There must be something to the recurrent suggestions this year that Stephen Harper will (well, may, at least) resign as Prime Minister of Canada and Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, on his own initiative at some point in the not too distant future. This past March we reported on the TV Ontario political […]
This Friday, November 22, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, shortly after noon (Central Standard Time), as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. George Skelton recalls, in the Los Angeles Times : “Most folks in their mid-50s or older remember where they […]
It is now about 3 AM on the morning of November 19, 2013. And what may or may not prove to be Toronto City Council’s successful attempt yesterday to deal with the Jones brothers’ strange new concept of democracy in northern North America lingers on. (Oh and you should know, if you don’t already, that […]
We decided a while ago that paying too much attention to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford just encourages him. And we retired our ”Streetcar Named Rob Ford” page this past spring. Yet it does seem to be one of Mayor Ford’s talents that just when you sensibly decide to forget his antics until the next election […]
The “About” section at the top of the page explains that this site “was launched in the summer of 2004, in response to a dockside debate in the northern woods. The current counterweights editors are committed to carrying on for at least a full decade (until the summer of 2014, that is) – and possibly […]
What a week! As we write the proroguing Harper government is scheduled to present an allegedly six-point throne speech at 5 PM ET. And it finally seems that there is serious hope for an at least temporary deal to end the almost unbelievable dysfunctional deadlock in Washington. Meanwhile, others at street level are working to […]
If you are the kind of Canadian who avidly follows American politics from the safe distance of your TV set, you will know that another Armageddon is about to be unleashed in the Excited States. (Well, probably. Nothing will be dead certain until Tuesday.) For the mind-numbing details consult, eg, “As government shutdown nears, lawmakers […]
We are reluctant to give too much credit for anything to the Harper government in Ottawa (to say nothing of federal finance minister Jim Flaherty). But today’s surprising announcement that the “federal, Ontario and British Columbia governments … have agreed to establish a co-operative securities regulator” qualifies as an unavoidable exception to the rule. As […]
In theory the Nova Scotia provincial election this coming Tuesday, October 8 will be a test of the province’s first New Democrat government under Darrell Dexter. Dexter’s governing New Democrats were elected on June 9, 2009. By all traditional measures this was a massive breakthrough – the first ever NDP provincial government in Atlantic Canada, […]
Yesterday a Toronto Star editorial opined : “Welcome to the world, eight-pound, six-ounce royal baby boy. While untold others were born on the same day to equally excited parents, no one else is third in line to the throne …” (Ultimately, the future George VII of some place, it has subsequently become clear.) At the […]
