Politics Briefing: The politics of Black Panther

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Good morning,

It's been a slow week for political news in Ottawa. The Prime Minister is in India. Parliament is on break. MPs are back in their home ridings, scattered across the country.

So let's pop the Ottawa bubble for a second and talk about what's really important.

We're referring, of course, to Black Panther.

Hey, hey – no flipping to another newsletter. This is still related to politics. Let us explain.

Black Panther (based on the character from Marvel Comics) is about King T'Challa, superhero and ruler of the fictional African country of Wakanda, who must defend his throne from a man known as the Killmonger.

The story's conflict is political: T'Challa wants to keep Wakanda and its futuristic inventions hidden from the outside world, whereas Killmonger thinks the technology should be given to revolutionaries around the globe to violently overthrow oppressive regimes.

But on another level, the very existence of the movie is political. It's the first major superhero movie to star and be created by predominantly black cast and crew. It has been wildly successful. Political organizers are taking notice and are trying to translate enthusiasm for the fictitious people of Wakanda into real-world action by getting viewers to register to vote. "I'm just really grateful that people saw what #WakandaTheVote could mean to the ability for black people to self-determine [our futures] and really govern ourselves and our communities," organizer Kayla Reed told Vox.

Here are a few of our favourite pieces that touch on the politics of Black Panther.

Andray Domise (The Globe and Mail): "Black Panther's cultural subtext, hidden in the folds of Wakanda's Afrofuturistic aesthetic, is where the film truly flourishes. Through a fictional hidden country, technologically ahead of the rest of the world by light years, director Ryan Coogler manages to subvert and mock just about every Hollywood trope about Africa."

Jelani Cobb (New Yorker): "Africa—or, rather, 'Africa'—is a creation of a white world and the literary, academic, cinematic, and political mechanisms that it used to give mythology the credibility of truth. No such nation as Wakanda exists on the map of the continent, but that is entirely beside the point. Wakanda is no more or less imaginary than the Africa conjured by Hume or Trevor-Roper, or the one canonized in such Hollywood offerings as Tarzan."

Lawrence Ware (New York Times): "Now I know that to be a black nerd is by no means anomalous; millions of people who look like me grew up loving comic books. Yet despite our numbers, we were underground for a long time. Today, though, there appears to be a widening cultural appreciation for what black people have always known: There are many ways to be black in America. The 44th president helped."

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.

TODAY'S HEADLINES

Justin Trudeau's India trip continues, where questions are being raised about how a Sikh extremist – who had been convicted of attempting to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 – made it onto the guest list for a formal dinner in Delhi. Mr. Trudeau says the invitation was made in error and B.C. MP Randeep Sarai is taking responsibility. The invitation was rescinded after CBC pointed it out.

The outgoing Information Commissioner says the Liberal government's track record for transparency has actually gotten worse than it was under Stephen Harper's Conservatives. "The government is sliding into more secrecy and actually not delivering on its promise," Suzanne Legault told The Globe.

Government scientists say they still do not feel free to publicly talk about their work.

Patrick Brown has gotten the green light to run for the leadership  again – of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

B.C.'s latest attempt to bring housing prices back down to reality will sweep up Canadians with vacation homes in the province. This week's budget included a new tax largely aimed at out-of-province owners. While much of the focus has been on foreign money, the tax will also target Canadians, such as people in Calgary who own vacation homes in Kelowna. B.C. Finance Minister Carole James has little sympathy – she says it's an incentive to rent out empty homes. Governments elsewhere in the world have tried to use taxes and other restrictions to calm housing markets, with mixed results. Ontario is now being urged to follow suit. Meanwhile, the B.C. government isn't even sure how the new tax measures will affect prices.

B.C.'s wine industry is threatening a constitutional challenge to fight Alberta's recent ban on B.C. wine. The ban was in retaliation for B.C.'s opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline project.

The continued uncertainty around the Trans Mountain pipeline has hurt energy stocks, which recently slumped to their lowest level in almost two years.

And Canadians are evenly split on whether they support the Alberta government or B.C. in the Trans Mountain showdown, according to a new poll from the Angus Reid Institute.

Sonya Fatah (The Globe and Mail) on Trudeau in India: "The lesson from this India mission is clear. It may no longer be enough to turn a blind eye and parachute into cultural events without investigating the forces behind them. Not for a photo opportunity, and not for a slice of the vote bank either."

Kevin Carmichael (Financial Post) on Trudeau in India: "So allow me to me offer a counterpoint to what you've been reading. It wasn't Trudeau who was 'snubbed' by Modi, although it does appear New Delhi has some questions about the Liberal Party's relationship with Punjabi separatists. Rather, the indifference relates to Canada itself. We simply don't matter enough in Asia for a leader to interrupt her or his late-night routine to greet a foreign dignitary, especially when the rules of protocol state clearly that it's unnecessary."

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on parenting and the federal budget: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is already talking about it: He floated the idea of adopting a use-it-or-lose-it parental leave that's only for fathers, like Quebec's. The idea is to nudge Canadian men to take on a bigger role in parental duties, and by doing that, even the score in the work force and in paycheques. The problem is that so far, there's little proof that nudges such as Quebec's five-week leave just for dads really closes the gap. If that's really the goal, it's Quebec's far bigger, far more expensive policy – subsidized child care – that has been shown to have an impact."

Valerie Percival (The Globe and Mail) on Canada and global health: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government deserve praise for a pledge to promote gender equality, including reproductive rights, through Canada's Group of Seven presidency. Seemingly unnoticed, however, is Canada's reluctance to advance a broader global health agenda: the Trudeau government does not plan to host a G7 Health Ministers Meeting, a fixture for the past several years, during its presidency. This failure to prioritize global health in the G7 process could not come at a worse time. Global health stewardship works like a stoplight; we only recognize its importance when it fails. And it may be on the brink of failing."

Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on B.C.'s budget: "this budget is going to be difficult for the Opposition Liberals to criticize, try as they might. It addresses a fundamental failing of their government to demonstrate even the tiniest bit of compassion and sympathy for the average person and their workaday lives."

Robyn Urback (CBC) on Patrick Brown: "Anyway, now that his candidacy has been approved by the PC's vetting committee, which, according to unverified sources, is poised to likewise approve the nomination of the family of raccoons that lives in the east wing of Queen's Park, Brown can get back to work being the best thing that ever happened to the Ontario Liberal Party."

Adam Radwanski (The Globe and Mail) on if Patrick Brown wins: "Mass caucus resignations would at least seem inevitable. Campaign professionals, of the sort Mr. Brown brought in after a rocky start in his first stint as leader (and was abandoned by as soon as the allegations hit), would stay far away. With only his loyalists on board, it would become the Patrick Brown Party in a way it wasn't before – so much so that it's not out of the question the party would split in two. Those, again, are the stakes. They're high enough that it's worth pulling out all the stops for the rest of this leadership campaign – not just for Mr. Brown, but for Tories who want to be rid of him. The civil war may get even uglier over the next 15 days. It will be up to the PC membership to decide if it ends then, or if this is their future."

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