Why our democracy depends on your vote

I think that fining people who don’t vote and paying people who do isn’t a bad idea. Because people who don’t vote aren’t participating in our democratic system of governance, and we all pay for that.

NSL Winnipeg gets a home sweet home

For years, Desiree Scott has tried to imagine what women’s professional soccer would look like in her hometown.

Her vision is now a whole lot clearer.

The Northern Super League revealed Tuesday that $8.5 million is being invested into the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex, which will become the official home of Winnipeg’s recently announced expansion club.

Work is already underway to transform the facility into a 5,000-seat modular, purpose-built stadium that will be ready for kickoff next spring.

Online harms now top threat to Canadian children, new report says

OTTAWA - Online harms now constitute the top threat facing children in Canada, ahead of bullying, poverty and child abuse, Children First Canada said Tuesday in a new report.

It is the first time online harms have been in the top 10 list of threats, the report said.

"We've seen how now it's permeating the lives of every kid in Canada, from birth all the way through adolescence. This is no longer a conversation just about teens on social media," said Sara Austin, CEO of Children First Canada.

"In the past year alone, we've seen particularly the rise of AI-amplified harms," she added.

Home court, high hopes as Canada chases wheelchair basketball gold

OTTAWA - Canada’s men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams hope home-court advantage can help end a lengthy world championship drought.

Canada will host the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships for the first time since 2014, with all games being played in Ottawa. Action gets underway Wednesday, with the championship games set for Sept. 19.

This marks the first time Canada has hosted the men’s and women’s world championships together, with 17 countries represented by 15 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams.

Iran was scheduled to compete in the men’s tournament but withdrew over the weekend because of visa issues affecting four team members, including the head coach and an assistant coach.

Food Allergy Canada calls for laws requiring schools to stock epinephrine devices

TORONTO - Last May, six-year-old Kofi Berkley started getting itchy and developing bumps on his skin while he was playing with his friends at recess.

The recess supervisor brought the Grade 1 student, who didn't have any known allergies, to his Edmonton elementary school's office.

Principal Joanne Harle and an administrative assistant applied ice on his skin to try to soothe the irritation.

"Truly to goodness within — it felt like an hour but it wasn't, it was probably maybe a minute — you could see his eyes swell. His top lip grew. He was gasping to breathe," said Harle.

U of M study shows female entrepreneurs have it tough on dating market

Xiumei Li had a friend who had been on the dating scene for a while.

He’d been seeing an impressive woman, a startup founder building a successful business. She was a good conversationalist. She was interesting.

She sounded great. So why didn’t it work out?

Some gentle prodding revealed he was intimidated by her, but also felt that “there was a gap between what he expected for a partner versus what this female entrepreneur had to offer,” Li says.

Germany’s Merz shocked by far-right state election triumph but doubles down on unpopular reforms

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz doubled down Monday on pushing through unpopular reforms to Europe’s largest economy after a far-right party surged to a landslide victory in a regional election, with a very good chance of forming the first far-right state government since the Nazi era.

Merz said his center-right Christian Democratic Union was “deeply shocked” by what he called “the most serious election defeat that the CDU has had for years, for decades.” But he indicated that he's determined to stay at the helm and said that “giving up is not an option for me.”

The anti-migration and Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany, or AfD, fell just short of a majority in Sunday’s vote in Saxony-Anhalt, a small eastern state that gained outsized prominence as AfD eyed power there. Its regional branch is one of several considered a proven right-wing extremist group by Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

Merz says Germany will stick to its values and Russia stance

Smith’s pretzel logic confuses

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had both sides of her mouth working overtime on Aug. 30, when she spoke at an event in Calgary to commemorate Alberta Day, the annual celebration of the province’s entry into Confederation in 1905 (officially Sept. 1, it was celebrated on the weekend).

Smith’s comments — and the things she did not say — revealed a lot about the political tightrope the premier is trying to walk over the challenges currently faced by her province. At the top of that list of challenges is a persistent campaign to separate Alberta from the aforementioned Confederation. A campaign that Smith appears to both support and oppose, depending on which day of the week it is.

Her Alberta Day remarks were an excellent case in point.

Smith has decided that on Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on a series of non-binding propositions in a province referendum. One of those questions will ask Albertans whether they want to hold a referendum on separation, thus making this fall’s vote a “referendum on whether to hold a referendum,” as some observers have dubbed it.