La r̩daction du Devoir, rue Notre-Dame Рin the early days, when founder Henri Bourassa (precursor of both the Parti Qu̩b̩cois and Pierre Trudeau?) was still in his prime.

The dead of winter always makes you a bit crazy in a northern country. Our resident Ontario historian Randall White’s deep-background investigation of the current great Canadian prorogation debate is apparently still a work in progress – with a new “almost firm” deadline of January 13 or 14 (or even 15?).

Meanwhile, we counterweights editors want to collectively offer congratulations to three quite different admirable enterprises in the increasingly unusual country of Canada today. The first is the Montreal French-language publication Le Devoir, which celebrated its 100th birthday this past weekend. It was founded in 1910 by Henri Bourassa (1868—1952), who in the opinion of some was “the distant predecessor to today’s Parti Québécois.” At the same time (as others see the universe), it was Pierre Trudeau and his Constitution Act 1982 that finally “delivered what had been the fondest hope of Henri Bourassa … French education from coast to coast.”

Say what you like: French culture is more “intellectual” and all that than the more philistine strains of English culture. And that is just one thing which makes many among we anglophone Canadians determined to keep the francophone majority in Quebec secure and happy (enough) inside the present confederation of 1867. On some similar plane of being, one thing English-speaking Canada almost desperately needs right now is a newspaper like Le Devoir.

As good as it may be in other ways, the Toronto Globe and Mail still does not qualify. On the other hand, even local English language papers across this vast and rugged geography that have fallen into the laps of failing journalistic empires still sometimes manage to stand up for what is best and most hopeful in the true north, strong and free.

In this context we want to commend the Saskatoon Star Phoenix for its January 11, 2010 editorial “Cynical politics killing possibility of Senate reform.”

We were especially struck by: “It is one thing to achieve one’s aims as prime minister by manipulating the levers of office, abusing the reputation of underlings, using party funds to unfairly denigrate one’s opponents, removing from office watchdogs and bureaucrats who point out weaknesses, ducking responsibility by proroguing Parliament and stretching the limits of one’s power … It’s quite another, however, to achieve laudable ends by actually leading the nation to those goals. Mr. Harper, although incredibly successful as a politician and tactician, has failed to lead Canada on almost every file.”

Michael Bublé and Argentinean actress Luisana Loreley Lopilato de la Torre reportedly have their sights set on a walk down the aisle.

Finally, on Canada’s Pacific coast, our congratulations as well to the early 21st century crooner Michael Bublé, on his engagement to Argentinean actress Luisana Loreley Lopilato de la Torre. As another local Canadian newspaper has explained: “Vancouver’s Michael Bublé is feeling some Crazy Love – for his new fiancée.”

(And “Crazy Love” of course “released in 2009, is Canadian vocalist Michael Bublé’s fourth studio album. After only three days of sales, the album opened atop the Billboard 200 chart with 132,000 copies …  giving the singer his second No. 1 album. Spending the first full week at the top, the album increased in sales to 203,000 copies, staying again with the number one spot on its second week. The album [has now] sold 3,338,000 copies since it’s release.” No wonder Ms. Lopilato de la Torre from Argentina is impressed.)