Would there be so much talk these days about “the economic capital of Canada rapidly moving west” (Thomas Courchene in the latest Inside Queen’s Park newsletter), if the 2006 election had delivered another Ontario-dominated Liberal minority government instead of a new Alberta-dominated Conservative minority government in Ottawa? Or, do Canadians have a new minority Conservative government because oil-rich Calgary and […]

New minority Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s surprise visit to Canadian troops in Afghanistan over the past few days, it is now being said, has just stiffened the case for “a huge debate” in Canada today – “and we need to have it.” As one suitably modest place to start, just what does the international community […]

The other day a friend from Australia who is seriously into cricket told me that a few decades ago the West Indies had some of the best cricket players in the world. But times have changed, and everyone in the West Indies plays baseball today. I thought of this again when I bumped into the […]

In a recent Globe and Mail piece Roy MacSkimming reviewed a new biography called Marginal Man: The Dark Vision of Harold Innis, by Alexander John Watson. He concluded with: “This is surely one of the important books of the year.” The prediction applies only to Canada. And even here you have to wonder if it […]

The present Canadian Senate, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has aptly said, is “a relic of the 19th century.” And there are some enlightened voters in Canada’s most populous province who do believe in the confused cause of Senate reform – as a long-term nation-building solution to the increasingly acute problems of regionalism in the diverse […]