Archive for October 2011

Autumn in Silicon Valley .. the end of American exceptionalism?

Oct 31st, 2011 | By | Category: USA Today

[UPDATED MARCH 17, 2012] : At first I wasn’t sure just what to make of our autumn 2011 holiday trip to Silicon Valley, in the (despite everything else) still aptly named Golden State of the USA today. Then I bumped into two recent articles in the online edition of Foreign Policy magazine: “The Myth of […]



How to elect Governor General in Canada .. study poet Michael Higgins’ victory as new Irish President!

Oct 29th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

BBC News Europe is reporting that: “The Labour Party’s Michael D Higgins has been officially confirmed as the ninth Irish president after one of the most remarkable comebacks in the state’s history … The poet and campaigner received 701,101 first-preference votes – almost 40% of the total … His victory over one-time favourite Sean Gallagher […]



Change in Commonwealth realms and Irish presidential election .. two straws in the wind for the Canadian future

Oct 27th, 2011 | By | Category: Canadian Republic

[UPDATED OCTOBER 29]. TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011. 3PM ET. Two different events far away today (allowing that this is a slippery word in the contemporary global village) have somewhat ironically juxtaposed implications for the long-term Canadian future. Even if the Canadian mainstream media is paying remarkably little attention! “Today” viewed as Friday, […]



So far the biggest impact of PM Harper’s success in Ottawa has been in Alberta?

Oct 25th, 2011 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

For those who still think the Central Canadian mind is worth pondering, two somewhat contradictory recent Globe and Mail opinion columns on the current state of Canadian federal politics are probably worth a bit of further attention : John Ibbitson’s  “Harper’s moment to entrench Conservative politics has arrived,” in yesterday’s print edition, followed promptly today […]



Three cheers for Young Liberals of Canada and Resolution 114: “Canadian Identity in the 21st Century”!

Oct 22nd, 2011 | By | Category: Canadian Republic

If we’re going to start cheering out loud on this site, I’m giving a full three cheers for Resolution 114 at the upcoming Liberal Biennial Convention, to be held in Ottawa, January 13—15, 2012. It’s called “Canadian Identity in the 21st Century,” and has been proposed by the Young Liberals of Canada. After eight “Whereas” […]



Two cheers for Nathan Cullen’s “plan to unite the ‘left’ that just might work”?

Oct 20th, 2011 | By | Category: Key Current Issues

Not that anyone is paying much attention (right now). But we’d just like to add our voices of support (or at least special interest) for the federal NDP leadership candidacy of Nathan Cullen – MP for the vast northern BC riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley. A few weeks ago, Barbara Yaffe noted in the Vancouver Sun […]



The new major minority cabinet in Ontario ..

Oct 20th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED 4 PM]. Here is the new “Ontario Liberal Cabinet” that will be sworn in today, in the wake of the October 6, 2011 provincial election. It has a lean 22 members, down by six from its immediate predecessor’s 28: * Dalton McGuinty: Premier, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs * Jim Bradley: Minister of the Environment […]



McGuinty says no coalition (again) .. counterweights offices closed for autumn retreat, October 8—18, 2011

Oct 7th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

The last seven posts on this blog – on the October 6 Ontario election, in which Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals have now won a so-called “major minority” – have all been written by the same individual (and he is very individual). So why, you might well ask, are the rest of the counterweights editors, and other […]



The bittersweet Ontario election of 2011

Oct 7th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

On TV last night someone (Robin Sears?) called the Ontario provincial election of 2011 bittersweet for all contenders, and that seems a good summary to me. There is a chance of last-minute ups and downs as I write just short of 1 AM on the morning of October 7, but apparently not too much. As […]



Razor-thin Liberal majority in Ontario may still be the best guess (well maybe)?

Oct 5th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

GANATSEKWYAGON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011, 1:30 AM [UPDATED 12 NOON, 4:40 PM] . The Robert Ghiz Liberals have held on handsomely enough in in Canada’s least populous and geographically smallest province of Prince Edward Island (aka Abegweit and then ÃŽle Saint-Jean in earlier eras).  And Greg Selinger’s New Democrats have now done the same in […]