Tag: politics

News Politics

Girls Rule

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Queen Elizabeth II is the queen of 54 Commonwealth countries. 16 of these countries are called Commonwealth Realm countries and Canada is one of them.

When Elizabeth steps down or dies, her son, Prince Charles will become King. If he steps down or dies, his first-born son, Prince William will become King–even though Princess Anne is the Queen’s only daughter and is next in age to Prince Charles.

In other words, because she is female, the crown wouldn’t go to Princess Anne.

Since the beginning of the British monarchy, men have been chosen first to become the next ruler.

A woman can only be chosen when there are no men in the monarch’s direct line, (like a brother or a brother’s sons).

That is how Elizabeth became queen. Her father, King George VI, had two daughters and no sons.

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News Politics

Europeans Say No To Spending Cuts

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Two countries in Europe had important elections last weekend – France and Greece. Both elections went against the conservative parties in power.

Experts are saying this could be a sign that more countries in Europe will protest against spending cuts by voting out current governments.

In France a new party and a new president were elected.

Francois Hollande is the head of the Socialist Party, and he was elected president, over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. (Incumbent means “currently in power.”)

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News

Canada The World’s Fifth Happiest Country

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Canada is the fifth happiest country in the world.

That’s according to a World Happiness Report, released earlier this month by the United Nations.

And out of everyone in Canada, people in Quebec are the happiest of all.

Just four countries, all from Europe, beat out Canada. In order, they are Denmark (happiest of all), then Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.

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Entertainment News Politics

Charles And Camilla To Tour Canada

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Last year around this time, a royal couple visited Canada.

Prince William (second in line to the throne of England) had just gotten married to Catherine Middleton and the two spent much of their honeymoon touring Canada.

Next month Canada will get a visit from another royal couple—this time, it’s the father of the groom. Prince Charles is William’s father.

Charles is first in line to the throne. That means that when his mother—Queen Elizabeth—steps down, Charles will become king.

Charles will come to Canada with his second wife, Camilla.

Charles’ first wife was one of the most well-known and popular celebrities in the world, Princess Diana.

(Princess Di, as she was known, was killed in a car crash in 1997. When that happened, millions of people around the world mourned.)

Charles and Camilla will tour New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan from May 20 to 23.

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News

Mayor Rob Ford Has Bizarre Confrontation With Reporter

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Toronto’s mayor is involved in another bizarre situation. This time, mayor Rob Ford, had a confrontation with a reporter from the Toronto Star newspaper.

(You may recall a past TeachingKidsNews article when Mayor Ford was confronted by a CBC comedian on his property, and called the police. Here is a link to that article.)

In this case, the Star found out that Ford intends to buy some property next to his home. Ironically, Ford wants to buy the property in order to erect a security fence.

Star reporter Daniel Dale went to Ford’s home around 7:45 p.m. to look at the property and take some pictures of it.

One of Ford’s neighbours called the mayor and told him someone was snooping around his house.

Ford got very angry. He drove home and confronted the reporter.

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News Politics

Dramatic PC Win In Alberta Confounds The Pollsters

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“They” had predicted that this election would make history in Alberta.

“They” had predicted that the new Wildrose Party would win, and take over from the Progressive Conservatives (PCs), who have held power there since 1971.

“They” were wrong.

“They,” are the pollsters; the people who take polls. They ask people, prior to an election, how they intend to vote and make an educated guess as to who will win an election.

Most of the polls predicted not just a win for the Wildrose Party, but that the Wildrose Party might get a majority as well.

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News Politics Technology

How Much Did Fighter Jets Really Cost?

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In 2010, new F-35 Fighter Jets were ordered by Canada’s Defence Department (the department that oversees the country’s military).The new jets were supposed to cost around $15-billion.

Now, however, the Auditor General of Canada has said that the 65 planes will actually cost $25-billion, $10-billion more than expected. The Auditor General’s office watches over Government spending.

NDP and Liberal MPs (Members of Parliament) have accused the Defence Department (part of the Conservative government in power) of “hiding” the extra $10-billion in their financial reports when the 2011 election was coming up. Some are saying that the Conservatives wanted to keep it secret so people wouldn’t see the real costs and not vote for them.

Now that it is in the open, some MPs have demanded that Canada’s Defence Minister, Peter MacKay, step down from his job.

The Defence Department has explained their position saying that their original estimate did not include many costs such as operations (day-to-day expenses), people to run the project, or a “contingency fund” (in this case, this refers to money set aside for unknown problems in the project). Some of that money was already recorded in other budgets.

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News Politics

Is This The Next President Of The United States?

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The Republicans in the United States likely have their next presidential nominee: Mitt Romney.

Romney is the Republican who will most likely become the party’s nominee for president.

That’s because his closest rival, Rick Santorum, stepped down this week.

The Republicans have been going through a long and intense process of selecting their new nominee.

Romney—who will still have to be officially elected by the party’s members—would replace former president George W. Bush.

Unless something major happens to upset the apple cart, Romney will become the new nominee.

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Breaking News News Politics

Canada’s Plan To Balance Its Budget By 2015

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Last week Canada’s Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, spent $138.98 on a new pair of black dress shoes.

Why? Because he was announcing a new budget.

Flaherty is in charge of presenting Canada’s budget, which is why he bought the new shoes.

It’s a tradition in Canada that the Finance Minister wears new shoes to present the budget.

According to Wikipedia no one really knows why, but it’s something most Canadian Finance Ministers have done since the 1960s. It’s a tradition.

This year, the federal government structured its budget to reduce Canada’s annual deficit to zero by 2015.

A deficit happens when a government spends more than it collects in a year.

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News Politics

Mulcair Elected As Leader Of NDP, Official Opposition

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Thomas Mulcair is the new leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP).

Mulcair was elected, after a gruelling 12 hours of voting, at the NDP’s convention on the weekend.

The NDP is the political party that is Canada’s “official opposition” to the country’s governing party, the Conservatives.

As leader of the federal NDP, Mulcair will also become the leader of the Official Opposition.

The NDP had to elect a new leader after their last leader, Jack Layton, passed away from cancer in August 2011.

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