The world's tallest teen, 7-foot-9 center Olivier Rioux, gives football a try at Florida
FILE - Florida's Olivier Rioux (32) is interviewed in the locker room during media day at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) CC DP flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: pubinfo.section: cms.site.custom.site_domain : thestar.com sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false firstAuthor.avatar :
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National Post
17 hours ago
- National Post
'They were just hell-bent': Mayor battling Ottawa over 'really left' housing mandate
Article content The province of Ontario already mandates three buildings on a residential lot, the bureaucrats told Drew, so what's the big deal about adding four? His rebuttal: 'Then what's the big deal about adding five? I mean, where does it stop? And when do you get to say enough's enough; that we have processes in place that allow us to look at sewer capacity, that allow us to deal with parking, that allow us to deal with garbage control? Article content 'We hope to work with the federal government — who wants to truly be a partner in helping build more housing — without jamming down our throats something residents don't want,' pleads the veteran mayor. Article content To that end, after Carney took power, the mayor sent a letter — as yet, unanswered — to the government, asking for a re-evaluation of this rigid approach to the housing accelerator fund. Article content Drew has previously worked with Gregor Robertson, former mayor of Vancouver and now Carney's point man on housing and infrastructure. He's optimistic Robertson will bring practical insights about the correlation between affordable housing and density to the federal table. I noted that if increased density brought affordability, Vancouver would be cheap by now. Article content 'I think the benefit of having a fresh government,' Drew offers, 'is they can come in and say, 'Listen, we looked at the program … while we appreciate the intention the past government was trying to employ here, we think there's a better way of working with municipalities, allowing them the flexibility to determine how to accomplish the goal. We'll set the goals and then we'll hold them to account.'' Article content Drew's suggestion echoes what I heard Pierre Poilievre say in the last election campaign. But, we agree, there's nothing wrong with the Liberals stealing good ideas from the Conservatives. Article content While the housing accelerator initiative is the focus of Windsor council's attention, Drew's not happy these blanket zoning mandates are being applied to other programs — including federal public transit and housing infrastructure funding available to municipalities. Article content 'And it gets even better,' Drew continues, his tone increasingly agitated. 'Guess who doesn't have to do this? The entire province of Quebec. They have an exemption. They carved out a different pathway … four units as of right was not a requirement in the province of Quebec.' Indeed, Premier Francois Legault trumpeted his $900-million deal with Ottawa as being 'free of conditions.' Article content The economy of Windsor has taken a sharp downturn in the past 18 months. Before Donald Trump's re-election, the Conference Board of Canada predicted Windsor would be the fastest-growing city by GDP of the 24 big cities they studied. 'We had the battery factory well under construction,' Drew reports, 'and we've got the Gordie Howe bridge that is winding up construction and should open officially the first week of December this year. Article content 'But the reality is, there's a lot of fear here,' he shares. 'Our unemployment rate was almost 11 per cent and people are in rainy day mode. People are pinching their pennies … The housing market is very slow and everyone's just in a wait-and-see mode.' Article content Property developers are on standby, he says, waiting to see if the Carney Liberals will cut development charges by 50 per cent at the municipal level (as promised during the election campaign), and whether the feds will offer low-interest loans for multi-storey residential units. Article content
National Post
20 hours ago
- National Post
Michael Taube: No, Globe and Mail, Mark Carney isn't the second coming of Brian Mulroney
Mark Carney has been prime minister of Canada since March. He's been called many things by many people in this short time period. It never came to mind that he would be described as a 'progressive conservative' along the lines of Brian Mulroney. Article content This, in a nutshell, is the nonsense that the Globe and Mail's editorial board is currently peddling. Article content Article content 'That Mr. Carney was going to drag the Liberal Party back to the centre after years of an NDP-lite government under Mr. Trudeau was to be expected,' a June 28 Globe editorial noted. 'But more than mannerisms have changed. Since April, the Prime Minister has cut personal income taxes, boosted defence spending dramatically, pledged to cut the cost of the federal bureaucracy, tightened immigration rules, eliminated federal barriers to internal trade, created a framework for breaking the stasis on big national projects and signaled that he will dismiss underperforming top bureaucrats,' they wrote. Article content Article content The Globe's editorial board suggested 'that's an agenda that Brian Mulroney could have endorsed.' Article content Article content This analysis likely raised a few eyebrows, and not just in the Mulroney household. Alas, the editorial writers then flipped their collective wig with this bizarre assessment. 'In fact, it overlaps a good deal with the actual governing record of his Progressive Conservatives. Mr. Carney is a Liberal but, in the early going, he looks to be governing much like a Red Tory — a progressive kind of conservative.' Article content We shouldn't be surprised by the Globe's over-the-top analysis of Carney's leadership. It's become the raison d'être of this once-venerable publication to carry water for this particular prime minister. Article content Nevertheless, let's be serious about our national leader. Carney is certainly a progressive, but he's no 'progressive conservative' in any way, shape or form. Article content Left-leaning progressive conservatives, or Red Tories, generally combine two ideological components: classical conservative sensibilities (espoused by High Tories like philosopher Edmund Burke and former U.K. prime minister Benjamin Disraeli) and socialist-type policies such as government intrusion and developing a social safety net. Article content Article content As Gad Horowitz, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, wrote in the May-June 1965 issue of the defunct left-wing magazine Canadian Dimension, 'socialism has more in common with Toryism than with liberalism, for liberalism is possessive individualism, while socialism and Toryism are variants of collectivism.' Article content Article content Modern conservatism has little in common with classical conservatism. The former has largely incorporated classical liberal and libertarian ideals into its main ideology, while maintaining a smattering of social conservative principles related to individuals and families. That's why modern conservatives typically champion small government, lower taxes, free markets, private enterprise, greater individual rights and freedoms and so forth. Article content Carney doesn't fit into these conservative-leaning parameters. His progressive values do fit within the context of the modern Liberal Party of Canada. While he's not exactly the same as Trudeau, I pointed out in a March 16 National Post column that they're 'remarkably similar.' How so? In my estimation, 'they're both left-wing, pro-government intervention, distrust privatization and free markets, favour wealth redistribution, champion radical environmentalist policies, support woke ideology and political correctness — and more.' That's what today's Liberals basically stand for, and Carney's personal and political record fits like a glove.
Toronto Star
2 days ago
- Toronto Star
How can Canada fight Trump's tariffs? Take a page from his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill'
Once he signed his aggressive tax and spending strategy aka the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, President Trump wasted no time ramping up his global tariff war. For Canada, that means facing the potential threat of a 35 per cent levy on top of sectoral tariffs. With Canada exporting more than 70 per cent of its goods to the U.S. and the U.S. exporting just over 17 per cent of its goods to Canada, President Trump knows the math is not in Canada's favour for an extended tariff war. So how can Canada fight back — and win? By diversifying trade, streamlining regulations and cutting taxes. I believe tax cuts, in particular, are extremely important to attract investment, skilled talent and help businesses and the economy grow. Prime Minister Carney is already taking steps to position Canada for a future where the U.S. plays a lesser role in our economy. How Canada is adapting If there is one silver lining in the chaos President Trump has created, it's that Canada and the rest of the world are forging new trade partnerships that do not include the U.S. The result: Canadian exports to the U.S. have decreased from 75.9 per cent in 2024 to 68.3 per cent in May 2025 — their lowest since 1997, excluding COVID — while exports to countries other than the U.S. rose for a third consecutive monthly high in May. This is likely not an outcome President Trump had anticipated and I expect this trend will continue. It's a good development for Canada and the rest of the world. The federal and provincial governments are also working to remove all interprovincial trade barriers. This could boost GDP by between three and eight per cent, lower prices by up to 15 per cent and add up to $200 billion to the national economy. Canada is taking care of business and implemented Bill C-5 to accelerate major projects such as building pipelines and infrastructure for Ontario's Ring of Fire rare earth minerals project. The case for tax reform Focusing on trade and deregulation are important and a great start, but there is a third action Canada needs to take if it wants to succeed in this trade war. And that requires taking a page from the President's landmark budget. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the One Big Beautiful Bill is about stimulating growth and increasing GDP, in part by using tax cuts to incentivize investments in U.S. manufacturing. He argues that a growing economy will offset the growing national debt. I agree. To that end, the new budget extends corporate tax breaks, provides specific tax benefits to spur the building of new manufacturing facilities, and allows 100 per cent tax writeoffs for equipment costs in the first year of purchase versus amortizing these costs over multiple years. All are good for business. For individuals, the budget eliminates tax on overtime and tips — increasing take-home pay and wages. Why would anyone in Canada want to work overtime when it could put you in an even higher tax bracket? It's not worth it. Not taxing overtime wages helps the bottom line of businesses, workers and the economy by improving productivity — a big issue for Canada. If we are going to compete against our biggest trading partner, we need tax reform, and Canada's new one per cent cut for the middle class is not enough. Carney has asked cabinet, the Bank of Canada and Crown corporations to cut spending by billions of dollars over the next three years. The focus of those cuts should be to drive growth as Canadian GDP has been flat for much of the year. Now is the time to lay the foundation for future growth. In a decade, we will look back on 2025 as the year Canada changed — hopefully for the better. If we can negotiate good trade deals around the world, open up trade domestically and become less reliant on the U.S. then that would be a long-lasting benefit for our children and grandchildren. We can't fight tariffs with tariffs, but if we can look at every policy through the lens of improving business and growth — this is how we win.
