Archive for April 2015

All those things that don’t change in Alberta .. or do they, at last – blowing in the four strong winds ??

Apr 29th, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

Just before midnight, at this past new year’s eve party in beautiful downtown East Toronto, who would have thought that an Alberta provincial election would suddenly be the most gripping event on the Canadian political landscape in the first half of 2015? Remember : we’ve already been fooled once in this game. And, as George […]



Week of May 3—9 full of conceivably instructive democratic elections for Ontario political junkies

Apr 24th, 2015 | By | Category: In Brief

Not much more than a week from now, political junkies in Canada’s most populous province of Ontario will be able to wend their arrogant ways through a maze of conceivably instructive local, regional, and international democratic elections : (1) At least a local prelude to the wider excitement will start on Sunday, May 3, when […]



A new moment of truth for Justin Trudeau .. what will he do?

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

This past Wednesday Éric Grenier almost dramatically announced on the CBC News site : “Justin Trudeau’s Liberals lose lead to Tories for 1st time in 2 years.” The helpful chart that traces opinion polls on Canadian federal politics since the last election in May 2011 – in the Wikipedia article “Opinion polling for the 42nd […]



Blue Jays 2015 .. long winter into drought that may be ending very soon!

Apr 11th, 2015 | By | Category: Sporting Life

As the Blue Jays head north after one of the longest winters in recent memory, they come loaded with baggage and a lot of questions.  Baggage in the sense that they now carry the longest playoff drought (21 yrs.) of any of the 124 teams in the four North American major sports.  Compounded by questions […]



Harold Innis’s case for Canadian Senate reform in the 1940s

Apr 10th, 2015 | By | Category: Key Current Issues

The ongoing trial of suspended Canadian Senator Mike Duffy has reminded some of us that back in the late spring of 2013 Randall White posted a note on this site about Harold Innis’s “more or less random observations on the Senate, and the related issue of Canadian regionalism” – which, taken together, “add up to […]



English-speaking Canada before 1763

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

Canadian history would be easier to digest if its main story-line was just that the French and Indians began the modern country in the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries, and then the British monarchy and its rising global empire took it over at the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham, as […]



The Senate reform elephant in the room at the Mike Duffy trial ..

Apr 7th, 2015 | By | Category: Ottawa Scene

The world being what it is at the moment, even (or especially?) in Canada, it is difficult not to be  at least somewhat cynical about the trial of the suspended senator Mike Duffy, that starts in an Ottawa courtroom today. From this angle Andrew Coyne strikes the right note in a National Post article, headlined […]



Of course as current third party the NDP is bound to talk up some kind of Liberal-NDP co-operation, but ..

Apr 3rd, 2015 | By | Category: Ottawa Scene

Moving into the second quarter of 2015 may remind political junkies that the much anticipated Canadian federal election this year will probably come in the early fourth quarter. So, as some wise guys argue, the election is still six months away. Things looked different six months ago than they do now. Who knows just how […]