The world is changing. And IÂ am starting to get a bit too confused about local piped services, the Six Nations in Ontario, the right-wing coup in Canada, Stephen Colbert in Washington, and Brent Scowcroft on Iran in the global village. * * * * * * EAST TORONTO. SUNDAY, APRIL 30, 2006. There’s a cool […]
I know this already too-long meditation on Canada’s new Conservative government (with special reference to its aboriginal policy failings) is supposed to have ended. But the Canada-US softwood lumber trade deal announced late on Thursday, April 27 begs for a final exception to the rule. You can find the details of the deal tidily summarized in The New York Times, The […]
It is being called “the worst mass murder in Ontario history” even by the media in the US and Australia. When it first hit the news the Ontario Provincial Police stressed that the eight victims were from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). But as the plot thickens the story may be more notable for its country roots. One of […]
UPDATE. MONDAY, APRIL 10, 11:30 PM EST. Debates on foreign policy in the parliamentary democratic tradition, the British historian A.J.P. Taylor said long ago, conventionally pit “the stupid party” on the right against “the silly party” on the left. And there were more than a few moments when this evening’s debate on Afghanistan in the Canadian […]
It is interesting to compare the throne speech that Governor General Adrienne Clarkson read on behalf of Paul Martin’s new Liberal minority government, at the opening of the 38th Parliament of Canada on October 5, 2004, with the throne speech that Governor General Michaelle Jean has just read on behalf of Stephen Harper’s new Conservative […]
Fresh from the success of the World Baseball Classic, the major league season kicks off this week in parks around North America. With Japan taking the world title over Cuba the sport was shaken out of its myopic concept that the American brand is the best and only one. The game has grown in leaps around the […]
It is an inescapable part of Canada’s fate that it lives right next door to the pioneering democracy of the United States of America. And, according to Akhil Reed Amar’s recent much-praised book on the subject, the Constitution of the United States, as officially adopted on June 21, 1788, is “one of the most important […]
The Ad Hoc East Toronto Republican Constitution Committee has prepared some preliminary working notes on a draft strategy for shorter-term republican political reform and longer-term constitutional reform in Canada. If you would like to comment or raise queries use the form at the end of the text below. The notes focus on retiring the current elusive “constitutional […]
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2006. FIRST DAY OF THE 39TH PARLIAMENT OF CANADA. As strange as it may seem, in theory the ultimate source of sovereign authority in Canada even in the year 2006 is still Queen Elizabeth II, who lives in Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom. She is a remarkable lady. But carrying on […]
