All entries by this author

Is a federal election in Canada coming soon (and will “reconciliation with Indigenous people” be a key theme)?

Jul 13th, 2021 | By | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM THE DEMOCRATIC DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. K0L 0C1. On a grey day in the Kawarthas two or possibly even three big political questions float on the clouds. (While even with the sun not shining the government tourism ad is strangely truthful : “You never forget the feeling of summer in Ontario.”) […]



Have the Doug Ford Conservatives just made a major miscalculation – using the notwithstanding clause to trash democratic rights?

Jun 14th, 2021 | By | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM THE DEMOCRATIC DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 2021. A great many individuals and organizations down in The Smoke (also capital city of Canada’s most populous province) are up in arms today. Using the so-called “notwithstanding clause” in section 33 of the Constitution Act, 1982, the Ford government is going […]



Checking in on Premier Doug Ford as the COVID-19 numbers get better in Ontario (and Alberta, if not Manitoba)

May 27th, 2021 | By | Category: In Brief

MORE NOTES FROM THE DEMOCRATIC DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021. In some ways the Doug Ford who spoke to the people of Ontario via TV on Thursday, May 20, 2021 was different from the Doug Ford who had addressed the same democratic audience on Friday, April 30. Back last month […]



Just starting to probe the mystery of Doug Ford in Canada’s most populous province

May 2nd, 2021 | By | Category: In Brief

SPRING NOTES FROM THE DEMOCRATIC DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. Some of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s continuing rural, small town, exurban, and other supporters may have found it reassuring that the location from which he gave his April 30, 2021 virtual news conference did not look at all like even the suburbs of today’s […]



Commonwealth today not what it used to be in Canada – and it may have a bigger future than we imagine?

Mar 30th, 2021 | By | Category: In Brief

FROM THE DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. Evan Dyer on the CBC News site had an interesting column this past Saturday, called “Is the pandemic killing the idea of the Commonwealth? … It was COVID-19 – not Harry and Meghan – that revealed the lack of any real connection between former colonies.” According to […]



New Valentine’s Day Massacres 2021 in the United States and Canada

Feb 14th, 2021 | By | Category: In Brief

CITIZEN X REPORTING FROM BUFFALO, NY AND FORT ERIE, ON. For me the most striking new thing revealed in the latest evidence from the second Trump impeachment trial in the US Senate was that at least one Canadian flag was on display during the wild invasion of the federal Capitol in Washington, DC on January […]



Citizen X plays fanfare for the common man on the weird year 2020

Dec 15th, 2020 | By | Category: In Brief

FROM THE DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON., DECEMBER 15, 2020, 2AM ET : Over the past few years the counterweights editors have commemorated the end of another year on what remains a Western (if also African) Christian calendar (even when it’s called “Common Era”) by posting links to this political blogazine’s most popular articles […]



Waiting for the 2020 US election from just across the lake (while also thinking about Canadian public finance)

Nov 1st, 2020 | By | Category: In Brief

FROM THE DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. NOVEMBER 1, 2020. One thing Canadians never quite understand about their friendly-giant neighbours in the USA is how they ever manage to remember even the bare political geography of their federal system. Memorizing the 10 provinces of Canada and their capital cities at school or otherwise takes […]



Late August 2020 : Universal Basic Income, Conservative Party of Canada, and climate-change wildfires in California

Aug 25th, 2020 | By | Category: In Brief

FROM CITIZEN X ON STAYCATION IN EAST YORK CONDO. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020. 10:45 PM ET/7:45 PM PT. We do live in uncertain times. Just as I was stumbling across welcome news that some Canadian New Democrats are contemplating a workable Universal Basic (or Guaranteed) Income, I also stumbled across less happy evidence on the […]



Why “Gone Fishing” still seems the most sensible response to the midsummer madness of the WE imbroglio in Ottawa

Jul 31st, 2020 | By | Category: In Brief

EMAIL FROM CITIZEN X, OLD SANDY COVE, ON : Marie-Danielle Smith at Maclean’s has published two different accounts of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unusual appearance before the Finance Committee of the Canadian House of Commons yesterday. One – the more drearily conventional (and overly rhetorical) – is called : “Three key takeaways from Justin Trudeau’s […]