All entries by this author

If Justin Trudeau’s party took old Liberal approach to Canadian sovereignty, urging goodbye to British monarchy, it might do better in polls (& India too?)!

Sep 15th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 19, 2023. 2:30 AM ET. RANDALL WHITE, TORONTO. Yesterday Canadian PM Justin Trudeau provided some deep background on his most recent disagreements with PM Narendra Modi in India. (Note my original post here for September 15, far below!) See, eg, John Paul Tasker at CBC on “Trudeau accuses India’s government of involvement in […]



Farewell to the slippery summer of 2023 — pointing in so many new directions at once, around the global village ??

Sep 4th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO . LABOUR DAY, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2023. This is the last day of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto — sibling of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) in Vancouver, which also ends today. In my personal Toronto history the last day at the Ex starts with […]



What Fani Willis has done in Georgia means that Donald Trump is finally not going to get away with his un-creative destruction of democracy in America

Aug 22nd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO . TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2023. There have been, I think, two main channels in my deep attraction to Fani Willis’s “Overwhelming Show of Force…Shock and Awe” fourth Indictment of Donald Trump, for his Georgia misdeeds in the 2020 US presidential election. The first channel is just Ms […]



RIP Happy Warrior of Canadian politics — who spoke with a broader voice that needs to be louder in the 2020s.

Aug 12th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2023. I did not know Hugh Segal personally. I never met him face to face. The closest I came was when my real-world acquaintances among Ontario bureaucrats urged that some document under discussion betrayed the Hugh Segal touch. I have, on the other hand, read and even […]



Trump 2020 election indictment and Trudeau separation — so much for “nothing serious happens in summer”

Aug 3rd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO . THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 2023. We had just arrived home from a short late-July adventure in the northern woods. Suddenly the TV and all other mainstream mass media were reporting that “Trump indicted for efforts to overturn 2020 election and block transfer of power.” Then the next […]



Summer 2023 : some small good news from Westminster in the UK

Jul 23rd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SUNDAY JULY 23, 2023. There was a time in these parts when more than a few citizens of the modern Canadian democracy still looked up to the political culture of the United Kingdom. In my mind (in casual gear at any rate) all this is still vaguely reflected in the […]



Is downtown Toronto on its way out?

Jul 14th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2023. To start with, Joyeux quatorze juillet et Bonne Fete Nationale! (Or in the American language Happy Bastille Day.) Meanwhile, on the morning of Tuesday, July 11, 2023 my business partner and I went on a downtown Toronto excursion to test the argument that […]



Will Olivia Chow become new Mayor of Toronto — and will Yevgeny Prigozhin still be alive when she runs again??

Jun 26th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2023, 2:00 AM EDT. UPDATED 10:30 PM EDT. The unusual Toronto mayoralty byelection is the big local political event today. It already seems almost clear enough, however, that left-wing progressive Olivia Chow will be the city’s next mayor. The biggest news will be if […]



Why one Phil Nimmons at 100 is worth 74 million Donald Trumps (at almost 77)

Jun 10th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2023. As I start writing it’s about 11:30 PM ET on June 8. I’m finishing, after a break for sleep, meals, and whatnot, about 11:30 PM ET, June 9. (Even if all this does not finally get posted till the early morning of Saturday, […]



Governor General welcomes President of Iceland on state visit (and we the people wonder about alternative models of Canadian head of state)

May 28th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2023. For most Canadians the big political drama of May 29, 2023 will be the Alberta provincial election — a duel between two feisty middle-age women on the (almost socialist?) left and (more than almost extreme conservative?) right, which may or may not surprise […]