Varcoe: ATCO head says separation talk 'impacting investments now,' as Canada aims to be energy superpower
ATCO Ltd. chief executive Nancy Southern is feeling optimistic about the federal government's focus on building major projects across Canada — but concerned about the effect separation talk in Alberta is having on business investment.
During the Calgary-based company's annual meeting on Wednesday, Southern spoke about the Carney government's commitment to developing energy corridors and getting new infrastructure built.
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Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bolivia heads to the polls as its right-wing opposition eyes first victory in decades
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivians headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in presidential and congressional elections that could spell the end of the Andean nation's long-dominant leftist party and see a right-wing government elected for the first time in over two decades. The election on Sunday is one of the most consequential for Bolivia in recent times — and one of the most unpredictable. Even at this late stage, a remarkable 30% or so of voters remain undecided. Polls show the two leading right-wing candidates, multimillionaire business owner Samuel Doria Medina and former President Jorge Fernando 'Tuto' Quiroga, locked in a virtual dead heat. Many undecided voters But a right-wing victory isn't assured. Many longtime voters for the governing Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, now shattered by infighting, live in rural areas and tend to be undercounted in polling. With the nation's worst economic crisis in four decades leaving Bolivians waiting for hours in fuel lines, struggling to find subsidized bread and squeezed by double-digit inflation, the opposition candidates are billing the race as a chance to alter the country's destiny. 'I have rarely, if ever, seen a situational tinderbox with as many sparks ready to ignite,' Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, founding partner of Aurora Macro Strategies, a New York-based advisory firm, writes in a memo. Breaking the MAS party's monopoly on political power, he adds, pushes 'the country into uncharted political waters amid rising polarization, severe economic fragility and a widening rural–urban divide.' Bolivia could follow rightward trend The outcome will determine whether Bolivia — a nation of about 12 million people with the largest lithium reserves on Earth and crucial deposits of rare earth minerals — follows a growing trend in Latin America, where right-wing leaders like Argentina's libertarian Javier Milei, Ecuador's strongman Daniel Noboa and El Salvador's conservative populist Nayib Bukele have surged in popularity. A right-wing government in Bolivia could trigger a major geopolitical realignment for a country now allied with Venezuela's socialist-inspired government and world powers such as China, Russia and Iran. Conservative candidates vow to restore US relations Doria Medina and Quiroga have praised the Trump administration and vowed to restore ties with the United States — ruptured in 2008 when charismatic, long-serving former President Evo Morales expelled the American ambassador. The right-wing front-runners also have expressed interest in doing business with Israel, which has no diplomatic relations with Bolivia, and called for foreign private companies to invest in the country and develop its rich natural resources. After storming to office in 2006 at the start of the commodities boom, Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, nationalized the nation's oil and gas industry, using the lush profits to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure and improve the lives of the rural poor. After three consecutive presidential terms, as well as a contentious bid for an unprecedented fourth in 2019 that set off popular unrest and led to his ouster, Morales has been barred from this race by Bolivia's constitutional court. His ally-turned-rival, President Luis Arce, withdrew his candidacy for the MAS on account of his plummeting popularity and nominated his senior minister, Eduardo del Castillo. As the party splintered, Andrónico Rodríguez, the 36-year-old president of the senate who hails from the same union of coca farmers as Morales, launched his bid. Ex-president Morales urges supports to deface ballots Rather than back the candidate widely considered his heir, Morales, holed up in his tropical stronghold and evading an arrest warrant on charges related to his relationship with a 15-year-old girl, has urged his supporters to deface their ballots or leave them blank. Voting is mandatory in Bolivia, where some 7.9 million Bolivians are eligible to vote. Doria Medina and Quiroga, familiar faces in Bolivian politics who both served in past neoliberal governments and have run for president three times before, have struggled to stir up interest as voter angst runs high. 'There's enthusiasm for change but no enthusiasm for the candidates,' said Eddy Abasto, 44, a Tupperware vendor in Bolivia's capital of La Paz torn between voting for Doria Medina and Quiroga. 'It's always the same, those in power live happily spending the country's money, and we suffer.' Conservative candidates say austerity needed Doria Medina and Quiroga have warned of the need for a painful fiscal adjustment, including the elimination of Bolivia's generous food and fuel subsidies, to save the nation from insolvency. Some analysts caution this risks sparking social unrest. 'A victory for either right-wing candidate could have grave repercussions for Bolivia's Indigenous and impoverished communities,' said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. 'Both candidates could bolster security forces and right-wing para-state groups, paving the way for violent crackdowns on protests expected to erupt over the foreign exploitation of lithium and drastic austerity measures.' All 130 seats in Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, are up for grabs, along with 36 in the Senate, the upper house. If, as is widely expected, no one receives more than 50% of the vote, or 40% of the vote with a lead of 10 percentage points, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff on Oct. 19 for the first time since Bolivia's 1982 return to democracy.
National Post
8 hours ago
- National Post
Media Advisory for CUPE Air Canada Flight Attendants
Article content CALGARY, Alberta — CUPE 4095 President Tyler McBain, CUPE Alberta President Raj Uppal, and AFL President Gil McGowan will address striking Air Canada flight attendants. Following this, members of the CUPE 4095 Strike Committee will be available for comment on the current Air Canada strike and the labour interference by the federal government. Article content When: Article content Article content Sunday, August 17, 10:00 AM Article content Article content Location: Article content Calgary International Airport, Level 2, Departures Door 17 Article content :clc/cope 491 Article content Article content Article content Article content View source version on Article content Article content Contacts Article content Media contact: Article content Erin Rolfson Article content Article content Article content
Calgary Herald
10 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Weary travellers at YYC despite fed intervention in Air Canada labour fight
It was a subdued Saturday morning by the Air Canada counters at the Calgary International Airport. Article content Travellers stood wearily in lines by the counter, baggage in tow while staff ran back-and-forth between the counters with passports in hand. Article content Article content Some had been at the airport for hours, waiting to hear back on cancelled flights and rebooking alternatives. Article content 'We've been here since seven this morning,' Clem Lacoume said. She had travelled to Canada from France with a friend, Emma Sambras, two weeks ago to explore British Columbia and had a flight scheduled home on Saturday. Article content Article content At 12:58 a.m. ET on Saturday, 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job on strike, after the airline and the union representing them failed to reach a deal ahead of the deadline. The airline estimated 130,000 customers would be affected for each day of the strike. Article content Article content Patty Hajdu, the federal jobs minister, directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday morning to order flight attendants back to work, impose final and binding arbitration and extend the terms of the parties' existing contract until a new one one is determined. Article content However, with several flights already cancelled and travellers urgently attempting to rebook alternatives, it will still take time until flights are back to scheduled routine, according to Adam Danyleko, CEO of Elite Travel Management, a Calgary-based travel agency. Article content 'It takes a while for the routes to get back online,' he said. 'They've already cancelled them so they've got to do a lot of work with the actual individual airport locations to bring the routes back online and to bring the flight attendants back online.' Article content Article content Article content On Saturday morning, more than 100 flight attendants banded at the far end of the airport building, near the departure doors leading to the counters for the U.S. airlines. Article content 'Our members are ready for this,' Brittany Thomas, local vice-president for CUPE Local 495 in Calgary. 'They didn't want it to get to this but they are here because they have to be here. Article content 'There's a lot of community,' she added. 'We have a very strong engagement because we know each other, we're friends, we're tight-knit.' Article content The days leading up to the strike held a lot of 'anxiety and stress,' she said. The last time the airline's flight attendants went on strike was in 1985. Article content Daylen Mitansky, local vice-president of CUPE Local 495, said when he heard the strike was to be official, he cried. 'It's really heartbreaking,' he said. 'We're all sad about the passengers being stranded and it's really hard on a lot of us.
