In the 1930s the local historian (and private school Latin teacher) Percy Robinson – author of the still invaluable Toronto during the French Regime, 1615—1793 – called Toronto, Ontario, Canada (all North American indigenous words) “the citadel of British sentiment in America.” On a somewhat earlier and more extreme, possibly even exaggerated variation on the […]

MARCH 5, 2016. TORONTO, ON. For several days my morning TV news has been harshly reminding me that the Toronto Maple Leafs (in my hometown, I will quietly confess at the start) are the worst team in the entire National Hockey League/Ligue nationale de hockey. The NHL/LNH is now a much bigger operation than it […]

“The Shadow of Your Smile” was one of the last enduring popular songs in the tradition of the Great American Songbook – whose truest heyday was “from the 1920s to the 1950s.” With music by Johnny Mandel and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, it first appeared in 1965, as the Academy Award winning Best Original […]

I don’t have a lot to say about David Letterman. (Ed NOTE: Mr. Dominic Berry then goes on for another 750 words or more, but hey… it is the end of an era.) I think I have watched his late night TV show since it began, not exactly always but often. Though, like others it […]

Ontario election polls may be starting to suggest some emerging consistent if still quite uncertain story. The great poll aggregator Eric Grenier offers the snappiest summary : “close race.” The latest “CP24/CTV Ipsos Reid poll of 868 Ontarians has determined that the Liberals now enjoy the support of 34 % of decided voters (up three […]

Despite our alleged provincial flag, we don’t follow British politics across the pond the way we used to, in 21st century Ontario. If we did, we wouldn’t be so perplexed by the shift in direction Andrea Horwath is finally trying to bring to our regional (local?) social democrats. (See, eg: “Ontario election: Traditional NDP supporters […]

If it is true, as Citizen X will apparently be vaguely alluding to in these pages soon, that 1963 was “The Year Everything Happened,” then it may also be true that 2013 – an even half century later – has been The Year Everything Crazy Happened. Assuming this is at least half-true, I herewith hastily […]

Until today it almost seemed that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had managed to put most of his troubles behind him. Like it or not, there is a real Ford nation. The mayor of Canada’s current biggest city speaks in a voice that more than a few of we-the-people who usually feel left out of public […]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013. GANATSEKWYAGON, ONTARIO, CANADA. Today marks the funeral of the fabled Iron Lady back in the old imperial metropolis across the sea. And according to Matthew Coutts at the Daily Brew :”Canadian Conservative leaders including Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in attendance when Margaret Thatcher, the woman some consider the mother […]

This past Sunday night, in between David Starkey’s tidy explanations of the start of the authentic British (as opposed to just English) monarchy, on TV Ontario, and the premiere episode of Vikings on the History Channel, we dipped into the first Canadian Screen Awards on CBC. A half dozen domestic headlines –  from the Pacific […]