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Measles has spread to 109 more people in Ontario over the last week, bringing the province’s total cases to 925 since an outbreak began in October.

Sixty-nine people have required hospitalization – that’s eight more than last week – including four in intensive care.

Measles is still predominantly infecting unvaccinated infants, children and adolescents in southwestern Ontario.

Cases in Alberta have also been climbing since March, with 83 confirmed as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Quebec is on the verge of declaring its outbreak over if no new infections are reported by Saturday.

Allegations that the United Conservative Party government pressured Alberta Health Services to accept exorbitant contracts to operate chartered surgical facilities in Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge have dominated the news in Alberta since February.

Former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s allegation that she was fired for scrutinizing these contracts has created a scandal dubbed “CorruptCare” by the NDP Opposition.

Rather than being an isolated incident, the CorruptCare scandal represents the result of the contracting out and hollowing out of public health care in Alberta.

Whether it’s chartered surgical facilities, privatized laboratory services or contract nursing agencies, repeated instances of introducing the profit motive to the provision of public health-care services show that privatization tends to increase health-care costs.

And why wouldn’t it? Corporations exist to maximize profit, not to provide public services.

"You're at home and then you hear that Donald Trump maybe wants to invade Canada, and that all the Trumpist values can come and contaminate us," said event organizer and renowned Quebec journalist Alain Saulnier. "What we wanted to do was allow people to get out of their homes and make it clear that they do not want Trump here."

The sentiment resounded from the Maritimes to the Prairies.

The demonstrations came a day after Americans gathered in all 50 states to protest the president's agenda following a dizzying 11 weeks that saw Trump throw up tariff walls, dismantle some government offices and pardon nearly all defendants involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

People showed up to celebrate the Canadian nation and show their Manitoban and Canadian pride!

“We’ll always be the true north strong and free. And we will never be the 51st State!” Kinew exclaimed. “Together, we will keep this land glorious and free! Merci, vive la Canada!”

The rally featured musical guests, food trucks, and plenty of activities for kids, with premier Wab Kinew addressing the crowd.

“The fact that somebody like me, people like us have opportunity to make our lives what we want them to be, that’s what makes Canada so special, that’s what makes Canada so beautiful, and that’s what makes Canada worth fighting for,” said Kinew.

People showed up in droves, decked out in all things Canadian, and the message to President Trump and the United States was quite clear.

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https://mstdn.ca/@stevevrporter/114293351479492573

A newly released audit of the Toronto Transit Corporation’s (TTC) operations found growing discontent among the transit agency’s non-unionized staff, including worsening concerns about safety and a turnover rate of up to 62 per cent in some departments in recent years.

In 2023 and 2024 exit surveys the TTC conducted with departing employees, over half of respondents said their decision to leave was influenced, mostly or in part, by an “unhealthy organizational culture,” “lack of trust in the executive/senior leadership,” and “growth and career advancement.”

A smaller percentage of employees responded that “psychological safety” (35 per cent), “discrimination towards them during their employment” (29 per cent), and “physical safety” (14 per cent) were contributing factors in their choice to leave.

In 2021, Fair Vote Canada marked the 100-year anniversary of politicians promising to move from first-past-the-post voting to proportional representation in Canada. (Dear reader: We are still waiting).

It was surreal to watch this unfold in real time. And it reminded me of an important and eye-opening 2024 report, Disruptions on the Horizon, by Policy Horizons Canada. It identified 35 potential disruptions to Canadian stability.

Number one among the top potential disruptions: People cannot tell what is true and what is not.

I’ve been reporting on right-wing politics over the last decade for PressProgress and have gone deep into the weeds on Canada’s online far-right. We are not simply seeing a rise in “conspiracies” and “misinformation” per se, I think we are witnessing tectonic shifts inside Canada’s conservative movement.

A decade or two ago, this was a movement that revolved around ideas about free markets, small government and reactionary social values. That’s all still there, but for a growing segment of the right, these ideas have been increasingly displaced by a sprawling, conspiratorial metanarrative that imagines an evil global cabal is using technocratic climate policies, authoritarian public health rules and gender-inclusive educational materials to control the world and keep ordinary people in their place—and yes, it is every bit as unhinged as that sounds.

In fact, I’m no longer sure the word “conspiracy” fully captures what’s really happening here.

The first thing you need to unde

Pierre Poilievre’s first days in government would rely on ‘the Mike Harris playbook’

It was an ominous sign. Mike Harris’s government had moved quickly to make dramatic reforms. They had a hundred-day agenda, and they got a lot done: laying off public sector employees, cutting funding to education, slashing social assistance rates, deregulating industries, repealing equity laws, selling off Crown corporations, and empowering the government to impose user fees on public services.

“It’s going to come hard and fast from every direction again,” Evan’s acquaintance said. The groups and communities impacted, as well as the political opposition, both inside Parliament and outside, would have to fight on dozens of fronts at once.

In Canada, the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism has served as a tool to bludgeon and silence those engaged in political activism — the primary goal of which is to halt the mass murder of Palestinian children — as being hostile toward Jewish people as a group.

As Independent Jewish Voices notes on its webpage detailing the numerous faults within the IHRA definition:

“The IHRA definition comes appended with 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism, seven of which specifically focus on the state of Israel, rather than on Jews as a group. The list of examples is intended to conflate antisemitism with criticism of Israel and Zionism.”

Polls have done an about-face in the region, which experts say is fuelled by a historic lean toward the party amid threats from the outside, while the longstanding desire for change has been satiated by a new Liberal leader.

Most recent polling found the Liberal Party has a 21 percentage-point lead in the region, which includes Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Nationally, the Conservatives and the Liberals are neck-and-neck.

The Liberals had fallen behind in popularity over the past two years. The party currently holds 24 of 32 seats across the Atlantic provinces, a decline from the 32 seats it captured in the 2015 election.

The Jays' season opens Thursday March 27, hosting the Orioles in the first of a four-game homestand.

It should be an interesting year. Many think the front office will react based on early season performance; i.e., acquire more talent or sell off pieces if the team is good or bad, respectively. Vladdy's in a walk year, as is Bo. Varsho has 1 more year of arbitration. People around the organization seem to think President, Mark Shapiro, has been extended based on his language in recent press conferences, although that has not been announced. Will Max Sherzer's thumb significantly limit the innings he pitches? How will Manoah look? Who's the fourth best hitter on the team? There's a lot to keep an eye on.

Many think Boston's got the best team in the AL East, following by NYY and Baltimore, followed by Tampa and Toronto (ie, 3 layers). Consensus also seems to be that the Jays have an outside chance at a wild card spot.

I want to see them back in the playoffs. I hope it's an entertainin

A forensic analysis of Statistics Canada data on the composition of recent inflation confirms that fossil fuels haven’t protected Canadians from affordability problems. In fact, fossil fuels were the biggest single cause of those problems.

The 2022 spike in global oil prices, channeled immediately into higher prices for fossil fuel products sold in Canada, was by far the biggest single factor setting off post-pandemic inflation. From January 2021 through June 2022 (when inflation peaked), consumer prices for fossil fuels grew 81 per cent. Prices for fossil fuels used as inputs by businesses grew even more, by 127 per cent.

The direct costs of higher fossil fuels caused almost half of all consumer price inflation in that time—and more than half of inflation over the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target. Add in the indirect costs faced by businesses in other industries (from agriculture to transportation to construction) for their fossil fuel purchases, all passed on to consumer