Politics Briefing: Tracking what parties tell you on Facebook

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Good morning,

We begin with a note from Globe data journalist Tom Cardoso:

Facebook has become an essential advertising tool for political parties and interest groups, partly because ads can be targeted to small groups of people – say, men aged 18 to 24 living in Ontario who work in agriculture.

Unfortunately for reporters, this can make it next to impossible to keep track of who's advertising and what's being advertised. The Globe wants to report on how these ads are being used, but to do that, we need to see the same ads Facebook users are seeing. So we are working with ProPublica, a U.S. investigative journalism non-profit. ProPublica has designed a browser extension – the Facebook Political Ads Collector – that logs political ads into a database for future reporting. We need your help: By installing the browser extension, you can help The Globe keep tabs on the thousands of political ads served on Facebook.

For more information on how to download it, read this.

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TODAY'S HEADLINES

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party will choose its new leader on March 10. Former leader Patrick Brown's resignation has roiled the party and party president Rick Dykstra, a close friend of Mr. Brown's and a former federal MP, has since stepped down from his role as well, though he remains a part of the executive team. Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has ordered a third-party investigation into how his party handled the sexual-assault allegations against Mr. Dykstra ahead of the 2015 federal election, in which he was allowed to run even after party brass were notified of a police investigation. The only person currently in the race right now is Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford, though many current MPPs, federal MPs and star candidates for the upcoming provincial election (held in early June) have flirted with launching a run. Who has the best shot? The Angus Reid Institute polled Ontarians on what they think of the party and the hypothetical leadership options. Toronto Mayor John Tory, Caroline Mulroney, former MPP Christine Elliott and former federal cabinet minister John Baird hold the greatest appeal to potential PC voters. Mr. Tory and Mr. Baird have ruled out runs, while Ms. Elliot came second to Mr. Brown during the 2015 leadership race.

Conservatives in Calgary are clambering to take back the downtown riding represented by Liberal MP Kent Hehr.

Colin Kenny is the latest in a series of Liberal senators retiring a little bit early.

The Senate has finally approved the gender-neutral change to the national anthem that the House of Commons passed a year and a half ago.

Canada's economy "fired on all cylinders" in November of last year, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada. GDP grew by .4 per cent month over month, which represents the greatest one-month increase since May, 2017. The increase was largely expected but economists noted that the gains occurred across industries, with 17 of 20 sectors recording gains.

An Ontario court has ruled that doctors of faith are required to provide referrals when it comes to medical assistance in dying. "The evidence in the record establishes a real risk of a deprivation of equitable access to health care, particularly on the part of the more vulnerable members of our society, in the absence of the effective referral requirements," Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel wrote for the court in the 3-0 decision. Groups representing Christian doctors had put forth a challenge against the province's regulations on referrals and assisted-dying. The court case is the first test of doctors' constitutional rights when it comes to freedom of conscience.

Alberta's premier is threatening a trade battle after B.C.'s NDP government introduced regulations aimed at killing Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Illicit opioid overdoses killed more than 1,400 people in British Columbia last year, as jurisdictions across the country employ different strategies to stem the crisis.

The financial crisis facing British Columbia's public auto insurer can be traced back to a populist measure designed to control rates put in place by the Liberal government five years ago, observers say. The government of the day introduced a "rate smoothing" policy to limit hikes on premiums, which has meant the Insurance Corp. of B.C., or ICBC, hasn't collected enough to pay for skyrocketing accident claims.

Leaders in the construction industry are urging the federal government to block the sale of Aecon to a Chinese state-controlled giant.

Between 50,000 to 100,000 labourers from North Korea work in more than 20 countries across the world. They toil away in places like Russia and China, which have comparatively more friendly relations with Pyongyang than most of the world, as well as countries in the Middle East and Africa. Unlike in some situations with migrant labourers, the North Koreans who are sent abroad are under constant watching eyes by their government and their deployment serves specific purposes for the regime, "such as strengthening relations with foreign countries and promoting its culture and know-how. But the biggest asset is financial." While it is common for many people working abroad to send remittances back to their home country, labourers see their salaries and profits confiscated in order to shore up the state's finances. Open Canada took a deep dive into the hands feeding Kim Jong-un.

Transgender inmates in federal prisons will be housed based on how they identify.

A train carrying dozens of Republican lawmakers on their way to a caucus retreat in West Virginia struck a garbage truck. One person was killed.

Netflix's first project of its $500-million Canadian investment is a Quebec zombie movie.

And for a behind-the-scenes look at being a Member of Parliament, Maclean's has a photo essay of Jean Yip's first day.

Sheila Wildeman (The Globe and Mail) on psychiatric segregation: " So long as residents may be placed in locked wards or subject to seclusion and restraints, these institutions, too, call out for human-rights oversight. Whether or not the recent B.C. ruling on prisoner segregation is appealed or implemented, the struggle for freedom from arbitrary and undue deprivation of liberty in closed institutions will, and must, continue – on multiple fronts."

Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on pipelines: "Mr. Trudeau has to worry that if he picks a fight with B.C., it shines the spotlight on his approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline. That just brings up a decision that is unpopular with environmentally conscious Liberal voters, and with some of the constituents of Liberal-held ridings in the Lower Mainland. The Liberals wanted the controversy to cool down, not fire up as the 2019 election gets closer."

Lori Turnbull (The Globe and Mail) on Randy Boissonnault: "Due to the resignation of Kent Hehr, there is a vacancy around the cabinet table that Mr. Boissonnault could fill. His appointment would maintain the Prime Minister's commitment to gender equality in cabinet and would ensure that Alberta does not lose a minister. It makes sense from every angle and, with a year and a half to go until the next election, it's not too late."

Chris Selley (National Post) on the Ontario Progressive Conservatives: "Far from a poisoned chalice, the winner of this leadership race could be just as likely as [Patrick] Brown was last Wednesday morning to become Premier of Ontario in June. Maybe more likely."

Chantal Hébert (Toronto Star) on Caroline Mulroney: "But those who are cheering her on [to be leader of the Ontario PCs] note that the 43-year old mother of four was raised in a political environment, has career experience as a lawyer and is of the right gender for a party that has just lost a male leader and a male president to allegations of sexual misconduct."

Andrew Jackson (The Globe and Mail) on income inequality and taxes: "The Trudeau government promised progressive tax reform to close the growing gap between the affluent and the middle class. In fairness, they have raised the very top income tax rate, but they also cut the next-to-top tax rate that benefits mainly the top 10 per cent, and have to date failed to deliver on reform to tax loopholes that currently mainly benefit the top 1 per cent. More certainly needs to be done if the personal income tax system is to hold growing income inequality in check."

Mark Milke (The Globe and Mail) on ICBC: "The last thing the B.C. government should do is allow its 1970s-era creation to continue in its present form, which will always tempt politicians to interfere. That model led to four decades of a government 'business' where actuarial sense was always ignored in favour of the short-term political interests of whatever party happens to be in power."

Ken Coates (The Globe and Mail) on First Nations and development: "Indigenous communities are neither automatically supportive of development nor unalterably opposed. They demand and deserve the right to have a prominent and equal place in development projects. The First Nations will make considered decisions that reflect their current and long-term interests. The new arrangements are not yet fixed and remain to be fully tested. The power balance has yet to be set completely right. Groups like the [First Nations Major Projects Coalition] hold the potential to provide true and sustained empowerment and an approach to development that actually serve Indigenous interests."

Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on the State of the Union: "In sticking to nativist, America First pledges, it was evident Mr. Trump was planning no big change of direction. He drew groans from Democrats on immigration, notably his pledge to end chain migration. He vowed to rebuild and modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which other presidents have worked to bring down. And he sounded his usual protectionist notes on trade, saying 'the era of economic surrender is over.'"

Brahma Chellaney (The Globe and Mail) on the U.S. and Pakistan: "If Pakistan is going to abandon its double game of claiming to be a U.S. ally while harbouring terrorists, the United States will need to stop rewarding it for offering, as Mr. Trump put it, 'nothing but lies & deceit.' More than that, the United States will need to punish Pakistan for its duplicity. And U.S. policy makers must act soon, or an increasingly fragile Pakistan could well be transformed from a state sponsor of terrorism into a state sponsored by terrorists."

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