UPDATED NOVEMBER 9. According to Canada’s self-confessed national newspaper, as originally reported by the indispensable Associated Press, the “best face” George W. Bush’s spokesman Tony Snow could put on the (now altogether clear) results of the US mid-term elections was “some people saw it coming. It was not a a slap-on-the-forehead kind of shock.’” Just slapping […]

It is a certainty that the American people will be voting this coming November 7. And who knows what wonders may be wrought? But the latest gurglings from Ottawa suggest that the Canadian people could be waiting quite a while longer. (And seeing that the last Canadian federal election was less than nine months ago, […]

Canadian thanksgiving, up north where the leaves fall from the trees earlier in the colder weather, is not quite the national holiday it is several weeks later in the USA. But this year we have at least had some reminders of just how confusing what Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just called the “unique history […]

MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2006. 10:30 AM. [OCTOBER 3 UPDATE AND RESULTS AS OF OCTOBER 5 ADDED]. With more than 85% of the so-called super-weekend results calculated for convention delegates in the Canadian federal Liberal leadership race, Michael Ignatieff enjoys a tidy if far from overwhelming lead. Bob Rae is in a clear second place, with Gerard Kennedy and […]

It is impossible to keep track of everything on the media cornucopia that haunts North America these days, perhaps especially when you live in Canada. So some of us may be pardoned if we have only recently ever heard of Keith Olbermann at MSNBC. On September 26, 2006, in any case, Mr. Olbermann told whoever […]

Not too long ago, it almost looked as if a tricky vote on the Harper minority government’s softwood lumber deal with the USA today might monopolize the drama when the Parliament of Canada returns to work on Monday, September 18. But it now seems that, here as elsewhere, the Bloc Quebecois will probably keep the […]

As an official national holiday Labour Day (or Labor Day) will be 112 years old this year, in both Canada and the United States. And as Harold Meyerson has nicely explained in the Washington Post, those who started it in the later 19th century would almost certainly not be too happy about Labour Day 2006. […]

This week, on August 23, under the intriguing headline “TAMILS SAID THEY WERE GOING TO STAG PARTY,” the Toronto Globe and Mail cast some light on a current brand of alleged international terrorism that does not involve Islamist fantasies, Al-Qaida, or the Middle East. Here as elsewhere, Canada has distinguished itself from the elephant next […]

The foiled British terror threat that put places as far away as northern California “ON ALERT” last week is bound to remind Canadians of their own foiled terror threat only two months back. Yet last summer “Islamist” terrorists of some sort actually did bomb the London transit system. And that, among other things, gives the […]

ST. JOHN’S, NL. FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2006. The annual mid-summer gathering of the Canadian provincial premiers and territorial leaders (a.k.a. “The Council of the Federation“) provided some slight relief from the troubles of the Middle East, for any resident Canadian citizens still paying attention. The provincial and territorial leaders failed to solve the problem of “fiscal imbalance” in […]