Archive for August 2009

Just calling it Democratic Party of Canada would make a lot of sense!

Aug 12th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

UPDATED AUGUST 16. The federal New Democratic Party is meeting at the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax this coming Friday-Sunday, August 14—16. Among many other things, “delegates will debate and vote on a proposal to drop the ‘New’ from the party’s name, going with just the Democratic Party.” Our guess is that delegates […]



Happy 80th birthday Bill Davis – a progressive conservative worth remembering in these darker times

Aug 9th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

I never voted for his party. But Haroon Siddiqui’s report on the recent commemoration of “Bland” Bill Davis’s 80th birthday at the York Club, in today’s Sunday edition of the Toronto Star, reminded me of how much I came to admire him (to my surprise), when I worked as an Ontario civil servant in the […]



Ezra Klein : health care and the progressive agenda in the USA

Aug 8th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The “very, very good, and very, very young” American progressive blogger Ezra Klein has increased his audience since he joined the Washington Post earlier this year. A Post online exchange with a Connecticut reader this past Thursday  illustrates why he is so good, and why the current US health care debate is so bizarre: “New […]



At least NAFTA amigos won’t be conspiring against their own countries

Aug 7th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

Those who worry that the NAFTA  Security and Prosperity Partnership is a plot to create an anti-democratic North American Union may or may not be reassured by recent comments from Maureen Meyer, a Mexico expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. Ms. Meyer was responding to questions about the Obama-Calderon-Harper summit at Guadalajara, Mexico […]



New Regina Manifesto : who’s running Canada anyway, Ottawa or the Provinces?

Aug 5th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The annual summer meeting of Canada’s 10 premiers and three territorial leaders – aka the Council of the Federation – starts today in Regina. It’s hosted this year by Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall. Ordinarily, this would not stir many Canadians from their fibreglass canoes. But this summer no less a centralizing force than the Toronto […]



President Obama wouldn’t have to be born here to be Prime Minister of Canada

Aug 4th, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The male airhead Tucker Carlson says Canadians should not pay “disturbingly close attention to American politics … get a life and stop stalking us.” But the much lovelier and smarter Ana Marie Cox encourages “the involvement of our neighbors to the North in American political discussions. (HI DAD!).” So … Irwin Stelzer, a business adviser […]



August holiday : Caribana, Obama, Vancouver heat, Grand River, Bandidos trial, Russians coming to North Pole

Aug 1st, 2009 | By | Category: In Brief

The first Monday in August is a holiday of sorts in eight Canadian provinces and two territories. If your idea of the best way to spend holiday weekends is relaxing with your computer, read on: * More than one million are expected for the annual Caribana madness in Toronto this holiday weekend. The Iroquois who […]