Blacklock's Reporter

Everything was political in the 1930s. It was a haunted decade that “almost made me a Communist,” as Alberta Premier William Aberhart put it. Strong, Beautiful and Modern captures the oddest political expression of all, the campaign for physical culture. Archival images of mass synchronized exercises of the Pro-Rec League in the parks of Vancouver bear an unnerving resemblance to parades of bronzed youth so popular in Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia. “Interest in fit, strong and beautiful bodies in the 1930s was not the monopoly of totalitarian and right-wing regimes,” writes historian Charlotte Macdonald. “Was it a modernity of individuality and freedom or of mass conformity and national duty?” Beginning in 1937 with Britain’s Physical Training and Recreation Act and spreading through the “white Dominions” of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, legislators enacted national fitness programs. This is an intriguing story, crisply told. READ MORE

Canadian universities are targets of foreign agents determined to intimidate critics and scout recruits, says an RCMP briefing note. The Mounties did not identify any campus by name but said foreign interference was sophisticated: "Universities can be used as venues for ‘talent spotting.'" READ MORE

An emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday recited comments from elementary schoolchildren he said were worried about an American takeover. Neither Liberal Party aides nor the Georgetown, Ont. school he claimed had forwarded the children’s comments would corroborate the story: "Last week I met a teacher." READ MORE

Any future Conservative cabinet would remove the GST on the purchase of a new light passenger vehicle providing it is Canadian-made, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Costs were not detailed: "This will boost the sale of new Canadian-made cars." READ MORE

Public works should be financed through the sale of consumer savings bonds with a promise of tax-free interest, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singhs said yesterday. Costs were not detailed: "Canadians are saying, ‘I want to do my part.'" READ MORE

Indigenous Canadians do not have an ancestral right to sell marijuana without a license, a Nova Scotia judge has ruled. Provincial Court dismissed the “test case” of a First Nations distributor who invoked treaty rights following his arrest: "This type of offence has become a widespread problem." READ MORE

Prime Minister Mark Carney only weeks before seeking the Liberal leadership lobbied Beijing’s mayor to “deepen co-operation," according to a Chinese account of the meeting disclosed yesterday by The Epoch Times. Carney lobbied as chair of Brookfield Asset Management though cabinet at the time had censured China for unfair trade practices that would "cripple our own industry." READ MORE