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 […]
Canadians watching the beginnings of what the hyperbolic right is calling World War III (or IV) on US TV have a right to be a bit puzzled by the news that there are only an “estimated 25,000 Americans … in Lebanon.” According to the local media in Canada, “officials estimate that at least 50,000 Canadians” […]
HONEY HARBOUR, ON. Nothing is supposed to happen up here in the summer. But of course it does. This can even be a good time to sneak through somewhat strange messages in the news. So Canadian federal finance minister Jim Flaherty has announced that a mysterious international financial watchdog called the Egmont Group will be […]
The news from Mexico that some have been waiting for since the evening of this past Sunday, July 2 finally arrived in the late afternoon of Thursday, July 6. With all 41 million votes apparently now properly counted, Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party has 35.88%. Lopez Obrador of the left-wing Democratic Revolution […]
The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is slyly asking people to grade new minority Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first five months in office, on what passes in English-speaking Canada for national TV. In our book Mr. Harper himself could be graded as high as C+. Whatever else, he has at least tried to gain ground […]
