Morning Update: Kamala Harris takes the stage

Good morning. Kamala Harris accepted her party’s nomination for president last night – more on that below, along with Canada’s vanishing urban backyards and the latest on the railway lockout. But first:

Today’s headlines

• The last body from the sunken superyacht, believed to be Mike Lynch’s daughter, has been found off Sicily
• The future of RFK Jr.’s campaign is in question as Trump allies lobby for his endorsement
• Canada’s long-delayed Africa strategy will be unveiled by the end of the year, Joly says

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U.S. Politics

The DNC’s big red-white-and-blue party

All week at their national convention, Democrats have seized on the symbols of patriotism: the “USA, USA” chants, the breaks for flag-waving, the appearance of military veterans and middle-aged men in football jerseys. Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of several Republicans invited to address the DNC, had news for his fellow party members: “The Democrats are as patriotic as us. They love this country just as much as we do.” The message was clear: America, we see you.

And Kamala Harris wants America to see itself in her. When she took the stage in Chicago last night – after a lightning-fast ascent to the presidential nomination – she positioned herself as the embodiment of the country’s values. She didn’t much mention the historic nature of her candidacy, but instead cast herself as a champion (and representative) of the middle class, vowing to be “a president for all Americans,” regardless of how they vote. In a sombre speech, she spoke about abortion, border security, the war in Gaza and the fundamental dangers of a second Donald Trump term. Then, after 38 minutes – less than Joe Biden on Monday night, and far less than Trump at the RNC – she stepped back from the lectern and waved to the rapturous crowd.

Roughly 100,000 balloons dropped on the delegates. Beyoncé played (but did not show). There are 73 days left till the election.

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Cities

Do we really need backyards to be happy?

In a recent series of commercials for my grandpa’s preferred domestic beer, a bunch of backyard BBQers gleefully topple the fences between their single-family detached homes. When you’re sharing this beer, the narrator intones at the end of the ad, “the backyard is big enough for everyone.” Then the camera pulls away from the big crowd assembled under mature trees – and hold on, what’s that, hovering at the very top of the frame? Are those… high-rise apartments?

Private backyards may stubbornly remain the dream – and selling point – for many Canadian city-dwellers, but they’re increasingly absent from the reality of what’s actually getting built. In the first three months of 2024, urban construction workers broke ground on apartment buildings nearly three times as often as any other housing. That’s been the trend for a while: Between 2016 and 2021, high-rise apartments were the fastest-growing type of building across Canada.

And it’s why, as part of her year-long dive into happiness for The Globe and Mail, feature writer Erin Anderssen wanted to know: What happens to our mental health when we’re stacked up against each other in soaring towers? Do we really need our own backyards to feel content?

Anderssen’s new feature is well worth reading in full, but I’ll spoil the punchline: Nope! There doesn’t seem to be an appreciable happiness difference between those who live in high-density neighbourhoods and those who live in low ones. A 2023 survey by the non-profit Happy Cities for Vancouver Coastal Health discovered that people residing in apartments and row housing reported the same levels of well-being as those who lived in single-family homes.

What urbanites do need, though, is access to public greenery – to trees, grass, parks, sports fields, community gardens and trails. Those are the kind of spaces that keep people healthy, tranquil, physically active and engaged with their communities. A 2024 Canadian study found that urban greenness helped reduce loneliness, which makes sense when you consider that park-goers usually stop to talk to a stranger.

But these spaces are vanishing in Canadian cities, which lost on average one-tenth of their public and private greenery in the years since 2000. Calgary, Vancouver and Winnipeg have been hit especially hard. Blame urban expansion, climate change, pests, disease – and the fact that those shiny new towers often aren’t joined by leafy new walkways or small urban parks. “With developers squeezing more homes into empty urban land, well-designed parks and public spaces have to follow in equal measure,” Anderssen writes. “Happy cities build neighbourhoods, not just housing.”

The Shot

Off the rails

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After Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. locked out nearly 10,000 of their unionized workers yesterday morning, the federal government moved to end the railway stoppage and sent the labour disputes for final arbitration. Both railways responded by announcing plans to restart operations. Read the latest here.

The Wrap

What else we’re following

At home: Loblaw is piloting a handful of ultra-discount No Name grocery stores in Ontario, with shorter operating hours, zero flyers and two-thirds of the products priced below $5.

Abroad: In an interview with The Globe’s Geoffrey York in Johannesburg yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada is pushing Israel to accept international court orders to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Paint by numbers: A 40-year-old unsolved murder. Up to 6,000 faked Norval Morrisseau paintings. One Barenaked Lady. And at the centre, there’s Thunder Bay detective Jason Rybak, who helped crack the world’s biggest art-fraud case.

Dressed for success: Get Ready With Me videos – where ordinary folks film themselves going about their morning – have exploded in popularity on social media. What’s so appealing about watching a stranger make breakfast? You can’t knock a good routine.