When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins, and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncover. Available now. This is a CBC Podcast.
Hello, I'm Neil Kirkshal. Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is As It Happens. Tonight, fourth time's the charm. In a remarkable turnaround, the Liberals secure yet another mandate. Former cabinet minister and re-elected MP Patty Hajdu tells us how the party plans to tackle the big challenges in front of this country. Access denied. A teacher in Nunavik was unable to vote at her polling station yesterday. She tells us that as an Enoch woman, that wasn't just frustrating, it was a betrayal.
CPC TBD, the lone conservative MP elected in Nova Scotia, says his party needs to take some time to figure out what is next. including what to do with a leader who lost his own seat. Party down. One of just seven newly elected NDP MPs tells us the new Democrats will keep fighting for their values, even if they have to do it without official party status.
Should have known when it offered its services probe Bono, it was supposed to go to Venus. But a Russian space probe is about to come hurtling back to Earth. after glitching and spending 53 years orbiting the Earth instead. And screech for the stars. A Danish woman who just clinched the top prize at Europe's preeminent seagull impersonation championships. will treat us to some of her most piercing shrieks. As it happens, the Tuesday edition, radio that's glad she put on her big gull pants.
Who's ready? Who's ready? Who's ready to stand up for Canada with me? Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrating his party's victory last night, and he has a lot to get ready for. While his liberals have secured a fourth mandate, they came up a few seats short of a majority. So he will likely have to govern with the help of other parties. And now a new MP, a new leader and new politician will have to tackle all the challenges facing this country.
Chief among them, a single person, U.S. President Donald Trump. Patty Hajdu is a newly re-elected Liberal MP and a long-time Cabinet Minister. We reached her in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Patty Hajdu, I certainly don't have to tell you about the kinds of challenges that this country and this government is going to be facing. Do you feel that the Liberals and Mark Carney are ready for what lies ahead?
Well, I think we are ready. We are ready for the foreseeable challenges. And I would say that we're quite seasoned and ready for the unforeseeable challenges. And I have served as a liberal cabinet minister for the past nine and a half years. And I can tell you that. Obviously, there are optimistic, forward-looking things that you attempt to achieve as a government and we have been able to achieve over the last
nine and a half years. But I would also say that there are challenges and shocks, economic shocks, social shocks that come. to any government. And I think the seasoned experience that Mark Carney brings to the Liberal Party as the leader of the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister now. as well as the seasoned team, as well as some new incumbents. An incredible experience means that we're quite ready. I'll take that word shock that you used just a moment ago.
With all honesty, if you think back to Patty Hajdu from just a few months ago, was that Patty Hajdu, would she be shocked that you're in this position? Or were you expecting to be an opposition MP today? Well, you know, absolutely. I mean, this is the world of politics. Just when you think you know the story that's being written, things change really dramatically. And I would say that.
You know, prior to the former leader, Justin Trudeau, stepping down, things were not looking too good for the Liberals. But I will also say this, in my own riding, the conversations that I was having with voters that support me as a candidate, as an individual.
People were terrified of what a government led by Pierre Polyev would look like. And that's their words, not mine. Terrified, afraid, horrified. And so, you know, four months ago, it didn't look too good for us, but we selected a new leader. And I think we're in a completely different world today. A lot of the polls, as you know, were predicting a decisive majority for the liberals.
On the issue of divisions in this country, Mark Carney said in that victory speech that he wants to put an end to those divisions and work for everyone. How do you see that playing out given how the numbers have come down in the end? How tricky might it be for the Liberals to govern effectively? Well, I think we'll have to wait to see how things settle out over the next
days and weeks. I think there are a number of ways that the prime minister can reach across the aisle and work with a variety of different either individual members of parliament on issue by issue cases or looking for more formal ways to work with parties that might include. you know, deeper conversations about ranges of ways that we can support each other and the interests of Canadians. I think there are more commonalities among some members of Parliament than you would think.
Usually within every party, there are members of parliament that you can find some common ground. I actually think that's very important work. So I think Mr. Carney's right to speak about how we do that work. And, of course, in a minority government, it becomes all that much more essential in order to continue to govern. I think Canadians have no interest in going back to the polls immediately.
And so that will take all of us working together to make sure that we can craft good law, but also that we are using the resources of Canada to build up our economy and our communities. The to-do list is certainly long and time sensitive. At the top of it, of course, is what you were talking about before, the issue of the United States, Donald Trump's tariffs, the threats to sovereignty.
Mark Carney and the U.S. President agreed to open talks after this vote. We don't know the timeline, of course, but how is Mark Carney going to avoid an escalation or even a full-scale trade war? Well, I think, listen, I think that Mr. Carney has the wisdom and the ability to deal with complex relationships and complex economic shock. And he's demonstrated that.
I can't predict exactly how those conversations are going to go. And, you know, listen, I think that he's already had a series of initial conversations with the president and with other leaders around the world. I will also say this.
I think that he's been very clear that the time has come that we end our over reliance on trade with the United States as the primary solution to our own economic growth and that we do need to diversify our markets across the world and that we do need to ensure that Canadian companies can compete and sell their goods and services to other countries. And so I'm sure that will be a key component of the work that we do together.
There were some successes for the Conservatives. As you know, Patty, I do. They increased their vote share. What would you say to voters who... voted for the Conservatives, wanted a change. They wanted to see Pierre Polyev become the next Prime Minister of Canada and agreed with things that were in the Conservative Party's platform. What would you say to them, to those? and many in Western Canada as well, who feel disconnected from this decision and don't see unification and cooperation.
Well, I mean, listen, this is a hard day for anyone who's been on the losing side of an election. is not easy. It is not straightforward and it's not consensual. And that is a challenge in a democratic system is that every time there's an election, there is winners and losers. There are candidates that put their name forward. There are leaders that, you know, not only lose the election, but in some cases, as Mr. Polyev did, lose their seat.
But what I can say is as a member of parliament and as a minister, having served as a minister, My job is to represent all my constituents. And so although I know that, you know, in my case, 45% of Thunder Bay Superior North didn't vote for me, they voted for another party. I will continue to serve in a way that makes sure that I can meet their needs. That's what keeps our democracy strong. And look, there's another election, possibly.
sooner than four years away. Already? But that's the time to test whether or not Canadians can still support a Liberal government. In the interim, the government and members of Parliament, I believe, have the responsibility to serve all our constituents in a way that respects their dignity and their right to that representation. Patty Hajdu, I appreciate your time. Please take care.
Thank you very much. Take care. Patti Hajdu is a Liberal MP who's held numerous cabinet positions. She's in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Last night did not go as planned for the Conservative Party. Despite some historic gains, the party was not able to fend off the Liberals, most notably in the Ottawa area rioting Pierre Polyev has held for more than 20 years.
He lost in an upset to liberal Bruce Fanjoy. That loss will complicate his return to Ottawa. But in the early hours of this morning, Mr. Polyev wanted to celebrate his party's win. We have much to celebrate tonight. We've gained well over 20 seats. We got the highest share of vote. Our party has received since 1988. We are cognizant of the fact that we didn't quite get over the finish line yet. We know that change is needed. But change is hard to come by. It takes time. It takes work.
And that's why we have to learn the lessons of tonight so that we can have an even better result the next time the Canadians decide the future for the country. Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev speaking early this morning. Chris D'Entremont was re-elected in the newly named riding of Acadianapolis and is the only Conservative MP elected in Nova Scotia. We reached him in Belleville. Christiane Tremont, would you describe last night as a success?
My constituents for our team who worked really hard over the last... 36 days to get our message out overall, you know, for the Nova Scotian members, you know, a couple of good friends with Stephen.
Alice and, of course, Rick Perkins losing their seats makes it a little not quite as fun as I expected the night to be. What do you think your party, and specifically a leader, Pierre Polyev, could and should have done differently to meet that moment when the Trump factor became such an overarching theme in this election. I don't know what else we could have done I mean maybe we could have had
a little quicker reaction to it. You know, it was really on the minds of electors as we were going door to door. We could have had some better, easier messaging. The other thing that could have happened, you know, we didn't get a visit from Pierre until later into the campaign. You know, maybe we should have been on that earlier. that earlier run so that we could sort of solidify and make Nova Scotians understand how important the Atlantic is to us. Pierre Polyev is on track to lose his seat.
He said he would want to stay on. We heard last night in his speech. What would you like to see happen next? Well, I think we need to get back to Ottawa and sit as a caucus and sort of review what went right, what went wrong, understand what
The continued leadership is going to be, you know, quite honestly, it's going to be difficult to question or keep government to account from outside of the House of Commons. Is it going and finding another riding somewhere in Canada and calling a by-election? I don't think that. ran for a year trying to get elected in their area, but that's a discussion I think that we need to have.
as a caucus, as we go back to Ottawa. Were you concerned, or are you concerned now, you know, Mr. Polly, as critics will point out, that that he seemed too thematically aligned with Donald Trump in some of the messaging, some of the language, some of the policies presented during this campaign. Do you expect a shift away from that, a more clear delineation?
I think we still need clear delineation. Absolutely. I mean, but let's not forget, you know, prior to the election, you know, the Liberal Party was running ads against Pierre trying to paint him like Trump. So, you know, I think they were just more effective as getting that message or painting that picture. So we just need to, you know, reset a little bit, go back, lick the wounds a little bit because it's going to take a little bit of time to truly absorb the loss.
but also, like I said, those gains that we did pick up across the country. The Conservatives did take a number of traditionally NDP seats. They broke through the 905 region, which is the suburban areas surrounding Toronto. But it's not just... The Liberal campaign ads, as you said, there's also Conservative provincial leaders, Doug Ford being one of them, Premier of Ontario. What kind of a role... did that lack of an endorsement or even communication
have, do you think? What kind of an impact did that have on your campaign? Yeah, that's a tough one, too, because we've had the same illusion here in Nova Scotia with Premier Houston. But I do need to say, The volunteers, the people in the background, a lot of the MLAs, all work on our campaigns. So I think we do need to do a bit of work there on making sure those partnerships with our provincial partners is there.
We used to be all a... progressive conservative party but there just seems to be always that question of whether we're actually the same kind of conservative and really doesn't matter what kind of conservative you are. And to be specific, Premier Houston released a video just last week. It could be described as a campaign style video. He said, my name is Tim Houston. I'm a Nova Scotian in it. And that was just before Pierre Polyev.
visited your province. But what did you make of that ad? Do you think between Doug Ford and Tim Houston, we're seeing some plays for the leadership federally? I don't think so. I think they're very focused on their provinces and making the country as unified as they possibly can. And maybe the timing of some of these things wasn't perfect. But like I said, we all work together. It just seems at times
Things are being misconstrued by others of what division may be. So when I hear certain pundits say, well, that's this or that's that, I don't put a whole lot of... of faith in what they're saying there. But when a conservative premier doesn't, has a meeting or a lunch with the liberal federal leader at the time, Mark Carney, and doesn't do the same. with with Pierre Polyev that's not a pundit that's I mean
What would you take away from that? I might feel slighted if I was the other candidate. I'm not going to get too much into what happens in Ontario, but I just know what happens here. I spent 17 years as a Progressive Conservative MLA in the legislature, worked directly with Mr. Houston, know many of his team members. We are all the same color of blue, so we just need to figure out a better way.
to message these things that when they're in election mode that we stay out of their hair and that when we're in election mode they should be staying out of our hair or at least very least working on each other's campaigns to make sure. We all succeed. And that's the tricky thing is, you know, whichever party we're talking about, when there is a time of reassessment, potentially rebuilding, you know, the post-mortem on a night like last night.
that that kind of disagreement or infighting potentially can take away the bigger picture of what you say you're trying to do. So how are you bracing for that and the return to Ottawa under these conditions? Well, under these conditions now, it's going to be, again, to try to find those partnerships. I mean, the issues here are a little different than what maybe many of the areas across the country, but we are.
sort of in a discussion around primary resources. Our lobster fishery is being affected dramatically. So we need to try to pull a number of... I would say, smart people together to try to figure out what that challenge is going to be. That's the kind of thing that I take out of this. this vote split and this division that we've seen amongst the parties that we really should be working together on some issues. And I know in my area, that common issue is the fishery.
Chris D'Entremont, thank you very much for your time. Please take care. Have a lovely evening. Chris D'Entremont was re-elected as the Conservative MP for Acadie Annapolis. We reached him in Belleville, Nova Scotia. It's been a difficult 24 hours for the New Democrats. Last night's Liberal victory came in large part at the expense of the NDP. And speaking to volunteers in Burnaby, an emotional Jagmeet Singh was forced to concede not just the party leadership, but also his own seat in Parliament.
I often speak about something my mom taught me. It's a Sikh teaching of chardikala. And this is something fundamental to who I am. And it means the words break down. Chardikala means rising and kala means spirit. And it's something that is, it captures a big part of who I am. And it's the idea that in the fight for justice, in the fight for fairness, in the fight that we fight.
We want to have optimism in the face of struggle. We want to have a defiant optimism. It's like this eternal resilience. And this is the spirit that I carry tonight. Outgoing NDP leader and MP Jagmeet Singh, an optimist even in the face of an election that saw the new Democrats lose official party status and be reduced from 24 seats to just seven. Heather McPherson won one of those seats. She is the newly reelected NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona, and that's where we reached her.
Heather McPherson, I know people are congratulating you. How is that word congratulations sitting with you today? Well, you know, it's very hard today. It was hard to see so many of my excellent colleagues not get re-elected. I think of Blake Desjardins in Edmonton. Matthew Green, some of my colleagues across the country that weren't re-elected, and it's hard. The polls were signaling this. Former leader, Tom Mulcair,
you and others will remember, wrote an op-ed for Bloomberg News back in March and said, quote, if you can't seriously say you're going to form a government that can take on Trump, then get out of the way, unquote. Do you think ultimately? that the NDP should have gotten out of the way here. No, absolutely not. Canadians don't want an American-style two-party system.
Our democracy is stronger and better when we have a strong NDP. You know, the fact that the NDP... hold the government accountable, make sure that the government of the day delivers on the promises that they make to Canadians. You know, you just have to look at our last parliament where we were able to get dental care for Canadians. There is a real reason why it's... so important for our democracy, so important for our country, that we don't devolve into a two-party system.
You know, it's divisive that way. It doesn't help Canadians. It doesn't build cohesive cooperation. It just echoes what we see in the United States, and I don't think Canadians want that here. So to what do you attribute the result? And the results for your party then? I mean, it's... Like I said, it was a disappointing result for us, but I do want to say as well that there's a number of things that I think happened.
This was an election of fear. Canadians were voting because they were afraid. And I understand that. And what Donald Trump is doing in the United States is... frightening for so many of us. And so I think people were voting out of fear and they were saying, well, we've got to do this to stop these guys. And I think that's not a great way for a democracy to go forward. You know, you want people to be voting for the representative.
that is strongest to match their values, to fight for them at every table. And I think we need to look at our electoral system. You look at me as the sole new Democrat in Alberta. Despite the fact that, you know, a huge percentage of Albertans voted for a progressive representative and they don't.
They get a huge swath of blue in this province. What do you think your party, and specifically your party's soon-to-be former leader Jagmeet Singh, could and should have done differently to seize on this moment and convince more voters? that he could be a better alternative. So first of all, I just want to say I think that history will remember Jagmeet Singh as...
As bringing forward the biggest expansion of our healthcare system in a generation, and I am so proud of what he was able to achieve, so proud of what the NDP were able to achieve. And I know that Jagmeet has always put Canadians first. He's always put the native Canadians. You know, very easily, we could have brought the government down in October.
But we wouldn't have had a pharmacare framework. We wouldn't have had dental care. All of these programs that we fought so hard for for Canadians wouldn't have been in place. And Pierre Polyev had said he would cut them. So, you know, we could have done some political shenanigans, absolutely. But that's not why New Democrats are in Ottawa. But during the campaign, what do you think the party or Jagmeet Singh did not do?
I completely understand all of the other forces at play. They're impossible to ignore, certainly, but there has to be some assessment and post-mortem discussion, right? And I think absolutely there needs to be a discussion about what the campaign could have done or should have done differently. I think a lot of this was out of our hands because of what the ballot box question was, but I will also say it's been...
It's been less than a day. And for me, right now, I'm grieving the loss of some really remarkable members of parliament. In the long run, I think that new Democrats will come back. We always do. We'll keep fighting. You know, you don't become a new Democrat in Alberta.
Because you wanted the easy way. So I'm good at fighting. I'm happy to keep fighting for my constituency and for Canadians. And I know that the other six members of Parliament that are going to Ottawa with me are, you know, they're some of the fiercest.
allies Canadians have in this country and so Yeah, I'm looking forward to working with all of them, with all six and myself, to make sure that things get done and making sure that the Liberals follow through on a whole bunch of the promises that they made to Canadians. In these difficult moments for you and your party, I know it's early, as you said, so I suspect I might know the answer, but when you spoke with The Current this morning and my colleague Matt Galloway,
you said you hadn't thought about taking on, you know, the party leadership in general or whether you would even consider it. Has that changed throughout this day? I think you know the answer. And frankly, you know, Gmeet has been, he's been such a
such a mentor for many of us. He's the only leader that I've ever had as a member of Parliament. And I want to make sure that everybody's talking to each other, that we're sitting down as a caucus, that we're having some conversations about what the future looks like for... for the NDP and we'll make decisions like we always do together. What will you be looking for? You know, it's how to use the voices of seven MPs to continue this fight. We've got far less resources now. We've got far less.
people on that bench. And so we have to find ways to continue to fight for Canadians. We've got to find ways to be heard, to make sure that people are being protected and being taken care of, and that's going to be different. So we're going to have those conversations and see what that all looks like as we go forward.
Heather McPherson, I appreciate your time. Take care. Thank you so much. You have a wonderful day. Heather McPherson is the newly reelected NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona. We reached her in Edmonton. We are going to take a short break now. When we return, an Inuk woman in Nunavik, Kayla Miko, tells us about the scramble to get to her polling station. When word spread, they would be closing several hours early. She tells us the reasons being offered by officials don't add up.
and that they shouldn't have cost her and others the chance to have their say in this election. And keep on squawking in the free world. Prepare to be blown away by the winning cries of the fifth annual European Gull Screeching Championship. Stay tuned. I'm Neil Coexall. And I'm Chris Howden. In the fall of 2001, while Americans were still grappling with the horror of September 11th,
started showing up at media outlets and government buildings filled with a white, lethal powder. Anthrax. But what's strange is if you ask people now what happened with that story, almost no one knows. It's like the whole thing just disappeared. Who mailed those letters? Do you know? From Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, and CBC Podcasts, this is Aftermath, the hunt for the anthrax killer. Available now.
Geographically, it's Quebec's largest riding. And on the election results map today, it's a gigantic patch of red. Mandy Golmasty, the former Grand Chief of the Cree Nation government in Quebec, has taken the riding of Abitibi-Bay-James-Nunavik-EU from the Bloc Québécois.
But even before the results came in, one thing was clear. Not everyone who wanted to have a say in that race did. Voters in multiple villages in Nunavik have told the CBC about problems at their polling stations, including early closures.
Elections Canada told us today that it's, quote, closely examining what happened and we'll have more information when we're able to gather more facts, unquote. Kayla Miko says she's made a complaint to Elections Canada following her experience yesterday. She's in Huacta.
Kayla, for many people right across the country, today is about taking stock at the end results of the democratic process. You were not able to engage in that process and vote yesterday as you had planned. So how are you feeling today? It's really disappointing, honestly. Yesterday was a really frustrating day for me, and not only me and a lot of the people here in our community. So today I'm trying to make time to talk about it and to put it out there so that other people can...
And hopefully prevent it from happening in future elections. If we go back to yesterday, walk us through what your original voting plan was. I work as a grade 3-4 teacher here at Hope. But I'm also the president of the board of directors for our local daycare. And as a board, we had to make a decision about when to close to give three consecutive hours for our employees to go vote. So the center director of the daycare was informing us that our local polling station would close at 6.30.
So we were making the decision that our daycare would close at 3.30. So I went on with my day. I was also thinking I have to go vote myself. And I received a call around 1.30 p.m. from my center director telling me that the electoral officers were leaving at 2.30. The reason that they gave us... was that they had to take their airplane earlier because the weather was going to get bad.
That's the first inkling you had that things were not going, at least as scheduled. You did go to vote. And then what happened? From that call, I asked my bosses here at work if I can go vote because they were closing early and they agreed to let me go. So I went to the polling station. And I was informed that they were leaving at 2.30.
I tried to vote, but I wasn't able to. I gave them my identification. I gave them my IDs, everything, all my information that they needed. And my name was not on the list. So that would have been a problem that could have been solved if they had taken the time to stay here until at least 6.30, like they said before. Well, I mean, people get registered. Even the line I was in, in early voting, there was a gentleman in front of me who went to get registered. You can get registered.
registered and put on the list at your polling station. It just takes a few minutes. Yeah, correct. The problem is that they had to leave. They kind of just pushed me to the side and kept going with the line. At the time that I went there, I guess a lot of people were hearing that they were leaving early. So they rushed to go to the polling station, and there was a line of about a dozen to 15, 20 people there. And all those people that were in line were refused to vote because they had to leave.
And while I was there, I asked the officers for their supervisor's name and their number so I can file a complaint. And I called him right away. And he told me a couple things. First of all, our whole conversation was in French, and luckily I do speak in French. So I was able to tell him what was happening, what the situation was. The first thing he told me was that there was no accommodation in town. for those electoral officers. which I know for a fact is not true.
And I say this because we have three hotels here. And then he mentioned also that they tried to do recruitment locally for someone local to be doing the polling station, to run the polling station. People usually volunteer in their neighborhood. Very, very much so.
I talked to a few people that usually do it, and they told me I was waiting and waiting for someone or for news or for recruitment so that I could... participate and run the polling station like I usually do in the past years, but there was never anything. So I was very frustrated with that supervisor. And I asked him, do you understand that today I lost my legal right to vote? And just to repeat, you voted before without any issue in previous elections. Yes, correct. I've never had a problem.
So that one would take from that that Elections Canada is aware of... the terrain and the weather and the needs in your riding and in the region. As our listeners heard in the introduction, we did reach out to Elections Canada. They say they're looking into it. It's citing, as you have said, weather and difficulty recruiting local teams. Clearly that didn't sit well with you then.
Another voter spoke to CBC News, Mary Papigatuk in Salewit, and said, quote, we as Inuit have had non-Inuit using us for show, but then when it's actually time for us to be involved, we're not involved, unquote. How does what you experienced yesterday make you feel? Well, very angry. I've been angry since it happened yesterday. In my viewpoint, it's illegal. We have the right to vote.
And it's such an important thing for us to vote because we're putting our lives in their hands in a way that we usually cannot. We're choosing people to have a voice for us. And if we cannot even vote for that, it's putting us in so much risk. in our lives. That's what I think personally. Also, as an Inuk woman, I think it's very, very important for me to vote. Women have not had the right to vote for a long time.
And for me to be able to vote, I think it's very important. I make a big deal out of it because it's the one way we can choose. how our lives will go, how the quality of our lives will be. Kayla, I really appreciate your time. Thank you for this. No problem. Kayla Miko teaches grades three and four and is also the president of the board of directors at the Huaktuk daycare. We reached her in Huaktuk, Nunavik.
The room is dimly lit but for a single beam of light, illuminating you and your kazoo. You take a tremulous breath and start playing the Oasis classic Wonderwall, blasting it out with such force that you nearly hyperventilate. Open mic nights can be scary. Putting yourself out there in front of a live audience worried you may look silly or your voice might be a little pitchy.
But for Ana Brino, embracing the uncertainty and pushing through those concerns was kind of the point, because this open mic was the big time. This was the European gull-screeching championship. The event took place this past weekend. Crowds packed into a Belgian pub and offered up their best impressions of the winged warriors. Ms. Brinald was there competing for Denmark and becoming the pride of a nation by taking home the gold.
We reached Anna Brinal in Sulrudstrand, Denmark. Anna, let's hear it. Let's hear your award-winning screech. Are you ready? I'm ready. Yeah. I can hear why you won. Did you feel in that moment as soon as you performed at the competition, you know, anyone who's competed knows at any level, you feel like I nailed it. I did it. Did you feel like you were going to win? I had a feeling that I was going to win, but actually right after I was a bit disappointed. I felt I could have done it better.
But I was also a big sick. So that hampered your performance a little bit. What do you think you could have done better? That sounded pretty great to me. I think next year, if I participate next year, I'll be even better. What do you want to do differently? First of all, not be sick. And I think I will need some more feathers. more feathers this is because you had a costume is is a costume required or it's is it a choice
You get points from 1 to 100, and 25% of the points are you getting on the costume. 75 for the screech. How did you describe your costume for our listeners? Yeah, it was ball cap, white ball cap. and a lot of white feathers. I made the wings myself, so I took a lot of feathers and glued them on some fairy wings. And I found some black feathers in the nature. Real feathers, okay. How long did it take you to make? Between one or two days. Worth it?
At the competition, you're up against 21 people, if I'm not mistaken. What did you think of the other competitors? They were so nice. And there were people from Finland and Norway and almost everywhere in Europe. And it was so refreshing to me. so many people that just like seagulls like me what what makes you love seagulls so much and so much that you want to be one for this competition I like that the seagulls like fries because I love fries. And they're just a bit misunderstood. Like me.
But you had a deeper reason for wanting to do this when you started up two years ago. Yeah, I started making seagull sounds because two years or two and a half years ago, I lost my best friend. I'm sorry. One of my good friends, he died. And I got an existential crisis. I couldn't see the meaning in life and... Then I remembered, that's the beautiful! If there isn't any meaning in life, that means I can do
Literally everything I want, I can make single sound because I don't care. I can be there tomorrow. I just want to do what's fun and not think about what other people think about me. What other fun things have you been doing? I have been doing everything. I worked at a place where I was a singing waiter. And I meant tartelletter. That's a Danish food tartelletter. What is it? Yeah, it's really hard to describe just a Danish eating thing. Hønsekød and flød. Is it a vegetable dish? Is it a pastry?
No, actually, it can be anything, but you eat it for... It's not seagull meat. Yeah. It's not seagull. No, no, not seagull. We go back to the competition, Anna. What kind of training did you have to do to be prepared to win? I have been singing my whole life, so I just worked harder at singing and bringing my pitch so high I could. And I worked with the seagulls. I went to the beach and I looked at many seagulls and I thought they looked nice and I screeched at them. they became scared of me.
Then you felt bad because you liked them. Yeah, maybe I'm saying something wrong in Siegel language. I don't know. There are different categories at this competition, including for young people. One of the other competitors, a 10-year-old named Cooper Wallace, caught the attention of our team as well. Cooper won the kids category last year. won that same category this year. What do you think of the next generation of seagull screechers?
I think he's much better at speaking English than me. Yeah. But does that mean you're a better screecher? Maybe. I got more points than him, so. I love it. Throwing shade at a 10-year-old competitor. I love it. There's a little seagull. There's an actual seagull fight in you, Anna.
Cuba is actually very nice. And I tried to say congratulations to him, but I think my English was so bad that he couldn't understand me. Are you committed to doing the competition next year? What will help you decide whether to go ahead with it? I really want to, but it was very expensive traveling and hotel and food and everything.
And I work as a Danish influencer and you don't, believe it or not, you don't get paid that much as a Danish influencer. So I think if I have the money, I'll go again. Well, congratulations on this win, Anna. I'm glad we could speak. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Anna Brinal was the gold medalist of the 2025 European Gull Screeching Championship, which was held on Sunday in Belgium. We reached her in Sulrudstrand, Denmark.
Listen, we know there's a lot going on right now. Things have maybe been a little stressful. So if screeching like a seagull into your phone is going to help take the edge off, We invite you to do just that. Send us your best Seagull impressions by calling our talk back line 416-205-5687 or send that screech in a voice note to AIH at cbc.ca. Space, the final frontier.
This is the voyage of the Russian spacecraft Cosmos 482, its 53-year mission to go to Venus, to seek out the planet Venus, to boldly go all the way to Venus and nowhere else. Imagine how excited Cosmos 482 must have been when it was assigned that job. You're going to Venus, little buddy, the Soviet scientists told it. Send back tons of information, Kay.
And so on March 31st, 1972, the small probe was launched. Don't forget to go to Venus. The scientists shouted in Russian, waving at it with handkerchiefs. And the probe thought, I won't let you down. Cosmos 4A2 is scheduled to land sometime in early May. And imagine its surprise when its long journey ends and it finally smashes into the planetary surface and creatures approach it. I made it to Venus, Cosmos 482 will think. Here come the Venusians.
This that busted Soviet probe, one will say. Yep, another will say. It malfunctioned. Instead of going to Venus like it was supposed to, it's just been orbiting the Earth for 53 years. Now it's crashed here on Earth again. What a pile of junk. Suddenly, Cosmos 482 realizes why every planet it passed had something that looked like the Great Wall of China on it. That was the Great Wall of China.
No wonder it's been so dizzy for 53 years. It was never on its way to Venus at all. It's just been going around and around the Earth. And now it's tumbled ignominiously back to the planet it was supposed to have left. So in May, when Cosmos 482 returns home after plunging through our atmosphere, let's try to be nice to it. It's bound to be embarrassed. But let's be understanding. It just got stuck in a non-Venus flying trap.
Today, Canadians are preparing for another liberal government. But even if that's staying the same, across the country, a lot has changed. As you've been hearing in the Ottawa area riding of Carleton, for example, incumbent candidate and conservative leader Pierre Polyev lost his seat to liberal Bruce Fanjoy, who didn't just beat Mr. Polyev, he beat 89 other candidates too.
many of whom were protest candidates who threw their hats in the ring as part of a campaign to draw attention to the issue of electoral reform. They did that with the support of the longest ballot committee. Mark Muter was one of those dozens of candidates. We reached him in Montreal earlier today. Mark, is this the result you were hoping for? Frankly, I am very optimistic about this. I think that we did pretty well in Carlton.
We saw record turnout, much higher than the national average. And we saw a record amount of people discussing electoral reform. So I frankly believe that we succeeded. There might be a group of people who are blaming you for having to deal with those ballots, not just mark them, but work with them, those election workers. Are you willing to accept the blame for the tough times they might have had yesterday?
You know, we were blamed for this. People said that we would be the reason for the election going late into the night. But the irony is that we are not. Carleton's counting went very smoothly compared to some other writings. And even today, we still have Terrebonne, Terre Nova, which have really slight vote margins. And ironically, the reason that we're still waiting for results from the election is that we still have first-past-the-post, which is what we're fighting against.
Physically speaking, I've seen this ballot, this very, very long ballot. Describe how big it is for our listeners. I'd say it's about a meter long. We have 91 people on the ballot. This was an election that people talked about being an existential or the most important election in a generation for some people. Was this the right moment to do something like this?
I'd argue that it is. I mean, it's never a better time than to actually better represent what the people want and our current system does not. This is evident from yesterday's election results, where we have the NDP and the Bloc that share the same amount of votes, and yet there's a very large discrepancy in their seat count.
And I think that if we want to have a country that is able to actually stand up on the world stage, if we want to be honest with ourselves, if we want to have the people have confidence in our democracy, we need to improve our system. What do you actually think would have been different today if we had a different system in place? I think that it would better represent what people want.
And in the end of the day, it would allow for more discourse. It would allow for more conversation in the House of Commons and for less situations in which you have one party that dominates politics for the longest time. The longest ballot committee chose to do this, as we were saying, in Pierre Polyev's writing. Why not do it somewhere else? Maybe Liberal leader Mark Carney's writing.
This was actually the original plan, and we initially planned on doing this in both Indian and in Carleton. However, Mark Carney announced the elections in a really short amount of time. So we barely had enough time to gather signatures in Carleton, and by the time we got started on Nepean, there was an ice storm.
So things were just not looking good for gathering signatures in Nepean, and we stopped short of 60 candidates, I believe. So we figured we're going to stick to 91 in one of them and actually keep it the longest ballot. Elections Canada has warned that this kind of situation can lead to delays. I hear what you were saying, what you said a moment ago, that you don't believe that it was a problem in this case. But do you think that...
You know, in a time we saw a great turnout, you know, for advanced voting, and we'll see what the final tally is for voting yesterday. In a time where voter apathy is certainly a reality, people feel disenfranchised, disengaged, you think people might just be turned off by this and annoyed? It makes the process harder for them.
I'd like to say that long ballots are not exclusive to Canada and a lot of other countries like Australia and a lot of European countries. Typical ballots are much longer. So people can very much get used to having longer ballots, and those countries have very high voter participation. So I think with time, we should be able to get our voters used to having longer ballots.
And this should actually lead to people realizing how first-past-the-post is not an optimal system. There were also concerns about accessibility for people with disabilities. What would you say to their concerns? Elections Canada has plenty of accessibility measures for long ballots. Already there's large print versions available for everybody. There's braille versions available for everybody.
And I'd like to say when I was there last year in West Alomar for Dunn, which is the last time the longest ballot pulled this. That's in Montreal? I was there. Exactly. Yeah. I was at the polling stations and the whole process was very smooth.
There were very little accessibility complaints from people because Elections Canada, I'd like to say, did a really good job with planning everything, with training the workers. So if other countries can do it, so can we. One of the things That I recall Justin Trudeau saying that he regretted before he stepped down was that he wasn't able to make inroads on electoral reform as he had promised.
Do you think though, given the moment we're in, what this incoming government is going to be dealing with, specifically in the United States, that this is going to be anywhere near the top of the list?
I don't think it'll be anywhere near the top of the list, which is completely natural. People have other priorities, and we're not living through easy times right now. But I do think that with a minority government right now, with the liberals in charge, they're going to have more of a motivation to actually do something about this. So I do think that this is going to push our government to actually improve the system. I don't know how quick it's going to be, but I do have the hope.
You're 19 years old. You've been on two ballots already, albeit as a protest. Are you planning a political career? I don't think so. Being a career politician is definitely not on my list of priorities. And I think that that's for the best. I like seeing people engage in things they're passionate about and seeing the perspectives of people who are specialists in different areas.
and who aren't career politicians all the time. And I think that's what makes society so great, where you have competent people discussing things and actually getting into politics from their areas of perspective. Mark, I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mark Muter is one of the 91 candidates who ran in the Ottawa area riding of Carlton. We reached him earlier today in Montreal.
Canada is in the midst of its worst measles outbreak in decades, but you wouldn't know it by the response from public health. That's the argument Andre Picard makes in a new and scathing op-ed in the Globe and Mail. According to the veteran health journalist, public health officials have stayed relatively silent despite the severity of the outbreak.
And as Ontario logs more measles cases than the entirety of the United States, that has him especially concerned. We reach Mr. Picard in transit on Highway 401. Andre, you certainly do not mince words in your column about this. What was the point you felt that you had to write it and say what you said? You know, this is the worst outbreak of preventable childhood illness in three decades.
a big deal. It really threatens to get much worse, especially in Ontario and Alberta where we see cases climbing. So we shouldn't just be sitting on our hands. We should be very proactive about this. This is a preventable illness. There's no excuse for not doing something. Officials have given interviews about what is happening. We certainly had Dr. Sarah Wilson, a public health physician from Public Health Ontario on our show.
and others have done this as well, urging parents to vaccinate their children. They're sharing the updated numbers regularly. You clearly feel that that is not enough. What should they be doing instead? Yeah, you know, just counting the cases is not enough. We have to be preventing them. So I think there's been suggestions from other quarters, from politicians, from other provinces.
what do we need to do regular briefings beyond the numbers explain where they're happening why do catch-up clinics not only in the regions where there's an outbreak but elsewhere to make sure it doesn't spray but we can do more education you know we know there's challenges about getting people to vaccinate. Some of this has to do with COVID, people's attitudes changing.
So there should be a full suite of things going on. We shouldn't just be sitting back and saying, well, it's only in one community. This will pass. We're not sure it'll pass. Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, when you talk about communities, was suggesting previously that this outbreak is largely limited to Mennonite.
communities in the province and that local health units are on top of things and handling it. That concerned you specifically as well? Well, yeah, we know that it started in the Mennonite community and we know the origins of the outbreak. A thousand people, are they all Mennonite? That's highly unlikely. The Mennonite are not a closed off community to a great extent. They interact with a lot of people.
We have some data on where the transmission may have occurred, but that data is also suspect. It kind of says in the doctor's office. Well, clearly people had it before they got there. So is it happening in schools? Is it happening in community centers? People have to be informed to be able to protect themselves. One would imagine and I think hope that public health officials and doctors want to make sure people in their provinces and areas stay.
So why do you think there is this, as you put it, quote, indifference? and inaction. But I think there's a reluctance to engage. You know, the public health took a beating during COVID. They're very sensitive about their reputation, about people reacting to public health in a bad way. But I think they've retreated too much.
I think there's also this notion of, you know, we don't want to single out a community, although there's mixed messaging on that. We say, well, it's generally, and then we say it's just Mennonites. But I think this reluctance to just... say what's going on in plain term. You also in your column talk about the law in Ontario that allows parents with, quote, religious and philosophical objections.
to opt out of vaccinating their children. And you've described this as indefensible. Do you think that anything will change in terms of that law? Why shouldn't people have the right to refuse based on those grounds? You know, you have the right as an adult, you can refuse. Vaccination, as you wish, you're subject to the consequences. If you work in healthcare, you may not be able to work. That's all sensible.
But you know, you can't be sending unvaccinated kids to school, especially during an outbreak. That's just a recipe for disaster. At the very least, we should be excluding. children who are not vaccinated. Do we have that data? Are we acting on it? This is all the kind of information we're just not being shared with. Earlier this month, you were mentioning Alberta. Alberta's government let the contract of its chief medical officer expire.
Measles cases are continuing to be reported there. The new interim chief medical officer has not publicly spoken about the outbreak yet. What does all of that, if anything, what kind of message does that send? Well, I think in Alberta, it's fair to say there's a hostility towards public health again. tied to COVID. You know, if you've had an interim chief medical health officer for three years, I don't think you're too serious about public health.
They have to have a person in that job. They have to have power. You know, the new interim chief has been replaced by another interim chief. He has, I believe, three other jobs. He's not dedicating a lot of time to public health. This is just not being taken seriously. They have even less data. We have less information on where it's spreading. You talk about the financial cost of measles and its spread. What is Canada spending on treatment?
and tracing versus prevention? We don't have that data. We don't really research it, but we have some U.S. data that suggests that Each measles case can cost between 30 and $50,000. Now, the reason is because it's very highly spreadable. So if we know, for example, a child was on the VIA train who has measles, you have to track down everybody who was on that train car. try and figure out if they're infected, urge them to get tested, ask them if anybody else is sick.
This is really grunt work. It takes a lot of time. And again, prevention is much cheaper. You know, if you are on a train and they contact you and says somebody was infected on that train, you say, well, my kid's vaccinated. And they'll go, good. they're probably fine. I know a lot of people who are listening, wherever they're listening from, all of this might worry them, whether they have little ones or not. Based on your reporting and what you know, Andre, do you have any advice?
for those who are worried? Well, you know, we really should make sure that our kids are vaccinated. Measles is probably the most infectious disease in the world. It's particularly dangerous for kids under the age of one, for pregnant women, kids under the age of one. generally don't get vaccinated. We only start at one, although now when there's an outbreak, you do it a little earlier. But it's the most vulnerable in society who are most vulnerable to this illness.
to me that's all the more reason to to really pull out all the stops that the people are going to suffer or not people who are healthy adults. their children, their pregnant women who are going to lose their babies. This is a serious business. What do you think will be the moment, if at all, that you might see a change from?
public health officials to bring things to where you think they should be? I don't know. I just hope they'll start speaking more openly and regularly about this. You don't get the general public to understand the severity of this. We shouldn't wait until the outbreak is in your community to vaccinate. We have catch-up vaccination clinics in Ontario, but they're not being done in the regions where there's no infection.
That's not very forward thinking. There's a hospital in Thunder Bay that started screening people going into the hospital. That's smart, proactive public health work. But that's being done on a local initiative to make sure, you know, they don't have any cases that we know of, but they're saying we don't want any and we certainly don't want them in a hospital where it can actually kill someone quite quickly. Andre, I appreciate this. Thank you. Thank you. A pleasure.
Andre Picard is a health reporter and columnist with The Globe and Mail. We contacted Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, for comment. A spokesperson for the Minister of Health said in a statement, quote, Our government and Dr. Moore have been very clear in our message to people across the province. Vaccination is the most effective way to limit the spread of measles, including protecting children in schools
Children who are fully vaccinated with two doses are nearly 100% protected. Currently over 96% of cases in Ontario are among unvaccinated individuals, unquote. You've been listening to the As It Happens podcast. Our show can be heard Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 after your world tonight. And you can, of course, also listen to our show online at cbc.ca slash AIA. or on the CBC Listen app, or of course wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Neel Kirkshal. And I'm Chris Howden.
For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcast.