A Conservative runs for re-election in a riding with a new name and very different boundaries.

W e’re over halfway through the election campaign, and you may have spent part of the past few days reading about the Liberals circulating fake campaign buttons—a depressing, if not uncommon, story of dirty campaigning. If you’re extra lucky, maybe you’ve read about the upcoming leaders’ debates.

The debates promise to be little more than the usual—a series of press conferences clipped for social media masquerading as an exchange of different views. I think debates, as we hold them, are overrated at best and counterproductive at worst. They don’t really change minds, nor do they typically determine election outcomes. They recycle talking points for low-information voters to repeat around the house or at work in the break room. They force short, incomplete, answers to complex questions with little push back, fact check, or counterpoint from either the moderator or opposing candidates. We do them because we’re expected to do them, and because people tune into the spectacle to perhaps pick up at least some sense of what’s going on during a campaign they may be just starting to pay attention to.

The theory behind debates is more interesting than the debates themselves. In theory, debates pit opposing world views against one another and demand candidates explain and defend their plans and records—in detail.

If we go back to John Stuart Mill (hey, wake up, stay with me here), debates also hold the (theoretical) promise of two potentially salutary effects for the listener. Over the course of the exchange, one might learn something new. The force of the better argument may sway that viewer, who then re-evaluates their position and even changes their mind. Free speech thrives. Everybody wins, even for losing. If they don’t change their mind, they might come up with new defences and deeper, more robust affirmations of what they already believe, coming closer to the “truth.”

That’s the theory. As for the practice, see above. That’s not what happens. Debates are part of our horse-race coverage of elections. When we write or talk about them, we spend as much time, if not more, talking about the aesthetics of the thing rather than the substantive bits. We talk about who got in a good one liner, who flubbed the performance, who looked comfortable and who didn’t, who attacked too hard or defended too little. We talk far less about the details of policies offered, which are the ostensible reason for holding these debates in the first place. We treat the whole thing as a sport. All things considered, I’d rather watch sports.

Debates are adversarial and partisan, two things that I think are important in a democracy, but which we overvalue, over-reward, and over-emphasize. Partisan opposition politics is critical to parliamentary democracy, and if we tried to do away with parties, they’d just reform in one way or another. But past a certain point, the more we lean into partisan politics as the only way of doing politics, the more we encourage people to become the sort of partisans who enter an absolute, chauvinistic, “my side, right or wrong” mode that’s more about protecting the sanctity and security of one’s in group than it is about solving problems.

• Mark Carney’s Secret Weapon? Being Reasonable
• Poilievre Bragged That He Has Never Changed His Mind. That’s the Problem
• The Kids Are Leaning Right: How the Manosphere Is Shaping Voters

There are more ways to conceive of politics than as a competitive sport. I’ve long been a proponent of deliberative democracy, a model of democratic exchange and decision making in which participants meet one another as moral equals, take time to gather information, exchange reasons for and against their preferences, drop strategic goals, and make reasoned judgments and decisions in light of each. When practised, it works extremely well.

Deliberative democracy isn’t a panacea, nor is it the sole way to do politics. But it should be central to politics. You can have deliberative institutions (like a citizens’ assembly), or you can build deliberation into existing institutions (like the House of Commons at committee or the Senate). Like a good cereal, I think of deliberative democracy as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

I prefer a democracy that is made up of many sites of politics: legislatures, courts, protests, elections, petitions, news media, civil disobedience, (occasional) referendums, participatory citizen undertakings (like participatory budgeting), boycotts, letter-writing campaigns, and more. The trouble is we tend to focus on a few of these things and ignore the rest. And the few that we focus on tend to be dominated by well-heeled professional sorts who dominate the process and outcomes. Everyone else gets theatre or a pat on the head and a pro forma thanks-for-your-concern. Accordingly, our democracy is weak, vulnerable, and prone to, let’s say, sub-optimal outcomes.

One of my biggest worries in politics is the pooling of power. I don’t trust concentrated power in the hands of any individual or group. That is one of the reasons why I oppose an unfettered free market that allows billionaires to accumulate vast amounts of capital and corporate owners and functionaries to dominate workers. It’s also why I oppose a state that isn’t checked by a mixed market, strong civil society groups, and a robust constitution, lest the state dominate the people it exists to serve.

In the same sense, I distrust the pooling of our politics around partisan theatre, an element of which is leaders’ debates. I’d much prefer to see the candidates seated around a table for a few hours, casually, without scripts, talking about their views with respect for their opponents and, more importantly, respect for the people watching. I don’t like my chances of getting anything like this anytime soon, but I’m going to keep asking for it, even as I watch the debates this week.

Adapted from “It’s Election Debate Week. Oh, No.” by David Moscrop (Substack). Reprinted with permission of the author.

The international sailing competition known as SailGP will return to Halifax in June 2026, two years after it made its Canadian debut in the city and attracted thousands of spectators who watched the high-speed racing from both sides of the harbour.

Side-by-side tracks purchased for future emergencies

By Zarla Gorton

Early this winter, a few men from the NorthernLights TrailBlazers Club #47 were out for a ride and witnessed something no one wants to see. A fellow snowmobiler lost control of his sled and broke his leg. Initially, after the immediate panic subsided, the man was able to use a splint and then drove himself over 20 km to the main road and got help. The incident could have been much worse.

At the next club meeting, there was a long discussion about “what if?” Some club members also volunteer with the Hartland Fire Department (HFD). They came up with a plan. They worked out the details of a three-way investment between the HFD, the NorthernLights TrailBlazers, and M&A Automotive to purchase and install a set of tracks for the fire department’s side-by-side to be used as a winter rescue vehicle.

Now, if an accident or medical emergency is ‘off the beaten path’ in the winter, a 911 call will send a rescue sleigh and potentially save a life.

The NorthernLights TrailBlazers would like to thank everyone who helped make this happen.

The post Incident spurs club to act first appeared on River Valley Sun.

A 16-year-old boy who was stabbed Tuesday evening in Montreal has died.

Police confirmed his death today – the city’s eighth reported homicide in 2025.

The teenager was stabbed in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.

Despite coming from behind to win yet again on Tuesday night, the red-hot Calgary Flames have been eliminated from playoff contention.

A Winnipeg Police Service shoulder badge is seen at the Public Information Office in Winnipeg, on September 2, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski)

A 49-year-old Ontario man has been charged after allegedly luring and sexually assaulting a Winnipeg teen.

Winnipeg police say the suspect, identified as Scott Christopher Alcorn of Red Lake, Ontario, began communicating with a girl in her mid-teens through private messages on social media in December 2024. Investigators allege he gained her trust and arranged to meet her in person.

In early April, Alcorn travelled to Winnipeg, where police later located him and the victim together at a local residence on April 11. He was arrested without incident and remains in custody.

Police allege the teen was sexually assaulted at the residence.

Alcorn is facing multiple charges, including sexual assault, sexual interference, luring a person under 16 via telecommunications, and distributing sexually explicit material to a minor.

He remains in custody.

A sexual assault case involving an American basketball player was back in provincial court this morning.

Twenty-nine-year-old Raekwon Holliman is accused of assaulting a woman at a downtown St. John’s hotel in late February.

He spent a week in custody before being granted bail on a number of conditions, one of which permits him to return to the U.S. as the case moves along here.

RNC say they were called to the unnamed hotel around 3 a.m. on February 28th, encountering a woman in need of medical assistance.

Holliman, in town with the Rochester Kingz for games versus the Newfoundland Rogues, was arrested later the same day.

In court this morning, his local lawyer said he’s still awaiting all disclosure from the Crown.

It’s hoped that will be in the hands of the defence when the case is called again on May 30th.

An Ontario law empowering the province to remove three major Toronto bike lanes is being tested in court by a group of cyclists who argue it’s unconstitutional.

The law passed last year allows the province to remove protected bike lanes on Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue, and aims to shield the government from lawsuits if someone is hurt after they've been taken out.

The City of Winnipeg’s municipal golf courses will officially open for the season on Saturday, April 19, with a new course joining the lineup.

Canoe Club Golf Course at 50 Dunkirk Drive will join Crescent Drive, Kildonan Park, and Windsor Park courses and can now be booked online, by calling the respective pro shops, or by contacting 311.

Spring rates will be in effect at Kildonan Park and Windsor Park until May 2.

For full details or to book a round, visit winnipeg.ca/golf.

The province’s seniors’ advocate has released a report on the in-home preparedness of seniors as they age in place.

The report – ‘An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure,’ found that nearly 80 per cent of seniors indicated that cost is a barrier to installing items to prevent falls, such as railings, non-slip tape, hand bars and bathroom modifications.

Advocate Susan Walsh says injury suffered in slips and falls is the leading reason why seniors ending up in long-term care facilities and that more money should be allocated for prevention and information.

“The report found many can’t afford it, but many also just don’t know what to do,” she told reporters Wednesday.

She says help should be provided. “Yes, provide some financial assistance for our lower income seniors, and as well, make it available that if you can’t afford it, but your income’s higher, well, here’s a no-cost loan.”

The Winnipeg Jets have signed forward Alex Iafallo to a three-year contract extension, the NHL club announced Thursday.

The extension will kick in next season and carries an average annual value of US$3.67 million.

The 31-year-old from Eden, N.Y., has 15 goals and 16 assists in 81 games for the Jets this season.

He has played on the Jets top line with Gabe Vilardi, who is recovering from an upper-body injury, and has two goals and three assists over his last six games.

Vilardi, who hasn’t played since March 23rd, resumed skating Tuesday and is considered day-to-day.

The Jets (55-22-4), who last week wrapped up their first Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best regular-season record, end their campaign Wednesday night against visiting Anaheim before facng the St. Louis Blues in a first-round playoff series.

Iafallo, an undrafted free agent signed by the Los Angeles Kings out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2017, has played 583 career games for Winnipeg and Los Angeles. He has recorded 262 points (111 goals, 151assists) and 101 penalty minutes in the regular season and added 10 points (five goals, five assist) and 10 penalty minutes in 21 playoff games.

The post Winnipeg Jets sign forward Alex Iafallo to three-year contract extension appeared first on CityNews Winnipeg.

The step-daughter of Aaron (Chuck) Gamble, 54, a teacher whose remains were found in a garbage bin in Saskatoon more than two years ago is sending a message to the three people who she believes knows what happened to her step-father.

“They know who they are and let’s just hope that they have the heart to tell us (what happened) one day,” said Sylver Okemaysim from her home in Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation.

“I just hope they come forward because you know his children still need closure. The Gamble and Cameron family need closure.”

On March 23, 2023, Okemaysim said she ran into Gamble at Dodgies, the local gas station at Beardy’s and Okemasis, located north-east of Saskatoon. She said he hugged her and told her he was waiting for some people to give him a ride to Saskatoon.

“And that’s the last time I seen him,” said Okemaysim.

According to the Saskatoon police, later that evening on March 24, 2023, at around 12:15 a.m., surveillance video from an apartment shows three people wheeling a large container to a garbage bin in the west end of Saskatoon in the Meadowgreen neighborhood.

The three people police are calling “persons of interest” stop what they’re doing when a cab is seen dropping someone off up the street. One of the people appears to be dancing while waiting.

The police video then cuts to the three people picking up their belongings and walking away from the garbage bin with a dolly.

At around 6:30 p.m., police were called after a body was discovered inside the garbage bin.

Police said foul play may be involved in Gamble’s death but have not said how he died.

“That was just a very disturbing thing to witness and for them to leave him like he was nothing, it hurts,” said Okemaysim, who added that she still shares the surveillance video hoping someone will recognize the suspects.

Police are also asking for the public’s help in identifying the three people in the video.

“The Saskatoon Police Service continues to investigate this 2023 homicide but we do not have any public update to provide. As it remains an active investigation… we encourage anyone with information they believe to be at all relevant to the investigation to contact us directly,” said Joshua Grella, an SPS spokesperson.

Gamble, who is from Beardy’s and Okemasis, is being remembered as a man with a kind-heart and gentle soul and was a father of seven children and a grandfather to many more grandchildren. He obtained his teaching degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and taught in Montreal Lake, Cumberland House, Loon Lake and Beardy’s and Okemasis.

“He was our male figure in our life, we had our fathers but we had Chuck and Chuck was always there,” said Okemaysim. “He raised us and he was the reason why me and my sister got our education because he always reminded us all the time, education is so important, its going to take you so much further in life.”

Gamble’s sister Emelia Greyeyes told media covering the story that having no answers in the investigation for more than two years has been very hard on the families.

“The way he was murdered and thrown away like garbage, nobody deserves that. It’s been trying, it’s been tough. The waiting and being patient is a lot to take on.”

“I don’t know who would want to hurt him, I don’t know who would want to hurt someone so fragile, he was a very sickly man who lived with diabetes,” added Okemaysim.

Anyone who has information about this homicide investigation can call the Saskatoon Police Service at 1-306-975-8300 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Watch Creeson’s report here:

The post Family of Aaron Gamble hope people in surveillance video will come forward appeared first on APTN News.

Imagine a tribe of uncontacted hunter-gatherers in the deepest Amazon rainforest. Anthropologists airdrop dozens of smartphones loaded with social media apps, with solar chargers, simple instructions in their native language and Wi-Fi just within the tribe. What would happen to their culture and their mental health?

Such an experiment appears fanciful, but a similar one has been unfolding in our world for about 20 years. For the first time in human evolution, everyday social interactions have changed from face-to-face to disembodied experiences, from in-person to digital and from social reality to whatever someone puts online.

Social media is an evolutionary novelty, like M&M’s, e-cigarettes, fentanyl and H-bombs. Each comes with novel risks to health and well-being to which humans are entirely unaccustomed.

What, then, are the risks of seemingly innocuous behaviours such as sharing posts, giving likes, making oneself look good in pictures, and, in general, interacting virtually rather than physically? The short answer is that we don’t know — yet — especially because our big experiment has no control group.

But we can try to find out.

Social media and mental disorders

We recently investigated the question of what mental disorders are associated with high social media use. To do so, we conducted a systematic review — an objective way to find and evaluate all of the relevant literature. We hypothesized that social media use should be higher among people whose psychology, and psychiatric traits and disorders, were more socially mentalistic.

Mentalism refers to within-brain traits like theory of mind, inferring intentions or emotions of others and empathizing. Social media is expected to be mentalistic because it involves disembodied thoughts, feelings and associated images, intended to connect us with other humans. Mentalistic thinking contrasts with the mechanistic cognition of scientists plying their trade of cause and effect in the physical, non-mentalistic world of things.

To test our hypothesis, we scrutinized hundreds of scientific articles, and a curious picture emerged. High social media use was strongly associated with a subset of mentalistic traits and disorders: narcissism, erotomania (the belief that some celebrity loves you), paranoia, body dysmorphia and anorexia.

These traits and disorders seem unrelated, but we noticed they all centrally involve delusions: false beliefs about reality, held despite absent or contradictory evidence. Some delusions can be mental (narcissism, paranoia, and erotomania), or physical (body dysmorphia and anorexia). Some are positively valanced (narcissism and erotomania) and some are negative (paranoia, body dysmorphia and anorexia).

Why, then, was social media associated with delusionality?

Social delusions

Like other mental traits, delusions exist in one’s brain for a reason. What these mental disorders also appear to share, psychologically, is an underdeveloped and fragile sense and construction of the self, which happens during early life through social interactions with family, friends, and others.

If one’s mental and perceived bodily self is underdeveloped in childhood, it can, later, be bolstered, and this commonly happens through social interactions that involve beliefs that, though false, make oneself feel better.

Low self-image and self-esteem can be shored up through admiration or love from outside — with extremes of narcissism or erotomania. Perceived embodiment and body image problems can be enhanced through fictitious beliefs about appearance — with extremes of body dysmorphia and anorexia.

What better way to do any of these things than with social media and the internet, where users can pursue likes and followers to their heart’s content, and present themselves mentally and physically as they wish, using applications designed specifically for that purpose?

Most importantly, social media allows users to delusionally “improve” themselves because it circumvents reality testing: the direct, face-to-face interactions we engage in when physically interacting with other people.

Delusion amplification

As we outline in our paper, the processes just described represent a “Delusion Amplification by Social Media” model that can help explain why and how high social media use is linked with a specific subset of mental disorders that involve delusions and an underdeveloped self.

By this model, some people are relatively vulnerable, psychologically, to the negative effects of social media, because they are drawn to it, and because it amplifies and exacerbates their problems. This exacerbation is, of course, not benign or accidental; the goal of many social media companies is, after all, to keep us online, scrolling, striving and seeking hits of social pleasure and self-validation.

What, then, then can be done, aside from cutting the virtual social umbilical cord? First and most crucial is enhanced awareness of our own psychological makeups and how they are affected by specific platforms or apps. The problem with delusions, of course, is lack of awareness that our reality is false — but we can still become more cognizant of the rifts between perceived and actual worlds and what drives them.

Second is more research, to extend the delusion amplification model, and to better determine the psychological and neurological differences between in-person and virtual interactions, and what mental problems they can cause.

If we find that social media really is ruining mental health, as suggested by recent increases in narcissism, body dysmorphia and other disorders among young people, then the research will need to be incorporated into policy, so we can regain control over our social lives, our brains and our social worlds.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The Bank of Canada is holding interest rates at 2.75 per cent after seven consecutive cuts.

Governor Tiff Macklem says a lot has happened since the last rate adjustment in March, and the future remains unclear given the U.S. government’s tariff policy.

He says they thought it prudent to hold the line until more information becomes available.

“Faced with pervasive uncertainty, governing council will proceed carefully, with particular attention to the risks. That means being less forward-looking than usual until the situation is clear. It also means we are prepared to act decisively if incoming information points clearly in one direction.”

The Winnipeg Jets have locked in forward Alex Iafallo with a three-year contract extension carrying an average annual value of $3.67 million USD, the team announced Wednesday.

The new deal will kick in for the 2025–26 season.

Iafallo, 31, has played all 81 games for Winnipeg this season, posting 31 points (15 goals, 16 assists) and 15 penalty minutes. He currently ranks third on the team with a plus-21 rating and is riding a four-game point streak.

Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Los Angeles Kings in 2017, the Eden, New York native has appeared in 583 NHL games between Winnipeg and L.A., totalling 262 points (111 goals, 151 assists) and 101 penalty minutes. He’s also recorded 10 points in 21 career playoff games.

We’ve moved and we’re open!

Come and see us at our new location.

We’re at 21 Mill Street West.

Our hours of operation are:

Tuesday: 9 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Wednesday: 4 – 7 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Phone:
(519) 733-8591

Email:
[email protected]

Check out our Facebook page here.

The post Kingsville Community Food Bank Is in Its New Home! appeared first on Kingsville Times.

At its April 14, 2025 meeting, Council:

• Approved a Zoning By-law Amendment for 52 Heritage Road.

• Approved a Consent Application to sever an existing dwelling, deemed surplus to the needs of the applicants’ farming operation, at 459 County Road 34 East, subject to certain conditions.

• Awarded the 2025 Rural Road Resurfacing Tender to Shepley Road Maintenance Ltd.

• Directed Administration to provide a letter of “Municipal Significance” to the organizers of the Kingsville Pro Rodeo to allow the event to obtain a licence to serve alcohol.

• Approved road closures on Main Street (from Spruce Street to Chestnut Street) and Division Street (from King Street to Pearl Street) from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm on Saturday, August 2, 2025, for the Hogs for Hospice Registered Ride.

• Awarded the Grass Cutting and Trimming of Various Municipal Properties Contract to A&M Lawncare.

• Approved an Industrial and Commercial Community Improvement Plan (CIP) for the Town of Kingsville.

• Directed Administration to undertake a review of land use policies related to lands that discharge into the Ruthven Sanitary System, and approved an Interim Control By-law for those lands, pursuant to Section 38 of the Planning Act. Council further directed Administration to take steps to make certain upgrades to improve the flow rates and bring forward recommendations on how to fund cost recovery from greenhouse operations, upgrades to the Ruthven Sanitary System and enforcement of prohibitions; and lastly directed Administration to prepare a Greenhouse Sewer Use By-law for the next Regularly Scheduled Meeting of Council (April 28, 2025).

• Endorsed the Municipality of Leamington to act on behalf of the Town of Kingsville as “host” for its provision of transit services for the purposes of the 2024-2025 Dedicated Gas Tax Funds for Public Transportation.

• Adopted resolutions, which have been summarized as follows:
  • A resolution respecting the Enwin Utilities Ltd. (“Enwin”) purchase of E.L.K. Energy Inc. (“E.L.K.”), which commits the Town to a positive working relationship with Enwin and asks for a meeting at Enwin’s earliest convenience. The resolution further requests that Enwin continue to follow E.L.K.’s current mission statement of providing high-quality customer service and that it continue its regular tree maintenance for Kingsville and Cottam customers. Lastly, it requests the expedited construction and installation of a second feeder line to increase the reliability of electricity service for customers in Kingsville and Cottam;
  •  A resolution respecting trade relations between Canada and the U.S., which have been strained by tariffs imposed on Canadian goods by U.S. President Donald Trump. The resolution calls on the Provincial and Federal Governments to create an implementation measure to protect Canadian businesses and to remove any impediments that may prevent municipalities from giving preference to purchasing goods from Canadian suppliers; and
  • A resolution on Strong Mayor Powers speaking to its effect on democratic process and how it alters the historical model of local governance by providing the head of council with unilateral direction and decision-making authority. The resolution notes Council’s opposition to Strong Mayor Powers and requests that the proposed amendments to O. Reg. 530/22 to Expand Strong Mayor Powers to additional municipalities not include the Town of Kingsville.

  Council Briefs are intended to be a quick summary following Council meetings. Council Briefs do not replace the official minutes, which are published following adoption at the next scheduled Council meeting. If you have any questions about the summary provided above, please email [email protected].

The post Council Brief from the April 14, 2025 Meeting appeared first on Kingsville Times.

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