FEBRUARY 28, 2012. Today marks the 60th anniversary of the swearing-in of Vincent Massey as “the first Canadian” Governor General of Canada. (“Until 1952, Governors General were British. The 1952 installation of Vincent Massey, the first Canadian to hold the office, reflected Canada’s new sense of autonomy and identity in the post-war era.”) In our […]

[UPDATED FEBRUARY 23]. It is now a mere 30 days to the big New Democratic Party of Canada leadership vote, on March 24, 2012 – at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building, 222 Bremner Blvd. (Not the nicest address in Canada’s most hated city, but close to the lake in case a need arises […]

Stephen Harper’s new passion for restoring the British monarchy to the kind of position it enjoyed in Canada before the Second World War may be impressing a few people in other parts of the global village today. But others who watch Canadian current events remain unconvinced. On Saturday, February 4, 2012, eg, Greg Barns and […]

As we note in our latest update of our “Streetcar Named Rob Ford” feature, the Toronto Star resident urbanologist  Christopher Hume recently declared that :  “Just a year into his term, three left to go, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is a spent force.” We think ourselves that this is something of an exaggeration – though […]

Internal website statistics showing a sudden burst of fresh interest in a blog we did on the last Australian federal election (“You can’t blame Bloc Québécois for no majority government in Land of Oz,”Â  Aug 23rd, 2010) has clued us in to fresh political hi-jinks in the exotic deep southern geography of  billabongs, coolabah trees, […]

[UPDATED JANUARY 18]. The main event in Canadian progressive politics this week is the biennial convention of the federal Liberals in Ottawa – Friday, January 13 to Sunday, January 15.  Our first big hope here is that the Grits in their wisdom vote YES for resolution 114 : “Canadian Identity in the 21st Century … […]

By this point we no longer remember how our Zzzzzzzzzzzzz department – on the bar at the top of the page in the Home mode: “Links to recent news for those who really cannot get to sleep” – got started in the first place. But we do know that it has been woefully out of […]

So … we have just learned that “Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall will be touring Canada as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations marking her 60 years on the British throne,” this coming May 2012. For many Canadians (and we confess we are among them), this is just yet […]

Strictly speaking, counterweights turned seven years old this past summer. Our very first full-length article, “John Ibbitson’s next Canada” (by Randall White) appeared on August 19, 2004. We very quietly marked our seventh birthday, as it were, with “Just what was PM Harper thinking .. how about ‘Canadian Navy, Air Force Name Change Divides NDP […]

So … this just in from the Canadian Press: “Pakistani actress Veena Malik is suing a popular Indian men’s magazine for millions of dollars, accusing it of publishing photos she says were doctored to make her appear nude, her lawyer said Monday.” We here are interested, because we used two of these photos this past […]