Late last spring Kathleen Wynne got into some trouble in some parts of her most populous province for such headlines as “Ontario’s Wynne wants to see Senate reformed” and/or “Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne wants to reform Senate, not abolish it.” At least on some accounts of the mind of Ontario, this does seem like what […]
As trained as we are to be cold and calculating in the big city, sometimes it is almost impossible not to be pleased by something in the news. My pleasure over the past few days has been (what I at least take to be) the broad public reaction to Toronto City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong’s proposal […]
Last Week Susanna Kelley at ontarionewswatch.com noted that “former Liberal MP Ken Dryden” has been pointing to “a palpable anger out there amongst the citizenry.” This probably has some heightened resonance in Canada’s most populous province. And in the same context Ms Kelley has observed : “Few with any political sense are willing to make […]
Olivia Chow has left no doubt that there is no real fire in Steve Paikin’s speculation about “How Stephen Harper Can Help Rob Ford.” As she has tweeted : “It seems the rumor mill is in full force this morning. Let me be crystal clear, the reports of an LG offer are completely false.” Yet […]
We went without electricity for about 28 hours at our house – in the east end of the old city of Toronto, down by the lake. According to the latest estimate, “69,800 customers were still without power Wednesday evening [December 25], four days after a massive ice storm struck the city, knocking down tree branches […]
It may be a harbinger of things to come in Canada that the last few weeks of 2013 are showing fresh signs of creative motion in la belle province. Personally I hope this proves correct. I grew up in the Greater Toronto Area (and its somewhat still wider region) in the 1950s and 1960s. And […]
Back in the middle of April, just after Justin Trudeau had been elected new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, former prime minister Jean Chretien boldly prophesied : “Today marks the beginning of the end of this Conservative government.” Now that we’ve reached December, it almost looks like 2013 just may the year when […]
Remembrance Day 2013 – the day before yesterday – is still somewhat on my mind. And I am remembering that the fall of France in June 1940 had a brief dramatic impact across the sea in Canada. As the historian Arthur Lower explained in his old textbook Colony to Nation : “When the fall of […]
The English actor Patrick Stewart on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show last night made the telling point that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is some new kind of comedian. (At least that’s what I took him to say.) In a similar spirit I’d give a prize to Stephen Lautens’s tweet : “It’s easy – just tell Rob […]
Who really knows just what the current chapter of the Senate expense scandal in Ottawa means right now? I would not in any way pretend that I do. At the same time, it is clear enough that the protests of Brazeau, Duffy, and Wallin in the Red Chamber over the past week of October 21—25 […]
