The Liberal Party of Canada has some reasons for feeling good  at its Montreal convention this weekend.  (Eg : “Majority says it’s ‘time for another federal party to take over’: poll” ; “More Canadians share Justin Trudeau’s values: poll” ; and “Liberals open wider lead over Conservatives: poll.”) Two members of CBC TV’s most widely […]

On one theory at least, what goes on in Canada’s federal parliament is crucial to the vitality of our parliamentary democracy. Whatever else, it forms a convenient framework for professional media coverage of Canadian federal politics. And on an old (and now almost certainly obsolete) Anglo Central Canadian theory, hockey and federal (or as some […]

In the land of the friendly giant next door, the year began with the at least somewhat hopeful inauguration of Barack Obama’s second term. (And then ended, sadly for us at any rate, with a progressive American president in more trouble than we’d like to see.) Meanwhile, much closer to our particular home and native […]

Here in the new wild-and-crazy City of Toronto “left-wing kooks” is a term most memorably applied by the dean of Canadian hockey commentators, Don Cherry, at the inauguration of Mayor Rob Ford, some three years ago now. (As in : “Rob’s honest, he’s truthful…I say he’s going to be the greatest mayor this city has […]

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 […]