in the heart of Trump country, Canada has strong allies in the NAFTA fight.

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

The probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin is entering a new and perilous stage as investigators interview key witnesses under oath and expand their scrutiny of U.S. President Donald Trump and his aides. Mr. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner will testify behind closed doors before Congress today. Read his statement here.

Mr. Trump is also facing pressure from Congress on another Russia-related matter. Legislators are planning to vote this week on a bill with bipartisan support that would enact strict limits on Mr. Trump's ability to ease sanctions on Russia, a rebuke to the President's stated goal of improving relations with Moscow.

Protests are spreading to dozens of cities across Poland, after the country's right-wing government passed a series of new bills that give it more control of the courts. The bills propose to force the resignation of Supreme Court judges, as well as giving government-appointed members a near-veto power on the body that approves judicial candidates. The European Union has warned Poland that its voting rights could be suspended if the Supreme Court law is passed.

"In Central Europe … Ukraine is kind of our Syria. The only difference is [European nationalists] will not blow themselves up, but they are training in the woods with standard army rifles. This is what is happening — and we don't know what they're preparing for," researchers at a Slovak security think tank told BuzzFeed News. After a centre for asylum seekers was bombed in Sweden in January by members of the country's largest Nazi organization, prosecutors found that the people behind the plot had been to Russia to train with paramilitary forces that were involved in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.

The latest attempt at a ceasefire in Syria crumbled on Sunday, when Syrian government warplanes carried out six airstrikes on towns east of the capital Damascus. The day before, the Syrian military had declared a "cessation of fighting activities" in the area.

San Antonio police say they are investigating a "human trafficking crime" after eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer in a Wal-Mart parking lot on Sunday. Twenty others were found in dire condition, after suffocating inside the sweltering trailer with no access to water, and outside temperatures reaching  38 Celsius. San Antonio police are calling the incident a "horrific case of immigrant smuggling."

And New York Times photojournalist Meridith Kohut documented months of violent protests in Venezuela. The photos showcase the brutal, yet sometimes creative, methods that protesters and security forces alike are using to defend themselves.

Scott Reid (The Globe and Mail) on Trump's new director of communications: "Mr. Scaramucci is in his new post not because he will offer superior counsel or elevated strategic skills. He is not in because he will better manage a frothing, manic press gallery. Or shape a stronger, more coherent defence of Mr. Trump's agenda. He is in because he will fight to his last breath – without question or contest and without quarrel or quit. He will fight dirty and he will fight desperately. He will use his hands and his feet and his teeth and his elbows and the nearest, sharpest thing he can find. Best of all, he will fight on command. "

Carl Bildt (The Globe and Mail) on Turkey, a year after the coup: "Turkey's internal political wars are now jeopardizing this future. The aftermath of the coup attempt could have been healing. Instead, it has so far been divisive. It is still not too late to take another path – but time is running out."

Claudia Ciobanu (Al Jazeera) on Poland's right-wing shift: "Poland may be known in the West as the success story of post-communist transition, but it's  also the country with the largest percentage of workers on precarious contracts in Europe, where working families often cannot afford to pay housing or basic living costs. For the last decade, in power and opposition, PiS ( the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party) has been propagating the idea that the post-1989 liberal democracy is illegitimate."

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