CBCN - Thursday, May 23, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #40

NUMBER OF U.S. OFFICIALS PRIVATELY FRUSTRATED WITH CANADA ABOUT THE ROLLOUT SPENDING RELATED TO NORAD, TO THE RENEWED AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH THE UNITED STATES OVER THE HORIZON RADAR AND OTHER ASPECTS. >> David: ALL PART OF THE BIDEN VISIT. >> ALL PART OF THE BIDEN VISIT. SO THE ANNOUNCEMENTS COME BUT THE DOLLARS EITHER DON'T FLOW QUICKLY OR THERE'S JUST NO PLAN TO SEE THE DOLLARS FLOWING. >> David: AND MISSION AND EXECUTION ARE NOT ALIGNED. >> EXACTLY. AND THIS IS WHAT THIS LETTER COMES DOWN TO. IT'S LIKE, OKAY, YOU'VE TALKED ABOUT IT. LET'S SEE IT. >> David: OKAY. MURRAY BREWSTER, CBC'S SENIOR DEFENCE WRITER. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. >> YOU'RE WELCOME. >> ALL SIGNS ARE POINTING TO A VERY BUSY HURRICANE SEASON IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. HURRICANE FORECASTERS ARE EXPECTING MORE STORMS THAN EVER BEFORE. WHAT'S LEADING TO THIS RISE IN HURRICANES? THAT'S NEXT. Hi, I'm Mae Martinand I cannot tell youhow stoked I am to get a bunch of selfies with celebs at theCanadian Screen Awards. [beep] I mean, I can't tell you how excited I am to host the awards. That is the main and most important thing. Financial goals. Fidelity knows we've all got them. Maybe you want to own a home, or never own a home. Maybe you want to travel. Or have a kid. Or travel with your kid. Yours could be retiring early. Or never retiring at all. At Fidelity, we know everyone has different goals. But the one thing we share? We all want to get to them sooner. ( ) (Horn honking) Hi, Dad! (Vehicle departing) How's your visit with Noah going? He took out my Jag! (Chuckle) But he doesn't know how to drive stick. He doesn't? (Tires screeching, thud) Ah, f... Fix Auto! The first words that should come to mind after an accident. Welcome to the Wayborhood. With Wayfair, finding your style is fun. [ music playing ] Yes! When the music stops grab any chair, it doesn't matter if it's your outdoor style or not. [ music stops ] I'm sorry, Carl. This is me in chair form. I don't see you. -Oh, come on. This one's perfect for you. But you. Love it. I told you we should have done a piñata. I explained it so many times. Um-hum. They're not sitting. -And it rocks... You need to sit down. Wayfair. Every style. Every home. Canadian summers just hit different with Tims. ("Steal My Sunshine" by Len) Introducing two new Sparkling Quenchers... made with natural flavours and colours. Memories are made with Quenchers. It's time for Tims A new arrival alarms the brotherhood of muscle. Muscular features signal power and performance. Attributes they've never seen in this build. ( ) Behold a new breed. Ready to swarm, ready to sting, ready to electrify. ( ) The defiant power packed hybrid electric Dodge Hornet R/T. Performance electrified. Woman: My grandson can choose to be anything he wants to be. Which reminds me: I've got a few choices to make of my own. Welcome to Seniors Choice. How can I help? Hi, I'd like a quick quote, please. If you're a Canadian Resident aged 50-80, you can choose the right amount of coverage for you and your family up to $250,000. That kind of money would help a lot. You can choose to apply over the phone now in just minutes, with no medicals or blood tests, just a few health and lifestyle questions. Wow. That easy? Depending on the coverage you choose, it would be as little as $14.88 a month. That's just 49 cents a day. That's less than I thought. And that money could help my family cover my funeral costs, support my husband's retirement planning or even pay off the loans. I'll do it. Seniors Choice are the #1 Direct Choice for Canadians over 50. To get a free, no-obligation quote, call one of our trusted insurance advisors today at 1-844-834-2722. Or visit seniorschoice.ca. Andrew Chang: It makes sense that they get a larger share, or does it? -Welcome to the Greenbelt. Andrew: All of this, just single detached homes? -Yes. Andrew: What do we know? I think we can explain. Announcer: About That with Andrew Chang. Watch free onCBC Gem. [ ] >> David: TIME NOW FOR THE 5 OTHER KEY STORIES WE'RE WATCHING TODAY. MORE THAN DOZEN PEOPLE INJURED IN AN INTENSE ATTACK. RUSSIAN FORCES HIT KHARKIV, UKRAINE'S SECOND LARGEST CITY 14 TIMES, AND EARLIER THIS MONTH, RUSSIA ATTACKED TRYING TO BREAKTHROUGH THE WEAKENED FRONT

line, and showing it is taking advantage of the lack of the air defences. Israel reprimanded the ambassadors of ireland, norway, and spain over their government's plans to recognize a palestinian state. >> So what is this palestinian state that you recognized? >> It is simply a public declaration that spits in the face of the israeli people. >> David: the envoys were summoned to the foreign ministry in jerusalem where they were shown an unaired video of hamas taking female conscripts hostage hostage. U.S. department of justice is suing to break up ticketmaster's parent company live nation. It is accusing an illegal monopoly, and alleging it inflated concert tickets and hurt artists. >> We are not here because livenation ticketmaster's conduct is inconvenient or frustrating. We are here because as we alleged that conduct is anti-competitive and illegal. >> David: at a congressional hearing last fall, senators from both parties called livenation a monopoly. It was prompted by botched taylor swift presale on ticketmaster that left millions of people unable to buy tickets. It comes 14 years after the U.S. government approved livenation's merger with ticketmaster. Canadian hurricane forecasters say record warm water temperatures and a developing la nina weather pattern may lead to a very busy hurricane season in the atlantic ocean. >> Level of heat that is contained in the ocean rite now is -- right now is pretty much unprecedented. We can expect some of the storms to become major hurricanes. >> U.S. hurricane forecasters are projecting 17 to 25 storms this season. That's the most it has ever forecasted. Of the storms, 8 to 13 are expected to become hurricanes but it's still too early to tell if it will hit atlantic canada. Police say convicted serial killer robert pickton is in a medically induced coma and on life support. Pickton was attacked by another inmate at maximum security prison in quebec. Correctional services canada say the attacker identified and appropriate actions taken. We're going to take a break. First, the quote of the dave. Can you guess who said this today? Find out after this break. [rock] go hard go wild Woman: And the crowd goes wild! you fear the blood the sweat the tears We fight the best we can. Man: We build our own legacy. Arena announcer: She scores! Ram Power Days are here.The power to choose fromthe most awarded truck brand over the last five years. Like Ram Classic.As versatile as it is capable. Ram 1500, voted bestlarge pickup in Canada. Or Ram Heavy Dutywith a no-charge Cummins. And you don't pay for 90 days. The power is yours.The time is now. Get 20% off msrp on Ram Classic for up to $14,200 in discounts. Plus get 4.99% financing. It's odd how in an instant things can transform. Slipping out of balance into freefall. (The stock market is now down 23%). This is happening people. Where there are so few certainties... (laughing) Look around you. You deserve to know. as we navigate a future unknown. I'm glad I found stability amidst it all. Gold. Standing the test of time. ( ) Get that ojo Feeling with all your favourite games and no playthrough requirements, what you win is yours to keep. ( ) feel the fun play ojo Okay, and root beer to drink? No. [gasping] What? He didn't get root beer? I'm getting frozen root beer. Oh! Try frozen a&w root beer with sweet cream. What drives us may be different... ( ) ...but what we share... ...is the pursuit. Whether taking on the jobsite... ...or your own backyard... ...let the pursuit of the perfect cut... ...begin. Stihl zero-turn mowers are here. Shop Local. Buy stihl. Find Yours at STIHL.ca Salonpas, makers of effective pain relief patches for 89 years believes in continuous improvement, like rounded corners that resist peeling, with an array of active ingredients and sizes to relieve your pain.

Salonpas. It's Good Medicine. Hisamitsu Wall paper or paint.We make thousands of financialdecisions every day. Stay on top of it all withalerts and insights from the cibc Smart Account. ( ) ( ) The infiniti qx60 exemplifies modern luxury. With powerful suv performance, three rows of comfort, and a sleek-yet-daring design. ( ) Lease a 2024 qx60 from 0.99% apr for up to 24 months. Visit INFINITI.ca. ( ) Announcer:Stories that make you think. -Will you lower prices? Announcer:If it matters in your home -I'm going to get in more debt. Announcer:or to this country -Affordable housing. -Climate change. Announcer:it's onCanada Tonightwith Travis Dhanraj. Watch onCBC News NetworkandCBC Gem. >> David: welcome back to power & politics. It's time for our daily power rankings. Our look at who is shining and who is stumbling. I'm joined by zain velji, former strategist for the alberta ndp. Who is currently the capable campaign director for naheed nenshi's leadership campaign. Michael solberg who was a staffer in the stephen harper government. Shannon proudfoot is a reporter for the globe and mail. Gang, let's get to it with the quote of the day, and the quote is this... Zain, who said that? >> Going with bill blair on that one. >> David: okay. Michael? >> Yeah, I think it's the honourable member for scarborough southwest. Bill blair. >> David: always with the riding. Always with the riding. Shannon, what do you got? >> Yeah, I think that's defence minister bill blair, acknowledging but not acknowledging some shortchanging of nato. >> Let's play the clip of bill blair. >> Canada has always been there. We have answered the call every time our allies have called upon us. We will always be ready. >> David: so zain, they've answered the call every time the allies call upon us, until the allies call on them to hit 2% of gdp. You can argue whether it's a legitimate metric for defence spending. But it's one the group of 23 senators, republicans and democrats have made clear in a letter to the prime minister they want canada to hit, and guess who is hosting the nato meeting. What are your thoughts? >> Strategic pressure, and 2%, and not a question of arbitrary, and it is a reasonable debate. But this seems to hamper the trudeau government every now and then. I'd say every 6 to 8 weeks, this comes up with some sort of media cycle story that they haven't hit it. And I can see their hesitation. Public opinion is split on this. They want to focus on their program. Conservatives more likely than those that they are trying to build their progressive coalition on and you can argue whether it's good strategy or not heading into the next election wants something like this. It seems to rear its head constantly for the liberals and they have to figure out how to change the channel quicker on or change the channel permanently on it especially on the heels of the U.K. foreign minister, david cameron, maybe not for long, and talking about raising the number to 2.5% of gdp for nato support going forward. It will be interesting to see how the liberals sidestep it or how awesome they can sidestep it. It will not be the first or the last. >> I don't know if 2.5% is a spending target or the conservatives are polling in U.K. after the launch they had yesterday. >> Stop stealing my segment. >> David: we'll get to you in a check. Mike, you heard the argument from bill blair and earlier. Once they pull the trigger on other decisions they have to make on submarine purchases and other upgrades, it's 2%, and goes beyond the horizon of what they committed to. I don't know if nato will buy it. What are your thoughts? >> I'm not sure why they would buy it? Talk is pretty cheap. And 2% targets are a couple decades old now, and it's not just the senate and even the oval office that is pressuring them. It's obviously nato partners. The E.U. and I'm sure bill blair has been pressuring the prime minister internally to move on this. You know, I think it's -- it just becomes very difficult, you're prime minister trudeau and your efforts to grandstand and take a leadership role as a leader of a g-7 country in a very dangerous world on the global issues and you're not meeting even the minimum commitments to nato spending per at least the opinion of some who are at the table. No, this is a growing issue for them. And you know fortunately I don't think it's hurting them much at home. But weakened position internationally will have a downstream impact and perception of the prime minister here at

home. It's a problem for him. >> David: shannon, it's interesting politically, and conservative government committed to this and never hit it and liberals committed and never hit it and conservatives may win the next election, and they only said they'll move forwards it and not said 2% or bust, and greece gets over 2% because the economy cratered. It's a weird metric and one that canada committed to and never been able to meet. >> Yeah, and unfortunately for the liberals, it's a very clear metric when you just say 2%. But as mike was saying, there's not a lot of political bounce for this domestically. It's not a thing that tends to move the needle and excite canadians. The liberal government is arguably sort of painted themselves in a corner with big spending on other programs. They probably don't have the leeway to do this even if they seriously intended to. They have been arguing they should get credit for donations in kind. Things like training nato troops should count as part of their contributions which is, maybe, a reasonable enough argument. But regardless when you're not pulling your weight and the world is changing and there is a number you can put on it and you're not meeting it, I think it's very hard to kind of get out from under that. And as pointed out, successive governments of different stripes have done it and the liberals are in the chair and maybe a few beads of sweat trickling down their neck as they have to confront this. >> Accountability comes with the job. You are all downs, and doomer and gloomers on thursday, and shannon, the nominations races and what we see there. >> My down is the nomination race. We now have a second candidate who wanted to run for the conservative nomination in a gta riding in aurora. Who has stepped out and said she's out because in her telling there was some skullduggery and it has to do with membership lists and I take are a skeleton key that lets you campaign in a much more targeted way, and her allegations like the other conservative-would-be candidate, national post columnist sabrina maddeaux said the same thing. Basically, there was some dirty tricks going on. They were giving an advantage to a preferred candidate. Neither of the people said who they believe was the preferred candidate from the party, and basically didn't feel like a fair fight. The bigger picture is nomination races are notoriously greasy and easy to jerk around and there's never any transparency with it. Parties could just say and change their rules, look, we get to name who we want. They're going to fly under our banner. There's never that transparency, and we saw it weightier way in the foreign interference inquiry when we heard from a lot of experts and diaspora members that this is a super soft easy entry point to mess with canadian democracy, to mess with elections because if you can engineer your candidate as a very low bar, and bus in a few people or make a thing happen, if you can get them in a safe seat, you have yourself an mp. So the kind of weird stuff that happens at nomination level, really matters even though it often gets ignored because it's local and low level. >> Mike, in this case, in aurora-oak ridges-richmond hill it's not foreign -- the conservatives can't even get into the race. Sabrina maddeaux says it was stacked against her. Rachel gilliland says she was disqualified without a reason and the race was also unfair. Is this making waves in conservative circles? >> I mean no more so than it has in many elections in the past. The subnational and national level. I mean, look, it's a great talking point to say that these processes are people-driven or member-driven, you know, that the population holds the keys to these types of things. But it's much more difficult to employ it in practice, and sure it happens most of the time. Most of the time these things are again one member one electoralvoteand -- a vote cast equally. But it's much harder to do when you are trying to vie for a leadership of a g-7 country. Operate one of the most powerful political parties in the world. You need to have some discretionary power over these things, and the leader does. And I think the real problem is persianon's pointper -- per shannon's point. Pierre poilievre should wear it on his sleeve and if I'm the one with a competitive party and I need to be the one that ultimately signs the nomination papers, and controls who gets to vie in the things and there are certain circumstances where it's necessary, and we don't see how the sausage is made and the reasoning behind some of the nomination races are upset or somebody kind of acclaimed or parachuted in. And that in lies the problem, I think. >> Zain, sounds like michael is making an argument for gate keeping in the nomination processes, is that how I should read that? >> How dare mike make the

argument? Don't worry, I'll clean up mike's mess. Here's the thing, and mike is right about some things, and leader-centered politics has entered our political universe in a way like no other. This is the same quote/unquote process we see from one party to the next. Especially if visibility viability is on the table which means they can form government and be in control, provinces and at the national level. We have to consider what happens to folks listening at home who are interested in politics and are now understanding that having a preferred status in a nomination race is a precursor to them being able to get into politics, and some might say, of course, that's always been the point. But we are facing a dearth of quality candidates. And we talked about it toxicity increasing, and people not raising hands to go in public service. Something like this does not help. The centre for democracy says 70% of the nomination races go uncontested and you can look at there's not enough people wanting to run or not enough people putting their hands up and saying I want to engage in that process if that what it means, regardless of jersey stripe, for me to hold a political position as a public servant in the country, whether provincially or federally. >> David: all right. Michael, let's get to your pick. You have a down but want to talk about an increase in crime rates, in particular, violent crime in the country. >> You bet. Safe streets down because crime is up. Literally it's up. And you don't have to take my word for it. The violent crime severity index is the highest it's been since 2007. And further to this, homicide and sexual assault rate cases are at three decade highs, and you know, this is not new. We've been talking about this for a couple of years now. The trend line has continued to go up. Especially in big cities, and frankly especially on transit. But these examples continue to pile up. Most recently, just a horrible story about a 15-year-old boy in elk fatally stabbed by -- in edmonton fatally stabbed by a criminally insane man left to wander the streets, and there are a lot of reasons behind increases to crime, and driven by socioeconomic factors rooted in government public policy, on things like housing, on mental health supports, drug policy, gun policy, bail reform, and all of these levers that governments and legislators are able to pull on are not making an effect on crime rates. They're increasing. And you know while canadians across the country find themselves in positions to elect governments at the subnational and increasingly soon the national level, I suspect that this will soon trickle its way up to be a ballot box question, and on the same vein of affords affordability and when you were downtown in the city and not just unique to edmonton, but felt in urban centres across the country, and I think people will look for answers from legislators across the nation and not just blaming trudeau for this, and in fact, some of the highest rates of crimes are in conservative-held provinces like saskatchewan and elsewhere. It's not a single party issue. And I think it requires a multiparty solution. >> You know, and shannon, when you look at the trendlines and statistics canada is this, and as much as I trust mike, I do look at statistics can statscan for this thick, and violentthing,and violent crime below the base crime rate and the last twenty years, it's been above, and the last 7 and 8 years, it's really widened. In ottawa, low crime rate, but high violent crime rate. >> It is. And the crime severity index from statscan is volume and seriousness, and it's intuitively what people care about. It is going up, and went up 4% the last year it was measured which was 2022. It took a bit -- not necessarily violent crime took a bit of a dip during covid-19 and now resumed increasing, and modest increasing and the same curb over the last 5 or so and offer context, and it's not a graph going way up at the end. But mike has gotten at something that is important that I would come at slightly different way and I think it's just like the economy in that the objective facts do not match the way people are feeling. We keep talking and talking about the economy being aflame. It's not as bad as it feels to people. But I for one wouldn't discount how things feel to people. I think it's important to tease out how bad are things, particularly when you have one federal party that is really going hard at the idea that canada is falling apart, canada is broken. And it is the way it feels to people. I mean, there are a lot of drug-driven problems in big cities, a lot of mental health

issues that are very apparent to people walking down the street and. Situations like the one in edmonton, the way our human brains work, it lands hard because it's so horrifying. >> David: zain, quick thoughts on this. >> There's a reason that poilievre, to shannon's point, phrases canada feels broken. It's not about the stats. It's about the feeling here. This is the battle of head and heart in treal ways. Even for progressive politicians, and it's not that they don't want to act. It's how much patience does the high hard progressive heart have for continuing with the longitudinal root causes to some of the crime we're seeing. There's a lot of sympathy to go around. At the end of the day, a lot of people say with my sympathy, I don't want to see that and I don't want to be in the eyes of danger for that. That's where the head and the heart collide on a pure political basis. >> About 3.5 minutes and zain, I know I teased where you wanted to go. You want to go -- you want to talk about what happened in the united kingdom. >> I want to talk about a prime minister getting rained on as he calls his election. I'm going down -- not for rishi sunak, although he is going down in the U.K. conservative prime minister called a snap election. But I'm going down on the elements of surprise in politics. And you know yesterday rishi sunak called the election and the folks he catches off guard the most are not the labor party who released their first and second ad of the campaign because they've been waiting for this. It's his own tory MPs who are wondering why he's doing this over the summer, what is going on. And I think -- you know, I can hit up on sunak, I don't want to. I share no values. But share pigmentation with the guy, and I'll lay off him for a second. But I will say that in politics, the element of surprise is fleeting. How long has a surprise at your surprise birthday party lasted? 8, 10 milli seconds, right, it's fleeting, and surprise is not a strategy. It's not a robust strategy. I'm not saying don't call snap elections. But, man, do it out of strength. Do it at a position where you can take advantage of. Anyone who looks at this as a lesson should look at the case study of what is going to happen in the coming days. I might be eating crow july 4th. At the end of the day, surprise is not a strategy in politics and not a robust strategy that has any lasting effect. >> Why someone leading britain use 4th of july as an election day, and nothing bad ever happened happened to england on that day. But the biggest surprise was rain, and he was drenched at his own announcement, and front page of one of the U.K. was drowning street because he's in front of number 10. >> And also drowned out by a triumphant labor campaign song. >> Oh, my god. >> Fallacy all around, and I want to say british politics is so much fun because it's so unhinged. We don't have anything like that. Surprise, guys, we're 20 points down, and go to the polls, and ruin everyone's summer vacation. It's -- yeah, like, zain is absolutely right. The sort of naked astonishment with which this was met, and play a game theory with it, and the economy improved, stabilized about 5 minutes before he made the election call. So maybe it was just sort of itchy trigger finger. But you think, he had until the end of the year, and presumably the economy is improving, and incumbent party and the longer it gets the better it goes. I come off on the theory, he doesn't want to do this anymore. He is loaded. He wants to go live in one of his houses and he is going down in a heap, and he just ripped the bandaid off. They put on a show over there. >> And it is the thing to watch, and the way they man handled a reporter at one of the rallies later that night. >> The election outlook for the U.K. conservatives is extraordinary bleak and I don't see it as surprise element or strategy. I see it trying to advantage of the position of strength, and avoid the trump as panic as much as possible, and the rwandan crisis takes the air and allows him to reframe the ballot box issues. And the same way that trudeau hopes that pierre poilievre steps it in here, and frankly his only hope, and sunak, hoping

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