Archive for 2011

RIP .. Elwy Yost and Amy Winehouse .. two very different lives and deaths

Jul 23rd, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

Beyond their shared humanity, Elwy Yost, the Canadian former host of the TV Ontario show Saturday Night at the Movies, and Amy Winehouse, the English “singer-songwriter, known for her powerful contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres,” had almost nothing in common – except that they both died during the third full week […]



Catching up with UK hacking scandal .. Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade/Mrs. Ross Kemp) and Wendi Deng Murdoch!

Jul 21st, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

TORONTO, CANADA. JULY 21, 2011. My first reaction when the latest and apparently most serious phase of the UK “phone hacking scandal” hit the local press a few weeks ago was: when will the new international management at the Globe and Mail discover that Canada is no longer the first self-governing dominion of the British […]



Bored to death in Ontario government and politics .. or do strange surprises lie ahead, after all this heat?

Jul 18th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

“Tell me why this coming Ontario election isn’t going to bore me to death,” a friend  who pays only a respectable citizen’s dutiful attention to politics asked a few weeks ago. And I’ve been trying to come up with a suitable response ever since. Right now, with the headline “Northern Ontario battles 92 wildfires as […]



What a difference a decade makes .. why are Sun newspapers dragging up PM Harper on bilingualism 6 May 2001?

Jul 15th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

You might wonder why today’s Toronto Sun includes “an edited version of a column that originally appeared in the Calgary Sun in 2001” –  by a Stephen Harper who was then merely the  president of the National Citizens’ Coalition. (For the record, it should be noted that the same  “edited version of a column” etc […]



Case of the vanishing gravy train … Has the Tory Toronto revival hit a bump in the road already?

Jul 13th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

I have vast respect for Bob Hepburn at the Toronto Star. But I was sceptical about his argument two weeks ago in “Ford honeymoon ends with Pride snub.” Yet by the time former TTC chief general manager Michael Warren reported on “Ford Nation’s grim future” – in the same newspaper just one week ago – […]



The debt-ceiling blues .. what does latest crazy Washington game of chicken mean way up north?

Jul 11th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED JULY 12, 2011]. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is apparently abandoning “effort for $4 trillion in deficit reductions … in the face of stiff GOP opposition to any plan that would increase taxes as part of the deal.” But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky) has nonetheless declared that “Nobody is […]



Three cheers for creeping republicanism in Canada .. one day it will turn us into a real country!

Jul 8th, 2011 | By | Category: Canadian Republic

FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2011, 11 AM PT. As reported by the Los Angeles Times: “Prince William and his wife, Catherine … will arrive at Los Angeles International Airport in the late afternoon, where they will be greeted by California Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; and the […]



The “strong republican streak among Canadians” today will still be there when William and Catherine go home!

Jul 4th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

As the Ottawa Citizen has just noted, “opinion surveys have long uncovered a strong republican streak among Canadians.” So what are those of us who do not at all care for the British monarchy in Canada to make of the great flood of commentary on the monarchy’s Canadian future, induced by the current North American […]



Happy birthday Canada 2011 .. no relics of the 19th century can stop you now

Jul 1st, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

The “pattern of Canada,” the preface to the much-praised 1987 first volume of the Historical Atlas of Canada tells us, “has been taking shape for almost 500 years and by New World standards is old.” Just a few pages later, Plate 1 on “The Last Ice Sheets, 18,000—10,000 BC” can prompt the thought that our […]



Saying yes to Canada by voting no … two cheers for the death of the TMX-LSE merger deal

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

Shortly before 1 PM ET today it was announced that the “proposed merger of the TMX Group Inc. with the London Stock Exchange Group PLC is dead.” As explained by the official TMX statement: “TMX Group Inc. has agreed with London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG) to terminate their merger agreement … A majority of […]