Good evening, readers.

We start today’s newsletter with a look at the byelection landscape.

To start things off, Conservative MP Larry Brock on Thursday announced that he would resign his seat in the House of Commons days before the start of the fall sitting in September, setting the stage for at least five more byelections to be called by spring 2027.

Since the start of the 45th Parliament in the spring of 2025, there have already been four byelections held and three more are scheduled for Aug. 31. The Liberals will need to at least win one of those races to retain their razor-thin majority.

The prime minister has to call a byelection between 11 and 180 days after a seat becomes vacant and formal byelection campaigns last between 36 and 50 days.

Brock’s midwestern Ontario riding is centred on the city of Brantford and had its boundaries reconfigured prior to the 2025 election. It will officially be known as Brantford-Brant South starting next month, one of several riding name changes made in the Liberal government’s elections bill that passed in June.

This latest departure means as many as five seats could be vacant when the House resumes sitting on Sept. 21.

Pollster Dan Arnold said the Liberals will want to “strike when the iron is hot” and call the byelections quickly to take advantage of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity.

He said Justin Trudeau made a mistake of delaying several byelections and was forced to call them during the midst of the SNC-Lavalin scandal in early 2019.

“I think when you’re doing good in the polls, you want to bank that as quickly as you can,” said Arnold, who previously headed up the Liberal research campaign teams and now serves as the chief strategy officer of Pollara.

Marco Vigliotti has this one.

And are we seeing some movement on the trade front?

Outlets are reporting the Canadian government is preparing to meet some U.S. demands — including ending bans on American alcohol sales — as trade talks heat up ahead of the latest tariff deadline.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a new 50 per cent levy on hundreds of Canadian imports by Aug. 19, citing complaints about provincial booze bans, dairy import quotas and the auto tariffs.

Citing sources, the CBC said the Canadian side is willing to offer movement on those concerns such as ending the booze bans, lifting retaliatory tariffs on U.S. autos and making some changes on dairy. They didn’t say what changes were on the table in regards to the dairy sector.

The Globe and Mail first reported on possible concessions.

In Other Headlines

Internationally

A federal appeals court on Friday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to halt construction of its $400 million ballroom at the White House because the project lacks congressional approval.

Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall, according to the decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The Republican president said in a post on social media that he would be appealing what he called an “unjust decision” to the U.S. Supreme Court.

AP reports.

Also, Romania raced on Thursday to sink four barges laden with rock into the Danube River in an attempt to redirect water downstream toward a nuclear power plant, to buy more time before its second reactor is likely forced offline due to record-low water levels.

Extreme heatwaves and low rainfall across the region have left the Danube at record lows over the past week, forcing the shutdown of a reactor at Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear plant last week. The state-owned nuclear power plant accounts for about 20% of the country’s electricity generation when fully operational and uses river water to cool its reactors.

AP has this one too.

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

This is kind of adorable.

A deluge of 90,000 rubber ducks poured out of a truck and into the Chicago River on Thursday, then bobbed along a stretch of the skyscraper-lined river in the annual Chicago Ducky Derby that raises thousands of dollars for charity.

The truck dumped the ducks from one side of a half-raised bridge. After forming a yellow pool in the river, the ducks floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water.

AP has this one.

Have a great weekend!