CBC’s ‘The Porter,’ Nathan Fielder’s ‘The Rehearsal’ nab Spirit Awards nominations

My grandfather, Ben W. Kert, had a women’s dress shop along Queen Street in Sault Ste. Marie where a number of Jewish men, many of them “Greenies” from the old country, owned and operated women’s haberdasheries with variable success.

Ben had come from Quebec via Northern Manitoba and Fort Frances, a singular man whose French was as good as his English and whose great heart filled my childhood with glory.

Unlike the other Jewish store owners, Ben W. was born in Trois-Rivières, the only male child who survived with five or six sisters born ahead of him.

Legend has it that my grandfather’s arrival and survival were celebrated with the nickname Sonny. When he left home at 15 (rumour claims his stepmother threw him out) and arrived in Montreal, his first employer would not accept the nickname, so my grandfather invented Ben W. on the spot. The W. never stood for anything. When he died, my mother discovered that his first name was actually Harry.

BEIJING (AP) — Sales of all types of electric vehicles rose more than 40% in China last year, while those of gasoline-powered automobiles plunged, industry data showed Monday.

A total of 31.4 million vehicles were sold last year in the world's biggest market by sales, up 4.5% compared from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported. Growth in sales outpaced production, which rose 3.7%.

China's exports of passenger cars jumped almost 20% in 2024, to almost 5 million vehicles. Out of that, exports of what China calls “new energy vehicles,” including battery EVs, fuel-cell cars and plug-in hybrids -- electric vehicles with a small gasoline-powered engine to back up the batteries -- reached 1.28 million. That was a 6.7% increase from 2023.

Domestically, sales of passenger cars rose 13.6% in December, driven in part by rebates for trade-ins, raising sales of all passenger cars in China by 3.1% for the year, to 22.6 million.