Politics

News Politics

Toronto Mayor In Another Unusual Situation

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Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, is in the middle of another controversy.

It happened last week. He was on the field with the high school football team he coaches, the Don Bosco Eagles.

The coach of the other team got into a confrontation with the referee.

Police were called in to deal with the situation.

That’s where the situation gets confusing.

The police called the Toronto Transit Commission. Police asked the TTC to send a bus to the field to pick up Ford’s team.

Unfortunately, that meant kicking passengers off two buses—stranding them in the rain—and sending those then-empty buses to the field to pick up the high school football team.

The mayor said when the buses didn’t show up promptly, he called the head of the TTC and left him a message.

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News Politics

Barack Obama Wins Second Term As President Of The United States

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Barack Obama won yesterday’s U.S. election, becoming the President of the United States for the second term in a row.

It was a close and hard-fought election.

In the end, Obama and his Democratic party won about 50 per cent of the popular vote, to rival Mitt Romney’s approximately 49 per cent.

Obama comfortably won the “electoral college” votes he needed to retain his presidency.

By early Wednesday morning, with votes still trickling in, the Democrats had won 300 electoral college votes. Two hundred and seventy were needed (out of 538) to win the election.

Romney had 206 of the electoral college votes.

In the days leading up to the election, opinion polls in the U.S. showed Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama as neck-and-neck.

It wasn’t clear who would win.

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News Politics

Lincoln Alexander Was A Model For Young People

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Lincoln Alexander was the lieutenant-governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991.

He was the first black person to hold that post in the country’s history. He was also Canada’s first black Member of Parliament.

Lincoln Alexander died on Oct. 19, at the age of 90. He was given a state funeral, which is a high honour.

Alexander died in Hamilton, Ont., where he had lived for many years.

Throughout his career, Alexander supported youth leadership and he fought racism.

Alexander, born in 1922, was the child of a railway porter and a maid who came separately to Canada from the Caribbean to find a better life.

Their son, Lincoln, became one of Canada’s most inspiring leaders.

His firsts were many. He was the first black person elected to Canada’s House of Commons and the first black person to be named a lieutenant-governor.

He was the first black partner in a Canadian law firm and first black Minister in the Federal Government.

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News Politics

Dalton McGuinty’s Sudden And Shocking Retirement As Ontario’s Premier

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On Monday night, the Premier of Ontario did something surprising. He quit his job.

It was shocking, because most people didn’t see it coming.

Dalton McGuinty has been the Premier for nine years.

He is also the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, a position he has held for 16 years.

At the same time as he resigned, he also “prorogued” the legislature. That means he stopped all business taking place in the Ontario House of Commons.

Most of the work MPPs were working on has been cancelled until a new session is called.

No one knows exactly why McGuinty quit, and so suddenly.

Some people say he intends to run for leader of the federal Liberal party—in other words, take over the national Liberals so he can run for Prime Minister in the future.

Other people say he quit because his provincial government is in the middle of many difficulties including contract negotiations with some unions.

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News Politics

Romney’s Debate Performance Puts Him Back In The U.S. Presidential Race

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U.S. President Barack Obama has a reputation for being an eloquent speaker.

When he was first elected in 2009, he won the hearts of American voters with his smart, straight talk.

His opponent in the American presidential race this time around is Mitt Romney.

On Wednesday night, the two men who want to be president squared off in a debate.

Each debater spoke for two minutes on topics such as healthcare, the American economy and how they would create new jobs for Americans if they are elected.

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Politics

Canada And UK To Share Office Space

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Canada has hundreds of offices around the world in many different countries.

Recently, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) signed an agreement to share some of their embassies.

The two countries have a “common history and shared values,” Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a press release. He said the new arrangement will help Canada save money on office space and resources. It will also allow Canada to have offices in countries where they don’t already have them.

“Canada will be sharing space, as we do with other trusted countries, to get maximum reach at minimal cost to taxpayers,” said Baird.

Baird’s UK counterpart agreed that the two countries share common interests. The most “pressing international issue on our common agenda” is the situation in Syria, said William Hague, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

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News Politics

Rob Ford’s Problems Follow Him To Chicago

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went to Chicago, Illinois in the U.S. this week.

He went to promote goodwill between the two cities and also to make some business deals. But he couldn’t shake the scandal that he’d left behind in Toronto.

The mayor has been accused of using city staff to help with his personal hobby of coaching football.

He has also been accused of charging the cost of his car and other expenses to the city, even when they are used for football.

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News Politics

A Plan To Help Eurozone Countries In Debt

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Europe’s central bank thinks it has a good plan to help countries like Greece, Spain and Italy. Those countries are struggling because they took on too much debt.

The idea is that the European Central Bank will agree to buy some of the debt.

In return, the troubled countries must agree to spend less money and to put their finances in order.

When countries lend money to other countries, they receive small payments called interest.

When a country borrows too much money, some of the people who lent the money begin to worry that they won’t get their money back. So they demand higher and higher interest payments.

This puts pressure on countries that are already having trouble paying back all the money they borrowed.

It pushes their debt even higher.

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News Politics

Many Ontario Teachers Withdraw From After-School Sports, Clubs

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The kids at many elementary and high schools in Ontario may not be participating in after-school sports or clubs for awhile.

That’s because the teachers who run the programs have been asked by their union to consider stop running them and to stop coaching.

Teachers in Ontario are part of a “labour union.” A union is a group of workers who band together for a common goal.

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Breaking News News Politics

U.S. Embassy In Libya Attacked

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An “ambassador” is a person who represents one country—in another one.

For instance, Canada has ambassadors in many countries around the world. They are high ranking diplomats who represent their country. They typically work from offices called embassies.

The U.S. has many ambassadors stationed around the world, representing the United States.

The U.S. has an embassy in Libya, in Northern Africa.

Libya has been in the news this year because it was part of the Arab Spring, in which some countries’ people protested against corrupt governments.

On Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed.

Facts are still emerging about the incident—about why it happened and what the U.S. reaction to it will be.

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