Tonight:

The Grand Old Party's not-so-grand new reality. After Barack Obama wins a second term, Republican consultant Fred Karger concludes that, at the moment, a whole bunch of wrongs make up the right.

Reefer gladness. After two states approve the recreational use of marijuana, calls to do the same in British Columbia get louder.

The past is not past. New allegations of abuse at children's homes in Wales lead the British government to open two new inquiries.

Addressing the congregation. Since Sandy tore their community apart, Brooklynites have been coming together at a local church.

Children of a lesser book. There's a baby boom going on in Windsor, Ontario -- and the CEO of a local hospital attributes it to "Fifty Shades of Grey".

And...he hit the wall pretty hard. And when he did, an Ontario man restoring an old school discovered a sixty-seven-year-old letter -- which was a pleasant surprise to the woman who wrote it.

As It Happens, the Wednesday edition. Radio that's more accustomed to pushing the envelope than pulling it.

It's all over for Mitt Romney. But not for his party.

Today, Republicans are having to take a hard look at why their candiate lost -- a hard look at the hard choices they'll have to make if they want to win next time.

Fred Karger is a long-time Republican political consultant. We reached him in New York.

Peter Tosh had it right. At least as far as voters in Washington and Colorado are concerned.

Last night, those states passed ballot propositions that will make the recreational use of marijuana legal -- and taxable.

It's an idea that a lot of people in B.C., Canada's cannabis capital, have been urging for years. Ujjal Dosanjh is one of them. He's a former premier of British Columbia, as well as being a former federal health minister.

We reached Mr. Dosanjh in Vancouver.

Elsie Koop long ago gave up hoping for a reply.

She was eighteen years old when she and her roommate each wrote letters and then hid them in the Mennonite Bible school where they were boarding. That was in 1945.

Well, that school, which is in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, is now being restored by Jens Ramputh. We reached him at the school -- which is now a house.

Britain is reeling from a new child abuse scandal.

Following on the heels of the allegations of abuse by the late entertainer Jimmy Savile, the UK government is now launching two fresh child abuse inquiries. These latest investigations come following new allegations of child abuse in Welsh care homes during the nineteen-seventies and 'eighties.

Keith Towler is the Children's Commissioner for Wales, a position set up to defend children's rights in Wales, following an earlier investigation into abuse at Welsh care homes. We reached Mr Towler in Swansea, Wales.

Trish Campbell tried, but failed.

The knitting enthusiast, and owner of the Yarn on York in Fredericton, New Brunswick, has been asked by the Royal Canadian Legion to stop knitting poppies.

And so, Trish and her fellow knitters have put down their needles.

Earlier today, Ms. Campbell spoke with the host of CBC Radio's Maritime Noon, Norma Lee MacLeod. Here's part of that conversation, for the record.

It has been more than a week since the super-storm hit New Jersey and New York -- but the people battered by Sandy are facing serious hardships.

And now, residents still in recovery mode are facing the arrival of a new storm, albeit a weaker one, now hitting the north-east coast of the United States.

But in the South Brooklyn neighbourhood of Sunset Park, Hurricane Sandy may forever be remembered as the storm that brought people together. And that's especially apparent at St. Jacobi's Lutheran Church -- where the "Occupy" movement has moved in.

Gary Mills is the Pastor at St. Jacobi's. He's in Brooklyn, New York.

You spend hours trying to find a synonym for "good" to describe your protagonist; and then you get just seconds to find a synonym for "overwhelmed", when someone asks you how it feels to be nominated for a Governor-General's Award.

Since 1937, the G-G's have celebrated literary excellence in both official languages. This year's winners will be announced next Tuesday. In the lead-up to the presentation, we've been featuring readings by the finalists in English-language fiction. Tonight, we'll hear Linda Spalding reading from her novel, The Purchase.

The book takes us back to Pennsylvania in 1798. Daniel Dickinson is a young widower, left to care for his five young children. He quickly remarries and sets off on a journey with his family to establish a homestead in Virginia. But Virginia is a frontier society where owning slaves is socially accepted. And Daniel, who is a Quaker, finds his moral convictions put to the test.

In this excerpt from The Purchase, the family is en route to Virginia. It's the fifth day of travel and the difficult conditions are starting to take their toll.

Recorded at the International Festival of Authors, here is Linda Spalding.

Trading places.

Irish Minister Richard Bruton is in Toronto this week, trying to get Irish business into Canada.

Last month, our own Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, was doing something similar. He was in Ireland, but not simply trying to get Irish business into Canada. He was trying to get Irish people into Canada. And for them to stay -- well, for a while, at least.

We reached Ireland's Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, in Toronto.

It was close.

The Massachussetts ballot measure for a death-with-dignity law was defeated by just two percent last night. The law would have made it possible for a person with an illness that will kill them within 6 months to ask their doctor for a prescription that would allow that person to choose their own end.

Steve Crawford was the spokesman for the campaign. We reached him in Boston.

They were only kids themselves -- and today, they pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Ethan Yellowbird.

In July of 2011, five-year-old Ethan was asleep in bed at his grandfather's house in Hobbema, Alberta, when he was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. The bullet struck Ethan in the head.

The house was within the Samson Cree First Nation.

Today, three teenagers pleaded guilty in Ethan's death. The boys were thirteen, sixteen and seventeen at the time of the shooting. The RCMP believe all three have gang affiliations.

Less than two months after Ethan was shot dead, his twenty-three-year-old aunt, Chelsea Yellowbird, was also shot and killed.

At that time, Carol spoke with Bobby Bird, who is a radio D-J in Hobbema. Here's part of their conversation, from our archives.

Let Clover be wild. That's the rallying cry of animal rights advocates in British Columbia, who are campaigning to free a rare animal called Clover.

Clover is a spirit bear. After his mother was killed, Clover was taken to an animal rehabilitation centre, then released back into the wild. Whereupon, unfortunately, all did not go according to plan.

Now, Clover's caretakers have made a new plan.

Angelika Langen is director of the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter -- the shelter that first took Clover in. We reached her near Smithers, B.C.

The artisans who make and sell stuff on the website Etsy have a pretty clear idea of the zeitgeist. One aspect of it in particular: our obsession with stuff that is trendy, cute, or super-cute.

So you won't be surprised to find that you can buy onesies emblazoned with the words "Nine months ago my mommy read Fifty Shades of Grey". You'll be grossed out, but not surprised.

But as creepy as it seems to dress your baby in an adorable reference to an erotic novel about a rich guy with a "playroom", it may not be inaccurate.

David Musyj is the CEO of Ontario's Windsor Regional Hospital. Apparently, this week, his hospital has delivered eighty babies in six days. Which is significantly more births than in an average week. Thirty per cent more.

And guess what erotic novel about a rich guy with a "playroom" Mr. Musyj is giving credit to? Yes, that one. The onesie one.

"When this book came out," he told a reporter, "everyone said, 'Just wait, it's coming." And now, eleven months after the release of the book, he believes everyone was right: it's causing a baby boom. Which is a pretty black-and-white conclusion for a story with so many shades of grey.

Well, there may be a lot of them -- but I don't think we have to worry about any of these babies growing up to be ill-behaved. It's likely that their parents are big on discipline.

Now here's a song that will help you forget about "Fifty Shades of Grey". It's Grey Kingdom, with "Place To Call Home".