In the news today: NDP and Liberals prepare for fall sitting, US presidential debate

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

NDP MPs to talk Parliament strategy

New Democrat MPs are heading into a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.

Leader Jagmeet Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say today about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.

The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party had left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals.

Singh is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.

With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.

Liberals put up united front ahead of fall sitting

Liberal MPs will have one last chance to tell their leader how they think their party can improve their political prospects before they return to Ottawa to face off against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons.

The three-day retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., was the first chance for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s team to address him as a group since they lost a long-held Liberal riding in Toronto to Poilievre’s Conservatives.

The loss led to a fractious summer, and the focus of the gathering has been to reunite the party and turn their focus to the Tories.

Despite grumblings before the retreat, Liberals who spoke publicly on the sidelines of the meetings have, so far, expressed positivity about their approach to the coming election year.

Palestinian envoy welcomes Liberal change in tone

The Palestinian ambassador to Canada believes Ottawa has stepped up its efforts for Palestinian sovereignty in recent weeks, but says the Liberals must do more if they’re serious about a two-state solution.

Mona Abuamara has also presented an invitation for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to visit the Gaza Strip, though she admits such a trip is unlikely to happen.

“I still give credit to the prime minister and to Minister Joly for trying to navigate this very difficult situation, domestically and internationally, for Canada,” she said in a recent interview.

“For the past month, I feel that there is this change. There is a conversation. I feel they’re listening and they’re trying.”

Abuamara pointed to recent statements where Canada expressed not just concern but condemnation, such as when Israel’s finance minister suggested last month it would be justified to starve Palestinians.

US presidential debate offers different visions

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump made their case to American voters during a debate in Philadelphia, during which the Democratic vice president and former Republican president laid out different visions for America’s future.

Tuesday’s matchup saw Harris push forcefully against the former president on his record, while also prodding at Trump’s crowd sizes and 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.

While Trump said he thought it was his best debate performance, Harris was ultimately rewarded at the end of the night with an endorsement from pop juggernaut Taylor Swift.

It’s a stark contrast to the first presidential debate in June, where Trump easily dominated an unclear and uneasy performance by Joe Biden, which ultimately led to the president dropping from the race.

Savour the sea — at a distance — at Peggy’s Cove

Japneet Singh, a security patroller at Nova Scotia’s famed Peggy’s Cove — a longtime treasure of Atlantic Canada’s coastline southwest of Halifax — is no stranger to the perils of the sea.

Singh’s summer job is to watch over the black rocks overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, which are routinely slapped violently with salty waves, and covered in slippery algae that can take an unsuspecting visitor by surprise. But despite its dangers, Peggy’s Cove, with its red-and-white lighthouse and sprawling granite terrain, attracts roughly 700,000 visitors each year and is one of Canada’s most photographed sites.

Keeping a watchful eye for visitors who wander too close to the water’s edge, Singh blows his whistle to urge them back onto shore. He is part of a patrol program launched by the province in August 2022, four months after a 23-year-old man was killed after getting swept into the ocean by a wave. Patrollers are on site 12 hours a day, seven days week, from May to January.

Invasive jellyfish clones spreading in B.C. lakes

Sometime more than 30 years ago, a single Chinese peach blossom jellyfish made its way into a lake in British Columbia.

Exactly how it arrived is not clear, researchers say — perhaps it was in aquarium water — but decades later, thousands of genetic clones of the same organism have been spotted in 34 waterways around the province.

Scientists are now trying to understand the impact of the gelatinous invaders, which are about the size of a quarter.

Evgeny Pakhomov, a University of British Columbia biological oceanographer studying the phenomenon, said in an interview that the actual numbers of the jellyfish were unknown, but sightings could increase rapidly in coming years due to a warming climate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024

The Canadian Press