United States:

Impeachment hearings focussed on Presidents Trump’s shenanigans are dominate North American headlines. The economy is still robust and US unemployment at 3.5% is the lowest in decades but there are threats bearing down from all sides: Trump’s instability, trade wars with China and Europe and the soaring US national debt. So the near future is, to say the least, uncertain.

Brexit:

The difference between the dominant stories out of the US and the UK is that Brexit has no term limit. The Brexit genie is out of the bottle and even a second referendum won’t push him back in. Don’t forget  that what the UK has been engaged in for three years is just an agreement to leave on good terms. Imagine if you resign from your job but you still want to work for your ex-employer as an independent contractor. Your employer states that of course you can go but he won’t negotiate to work with you in the future unless you agree to certain conditions before you leave. A “no-deal” Brexit is like saying I don’t agree with your conditions so I’ll leave on my terms and there are lots of others that will work with me even if you don’t. Maybe there’ll be a deal by Halloween but it seems unlikely. What you can bet on as a dead-cert however is an election before Christmas.

Canada: 

I’m voting Green this time in the certain knowledge that, because of Justin’s cynically broken promise on election system reform, my chosen candidate has no chance of being elected to parliament. So my vote is to protest the above and other broken promises and the hypocrisy of the current government without directly putting their main opponents in power. If things go the way I would like them to go, the next government will not enjoy a majority and the Green party will pick up a lot more votes and perhaps a few seats as they struggle for electoral fairness in a system designed to protect the hegemony of the two major parties.