Our Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper is supposed to be making a big cabinet shuffle this week, but I couldn’t care less. He is the only important person in his cabinet. And how many times can he shuffle himself? Anyway, it has been hot and humid in the summer in the city. We’ve had unexpected […]
As I start to write here in northern North America, the headlines from the old heartland of the Ottoman empire far away, between the Mediterranean and Black seas, are not encouraging. (See : “Police lock down Taksim, PM shows off in Istanbul” ; “Turkish PM says it was his ‘duty’ to oust protestors occupying Istanbul […]
Kudos to Google Canada for including a “Mountie in the iconic bright red uniform and broad-brimmed hat … in front of mountains, forest and water” on its home page today, in commemoration of the “140th anniversary of the North West Mounted Police.” In case you have forgotten, the North West Mounted Police were established by […]
I was quite deeply into reading poetry (or verse, as some said), from about my late teens to my early 20s. Then the practicalities of life pushed me in other directions. I returned for a brief time in my late 30s. But fate again conspired to focus my thoughts on the more prosaic realities of […]
Recent attempts by aspiring establishments to salvage the expiring Canadian role of the British monarchy are one measure of how our political system is falling more and more out of step with what our Constitution Act, 1982 calls the “free and democratic society” in Canada today. In some ways, the amazing thing about the latest […]
I was asked by the editors to make a few remarks on the latest alleged big municipal politics scandal in the Canadian big city everyone loves to hate (including many who live there). This is meant to draw attention to “Monday 11 March 2013 : The Mayor Can’t Help It????” –Â the latest episode in […]
Like many others in the true north, strong and free, I was saddened to hear that Stompin’ Tom Connors passed away, at the age of 77, on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. I can’t pretend to be any great fan of Stompin’ Tom’s, or any kind of expert on his life and times. All I can […]
[UPDATED FEBRUARY 22]. (1) Here are some quick notes on the first (and some would say last?) throne speech of Kathleen Wynne’s new Liberal minority government in Ontario yesterday. They also serve as an update to “Ontario ‘three-party system in transition’ is back .. but can Premier Kathleen do it, at last?,” which appeared on […]
GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY8, 2013. 3 PM ET. I have now shovelled twice, and it’s still coming down. I hope the forecast that it will end early this evening is right. But even if it is, I’m guessing I‘ll be out shovelling probably two more times, at least. I can in any case appreciate the […]
As the end of the first month of 2013 looms, in the middle of yet another vaguely puzzling Canadian winter, a few less than crucial events have raised the oh-so-boring question of “Quebec independence” yet again. (Last night’s TV news videos of a flooded Sherbrooke Street in Montreal were more interesting than the NDP’s Sherbrooke […]
