‘EL NIÑO is being supersized before our eyes,’ United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said last week.

“The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up. The world is in the danger zone of extreme weather.”

He’s right — we are in even deeper trouble than we thought on the climate front.

Zeke Hausfather, a leading American climate scientist, warns that 2027 is almost certain to be the hottest year. It will be, he said, “a climate time-machine, temporarily driving global average temperatures to levels not normally expected until the late 2030s.” (Note the “temporarily.” We’ll get back to that.)

Some years ago, I did some pretty in-depth research on ancient Athens and its democratic system of government as part of a documentary film I was pitching. It was actually a lot of fun, because I was looking at ways their democratic beliefs and practices were both similar to and different from ours.

Some of the differences were quite striking, such as the fact that only Athenian-born males 18 years of age and over could participate. Or the fact their executive branch was selected by a totally random lottery system — a system one expert described as akin to picking names out of a phone book.

Then there was the practice of ostracism, a procedure I found particularly attractive. Essentially, every year the citizens of Athens chose a political figure who was becoming too powerful or pushing for a more authoritarian regime and voted to banish him from the city for 10 years.

Needless to say, I can think of quite a few politicians I’d like to see subjected to that procedure.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m married to a woman who’s older than I am, and it’s the second marriages for both of us. She’s beautiful, even after having what she calls “a few nips and tucks.”

Seriously, it was more than a few.

Her former husband insisted she had to appear a lot younger than him — so ridiculous!

I’ve never seen even one picture of her when she was not wrinkle-free.

The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company has gotten regulatory approval to acquire Ontario-based Everest Insurance Company of Canada.

The deal, first announced in March, is expected to close by the end of 2026. Once complete, Everest Canada will operate as a “distinct entity” within Wawanesa’s group of companies, a news release says.

Everest’s portfolio includes cyber and aviation insurance, among other special commercial insurance products. It will add roughly $305 million in Wawanesa’s annual commercial lines premiums, the Manitoba-based company previously told the Free Press. Details of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

— Free Press staff

BRANDON — The Construction Association of Rural Manitoba has said it will cost as much as 20 per cent more to build a school in Brandon because of the labour policy introduced by the provincial government in 2025.

The regulations include prioritizing union workers when adding extra staff and paying a fee of 85 cents per worker per hour, executive director Shawn Wood said.

“We know from talking to our members: if they’re going to bid on a project, just the additional admin costs and the additional cost of that 85 cents per man hour puts them anywhere from a five to 20 per cent increase in cost,” Wood said.

“I believe the Brandon school will be closer to the 20 per cent.”

OTTAWA - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal Leader Mark Carney are shifting their campaigns to Quebec.

Poilievre, who held a rally in Hamilton on Tuesday night with an estimated crowd of about 4,500 people, is expected at a news conference in Montmagny, Que., around noon and at a rally in Quebec City in the evening.

Carney, who spent the first few days of the campaign in Atlantic Canada, will be in Ontario today, scheduled for an announcement and a facility tour in Windsor, a facility tour in London and a rally in Kitchener.  

The Liberal leader is then set to travel back east, telling reporters Tuesday morning that he would be in Quebec in two days.

OTTAWA - A new poll suggests Canadians are divided about what the key issue is in the federal election. 

The survey, conducted by Leger for The Canadian Press, reports that 36 per cent of respondents say the important question in this election is who is best to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and aggressive U.S. trade actions. 

Another 33 per cent say the key question is who is best suited to change the direction Canada has taken over the last few years and improve life for Canadians.

Twenty-four per cent of respondents say the most important question is who is best to "strengthen and grow" Canada’s economy.

OTTAWA - Both the Liberal and Conservative parties have promised broad tax cuts as they work to win over voters in the early days of the federal election campaign.

Here's a closer look at how those proposals would operate — and who stands to benefit the most from them.

What are they promising?

The Liberals and Conservatives are both offering to reduce the lowest marginal tax rate in Canada, currently set at 15 per cent.

LA MALBAIE, Que. - Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday she's focused on working with Canada's peers to address global challenges as she welcomes her counterparts from the U.S., Europe and Japan to Quebec.

"We must meet the moment," Joly said as she opened the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting. "We should not be daunted by the task."

While she said in her opening remarks to the ministers that American tariffs would be the focus of her closed-door talks, Joly did not mention American economic coercion or U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for Canada's annexation.

Joly spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio individually before opening the G7 foreign ministers' meeting Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON - Canadian officials are set to meet with the U.S. commerce secretary in Washington Thursday — days after a dust-up with U.S. President Donald Trump that ended with Ontario pausing its surcharge on electricity exports to the United States.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are expected to meet with Howard Lutnick.

Ford has said his goal is to get a coherent sense of the Trump administration's plans for tariffs. Ford said he expects to talk about the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement, also called CUSMA, and hopes to speed up a mandatory review of the trade pact set for next year. 

"I want to find out where their bar is set," Ford told reporters Wednesday. "Rather than keep moving the goalpost, I want to find out how quickly you want to move forward and see what their requirements are."

EDMONTON - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, fresh off a weekend visit with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, says if Ottawa uses an energy embargo to combat the incoming administration's promised tariffs, it would spark a "national unity crisis."

"Oil and gas is owned by the provinces, principally Alberta, and we won't stand for that," Smith told reporters in a virtual news conference Monday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly hasn't ruled out an energy embargo in response to Trump's promise to impose punishing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products.

Smith said the federal government shouldn't be making "empty threats," and it's not Joly's call to make. She said cutting off pipeline supplies through Michigan would choke key supply to Ontario and Quebec.