Homemade holidays: 12 days of vintage sweets Posted: 11:45 AM CST Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022 Last Modified: 9:49 AM CST Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022 Updates

Can Brazil’s Lula best Bolsonaro’s backers?

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is in search of his fourth non-consecutive presidential term since 2002 (and after a stint in prison for corruption) as the Workers’ Party spear-carrier, had once pledged that he would not seek a second term this time around.

But time in office and a fondness for political power have a way of changing minds.

Many prognosticators had predicted that Lula would win easily in any head-on contest with hard right Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro — the eldest son of former disgraced president Jair Bolsonaro, who was given a 27-year sentence of house arrest for plotting a failed coup attempt in 2023.

Not so fast. (The first round of the Oct. 4 presidential election, unless one candidate can eke out a majority, will most likely require a second run-off vote on Oct. 25.)

Incoming senator touts reconciliation efforts, commitment to Manitoba

Senate appointee Geeta Tucker says she’s learned enough about the province since moving here seven years ago, to make a difference in the red chamber on behalf of Manitobans.

“It’s been an intense seven years,” said the chartered professional accountant.

Her roles in advancing truth and reconciliation for the accounting profession across Canada, and removing barriers for Indigenous learners who study accounting here, have taught her a lot, Tucker said in an interview Friday.

“That was really what drove me to apply for this.”

Thomas Giroux

Finding new markets — across an ocean

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s barnstorming trade mission to the European Union has created a ton of discussion and debate about cultivating new trade opportunities for Canadian exporters. What is hasn’t created, however, is very much certainty.

At first blush, opening up new trade relationships with the EU seems like a no-brainer as Canada is confronted with an increasing number of tariffs and restrictions from an increasingly unhinged Trump White House. And the possibilities are tantalizing; the EU and United Kingdom represent a market of more than 519 million people, which is larger than North America.

Canada is one of few nations to push back against Trump’s irrational trade demands. The result is an almost daily escalation of punitive measures and threatening rhetoric. Our trade relationship with the U.S. has been deeply wounded; in short order, it may become fatally so.

However, it is our courage in the face of American trade threats that has made us a coveted trading partner for many European nations. So much so that the EU created an entirely new category of “associate member” to give Canada an incentive to strengthen trading relationships.