FIRST READING: Ontario teachers make billions from SpaceX IPO

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With both Musk and Ontario teachers ranking as the largest Canadian beneficiaries of the SpaceX IPO, it’s notable that both are firmly entrenched on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

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Musk is a former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, and has taken strong stands on a range of “anti-woke” causes including immigration and gender identity skepticism.

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His most recent weigh-in on Canadian politics was a social media post slamming Ottawa’s proposed “under-16” social media ban, which he framed as a back door towards mandating digital ID and increased online surveillance. “They always use defensible excuses for the indefensible,” wrote Musk.

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Ontario’s various teachers’ federations, by contrast, are historic supporters of critical race theory, child gender transitions and, lately, various anti-Israel causes.

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In 2023, an Ontario teachers’ organization known as the Ontario Mathematics Coordinators Association held a workshop declaring that the equation “2+2=4” was evidence of covert white supremacy in mathematics.

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Last March, the Ontario Teachers’ Federation endorsed a report referring to the province’s educational sector as a hub of “systemic discrimination and injustice” and calling for race-centric policies to “address historical disadvantage.”

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And just in February, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario was criticized for hiring an explicitly anti-Zionist organization to oversee mandatory antisemitism training

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The OTPP has long been renowned as an icon of savvy capitalism, even as it represents a profession known for its left-leaning and sometimes anti-capitalist political stances.

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The OTPP is one of the Maple 8, a group of eight Canadian pension funds renowned for their high returns and direct ownership of assets. Perhaps most famously, the OTPP spent years as the sole owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, before selling the team in 2012 for a profit of more than $1 billion.

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As far back as 2004, CBC presenter Rick Mercer broadcast a segment mocking large OTPP stakes in tobacco companies and shopping malls, in the latter case suggesting that it was motivating strike action.

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“When teachers work to rule, the kids don’t suffer, the kids go to the mall,” he said.

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IN OTHER NEWS

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There’s yet another poll charting a pretty dramatic turnaround in B.C. political sentiment. After members of the B.C. Conservative Party selected the most hardline candidate in their recent leadership race, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, subsequent polls have shown that British Columbians seem willing to make her premier. A new Angus Reid Institute poll found that most British Columbians couldn’t actually name the first thing about Findlay, but that they would vote for her over the BC NDP anyway.

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Canada appears to have finally found a MAID threshold it is not prepared to cross.

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Among the dozen or so countries that have some form of legalized assisted suicide, Canada is an outlier in terms of both the rate and quantity of citizens dying by the practice, as well as the checks required to qualify. In one particularly notable recent example, an Ontarian was approved for assisted suicide after a meeting convened at a Tim Hortons.

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Despite all this, 10 years after Canada first legalized MAID for the terminally ill, the general trend has been towards easier access to MAID, and lower barriers. Ever since 2021, for instance, it’s been legal to euthanize Canadians for a “grievous and irremediable” condition even if it’s not terminal.

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But the issue of administering MAID to Canadians whose only condition is mental illness has consistently prompted hesitation from federal authorities.

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Although MAID for the mentally ill was supposed to become legal in 2023, the Liberals have repeatedly pushed back the deadline, most recently bumping it back to March 17, 2027.

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And then, this week, a special parliamentary committee recommended they just not do it all. The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, comprised of both MPs and Senators, summed up their conclusion rather succinctly: “That the Government of Canada amend the Criminal Code to indefinitely exclude persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness from eligibility for medical assistance in dying.”

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After a Liberal MP tabled a bill to recognize July as Somali Heritage Month, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani sponsored the above petition in reply. It calls on the federal government to never designate another heritage month again for any reason.

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First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

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