OTTAWA. AUGUST 15, 2008. [UPDATED AUGUST 18]. So now Canada’s Conservative minority Prime Minister Stephen Harper “hints he may force election,” “threatens election to end ‘dysfunction’,” and/or “hints he will engineer his government’s defeat, trigger fall election.” At the same time, a new poll suggests the Conservatives “could have difficulty maintaining their minority government, much […]

The “Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday [August 4] shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when leaners’ are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%. … This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically […]

According to a report in the June 27 Globe and Mail: “Anger at soaring gas prices has supplanted fear about global warming as the No. 1 issue Canadians say is facing their country …The environment, last year’s top issue, has been pushed to No. 3 … This shift could make it more difficult for Liberal […]

Pavilion Lake, BC is about 420 kilometers northeast of Vancouver – in Marble Canyon not far west of Kamloops, and “within the traditional territory of the Ts’kw’aylaxw people, and the Pavilion First Nations Indian Band.” Especially this time of year, the lake is “clear … and warm … surrounded by large old growth fir trees, […]

In the midst of the manufacturing blues, and the rise of the new petro resource dynamism in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and even Newfoundland, Jim Balsillie’s Research In Motion, inventor of the amazing BlackBerry, is one thing that says Southern Ontario still has an interesting future. So when Mr. Balsillie tells the Canadian Press annual dinner that “Canadians […]

[UPDATED MAY 1]. In fact, most people of Canada long ago lost interest in the date of their next federal election. And Angelo Persichilli at the Hill Times has caught the current jaded mood even among political junkies: “Want to know when the next election will be? Call the RCMP … a month ago I […]

A dozen days before the Canadian federal election that brought the present Harper Conservative minority government to office, Gillian Wong of the Associated Press reported on how: “US billionaire philanthropist George Soros said … that Singapore could not be an open society as long as its leaders used libel suits against opposition politicians … The use of […]

UPDATED JANUARY 22. Like others up here in the land of ice and snow, we were mostly waiting for the (somewhat disappointing?) next installment of the US Democratic primaries at the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, January 19. But back home there’s also John Manley’s report on Canada’s future role in the NATO Afghanistan mission on January […]

UPDATED JANUARY 21. TORONTO. Just as we are trying to figure out what the Liberals and New Democrats may or may not be doing to prepare for a possible Canadian federal election soon enough, more exotic news arrives from the Wet Coast. The lead item is a January 14 article by Ian Mulgrew in the Vancouver […]

In sober retrospect, it seemed just too improbable that Barack Obama would go from months of running well behind Hillary Clinton in the national opinion polls to suddenly dominating the US Democratic primaries. And it was. You can take your pick from the headlines: from “McCain and Clinton Win in N.H. In Major Comebacks” (Washington Post) to “Clinton […]