Archive for January 2015

Standing up for Canadian flag’s 50th birthday .. and Sarah Palin, Emma Holten, migrants to Canada and USA

Jan 31st, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

This past January 13, on the Waterloo Region Record site,  Lee-Anne Goodman wrote : “With the 50th birthday of Canada’s beloved Maple Leaf flag just a month away, some are wondering why there’s been so little fanfare from the federal government.” One possible half-answer is that the Conservative Party of the mid 1960s, led by […]



Tales from the northern woods .. sex at the CBC, Don Cherry, Obama, Nanos numbers, Bank of Canada surprise

Jan 23rd, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day up here in the northern woods, but still cold.  And like others I’m getting a little tired of waiting for the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign to seriously begin. All the professionals (including those on this website) are saying the campaign has already begun. But if you know anyone […]



Governor General in very far north, Obama’s State of the Union, and the rainbow revolution in Sri Lanka

Jan 21st, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

So what does the Governor General of Canada actually do again? A press release from this past Monday suggests at least one thing : “His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, is visiting Canadian Armed Forces members and civilians at Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert, Canada’s most northerly military […]



Are the Harper Conservatives really en route to improving their re-election chances by leaps and bounds ????

Jan 17th, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

If you have been in any way distressed by this past Thursday’s Global News headline on the Canadian federal election this year,  “Conservatives pull ahead of Liberals, could be on cusp of majority: poll,” take heart. There is at least some countervailing good/bad news. To start with, the poll in question – which reports Conservatives […]



France in Canada‘s past – and its own future in the 21st century ..

Jan 10th, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

We are glad to hear that the French flag has been “flying outside Toronto’s city hall … in solidarity with the people of France.” And we were pleased to read about how “Toronto’s French community gathers for Charlie Hebdo vigil … Facebook group summons demonstrators to consulate Wednesday to declare ‘Je suis Charlie’ after massacre […]



France in America and the first people who called themselves Canadians

Jan 10th, 2015 | By | Category: Heritage Now

Modern Canada begins with contact between North American Indigenous peoples and seaborne Europeans in the 16th century. (There was earlier contact of this sort, more than a half century before the 1066 Norman Conquest in England — as described by Plate 16 in the 1987 first volume of the Historical Atlas of Canada, on “Norse […]



Catching up with Downton Abbey .. season five makes you realize the beauty of Michelle Dockery

Jan 6th, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

This past Sunday evening I and my regular TV watching partner, along with millions of other viewers in North America, took in the fifth season premiere of “‘Downton Abbey’ … the PBS hit about dressing for dinner” (Melinda Henneberger). At the end of the episode my TV partner and I exchanged some casual repartee on […]