4-time Olympic medallist Adam van Koeverden to oversee sport in PM Carney's new cabinet
A Toronto native who was raised in nearby Oakville, Ont., the 43-year-old van Koeverden was sworn in at Rideau Hall in Ottawa along with 28 ministers and nine other secretaries of state.
Van Koeverden was first elected to the House of Commons in 2019 and was re-elected for a second time on April 28 in the Burlington North-Milton West riding (formerly Milton) by 5,983 votes.
Van Koeverden is a four-time medallist at the Summer Games in sprint kayak, winning gold and bronze at his first Olympics in Athens in 2004, and following up with silver medals at Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. He ended his competitive career following the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The 2022 Canada Sports Hall of Fame inductee also won two world championship titles and eight medals overall. Van Koeverden was twice Canada's flag-bearer — at the closing ceremony in Athens and the opening ceremony in Beijing.
The federal sports portfolio has had a number of iterations over the years, often combined with other responsibilities. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had distinct sports ministers in his cabinets from 2015 to 2024, but Carney eliminated the role in his first cabinet named in March before the election.
Van Koeverden and the other secretaries of state — a long-dormant designation Carney is reviving — will have a more junior role, with less inclusion in full cabinet responsibilities.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Carney wants to spend an extra $9B on defence by April. Is that possible?
Prime Minister Mark Carney's goal of hitting NATO's defence spending target of two per cent of gross domestic product this year will be an uphill — nearly impossible — battle, say experts and critics. An extra $8.7 billion is earmarked for defence spending by the Department of National Defence (DND) or other government departments, and $370 million for the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). Allies had been pushing Canada to meet NATO's goal for nearly 20 years — but actually actually doing so became imperative with Donald Trump in the White House. "Mark Carney's words are right, but he's gotta crack the whip here real quick," said John Ball, a former Canadian defence industry executive for nearly four decades and now consultant. NATO defines defence expenditures as payments made by a national government specifically to meet the needs of its armed forces, or those of allies and the alliance. Conservative MP and defence critic James Bezan warns it will be difficult for procurement officials inside government to reverse a long-standing culture of risk aversion, deferred decisions and allowing billions of dollars in lapsed spending."By the time we get back into Parliament and a budget is passed, we're going to have half a year to spend money that the department won't be able to shovel out the door," Bezan said in an interview with CBC News. He wonders if the government will just engage in a "game of creative accounting" to meet its NATO commitments on paper. But some within the Canadian defence industry as well as DND and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) themselves point to existing mechanisms that can be leveraged to move quickly. Those include the use of standing offers, supply arrangements and pre-qualified vendor lists, as well as strategic partnerships with defence companies identified as centres of excellence, bilateral partnerships with other countries and the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. In situations that are truly time sensitive, the government can invoke a National Security Exception (NSE), Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) or issue an Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN). Although these have strict eligibility criteria and are not everyday tools. "If the government can demonstrate to us that this is in the interest of national security and there is a limited availability from a competitive factor, we would be open to those types of procurement," said Bezan. "But we can't make a habit of using NSEs as a way to … get the equipment that we require for the Canadian Armed Forces." Carney outlined on June 9 the general areas for increased investment, but gave no specifics. The list included better compensation; health care and infrastructure for personnel; new equipment such as aircraft, armed vehicles and ammunition; expanding the Canadian Coast Guard and moving it under DND; repairing and maintaining existing ships, aircraft and other assets; and developing new drones and sensors to monitor the sea floor and the Arctic. "We think it's largely going to be made up of items that are already identified or some that have been languishing in the procurement pipeline or projects that were underfunded," said Christyn Cianfarani, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI). Spending at home One way to spend faster would be to expand existing orders for armoured vehicles, ships and planes. For example, augmenting an existing contract for 360 light armoured vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems in London, Ont. A company spokesperson says it would be able to quickly respond to contract amendment requests. But if the government intends to buy equipment not already on order or in the inventory, Cianfarani argues DND and PSPC have to change their approach. "There should not be a protracted procurement process," she said. "Probably a good portion of that $9 billion could be spent on Canadian firms." The prime minister has explicitly stated that part of the goal is to build up the Canadian defence industry, while acknowledging that continuing to do business with allies, including the U.S., will remain necessary. Cianfarani is far from alone in her concern over Canada's procurement process, one of the main reasons critics argue spending $9 billion in less than a year is doubtful. PSPC says its preference is for open, fair and competitive procurement. But many argue the process is overly long, and in some cases merely a box-ticking exercise where the winner is a foregone conclusion. "Why did they do it? They did it to appease," said Ball of those requests for proposals that already have a preferred candidate in mind. Cianfarani said it's frustrating for firms to spend millions on a bid for which they never had a real chance. She said it would be better to engage in "directed procurement" more often, as is done in other countries, where the government knows what it wants to invest in — and who the best suppliers are — and it then chooses them. But Bezan and others warn of the risk of boondoggles increases if the rush to spend money also means hurried oversight. "Talking about going to two per cent, and higher down the road, doesn't mean we give licence to spend money frivolously," said Bezan. 'Deliberate urgency' Those in the defence industry argue that they too want to make sure there's value for money. "I use the phrase 'deliberate urgency,' in that we need to think about how that money impacts the Canadian economic situation," said Chris Pogue, a former Royal Canadian Air Force pilot and now president of Calian Defence and Space. "I don't think we should let urgency overcome smart procurement, but things can move quickly if we have a sense of the direction we want to go and the kind of capability we need." Pogue said capabilities around sovereignty need to be homegrown, such as equipment and supplies needed for operations in the Arctic. An additional challenge is that most defence spending, at least on the capital side, is spent and accounted for over a number of years. But a senior government official says they truly plan to increase defence spending by $9 billion before April. That said, the government continues to describe both the amount and the deadline as targets, not certainties.
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Canada fixed its air traffic control decades ago. Why can't America?
Some of these tragedies and alarming incidents are Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up There is no mystery about what ails air traffic control in this country: It is run by the government, which is ill-suited to the task. Worse yet, the agency that's in charge of providing air traffic control, the Federal Aviation Administration, is also the agency that regulates it — an inherent conflict of interest. As journalist John Tierney put it in Advertisement That's only part of the problem. Because the FAA is an arm of the government, its operations, including air traffic control, are inevitably politicized. Since the agency has to be reauthorized annually, its funding is tied not to market forces but to the priorities of politicians, lobbyists, and interest groups. That chronic Happily, there is a straightforward solution: Get the federal government out of the air traffic control business. 'Countless studies have shown that other countries' ATC systems are better-managed, better-funded, and better-supplied with advanced technology,' Robert Poole, the Reason Foundation's director of transportation policy, Advertisement Not much has changed since Our neighbor to the north long ago made the leap to nongovernmental air traffic control. In 1996, Canada created Nav Canada, a not-for-profit corporation that is fully funded by users of the system — that is, airlines and other aircraft operators — and thus doesn't cost taxpayers a cent. The results have been almost uniformly positive. Nav Canada funds its own modernization and operates on a solid financial footing. The company has Canada boasts state-of-the-art satellite navigation systems. Almost 10 years ago, The Wall Street Journal's aviation columnist, Scott McCartney, In Canadian ATC towers, there are no strips of paper to shuffle. Instead, controllers update information about each flight on touch screens and pass the information to one another electronically. 'Requests for altitude changes are automatically checked for conflicts before they even pop up on controllers' screens,' McCartney wrote. 'Computers look 20 minutes ahead for any planes potentially getting too close to each other. Flights are monitored by a system more accurate than radar, allowing them to be safely spaced closer together to add capacity and reduce delays.' Advertisement The FAA, meanwhile, has been working on upgrading its technology for more than 20 years, but its efforts, as the trade group Airlines for America America's antiquated air traffic control system is both embarrassing and unnecessary. The wheel doesn't need to be reinvented. In 2017, legislation to privatize ATC operations along the lines of the Canadian model This would be a fine time to revive that legislation. Is it naive to imagine that fixing air traffic control is one way to 'make America great again' that doesn't have to involve polarizing rhetoric or angry culture wars? The formula is clear: Carve air traffic control out of the FAA, move it to an independent, user-funded corporation, and let market needs — not politics — dictate priorities. Under such a 'separation of ATC and state,' safety oversight would remain with the FAA, but the era of paper strips and floppy disks would finally end. Advertisement Jeff Jacoby can be reached at
NBC News
4 hours ago
- NBC News
China's swimming prodigy draws global praise and a note of caution
HONG KONG — A 12-year-old Chinese swimmer has become a global sensation with her history-making times, even as observers and fans back home caution against overhyping the young athlete. On Thursday, Yu Zidi became the youngest-ever medalist at the World Aquatics Championships, which are being held in Singapore this year. Yu was part of the Chinese team that took bronze in the women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay, with the United States winning silver and Australia winning gold. Though she did not compete in the final, she received a medal because she swam in the qualifying race. 'I was really excited to join the relay. It felt great,' Yu told reporters Thursday. 'The World Championships are fun, and I hope to swim faster.' The Chinese prodigy began swimming around age 6 just to beat the heat in her home province of Hebei. She said she never thought about becoming a professional athlete until a coach approached her at a swimming pool one day. 'At the time, I thought: why not give training a try?' Yu told Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, in May. Yu, who is also the youngest person to medal at a major international competition since 1936, could earn an individual medal on Sunday in the women's 400-meter medley. Her times are so fast that they allowed her to compete at the World Aquatics Championships even though the minimum age requirement is usually 14. She has already come close to medaling in two other events in Singapore, missing the podium by 0.06 seconds in the women's 200-meter medley on Monday and 0.31 seconds in the women's 200-meter butterfly on Thursday. At the Chinese national championships in May, Yu finished the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:10.63, winning a silver medal and setting a world record in the event for any 12-year-old, male or female. Hailed as the world's greatest swimmer her age, Yu has been compared to phenoms such as Katie Ledecky of the United States and Summer McIntosh of Canada, with times that would have put her on the verge of medaling at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Already, Yu is swimming the 400-meter individual medley about 15 seconds faster than McIntosh was at the same age. Her stunning performance before she's even a teenager has many wondering how she might shape competitive swimming in the years to come. But some Chinese sports fans and commentators have urged the public not to overhype the preteen rising star. Yu's sudden fame may expose her to 'disproportionate' pressure that could keep her from achieving her full potential, the state-backed digital news outlet Shanghai Observer said in an editorial Thursday. 'We must let this 12-year-old grow her splash slowly into a wave,' it said, adding that there is 'no need to rush into hero worship.' The warning hinted at a shift in how China promotes its elite athletes in the wake of persistent doping allegations and what has been criticized as a 'toxic' fan culture. Success at the highest levels of sport has been central to China's construction of national identity, with the government focused on dominating medal tables at the Olympics and other events. But the push for gold medals also puts a lot of stress on the countries' star athletes, as does the intensity of public scrutiny. Organized sports fandom first emerged around 2016 when Chinese social media users, jaded by sex scandals that had tarnished the wholesome image of pop stars they previously adored, began following Olympic athletes instead, said Zhang Bin, a veteran sports commentator in China. The new fans brought 'sophisticated strategies' from the entertainment industry, setting off 'fandom wars' among different groups that tried to outdo each other in supporting their athletes, Zhang said. China's extreme sports fan culture, which can include fan mobs, cyberbullying of athletes and heckling behavior at sports events, was especially visible around the Paris Olympics last year. When gold-medal-winning diver Quan Hongchan returned to her hometown, visitors flocked to her home for days. Some livestreamed with their phones while others flew drones, and travel agencies even started offering tours of her village. Pan Zhanle, an Olympic champion swimmer, was praised for disbanding his official fan group after his success at the Paris Games overwhelmed him with a surge of new followers. The Chinese government has been cracking down, with its cyberspace watchdog saying in April that it had shut down over 3,700 social media accounts with illegal or noncompliant content aimed at Chinese athletes. But sometimes the frenzy goes beyond the internet. Chinese table tennis player Fan Zhendong, an Olympic gold medalist, said he was traumatized when a stranger sneaked into his hotel room in 2023. 'I never thought, as an athlete, I would have to go through something like this,' he told Phoenix TV last week, adding that organized online abuse had caused him 'severe' mental stress that contributed to several unexpected losses. Since sports prodigies naturally attract followers, fan groups could also be a concern for Yu in the future, said Zhang, who was at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. China is often overprotective of its athletes, but it 'may not be a good thing if Yu is living in isolation like protected giant pandas,' he said. 'For athletes, learning to interact with the media is a necessary part of their development,' Zhang added. Jessie Zhou, 23, a graduate student in Hong Kong who closely follows table tennis star Fan, said it was a 'good call' for Chinese media to cover Yu in a 'restrained tone' while extreme sports fandom remains unresolved. 'Just let the kid stay focused on training,' Zhou said.
