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It’s Thursday, Aug. 27. Here are the top stories we’re following today.

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Trump signs executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America

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Executive Order 14420 calls America “the greatest protector of the Great Lakes,” and states: “The body of water currently known as Lake Ontario is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation’s heritage. With the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume.” Read the story.

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Lutnick claims Canada pulled out of trade talks due to the Quebec election, Alberta referendum

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The U.S. commerce secretary claimed Thursday that Canada’s abrupt exit from trade negotiations last week “was manufactured” to score political points in Quebec and Alberta, where independence debates ring loudest. He also disputed that French language laws were ever part of the talks, asking: “Do I care about how the Québécois speak? I mean, what could matter less to America?” Read the story.

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The one problem with Canada threatening to cut off U.S. electricity

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Since February 2024, there have been seven months when more U.S. power was sent north than vice versa — most recently last December when Canadians bought $330 million worth of U.S. electricity, but sold just $220 million of power in the other direction. “Cutting off electricity to the U.S. would have been a much more dire threat 40 years ago,” explains Tristin Hopper. Read the story.

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Conrad Black: This is an opportunity Carney, don’t squander it

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Given the uneven correlation of economic and other forces between the United States and Canada, this disagreement is bound to produce some inconveniences,” writes Black, “but it could also conclude Canada’s long transition from colony to semi-colonial dominion, to branch-plant middle power, to the G-7, to one of the world’s recognized twelve or so most important countries, distinct, confident, and distinguished.” Read the column.

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I was a cop. My brother is accused of swindling friends and family of nearly $150 million

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“You’re gonna be a cop? Really? A pig? You sure about that,” retired Guelph police detective Julie Meier’s said her elder brother Steve Heimbecker asked her in 2002 when she triumphantly told her family she’d been hired. Just over 20 years later, she was shocked to learn that Steve had been named in more than a dozen Ontario civil court cases, accused of fraudulently using almost $150 million in investors’ funds. Read the story.

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