Brexit Countdown, Canada Votes, Erdogan’s Gamble: Weekend Reads

(Bloomberg) --

Can he pull it off? U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seeking enough votes to get his Brexit deal through a Parliament where he lacks a majority, and where his Northern Irish allies say they can’t support it. 

Can he pull it off? Justin Trudeau is no longer the political superstar he once was, and it's going to be a struggle to eke out another term when Canadians go to the polls next week.

And speaking of pulling it off, Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have just outfoxed self-proclaimed deal master Donald Trump on Syria policy. 

Catch up on these and other topics with the latest edition of Weekend Reads. 

Canadian Elections

Once a Superstar, Canada’s Trudeau Fights for His Political Life
Dogged by controversy and declining popularity, the prime minister is still the favorite — but barely. Ethan Bronner takes a closer look at what went wrong. Click here for interactive charts showing where things stand on the cusp of Monday’s election. 

Canadian Conservatives Want This ‘Barbecue Dad’ to Beat Trudeau
Theophilos Argitis profiles Andrew Scheer — the former speaker of Canada’s House of Commons  — who’s running to oust Trudeau on a platform of extreme relatability. 

The Fortune Buried in Canada’s Oil Sands May Swing This Election
Trudeau thinks the nation can be both an oil superpower and a climate pioneer. As Kevin Orland and Natalie Obiko Pearson report, this election will show if voters disagree.

Elsewhere

Erdogan’s ‘Too Big to Fail’ Gamble Pays Off, But Carries Risk
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long based his dealings with the U.S. and Europe on a bet: that threats to cut his country loose or crush its economy won’t be followed through, because Turkey is simply too strategically important. The wager just paid off, Marc Champion and Selcan Hacaoglu report.

To Win Giuliani’s Help, Oligarch’s Allies Pursued Biden Dirt
Associates of a Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition to the U.S. were working to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden last summer in an effort to get Rudy Giuliani’s help in the oligarch’s legal case, Stephanie Baker and Irina Reznik report. 

Pensioners Sleep Outside Zimbabwe Banks as Savings Vanish Again
As hundreds of pensioners line up outside a bank in central Harare in the hope of collecting their pensions, military veteran Elias Nyabunzi has a sense that he has seen this all before. Ray Ndlovu spoke to pensioners in Zimbabwe, who are among the hardest hit in an economy that’s stagnated for almost 20 years. 

Census Could Miss Millions, Even Without a Citizenship Question
Community groups are working to convince Latinos that answering the decennial survey isn’t just important, it’s essential. Reade Pickert explains why. 

Indonesia Oligarchs Are Trying to Yank Power From the President
Indonesia’s elites are edging closer to securing constitutional changes to strip President Joko Widodo of key powers in a move that could eventually end direct elections. As Arys Aditya and Karlis Salna write, it presents the most crucial test for democracy in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy since the downfall of the dictator Suharto in 1998.

And finally … 2019 has seen a slow, steady advancement of women in leadership positions. It’s been a slightly different story in the aviation industry. Women still make up just over 7% of all pilots in the U.S., according to the most recent data. The numbers are even worse for black women — they make up fewer than 1% of all pilots holding airline transport, pilot, commercial, military, and/or certified flight instructor licenses. Jennifer Zabasajja takes a closer look at Sisters of the Skies, a group that aims to change that. 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net

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