Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
On an anxious day marked by street protests and legal challenges, several U.S. states remain too close to call for either Joe Biden or Donald Trump – though that could change before tomorrow. Ballots are still being counted in five critical swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania), though the process was paused or slowed in some jurisdictions for regulatory reasons or by court orders resulting from Trump campaign lawsuits.
Joe Biden said this afternoon he was confident he would win the White House, but that voters had to be patient. But in places like Pennsylvania and Arizona, patience was in short supply as supporters of both Trump and Biden gathered in the streets (and in a Facebook group, briefly) to make their views known. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign was busy in the courts with several attempts to hold up ballot counting, baselessly claiming fraud by Democrats. Biden only needs six more electoral college votes to reach the 270 threshold and dash Trump’s dwindling hopes of a second term.
For the latest, see our developing live story.
U.S. election commentary:
What the American media got wrong: their own country
“The media certainly did nothing wrong in cataloguing Mr. Trump’s various untruths and misdeeds. They weren’t wrong to investigate his tax returns or his proclivity for extending a warm hand to dictators while often treating long-time allies with disdain. Nor were the media off-beam for chronicling his disastrous handling of the pandemic. What they failed to recognize, however, was that almost half the country would be prepared to endorse Mr. Trump’s decision to put the health of the economy ahead of the health of individual citizens.” – Gary Mason, staff columnist
The modern Republican Party’s core value is having no values at all
“Beyond having to find some way of governing a dangerously polarized citizenry, Mr. Biden will have to contend with a Republican Party that learned over the course of the Obama years the efficacy of political sabotage masquerading as principled ideological discipline. Until the election results are irrefutably ratified – a process that may well go through the Supreme Court – it is likely the GOP will maintain its superficial obsession with voter fraud.” – Omar El Akkad, author
This election shows the United States is a broken country
“The current American crisis is in part due to those officials who refused to curb Mr. Trump’s worst behaviour. When organized crime hijacks government, officials must act aggressively, transparently, and immediately. They cannot waste time like Robert Mueller did with his plodding, placating probe. They cannot “impeach at the ballot box,” which Nancy Pelosi – a staunch opponent of impeachment until she buckled to pressure from her colleagues and the public – suggested throughout 2019. They cannot go by the book when the book is burning.” – Sarah Kendzior, author
More coverage:
- Wolves, weed and magic mushrooms: Ballot initiatives bring hope on election day
- How did Trump stay in the hunt to save his presidency? The answer is in the Sun Belt
- Trump lawsuits unlikely to impact outcome of U.S. election, experts say
- Editorial: If Donald Trump has to go, he’ll make sure to break a few more things before leaving
- Live U.S. election results map: Watch Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s presidential battle, state by state
- What we know so far: Trump is suing states. Biden is fighting back. What happens next? A continuing guide
Ontario unveils budget with record deficit fuelled by pandemic
A government whose campaign promised to rein in spending and balance Ontario’s books has instead delivered a 2020-21 budget featuring a deep deficit, thanks mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. The Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford released its budget today and projects a $38.5-billion deficit this fiscal year, followed by $33.1-billion in 2021-22 and $28.2 billion in 2022-23.
Spending highlights announced by Finance Minister Rod Phillips include $7.5-billion in new health spending to fight COVID-19, a subsidy on hydro rates for large and medium-sized businesses and a promise to develop a 20 per cent rebate on in-province expenses for tourists who choose to stay local.
The opposition at Queen’s Park accused Mr. Ford of failing to do enough to help those hurting the most from the pandemic.
Related: Ontario steps on to a slippery debt path with budget
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ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Theriault sentenced: The off-duty Toronto police officer who beat a Black man with a metal pipe in 2016 has been sentenced to nine months behind bars. Michael Theriault was convicted of assault in June and, in considering the sentence, Justice Joseph Di Luca said he took into account the “racialized context” of the violence.
GM revives Oshawa plant: Union leadership declared victory today after General Motors promised to re-open the vehicle assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., it had closed in 2019. GM will invest $1.3-billion in retooling the plant, and up to 2,500 workers will be employed there.
Surgeries delayed: In hospitals across Canada, the capacity to care for non-COVID patients is being stretched and hundreds of elective surgeries in hot-spot provinces are being cancelled each week. Cities like Edmonton and Winnipeg are in the worst shape. “There are going to be a lot of people without COVID who are going to suffer from having surgery delays and delayed investigations for cancer,” said Dan Roberts, a critical-care doctor at Winnipeg Health Sciences.
Police shooting on bodycam video: Walter Wallace, a Black man with a history of mental illness, was shot dead by two Philadelphia police officers last month. Today, bodycam footage from the officers was released and local officials appealed for calm in a city where protests over the shooting have been ongoing.
‘Cautious’ Christmas shopping season: Canadian Tire, while announcing strong third-quarter revenues, says it is bracing for a surge in e-commerce orders for the holiday season – and prioritizing safety when it comes to foot traffic. President and CEO Greg Hicks said Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events across the retail sector should be more muted this year.
MARKET WATCH
A post-election rally for the major stock indexes continued today, featuring broad gains in banking, telecommunications, technology and other sectors, setting up what could be the best week of returns for the S&P 500 since April.
The Dow and the TSX were also up in a sign that investors are treating the end of the U.S. election campaign with relief, despite the outcome being unsettled.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed up 299.43 points or 1.9 per cent to 16,298.17. That’s the biggest single-day gain since June. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 542.52 points or 1.9 per cent to 28,390.18. The S&P 500 index was up 67.01 points or 1.9 per cent to 3,510.45, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 300.15 points or 2.6 per cent to 11,890.93.
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TALKING POINTS
Regulating streaming services will offend internet purists – but it’s long overdue
“The changes should finally start to drag the free-riding services – which raise millions in revenue in Canada but, for the most part, don’t collect GST on subscribers' bills and don’t pay corporate taxes in Canada – into a broadcasting system based on the simple notion that those who benefit from access to public airwaves or digital space should contribute to local production.” – Kate Taylor, staff arts critic
Joe Rogan’s podcast is a vehicle for intolerance
“Even when Rogan is at his most substantial, my mind goes back to his frequent far-right visitors and his lack of engagement as an interviewer. Rogan doesn’t come from a traditional journalism background where critiques of the untrue are necessary; he built his name as the host of Fear Factor and a colour commentator for the UFC. In those roles, his job was to announce the events, sit back and make occasional remarks. He would only contest or critique the situations to ignite them, never worrying about extinguishing the flame.” – Guy Mizrahi, special contributor
LIVING BETTER
Catlin Bartman and family pose in front of a playhouse he built for his two kids in Calgary this summer.Catlin Bartman/Courtesy of the Bartman Family
How are we spending our time at home? DIY projects
After a few months of being house-bound with a very bored six- and seven-year-old, Catlin Bartman decided to take matters into his own hands and build something that would be a welcome distraction for the kids – and him and his wife, Julie. Julie gave him a photo of a playhouse with a trap door and ladder to a spacious loft. He scoured online for ideas, bought the building materials and spent two months this summer completing a project that is an envy of his Calgary Pump Hill neighbourhood. “I wouldn’t have been able to take this on if I wasn’t working from home,” says Bartman, 34, a mechanical engineer who has always been handy, but never had the time to let his inner do-it-yourselfer go a little wild. “Doing the work myself saved us thousands of dollars and was mental therapy for me.”
Canadians like him will spend about $25-billion on DIY projects in 2020, according to real estate consultancy Altus Group. Instead of discretionary dollars going to restaurants, clothing and travel, thousands of Canadians are investing in wood, nails, drywall and power tools to take on projects around the house they finally have time for.
TODAY’S LONG READ
The Canadian Screen Awards organizers are planning for next year’s celebration of homegrown film and TV – and a lot more besides
Using the pandemic as an opportunity for reinvention, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has rolled out new initiatives and structural changes meant to ensure that fresh attention to the all-encompassing concept of “diversity” isn’t mere lip service. The changes could revolutionize the way that Canadian film and television is made, and who makes it.
There’s a new inclusion fund for underrepresented content creators, an equity committee, a writers' incubation program and sweeping changes to the Academy’s board of directors. All this is being executed on a shoestring budget straining to withstand the squeeze of pandemic-related revenue losses.
“We’re going to get through this. And we’ll be stronger on the other side,” says CEO Beth Janson. “You have to believe that. The people who are going to survive are going to do the interesting thing and not the easy thing.”
Read the full interview by Barry Hertz here.
Evening Update is compiled and written weekdays by an editor in The Globe’s live news department. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.