Late last week Grant LaFleche at the St. Catharines Standard reported that “Tories, NDP hope to repeat federal win in Ontario.” According to Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, the federal Liberal massacre on May 2, 2011 “shows that people are tired of the same old thing, the same old parties … People are fed up […]
[UPDATED MAY 1, 3]. Assorted fresh intelligence on what Frank Graves at EKOS christened the “Orange Crush” final days of the 2011 Canadian federal election campaign has now surfaced. (Orange is the NDP’s lead colour – as well as, some historians will be amused to recall, the colour of the Orangemen, who were “Canada’s storm […]
Exactly one week ago I quoted the excellent Douglas Bell’s critical view of the 2011 Canadian federal election campaign: “my guess is that by the end of next week, the numbers will have changed dramatically.” It is now clear that, for the most part, this guess has proved plain wrong. There are a few straws […]
We are looking out on the third or middle week of the 2011 Canadian federal election campaign, with the English language leaders’ debate coming on Tuesday, April 12, and the French language debate on Thursday, April 14 (UPDATE: er, make that Wednesday, April 13 now: it turns out Montreal has an important hockey game on […]
[UPDATED MAY 3]. There was a time when people interested in politics in at least English-speaking Canada also paid attention to politics in the United Kingdom (which used to be better covered in Canadian newspapers than it is today). And in the back-to-the-future 21st century age of Stephen Harper there are a few reasons why […]
[UPDATED MARCH 22, 30]. A piece in the Vancouver Sun (and other Postmedia News outlets) that began March 21 under the headline “Report finds Tories in contempt of Parliament” ended the same day under the quite different “As Harper government faces dissolution, Layton holds most of the cards.” And it was almost entirely re-written to […]
As Stephen Harper and his party acolytes traipse across the country delivering pre-election goodies to worthy causes and places (see, eg: “PM announces support for Jean-Lesage International Airport,” “Ottawa provides $10 million for health network and hospital planning in Vaughan,” and “PM renews anti-gang funds … Will get $37.5M over five years”), he is also […]
In today’s Toronto Star Angelo Persichilli alludes once again to the prospects of Bob Rae as a future leader of the still much beleaguered Liberal Party of Canada: “I’m not saying Rae wants his party to defeat the government and force an election to accelerate the departure of his friend Michael Ignatieff.” But … Mr. […]
Today – the third Monday in February – is President’s Day (aka Washington’s Birthday) in the USA, Family Day in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, Islanders’ Day in Prince Edward Island, and Louis Riel Day in Manitoba. (And the BC Federation of Labour has recently renewed “its call to create a statutory holiday in February for […]
In 1933 the incomparable Percy Robinson published his still too-neglected minor classic, Toronto during the French Regime, 1615—1793. In the book’s last chapter he noted how, in the 1930s, the capital city of Ontario (then still only the second-largest city in Canada, behind Montreal) was “the citadel of British sentiment in America.” Over the subsequent […]
