Seven stories in the news for Monday, May 1
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TRUDEAU LIBERALS BACK DOWN ON COMMONS REFORM
The Trudeau government says it's dropping some of its most controversial proposals for reforming the way the House of Commons operates. Those include having the prime minister answer all queries in one question period each week, as Justin Trudeau has already begun doing. The opposition parties had denounced some of the proposed changes as a bid by the Liberals to control the parliamentary agenda and hamstring their efforts to hold the government to account.
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B.C. ELECTION RACE ENTERS HOME STRETCH
The final push for votes is on in the campaign for British Columbia's May 9 election. The leaders of the main political parties hit the hustings yesterday, trying to get out their message and shore up votes. Liberal Leader Christy Clark vowed to protect jobs in resource industries like forestry and mining, while New Democrat Leader John Horgan was pledging to make life more affordable for British Columbians.
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WRIT DROPPED IN NOVA SCOTIA
It's the first full day of the Nova Scotia election campaign. Premier Stephen McNeil called an election on Sunday, defending his government's tough choices as the opposition parties attempted to frame the May 30 vote as a referendum on the Liberals' penny-pinching. At dissolution the Liberals held 34 seats in the 51-seat legislature, the Progressive Conservatives had 10 and the NDP 5. There was one Independent and one seat was vacant.
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2 DEAD AFTER BOAT SINKS OFF VANCOUVER ISLAND
Two people were killed and three others survived when a fishing boat sank off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The 8.5-metre-long catamaran was fishing for halibut near Tofino Sunday afternoon when it issued a distress call and said all aboard were abandoning ship. The vessel went down in the same area where six people died after the whale watching vessel Leviathan II capsized in October 2015.
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BODY OF MISSING HUNTER RECOVERED IN ALBERTA
The body of one of four men who went missing in northeastern Alberta a week ago has been found. The RCMP say the body of Walter Ladouceur of Fort Chipewyan was recovered Sunday from the Rocher River. A search continues for the three other men, who along with Ladouceur, were reported missing on Apr. 24 after leaving on a hunting trip the previous night.
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OILPATCH FEARS COSTS WILL RISE WHEN POT IS LEGAL
Oilpatch CEOs fear their costs will rise when Ottawa passes recently introduced legislation to legalize recreational marijuana. The issue of drug use is closely watched in the industry, where workers tend to be young and hazards include long commutes to and from remote drilling sites, wells that produce poisonous or explosive gas and exposure to heavy machinery. Many oil and gas companies have strict bans on alcohol and drugs at work.
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SMOKING LOUNGES STOKE CONTROVERSY IN DENVER
Despite hundreds of pot dispensaries and licensed grow-ops in Denver, there are very few places residents can actually smoke marijuana outside their own homes. And as Canada prepares to unveil its recreational pot market on July 1st, 2018, advocates south of the border are urging local governments to start thinking now about providing spaces for people to consume a perfectly legal substance.
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The Canadian Press
