On Canada Day a young man’s thoughts – or woman’s of course – turn to … well, Canada. And Canada, the late Robertson Davies used to tell anyone who might be listening is “the kind of country you worry about.” On Canada Day 2006 it seems wisest to concentrate on Canada in its deepest and […]
SATURDAY, JUNE 17. GRAND BEND. Southwestern Ontario is the part of Ontario that is least like what some people think Ontario is like. Right now it is most famous for the aggressive Six Nations Iroquois land-claim protest in Caledonia, Haldimand County, and the Bandidos biker massacre near Shedden and Iona Station in Elgin County. And […]
Observers of the new Western quiet revolution in Canadian federal politics have now had time to catch a little breath. And it seems increasingly apparent that, yet again, the most surprisingly ironic things are happening in Quebec. It shouldn’t be surprising that Stephen Harper’s first Conservative minority budget will be sailing through Parliament this evening, compliments of […]
It is being called “the worst mass murder in Ontario history” even by the media in the US and Australia. When it first hit the news the Ontario Provincial Police stressed that the eight victims were from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). But as the plot thickens the story may be more notable for its country roots. One of […]
It is interesting to compare the throne speech that Governor General Adrienne Clarkson read on behalf of Paul Martin’s new Liberal minority government, at the opening of the 38th Parliament of Canada on October 5, 2004, with the throne speech that Governor General Michaelle Jean has just read on behalf of Stephen Harper’s new Conservative […]
It is an inescapable part of Canada’s fate that it lives right next door to the pioneering democracy of the United States of America. And, according to Akhil Reed Amar’s recent much-praised book on the subject, the Constitution of the United States, as officially adopted on June 21, 1788, is “one of the most important […]
The Ad Hoc East Toronto Republican Constitution Committee has prepared some preliminary working notes on a draft strategy for shorter-term republican political reform and longer-term constitutional reform in Canada. If you would like to comment or raise queries use the form at the end of the text below. The notes focus on retiring the current elusive “constitutional […]
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2006. FIRST DAY OF THE 39TH PARLIAMENT OF CANADA. As strange as it may seem, in theory the ultimate source of sovereign authority in Canada even in the year 2006 is still Queen Elizabeth II, who lives in Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom. She is a remarkable lady. But carrying on […]
Even if you agree that the Canadian people in their collective wisdom made a shrewd and possibly even cunning decision on January 23, from one end of the ideological spectrum there was also an inevitable sadness. Say whatever else you like, Canada has now lost its quiet distinction as one North American place where some version of the progressive cause […]
Pornography on the Internet, like pornography anywhere else, starts out with marks against it. And you don’t have to experiment much to discover that some of it is appalling. Voyeurweb.com, however, is different. It is much more in the spirit of the poet e.e. cummings’s immortal couplet: “a pretty girl who naked is / is […]
