If you live in Toronto, the chaotic years of Rob Ford’s mayoralty – and his frequent clashes with City Council – are still fresh memories. And so Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s bombshell announcement that he plans to use broad provincial powers to slash the size of council struck some as vindictive. Whatever the premier’s motivations, says Samuel Trosow of Western University in today’s The Conversation Canada, there are lots of reasons, and legal precedents, to stop him.

In an era in which multilateral global trade seems under attack, the trade deal between Canada and the European Union, known as CETA, is bucking the trend. But Sara Migliorini of the Université de Lausanne says there may be trouble ahead for the deal due to an upcoming EU Court ruling that could have a profound impact on Canada, both economically and politically.

And Caribana weekend is almost upon us. Henry Navarro Delgado of Ryerson University has an up-close-and-personal piece about how Caribbean carnivals were an important part of his upbringing in Cuba. He writes they “allowed my teenage self to tune into my Afro-Caribbean heritage. Toronto’s Carnival legitimizes the city’s embrace of its own mix of cultural identities.”