Lost in the emotional fallout from last week’s announcement that General Motors will shut down its auto-production plant in Oshawa, Ont., was the fact that GM is planning for a day when few of us will be driving cars. Today in The Conversation Canada, Barry Cross of Queen’s University paints the not-too-distant scenario of how autonomous vehicles will change our lives and why more and more young people in North America and Europe are eschewing driving licences.

The news industry in Canada is still debating the ethical issues that have emerged from Ottawa’s recent announcement that it will offer the news media some form of financial assistance. Magda Konieczna of Temple University provides some needed context for the debate by telling us how nonprofit news organizations have prospered in the United States.

There are more refugees and people seeking asylum than ever before. Lloy Wylie of Western University says when refugees finally make it to countries like Canada, they deal with a health-care system “often ill-equipped to address their complex social and psychological needs.”

The recent midterm elections in the United States saw the highest turnout by young people within the last 25 years and that follows a similar increase in youth votes in the last Canadian federal election. Heather Ramey and Linda Rose-Krasnor of Brock University and Heather Lawford of Bishop’s University report on the growing influence of young people on politicians and policy makers.

And finally…we all saw those TV commercials the federal government ran at the time cannabis was legalized. They laid out the reasons for legalization: reducing criminal involvement in marijuana sales and to reduce the drug’s availability to young people. Andrew Hathaway of the University of Guelph says research puts both objectives in doubt and that the real reasons have more to do with market forces and politics.

A reminder we’re launching La Conversation Canada tomorrow and those of you who have signed up for our French-language newsletter will get the first edition on Wednesday morning. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do it here.

Regards,