O'Toole raises COVID concerns Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. As the Liberals prepare the ground for what we call, erroneously, a writ drop, Erin O'Toole called on them to hold off for public health reasons, CBC reports. "My biggest concern right now is the potential fourth wave of COVID-19," the Conservative leader said in Belleville, Ont. "We shouldn't be rushing to an election. Mr. Trudeau always seems to put his own self-interest ahead of the interest of Canadians." After a lull in new COVID-19 cases, a number of the larger provinces have reported an increase in new infections in recent days. The Public Health Agency of Canada reported a 43 per cent increase in the number of new cases last week, with 705 cases being reported each day during the week of July 25. With the current high rate of vaccination coverage, however, the number of new deaths reported is still much lower than it was during earlier phases of the pandemic. Not to be outdone, Jagmeet Singh sent Trudeau a letter asking him to hold off, the Star reports. Nobody, of course, knows when Justin Trudeau will launch the campaign, but the Liberals do seem to be getting everything lined up, acclaiming high-profile candidates after sudden retirement announcements—and most importantly—spending money. On Monday, Ahmed Hussen was in Winnipeg to announce a $1.2-billion, five-year child-care plan for Manitoba, CP reports. Federal officials have been travelling the country in recent weeks, announcing agreements with some provinces to create a national child-care system. Manitoba's Tory government is the second conservative-led province to join on. Canada has already signed child-care deals with Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Yukon, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. As Global's David Akin put it on Twitter, Manitoba is the first province led by a "resistance" premier to sign on to the deal. It remains to be seen if Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan will sign before we go to the polls. Writing in the Globe, Campbell Clark points out that the key deal, electorally, may be the deal with Quebec, which the Bloc Quebecois can't campaign against. The biggest threat to a Trudeau majority may be the NDP, pollsters told the Hill Times, although it depends on young people voting en masse. (Frank) Graves said that the rise in support for the NDP is because of Jagmeet Singh’s (Burnaby South, B.C.) popularity amongst millennials. The downside, he said, is that millennials don’t vote as much as other age groups. “And I would suspect that that will be the key challenge for the NDP … actually converting and growing the millennial vote, which seems to be really where their prospects are, because that is not a historically reliable turnout group,” said Mr. Graves. Broken promise: On National Peacekeeper's Day, the Globe has a strong op-ed pointing out that although the Liberals promised to contribute to international peacekeeping missions, they haven't done much about that. At UN headquarters, the expression “The Canadians are coming!” was first viewed in a positive sense—a return to major peacekeeping contributions. But soon it became a grimly humorous statement: Canadian ministers and government personnel would come to New York with lots of questions, exploring options, taking valuable time from UN staff, but in the end Canada would provide no forces for peacekeeping. Sending Canadian officers to the UN’s military affairs branch in New York would have given Canada excellent opportunities to learn about contemporary UN planning, procedures and priorities. But in the past six years no Canadian officer has held a post in the office, where some 50 other countries contribute. What to do? The Liberals are being urged not to reinstate Admiral Art McDonald as Canada's top military commander even though police did not lay any charges after a six-month investigation, the Canadian Press reports. The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service announced late Friday that they had decided there was not enough evidence to charge McDonald, who was chief of the defence staff until he stepped aside in February as a result of the investigation into an allegation of misconduct. Seven hours! Delays of up to seven hours were reported at the border on Monday as Canada finally opened to fully vaccinated American tourists for the first time in 16 months, Reuters reports. It was frustrating for travellers, Global reports. NS vaccine passport: With a week to go before Nova Scotians vote, Iain Rankin promised Monday to introduce a COVID-19 vaccination passport system, CTV reports. The Globe has an editorial calling for mandatory vaccination for health and education workers. Climate warning: A report Monday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a a grim picture of the impacts inaction could have on Canada, Global reports. Canada is already feeling the heat of a changing climate. When a heat dome settled over British Columbia this summer, more than 700 people died. Mussels and clams were cooked on Canada’s coastlines. Wildfires spread mercilessly, levelling an entire B.C. town after it smashed Canada’s temperature records multiple days in a row. And according to the IPCC report, this could just be the beginning. — Stephen Maher | 