The World This Hour - The World This Hour for 2025/04/19 at 19:00 EDT

Episode Date: April 19, 2025

The World This Hour for 2025/04/19 at 19:00 EDT

Readers have been waiting for a new novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for 12 years. On my podcast Bookends, Chimamanda tells me what was happening behind the scenes, about the sudden loss of both of her parents and how her mother's spirit brought her back to fiction. Sometimes I do not even want to talk about my mother because I get ridiculously emotional. But she kind of helped me start writing because she realized that I might go mad if I wasn't... If the thoughts all had to stay inside. Search for bookends with Matea Roach to hear the rest of that conversation. From CBC News, the world this hour, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.

Liberal leader Mark Carney has released his party's platform. Today, I'm proud to launch Canada Strong. Our plan to unite, to secure, to protect and build Canada. The Liberal's platform promises nearly $130 billion in new spending over the next four years, adding about $255 billion to the federal debt. We're not spending that amount of money. We're investing that amount of money. So we're using very limited government resources to catalyze enormous private sector investment.

And that's what drives this economy forward. That's what meets this moment. Conservative leader Pierre Pagliav called the liberal platform too expensive for Canadians. Amazingly, Mr. Carney plans to run even bigger inflationary deficits than Justin Trudeau had already budgeted. One Carney-friendly economist on Twitter said that this liberal platform is a quote spendorama with even bigger deficits than free than freelance that just go on forever. Poliev has not released his fully costed platform yet. He says he's already shared much of it and that he'll unveil the final document soon.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh released his party's costed platform. So here's what we'll fight to deliver in the first year. Real steps towards a family doctor for every Canadian. Universal Pharma Care, national rent control, grocery price caps, a real fixed CEI and tax relief for working people. Singh's also pledging $ billion dollars a year for infrastructure. Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet is maintaining his party's opposition to pipelines, even as he admits it could hurt Western Canada's economy.

I always say that I would accept easily for more money to be left in Alberta in order for them to start this change toward a greener economy which I would support and if they do turn to greener economy I think I will support their independence. He accuses Canadian voters of putting all their eggs in the liberal basket saying they don't all have to be red. Elections Canada says the number of Canadians who voted on the first day of advance polls has set a record.

The agency says early estimates show nearly 2 million people cast a ballot on Friday. Many Canadians also reported long lineups. Elections Canada says it's going to adjust over the next few days to handle the high traffic. Advance voting runs until Monday, and Election day is on Monday, April 28th. A grass fire near Edmonton destroyed some buildings at a provincial Ukrainian museum this long weekend. It's a stretch of land with dozens of buildings all restored to show what life was like for original Ukrainian settlers. Sam Sampson has more on what happened.

Coming out here with my mom and my siblings. A few tears escape Carol Slukinski's eyes as she runs through memories of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. She helps Ukrainians settle in Canada and knows so many Albertans who've donated their ancestors' homes to the village. I was already calling friends that have buildings that have been restored in memory of their grandparents and great-grandparents. And it was a sigh of relief when I drove down the highway to see that a lot of those buildings have been saved.

Fire crews saved all historic sites, but the fire destroyed four buildings, including a visitor centre that housed artifacts. Orissia Boychuk, president of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Council, says there's already an online fundraiser for the rebuild. This is a focal and a gathering point for our Ukrainian community. The Alberta government, which owns the museum, says it will reopen the site once it's safe to do so. Sam Sampson, CBC News, near Elk Island National Park in Alberta. And that is your World This Hour. Remember, you can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts updated every hour, seven

days a week. For CBC News, I'm Julianne Hazelwood.