Today is the 60th anniversary of the official founding of the modern Chinese state, when Mao Zedong (1893—1976) made the now historic declaration: “China has stood up!” Memories of Mao in the 20th century don’t have a lot to do with what is going on in China in the early 21st century. But just who […]
[UPDATED OCTOBER 1, 3, 20]. Yesterday Canada’s so-called Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, surrendered to authorities at the BC Supreme Court. He is now in a Canadian jail awaiting extradition to the United States, on a 2005 charge of selling marijuana seeds to US customers through the mail. The “US Attorney’s Office is pressing for […]
TORONTO. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009. [UPDATED SEPTEMBER 28]. Both Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail and Ralph Surette of the Halifax Chronicle Herald have shown some special sympathy for Jack Layton and his New Democrats lately – in the midst of their new marriage of convenience with the definitely non-progressive Harper Conservatives. But who […]
PITTSBURGH, PA. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009. [UPDATED SEPTEMBER 25 and SEPTEMBER 26].What is the G20 that is meeting today and tomorrow in this reviving old US rust-belt city on the site of the mid 18th century French Fort Duquesne, at the junction of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers? Well … to start with it […]
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1:30 PM EDT. [UPDATED SEPTEMBER 17]: The New Democrats have now made clear that they will join the Bloc Quebecois in supporting the Conservative minority government’s ways and means budget motion this Friday, September 18. Only a little reading between the lines of NDP spokesperson Thomas Mulcair’s remarks also suggests that his […]
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009. 4:30 PM EDT. Well, well, well … Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe has now officially announced that his party will support the Harper minority government’s ways and means budget motion this coming Friday, September 18 – and thus at least avert yet another Canadian federal election in the utterly immediate future. […]
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2009. 5:00 PM EDT. [UPDATED 11:00 PM EDT; SEPTEMBER 18; OCTOBER 9]. So the federal Parliament of Canada has now reconvened on the banks of the Ottawa River. In question period today Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff aptly enough told Conservative minority Prime Minister Stephen Harper that “the problem of instability is you.” […]
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2009. Exactly 250 years ago today the residents of Quebec City awoke to find some 4,000 British soldiers waiting to do battle on the flat open space at the top of the cliffs, known as the Plains of Abraham. And this finally proved the penultimate act of what is still called la […]
[UPDATED MARCH 18, 2011]. According to Jennifer Ditchburn, just after dinner (in Ottawa at least) last night: “A critical vote that could bring down the minority Conservative government has been tentatively scheduled for next Friday, sources tell The Canadian Press … Conservative sources say the motion is likely to be introduced on Sept. 18, and […]
It is still not altogether clear that there will actually be a Canadian federal election this fall. But two contradictory trends have developed over the past few days, as all who are still interested await the return of Parliament on Monday, September 14. First, among those closest to the ground in Ottawa there appears to […]
