Until today it almost seemed that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had managed to put most of his troubles behind him. Like it or not, there is a real Ford nation. The mayor of Canada’s current biggest city speaks in a voice that more than a few of we-the-people who usually feel left out of public […]
Who really knows just what the current chapter of the Senate expense scandal in Ottawa means right now? I would not in any way pretend that I do. At the same time, it is clear enough that the protests of Brazeau, Duffy, and Wallin in the Red Chamber over the past week of October 21—25 […]
The news that “the Harper government’s most recent attempt at Senate reform has been declared unconstitutional” by the Quebec Court of Appeal ought to remind us that our Canadian history goes so much deeper than PM Harper’s beloved British monarchy. (Which is a good thing. According to a recent poll, “younger citizens – those aged […]
The “About” section at the top of the page explains that this site “was launched in the summer of 2004, in response to a dockside debate in the northern woods. The current counterweights editors are committed to carrying on for at least a full decade (until the summer of 2014, that is) – and possibly […]
What a week! As we write the proroguing Harper government is scheduled to present an allegedly six-point throne speech at 5 PM ET. And it finally seems that there is serious hope for an at least temporary deal to end the almost unbelievable dysfunctional deadlock in Washington. Meanwhile, others at street level are working to […]
I first heard of Diane Francis’s new book, Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country, from a critical friend who is receiving the National Post as a promotional freebie. I don’t usually follow this paper. I wondered why I hadn’t heard about Merger of the Century somewhere else. But when […]
Opinion pollsters can take at least some pride in yesterday’s October 8 Nova Scotia election. Their polls had been suggesting a Liberal majority government for the past three weeks. And that’s what happened. (An Abacus Data survey with a last day of polling on October 6 even predicted the province-wide popular vote at 46% Liberal, […]
