The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/02/15 at 19:00 EST

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/02/15 at 19:00 EST

In Scarborough, there's this fire behind our eyes. A passion in our bellies. It's in the hearts of our neighbors. The eyes of our nurses. And the hands of our doctors. It's what makes Scarborough, Scarborough. In our hospitals, we do more than anyone thought possible. We've less than anyone could imagine.

But it's time to imagine what we can do with more. Join Scarborough Health Network and together, we can turn grit into greatness. Donate at lovescarborough.ca. From CBC News, The World is Sour, I'm Julianne Hazelwood. The Conservative Party organized a rally to mark Flag Day and the 60th anniversary of the first time the red maple leaf flew over Parliament Hill.

But leader Pierre Paliyev also used the event to target US President Donald Trump and his threats and attack one of the frontrunners in the Liberal leadership race. Kit McKenna was at the rally. Well he says that if Donald Trump does go ahead with a blanket tariff on Canadian goods in early March then Canada needs to respond strongly, show them our strength, show them our leverage. Dollar for dollar retaliatory tariffs is what he proposed, but he also proposed a sort of diplomatic mission as well, trying to convince Americans that actually this is going to make life more expensive for both countries, it's going to make life harder for workers in both countries. Now, those two messages are sort of similar to

what we've seen from the Liberals on this issue, but he also outlined a number of other things that he would do to increase Canada's nationalism at home. For instance, having more people and more students going into French immersion, increasing, growing the cadet program and the Rangers program in the north. Kate McGenna reporting from Ottawa. A 23-year-old man has stabbed six people in southern Austria today. A 14-year-old was killed and the others were wounded and what police are calling a random attack. Police also say a food delivery driver intervened,

driving his car toward the attacker, preventing the situation from getting worse. The suspect is in custody. Police say he is a Syrian. The suspect is in custody. Police say he is a Syrian national with legal residence in Austria. The head of Vancouver's Electric Vehicle Association says many Tesla drivers feel they're perceived as being associated with owner and billionaire Elon Musk and by extension Donald Trump. And a handful of North American dealerships have been vandalized.

John Hernandez reports. Bob Porter has been driving his Tesla for seven years, but lately he feels like there's a target on his back. You are conscious that you're driving a Tesla and people see you and you do worry about will there be any repercussions. Porter is the president of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association. He says many members are put off by Tesla CEO Elon Musk's association with Donald Trump, especially as the White House targets Canada with tariffs and vague threats of annexation.

He wants people to know that for most drivers, getting behind the wheel of a Tesla isn't a political statement. Motions are running high. So of course people are looking at Tesla owners like we are all part of this club and it's not true. Porter says he thinks the brand has taken a hit in recent months. The Vancouver Police Department says it's investigating after a Tesla dealership was vandalized last week. John Hernandez, CBC News, Vancouver.

Nearly 3,000 tickets were handed out on Thursday for violating the City of Ottawa's daytime winter parking ban. It makes it easier for city crews to clear roads when there are no parked cars. City Councillor Marty Carr says she's hearing from people upset at being ticketed, but she says it's important for people to follow the ban. We have deployed every single resource across the city, every resource that's available, whether it's a city employee or a contracted employee, to be able to get that transportation network cleared as quickly as possible so that the streets are safe. Carr says another parking ban will likely come into effect Sunday because Ottawa is

expecting another storm dumping about 30 centimeters of snow. The federal government's holiday tax break on certain goods comes to an end at midnight. Then the GST and HST will resume on certain groceries, restaurant meals, gifts and children's clothing. Simon Fraser, university professor at Lindsay Meredith says small businesses benefited the most, but it didn't last long enough for consumers to see any significant savings. It was a better vote grabber than an economic strategy. Very short term.

So did it change consumers' longer term behavior? No, of course not. People make plans on longer than a two month horizon. Meredith says he expects Canadian consumer spending to rebound later this year as a result of lower interest rates. And that is Your World This Hour. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.