Archive for May 2023

Is Alberta stuck with a “quasi-party system” that only (united) conservatives can finally master?

May 31st, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. MAY 30, 31, 2023. If the question was will the May 29 election in the fourth-largest, oil-and-gas-rich Canadian province of Alberta be more like the May 14 election in Thailand (vaguely progressive, maybe), or the May 14 and 28 elections in Turkey (quite conservative), the clear answer is the still intriguing […]



Governor General welcomes President of Iceland on state visit (and we the people wonder about alternative models of Canadian head of state)

May 28th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2023. For most Canadians the big political drama of May 29, 2023 will be the Alberta provincial election — a duel between two feisty middle-age women on the (almost socialist?) left and (more than almost extreme conservative?) right, which may or may not surprise […]



Elections, elections, elections … what’s happening to democracy in Turkey, Thailand, and Alberta today?

May 18th, 2023 | By | Category: Countries of the World

SPECIAL FROM L. FRANK BUNTING, GRAND BEND, ON. 18 MAY 2023. My only first-hand memories of Turkey go back almost 16 years, to the early fall of 2007. It was just after the big second victory of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the July 22 election that year. But it was […]



Offshore Coronation : last leg of long journey to Canadian republic begins

May 6th, 2023 | By | Category: Canadian Republic

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. MAY 6, 2023. Almost by accident we have stumbled across a (for us) especially sensible way of commemorating the events of today back in the old imperial metropolis across the seas. Recently our colleague Randall White completed the last or concluding draft chapter of his political-history work in progress, Children of […]



Epilogue : the near future

May 5th, 2023 | By | Category: Heritage Now

This is the last or concluding draft chapter of Randall White’s political-history work in progress, Children of the Global Village : Democracy in Canada Since 1497. A final version will be published in hard copy by eastendbooks in the near future. * * * * There is no doubt more than one story of democracy […]