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 […]
The Canadian House of Commons Ethics Committee delivered the best possible holiday gift to the people of Canada as it closed down for the House’s seasonal vacation at the end of this past week. For the moment at least, our peace and goodwill will not be further distracted by any more sordid revelations about Brian […]
If a diplomat is a man (or nowadays woman of course) who lies abroad for his or her country, what can a presidential press secretary in Washington DC possibly be? In any case, for a few moments this week it seemed that, as an article in the Nation proposed, former George W. Bush press secretary […]
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2007 [UPDATED NOVEMBER 8]. The Canadian dollar touched somewhat more than $1.07 US in international money market trading yesterday – said to be its highest value since the late 19th century. (It has since gone as high as $1.10, and then back to the $1.07 range.) But that’s just the half of it. […]
Whatever else, the current generation of Montreal (and Vancouver?) Trudeaus have a keen sense of timing. (And timing, grandfather Pierre once pronounced, is everything in politics.) As the Edmonton Journal has explained: “Justin Trudeau became a father shortly after noon Thursday [October 18, 2007] when his wife Sophie Gregoire gave birth to … Xavier James […]
TORONTO, SEPTEMBER 11, 2007. “This year’s 9/11 video from Al Qaeda,” we learn from the New York Times, “seemed to be intended for the Americans the group attacked six years ago: it features English subtitles and an introduction by Osama bin Laden.” What we all know now that we didn’t quite know then is that […]
“Before 1914,” the historian John Lukacs wrote in his provocative 1984 book Outgrowing Democracy: A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century, “the most renowned international currency was the British pound, and the financial capital city of the world was London; by 1918 the dollar replaced the pound, and New York, London.” Rumours […]
