Wednesday Night #2327

A-Z Alberta – Zelensky

The Alberta referendum is over, so are the Quebec elections.

Alberta has voted and some 75% of those voting were in favour of remaining in Canada. Little attention has been paid to the other 8 questions (See the vote counts for Alberta’s nine other referendum questions) and many voters did not bother to answer them. Amidst the somewhat giddy reaction of pundits, Doug Sweet sounds a note of caution.
“”Not to rain on the parade, but a near-25% vote of Yes in Alberta’s referendum should give everyone pause.
• Five or so percentage points away from where support for Quebec separatism sits now – and look at how long that has lasted.
• A movement that can now crow about “victory” even as it climbs out of its clown car filled with division, recrimination and treasonous attempts to curry favour with MAGA. It may never elect a single MLA, but it won’t go away quickly.
• A Premier confirmed as a naked opportunist who tried so hard to have it both ways she did serious damage to her own political party, her province and the country itself.”

Quebec‘s new premier and cabinet were sworn in on Wednesday.-in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor. There will be much discussion, assorted courts cases and on-going squabbling in the days/months/(please God, not years!) ahead over every aspect of the PQ program to divest Quebec of the monarchy, of Canada (but not the funding), and of all traces of ‘anglo colonialism’, so we will not elaborate here this week.

While  there is justifiable concern about the October 25th  run-off of the presidential election in Brazil, our focus is more and more on the 27 October Israeli elections and the US midterms . As the latter approach, it is notable that there is less noise about the Gulf War and Middle East débacle emanating from Washington. Instead, cozy relations with Putin’s Russia and Trump-initiated tensions with Ukraine are top of the foreign affairs news along with multiple jabs at Canada throughout Trump’s visits to rallies in endangered red states.
For much more detail and links between midterm campaigning and volatile US/Russia/Ukraine relations we highly recommend Wednesday’s edition of Slatest (the Slate newsletter) – see Long reads below

Israel
Trump endorsed Bibi, however  JD Vance declines to endorse Israeli PM Netanyahu for reelection The vice president said he didn’t want to get involved in a non-U.S. election, though he campaigned in Hungary for former Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Presumably, increasing skepticism among many American voters prompted by recent events -particularly in the West Bank– have made most American politicians cautious about public pronouncements in the current campaign.

The Global economy
The IMF/World Bank annual meetings are a wrap.
Annual Meetings 2026 Wrap-up: Disconnects between BWIs’ response and pressing needs mount as civil society mobilises for more just international financial architecture We will postpone discussion until we are sure of participation by some of our economist experts.

AI – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
There seems to be more of the ‘Ugly’ as fears of lawless AI agents increase.The latest reveal from AI OpenAI’s most powerful AI models disabled their own safety monitoring — and one lied about it
And this See Some of the Fake A.I. Videos Flooding Brazil’s Election
Brazil spent years targeting electoral lies on the internet. Now, artificial intelligence is stumping the election authorities and reshaping a high-stakes race.

Federal budget to be released on Nov. 5, Champagne says

Varia
OuiCanSki — Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 podcast
Sandy Wolofsky sent us this link with the following comment
I know it’s long, but I’m encouraging you to listen. It’s really good!!! Even if I am a TAD bit biased. 😉 AND — mostly I want to say thank you to ALL OF YOU — who truly help make this happen every winter. I couldn’t do anything without you wonderful folk. And, I’m sorry if you were interviewed and got left on the cutting room floor.
(OK… YES! I’m shamelessly plugging OuiCanSki so that everyone will show up and volunteer, or sponsor the program again, or consider sponsoring the program this winter.)
Just click on the link and listen. You don’t have to sign up for anything.
Finland gripped by national broadcaster’s puppies live stream
Meet the researchers leaving the US because of Trump’s funding cuts and politicization of science
Countries including Canada, France, Belgium and Finland are touting their recruits from U.S. institutions, a disturbing and surprising development, scientists say, for a country that far and away leads the world in Nobel prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry.
Rory Kinnear has bags of charm as Bloomsbury economist Keynes (Review)
Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
James Graham’s high-wire writing brings economic theory to life and connects it with art and fulfilment in this polished, ravishingly staged story of John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes: the cultured economist who governments turn to in a crisis
A new play about the art-loving Bloomsbury Group member speaks of the enduring battle of ideas with his free-market rival Friedrich Hayek

Long reads/audios/videos
Midterms 2026: Is a blue wave coming? (video)
Slatest, With T-minus 13 days until the midterms, polls suggest Republicans are headed for a wipeout. So what is Donald Trump—a self-proclaimed “frickin’ genius”—up to? Escalating a fight with his own party over his support for Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin. Beyond the life-or-death stakes for Ukrainians, the spat has forced many Republican officials to spend precious time criticizing the administration instead of Democrats. But the bigger story is that Trump’s long-standing affinity for Russia may finally be coming back to bite him in a meaningful way.
An Israeli Election Like No Other
Many say  vote  may be the most consequential in Israel’s history.
Watch: Edge of Democracy and Apocalypse in the Tropics. For a  crash course on Brazilian political history ahead of the presidential runoff,  Petra Costa’s two fantastic documentaries are a great place to start. The first, Edge of Democracy, follows the 2018 presidential race between former (and currently jailed) president Jair Bolsonaro and current president Lula, while also telling the story of Brazil’s emergence from dictatorship to democracy in the 1980s. The sequel, Apocalypse in the Tropics, focuses on the rise of the evangelical Christian movement in Brazil, and on 2023 riots in Brasilia that mimicked the Jan 6th riots
Canada’s Plans for Donald Trump | The New Yorker Radio Hour
Canadians think America “is toxic and broken and can never be trusted again,” Chrystia Freeland, the former Deputy Prime Minister, tells David Remnick, and they’re seeking allies abroad.