Girl next door really blows

Is Trump about to poke Quebec’s political beehive?

When was the last time that a U.S. president seriously stirred the hornet’s nest of Quebec politics?

My best recollection is former U.S. president Bill Clinton. During the 1994 Quebec referendum campaign, Clinton made clear that the U.S. wholly endorsed a united and strong federal Canada — as opposed to a dismembered one. He went on to add that an independent Quebec would have no guarantee of joining the North American Free Trade Agreement as a full-fledged member.

Today, we see U.S. President Donald Trump inserting himself — unwittingly or wittingly — into the electoral and sovereignty politics of Quebec. It’s pretty clear that the resurgent Coalition Avenir Québec government is trying to make the Oct. 5 provincial election about anything other than its own governmental record and more about Trump’s economic coercion against Canada. Of course, the Parti Québécois, the odds-on-favourite, wants to make the electoral contest a referendum on the CAQ and its party leader, Christine Fréchette.

But what if Trump really wanted to make his presence felt in Quebec’s political life? How much influence could he have on shaping political outcomes in Quebec? How much of an “X factor” could he be?

‘We feel lucky — and a bit traumatized’: Tornado confirmed in River Heights Sunday

Tanner Lemieux wasn’t surprised to learn the violent winds that tore through River Heights and reached their peak near his home Sunday night have been classified as a tornado.

While driving back to his Lindsay Street home from a shopping trip with his wife Sunday, it became clear they were not in the middle of an ordinary thunderstorm when rain and wind started coming from every direction and hit every side of their truck.

The forceful wind made it impossible for him to open his door after they had parked. He climbed through the window, over the top of his vehicle, and the couple struggled to fight the whipping winds to make it into the house.

“As we were running in, the wind started pulling me backwards out of the door,” he told the Free Press while cleaning debris from his yard Thursday.

Chrétien says Canada bows to no one in fiery address at 9/11 commemoration

GANDER - Former prime minister Jean Chrétien drew a standing ovation inside a Gander, N.L., hockey arena on Friday as he delivered a pointed message to American leaders during a ceremony marking the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, 25 years ago.

The 92-year-old warned Americans never to mistake Canadian generosity for weakness, nor its kindness for softness.

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra looked on as Chrétien insisted his pointed words were a sign of friendship. Friends tell each other the truth, he said.

“We embraced our friends and we helped them in their moment of need, but we bow to no one,” Chretien said, as the crowd erupted again.

Education minister’s reasons for revoking teacher’s licence ‘not good enough,’ judge decides

A Manitoba judge has rejected the education minister’s decision to end a teacher’s career because he repeatedly messaged with a 13-year-old girl on social media.

Multiple factors add up to difficult harvest

Earlier this month, farmers sent agriculture publications some heartbreaking photos showing how heavy rains across the Prairies had pummelled a promising harvest.

An idled combine up to its axles in a flooded Saskatchewan field, straw bales surrounded by water and field equipment stranded on the far side of a washed-out section told the obvious story.

The Sept. 6-7 event was just the latest in a series of heavy rainfall events that have plagued this year’s growing season. Similar deluges hit different regions July 15-17, Aug. 14, and Aug. 31 — some of which were accompanied by tornadoes.

“What’s made this season challenging is the intensity of these rainfalls,” said Manitoba Agriculture ag meteorology specialist Alison Sass as she reviewed the summer’s weather patterns on an extension webinar.

Canadians loving Carney’s decision to stand tall against floundering U.S. bully

It’s hard to imagine a more dramatic political contrast than the one unfolding on opposite sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

Mark Carney is fighting a trade war with Donald Trump, taking the occasional verbal punch from the American president and imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.

And the prime minister is being rewarded for it politically.

Trump, meanwhile, is fighting pretty much everyone he can find — including some of America’s closest allies — and his own voters are increasingly giving him the political equivalent of a raised middle finger. That’s quite a tale of two leaders.