Minority report: A post-election version of In-The-News for Oct. 22

Trudeau, whose Liberals entered the campaign with 177 seats, will need the support of either the NDP or the separatist Bloc Quebecois to command the confidence of the House of Commons, the first test of which will come within weeks on a throne speech to open a new session of Parliament.

Speaking to party faithful in Montreal, Trudeau asserted that the results give him “a clear mandate.”

“(Canadians) rejected cuts and austerity and they voted in favour of a progressive agenda and strong action on climate change,” he said.

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Also this …

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has spent his political life defying expectations but failed to achieve what could have been a career-defining one: toppling a first-term government.

Instead the Conservatives will settle back into Opposition status with nearly two dozen more MPs, emboldened by a number of symbolic victories in Monday’s vote and preparing for the day where in a minority government situation they will join other parties and defeat the Liberals.

“Tonight Conservatives have put Justin Trudeau on notice: Mr. Trudeau when your government falls Conservatives will be ready and we will win,” he said to loud cheers in a Regina conference centre.

The party swept nearly every seat in Alberta and Saskatchewan, including taking down a longtime and exceptionally popular Liberal, Ralph Goodale.

It was Goodale’s defeat that brought the loudest shouts of joy the entire night in Regina, with the crowd bursting into song at word he’d lost.

The Conservatives also defeated former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, who had started a splinter right-wing party, and they were ahead in the popular vote.

Altogether, they had won or were leaning in 122 seats by early Tuesday morning.

Jubilation over the blue wave in the West also exposed fears among Tory supporters about the division of the country.

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ICYMI (In case you missed it) …

OTTAWA — While the election results were rolling in, Sen. Andre Pratte quit.

The Independent senator from Quebec posted his resignation letter on Twitter saying that there comes a time when one realizes they do not have the skills and motivation required to accomplish the task they’ve been entrusted with.

He was appointed to the Senate in 2016 by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Pratte said it saddens him to betray the trust that Trudeau had in him, but he added it would be even more of a betrayal to continue in a role without meeting the level of excellence expected.

In the letter, Pratte said his resignation has nothing to do with the election and he chose the specific timing to ensure it would not be a distraction from the campaign.

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What we are watching in the U.S. …

The nation’s three biggest drug distributors and a major drugmaker agreed to an 11th-hour, $260 million settlement over the terrible toll taken by opioids in two Ohio counties, averting the first federal trial over the crisis.

The trial, involving Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County and Akron’s Summit County, was seen as a critical test case that could have gauged the strength of the opposing sides’ arguments and prodded the industry and its foes toward a nationwide resolution of nearly all lawsuits over opioids, the scourge blamed for 400,000 U.S. deaths in the past two decades.

The agreement was struck in the middle of the night, just hours before a jury that was selected last week was scheduled to hear opening arguments in federal court in Cleveland.

Drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson will pay a combined $215 million, said Hunter Shkolnik, a lawyer for Cuyahoga County. Israeli-based drugmaker Teva will contribute $20 million in cash and $25 million worth of generic Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction.

“People can’t lose sight of the fact that the counties got a very good deal for themselves, but we also set an important national benchmark for the others,” Shkolnik said.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world …

The crowd hurled potatoes that thudded on the sides of the hulking U.S. armoured vehicles. “What happened to Americans?” one man shouted in English up at the sole U.S. soldier visible on the back of a vehicle. The soldier stared silently straight ahead, away from the show of fury.

It was yet another indignity in a U.S. withdrawal that has been carried out over the past two weeks with more haste and violence than expected — and which may now be partially reversed.

The turmoil was only in part because President Donald Trump’s Oct. 13 order to leave was so abrupt. It also seemed there had been little U.S. preparation for how to deal with a subsequent invasion by Turkey, though Ankara had been threatening it for months. And when it did strike, Turkey hit more widely across northeastern Syria than anticipated and was startlingly aggressive, seemingly trying to shove U.S. soldiers out of its way. Turkish artillery fire and Turkish-backed fighters came dangerously close to three American positions, U.S. and Kurdish officials said.

On Monday, a U.S. convoy was passing down an avenue in the Kurdish-dominated city of Qamishli, apparently on the way out of Syria, when it caught the brunt of residents’ anger and frustration at the American military that was once their closest ally and was now abandoning them.

“Like rats, America is running away,” one man shouted in Arabic at the vehicles, shown in a video put out by the Kurdish news agency.

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On this day in 2002 …

Lawrence MacAulay resigned as Canada’s solicitor-general after the ethics counsellor concluded he twice breached conflict of interest rules. Prince Edward Island MP Wayne Easter replaced MacAulay.

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Your health …

Episiotomies during childbirth have declined in Canada, but a new report says the surgical cuts could reduce the chance of a mother being severely injured when forceps or a vacuum are involved.

A large study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found episiotomies reduced the risk of injury by as much as 42 per cent for first-time mothers required.

In contrast, a surgical cut posed greater risk of injury when forceps or a vacuum were not involved.

Study author Giulia Muraca, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, says guidelines that discourage routine episiotomies have been overgeneralized to apply to all vaginal deliveries, when data suggests they could help in assisted births.

An episiotomy is a surgical cut made to the opening of the vagina when the baby’s head appears.

It’s meant to create more room and minimize severe tears, which could include obstetric anal sphincter injury and cause pain, infection, sexual problems and incontinence.

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The games we play …

HOUSTON — Max Scherzer was taunted over his eyes as a kid. Now he treasures them.

The Washington Nationals Game 1 starter in the World Series has baseball’s most unusual orbs: blue on the right, brown on the left, a condition known as Heterochromia iridis.

“I’ve always celebrated it,” he says. “Whether you liked it or not, that’s who I am.”

Known for his strikeouts, stamina and success, Scherzer has had different eye colours since he was a baby. When he was in grade school, all the people in his drawings had two different eye colours.

“Whatever picture he had, he just figured that was just part of normal,” says his father, Brad. “From first grade on, he’s always embraced it. He’s always thought it was fun. He’s always made light of it. It makes Max unique. So that’s why he likes it so much, I guess.”

Caused by the level and distribution of melanin in the irises, the condition’s name comes from the Greek “heteros (different)” and “chrom (colour).” A study of 25,346 people in Vienna released in 1979 found an occurrence in 65, or 0.26%.

Actors with the condition include Dan Aykroyd, Elizabeth Berkley, Kate Bosworth, Mila Kunis, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jane Seymour.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2019.

The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Minority report: A post-election version of In-The-News for Oct. 22

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