Welcome to The Feed, your weekly resource to Canadian politics and policies broken down into itty bitty (super witty) bite-sized knowledge by Apathy is Boring.
Pun intended.

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Winter Break

The Feed will be taking a break on December 24 and 31. It will return in the new year on January 7!

WHAT'S THE SCOOP? 

Things moved really fast on Parliament Hill last week. Last issue, we talked about former environment minister Steven Guilbeault quitting cabinet over the pipeline deal between Ottawa  and Alberta. That triggered a cabinet shuffle… which then somehow spiralled into a language controversy in Quebec. How did we get here? When Guilbeault resigned, he held two portfolios: Canadian culture and identity and official languages. PM Mark Carney handed both files to another Quebec MP, Marc Miller, who’s already previously clashed with the Quebec gov over immigration and identity. Cue a fresh war of words with Quebec Premier François Legault, who called Miller a “disgrace to all Quebecers.” Meanwhile, Guilbeault says Ottawa is stoking Quebec separatism by backtracking on its climate commitments, and two founding members of the federal gov’s Net-Zero Advisory Body just resigned, saying Ottawa is ignoring its work. For a deeper dive on whether PM Carney is a climate friend or foe, hit play on this episode.

“We’re good.” That’s how Canada’s defence minister David McGuinty summed things up when Conservative defence critic James Bezan pressed him on whether the federal gov will actually hit NATO’s benchmark of spending two per cent of GDP on defence by next spring. Remember, it’s been a big year for defence spending. PM Mark Carney said in the spring that Canada would meet the old NATO target, then later promised to hit 5% of GDP by 2035. In October, he launched the new Defence Investment Agency to rebuild, rearm and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces at a much faster pace. And last week, the federal gov dropped the first eight projects the new agency will oversee: a new submarine fleet, Arctic over-the-horizon radar and early warning-and-control surveillance aircraft, to name a few. Listen to this pod for more on why Canada is reframing its entire approach to military spending. 

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NEWS NUGGETS

Power Shuffle: For a chaotic 24 hours last week, the B.C. Conservatives somehow had two leaders. Er, what?! John Rustad was removed as leader Wednesday after 20 MLAs said they’d lost confidence in him, according to the party’s board, and replaced (temporarily) by MLA Trevor Halford. But Rustad insisted online that he wasn’t going anywhere. He officially stepped down the next morning. Head here for a behind-the-scenes breakdown of the whole mess. 

Rights Ruling: Canada has a legal duty to provide safe water and housing to remote First Nations, a federal judge ruled Friday in two separate decisions. The cases involved two First Nations in Manitoba and one in Ontario, all suing the federal gov over its duty to provide safe housing and clean drinking water. Shamattawa First Nation, one of the nations involved, has been under a boil water advisory since 2018. 

Public Debut: Former PM Justin Trudeau and pop star Katy Perry are now Instagram official. Over the weekend, Katy Perry shared photos and videos from their trip to Japan, including a selfie and a clip of her trying sea urchin for the first time on a dinner date. Trudeau reshared a photo on X of the couple posing with a former Japanese PM and his wife. The soft launch era is over!

WHAT ELSE WE'RE NIBBLING ON

A second phase of the U.S.-brokered plan to end the war in Gaza is close, according to Israel’s PM, but he says key issues still need to be resolved. Mediators want to push forward with the more complicated stage of Trump’s peace plan, which includes Israel pulling its troops back further, deploying an international security force and disarming Hamas (possibly by freezing or storing remaining weapons). But human rights groups warn the bloodshed has not stopped under the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Since October 10, when the deal was announced, 360 Palestinians, including at least 70 children, have been killed in Gaza. 

CROSSWORD

And now it's time for dessert...your weekly crossword! A little hint for you: you can find all these words in last week's newsletter!

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