Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.
Five things you need to know
The Liberal Party is still flying high in the polls, according to Nanos Research, with the prime minister so comfortable in power that he has "no obvious challenger" among prominent Conservatives. The survey found that Doug Ford, Stephen Harper, Pierre Poilievre, Peter MacKay, Rona Ambrose, Danielle Smith, Jean Charest, Lisa Raitt, Jason Kenney, Mark Mulroney, Erin O’Toole, Andrew Scheer, Leslyn Lewis, Tim Houston, Jamil Jivani and Caroline Elliott were all dwelling in Mark Carney's shadow. Asked which of them could defeat Carney, Harper came top, though only a paltry 16 per cent of participants backed the former PM to beat the incumbent.
Carney has ‘no obvious challenger’ among Conservatives, new poll says https://t.co/QKQDcKj30O
— CTV News (@CTVNews) August 4, 2026
The Globe and Mail newspaper is disappointed in the Liberal Party's decision to spend $4 million of taxpayers' money on TV ads during the FIFA World Cup. "It amounts to partisan messaging, paid for with your tax dollars," the paper argued in an editorial. Referring to rules on such advertising that have been loosened by the Liberals, the paper added: "It’s a dangerous abuse of power, and if left unchecked, it will have a negative impact on democracy ... The Liberals are blurring the lines between their party, the federal government, and Canada itself to gain a future electoral advantage."
Globe editorial
— Patrick Brethour (@PatrickBrethour) August 4, 2026
This message is brought to you by: partisanship https://t.co/bxLFOho6OC
The prime minister is also under fire for his decision to change how the federal government spells words, moving away from decades of Canadian style to the British style instead. The Canadian Press news agency has unearthed "dozens of pages" of comments sent by Canadians to Ottawa to explain their views on the change. One unhappy citizen wrote: "We are supposed to be enthusiastically pro-Canadian whenever possible, but not in how we spell our words. Who thought this one up? Fools!” Another, however, strongly approved, writing: “In our effort to distance ourselves from our acquisitive, abusive southern neighbours, I support this move. Always neighbours, never neighbors.”
Some Canadians tell Carney Ottawa’s spelling protocol should lean British https://t.co/9XPHghcBwp
— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) August 3, 2026
Young people are doing something stupid again, with TikTok and other social media platforms amplifying the foolishness. Dermatologists have sounded the alarm about the latest incidence of Generation Z's silly behaviour, warning that so-called "tanmaxxing" – tan maximizing – is a recipe for developing skin cancer. The trend, according to reports, promotes sunscreen-free exposure to high-UV sunlight as a way of darkening skin.
Dermatologists desperately want gen Z to stop 'tanmaxxing' — but are their warnings effective? https://t.co/XOFMksFMD7 via @stcatstandard
— The St. Catharines Standard (@StCatStandard) August 3, 2026
Down south, meanwhile, Donald Trump has been accused of brazen corruption again, this time because his social media platform, Truth Social, is now selling faster access to the president's posts for a fee of up to $100,000 a month. The platform promises "a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths." It comes after Trump has been accused of manipulating stock markets with the timing and nature of his posts, particularly during the war in Iran.
Logging on to Truth Social still isn’t a very dynamic user experience, writes Matt Stieb — users are mostly getting AI memes, Fox News clips, and posts from Republicans championing President Donald Trump. But some Wall Street traders are about to pony up as much as $100,000 per… pic.twitter.com/gXzK0Xy2tr
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) August 3, 2026
