There is a side to Ontario, you might say, that channels Nova Scotia. Another side channels Quebec (the “sister province,” as Bill Davis liked to put it), and another side channels Alberta. Still another side channels beautiful British Columbia. And this side may have the strongest implications for the Canadian future right now. In any […]
[UPDATED APRIL 16]. MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013. MOON RIVER. Hélène Buzzetti at Le Devoir has probably said it best, in the official language of the first people who called themselves Canadians: “C’était écrit dans le ciel et le ciel aura vu juste. Justin Trudeau, le député de Papineau, la rock star de la politique fédérale […]
“Great Britain, the United States and Canada” is the title of a now 65-year-old essay by Harold Innis, Canada’s pioneering great economic historian (and the godfather of Marshall McLuhan). As winter at last gives way to spring north of the North American Great Lakes, a few vaguely parallel thoughts about our time today have been […]
Sometimes, when not much seems to be happening on the current political scene, you can catch glimpses of a more fascinating long-term future in the minor events of the day. The headline on Andy Radia’s recent interview with the now retired Stockwell Day, in the wilds of BC, may qualify under this heading, despite all […]
A week or so ago Heather Mallick at the Toronto Star published a passionate defence of “British novelist Hilary Mantel’s elegant writing on Princess Kate” – which had been “viciously attacked” by various individuals and organizations in the United Kingdom. Ms Mantel’s writing had appeared, online and then in print, in the London Review of […]
In the early 1970s John Wilson and David Hoffman wrote : “The strength of the Conservative party in modern times makes it difficult to believe that Ontario was once ‘by large odds a Reform and not a Conservative Province.’ In fact, however, the Liberals were the leading political group in the province for the better […]
A few nights ago I caught up with the second latest episode of “Downton Abbey” (ie season 3, episode 4), as received here in the wilds of North America (and stored on the “Recordings” section of our current Bell Fibe cable TV service, here in the particular deep wilderness of Southern Ontario, Canada!). I was […]
Without actually wanting to add to my colleague Frank Bunting’s recent over-effusive references to the work of Thomas Walkom at the Toronto Star, I have been drawn in spite of myself to yesterday’s further ruminations by the same authority,”Do Canada’s, or Ontario’s, Liberals matter any more: Thomas Walkom.” At least on the surface of things, […]
It is now less than 10 days until the Ontario Liberal leadership convention opens at the old/new Maple Leaf Gardens in the provincial capital city. According to one observer : “Unfortunately, the race has been incredibly dull in terms of candidates and substance, and the party is unlikely to see any spike in the polls […]
I have just compiled a list of more than two dozen news articles from the past several days – all meant to enlighten me (as I see things, at any rate) about just what may or may not happen in the year 2013 that lies ahead. My particular perspective, I should confess, is that of […]
