Morneau Downplays Trump’s Trade Attack on Canada: Here’s What We’re Reading Today

The Daily 5 is Sharp’s essential reading list for what’s happening in the world today. Make sure to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Sharp Insider newsletter to stay up to date.

Here’s what we’re reading today.

1. Mourneau: White House remains “positively inclined to Canada”

“‘No surprises, from my perspective,’ Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in a Friday interview with a small group of reporters in Washington, where he is visiting for meetings of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and G20.”‘It’s really not a surprise that we’ve moved from a positive relationship, which it is, to thinking about specifics,’ he said. His focus, he said, is the kind of ‘relationship development’ that will allow Canada to make its case most effectively when negotiations begin.”

– Toronto Star

2. What is science good for?

“Tomorrow, April 22nd—Earth Day—scientists, people who love science, and citizens concerned that government policies are increasingly detached from empirical reality will march in Washington, D.C., and nearly five hundred other cities around the world. Like any large group of protesters, the science marchers have struggled to craft their mission statement. ‘The March for Science champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity,’ they write, on their Web site. ‘We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest.’

“It’s a good mission statement, but it contains a time bomb. The phrase ‘science that upholds the common good’ may seem innocuous. But who decides what is in the common good?”

The New Yorker

3. How Singapore is creating more land for itself

“Land is Singapore’s most cherished resource and its dearest ambition. Since it became an independent nation 52 years ago, Singapore has, through assiduous land reclamation, grown in size by almost a quarter: to 277 square miles from 224. By 2030, the government wants Singapore to measure nearly 300 square miles.”

New York Times

4. You don’t need to buy that house

“Canada’s housing market is not the problem. Our fixation on home ownership is.”

– The Walrus

5. How online shopping makes suckers of us all

“Will you pay more for those shoes before 7 p.m.? Would the price tag be different if you lived in the suburbs? Standard prices and simple discounts are giving way to far more exotic strategies, designed to extract every last dollar from the consumer.”

– The Atlantic