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DEVELOPING Jasper updates: 'Significant loss' within Jasper townsite
One of two wildfires threatening Jasper National Park has reached the townsite.
U.S. President Joe Biden began a new push in Philadelphia on Wednesday to court Black voters, a critical voting bloc that is showing signs of weakness for Democrats ahead of the November election, as he attacked his Republican opponent.
"With your vote in 2024, we're gonna make Donald Trump a loser again," Biden, accompanied by Vice-President Kamala Harris, told a cheering crowd at Girard College, a historic boarding school founded to serve poor, white orphan boys that desegregated in 1968.
Black voters have historically turned out for Biden and Democrats, and were a key reason he beat Trump in 2020, but polls show they could be less supportive of him this year as the pair face each other again on Nov. 5.
Biden ran through a list of his policy achievements, including removing lead pipes, a diverse administration, the first Black woman Supreme Court justice and pardons for people sentenced for marijuana possession. "Promises made, promises kept," Biden repeated frequently.
"I'll be damned if I'm gonna let Donald Trump turn America into a place filled with anger, resentment and hate," Biden told the crowd, his voice getting stronger as he closed his speech.
"My question to you is a simple one: Are you with me?" he asked. "Talk to your families," he said. "Spread the word."
Harris zeroed in on Black voters' importance for Democrats this year as well, saying in opening remarks that "in 2024, with your voice and your power, we will win again."
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as Vice-President Kamala Harris waves at a campaign event at Girard College, Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
Democrats have long banked on strong voter turnout in Philadelphia — and more recently, its suburbs — to offset weakness in more conservative parts of Pennsylvania, a closely divided state that Biden narrowly won in 2020.
The campaign's concern is not that the city’s Black voters will shift toward Trump, but that too many of them may sit out the election.
Black Democrats, including Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, of Nevada joined the event, which marked what the campaign said was the official launch of "Black Voters for Biden-Harris."
Earlier this month, Trump held a rally in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City as part of an effort to exploit Biden's weakening support among Hispanic and Black voters.
Black voters make ip about 14 per cent of the U.S.'s eligible voters in 2024, Pew Research shows, and significantly higher percentages in the battleground states of North Carolina and Georgia.
This is Biden's third trip to Philadelphia and sixth to Pennsylvania this year, continuing a focus on the swing state where polling shows he narrowly trails Trump.
In Pennsylvania, Biden is doing slightly worse with Black voters than four years ago, though he still wins the vast majority, according to a New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College survey released last week.
He was the choice of 69 per cent of Black voters, compared with 79 per cent in June 2020.
Trump was ahead in the state overall in the most recent poll.
One of two wildfires threatening Jasper National Park has reached the townsite.
Alberta has called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help assist with the worsening wildfire situation in the province.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
An analyst and an assistant coach with Canada Soccer are being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and 'sent home immediately,' according to the Canadian Olympic Committee.
After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
A B.C. man who was hired to help a non-profit build a food hub but instead spent the money on personal expenses – including travel, restaurants, booze and cannabis – has been ordered to pay more than $120,000 in damages.
Two people are dead and two others suffered serious injuries following a shooting that police have described as a 'gun battle' outside a plaza in Scarborough, Ont. early Wednesday morning.
A local First Nations elder and veteran is helping to bring the Ojibwe language to a well-known film for the first time.
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.
A well-known childhood prank known as 'nicky nicky nine doors,' or 'ding dong ditch,' has escalated into a more serious game that could lead to charges for some Surrey, B.C. teens.
It's been more than a month since their good friend was seriously hurt in an accident and two teens from Riverview, N.B., are still having a hard time dealing with it.
Halifax bridges have collected thousands of coins from around the world.