The “pattern of Canada,” the preface to the much-praised 1987 first volume of the Historical Atlas of Canada tells us, “has been taking shape for almost 500 years and by New World standards is old.” Just a few pages later, Plate 1 on “The Last Ice Sheets, 18,000—10,000 BC” can prompt the thought that our […]
The death of the actor Peter Falk this past Thursday, June 23, 2011, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 83, is worth commemorating for a host of good reasons. But I have a particular reason myself. Peter Falk – and more exactly, or especially, in his “defining role” as Columbo, […]
[UPDATED JUNE 20]. More than two weeks ago, the lovely Althia Raj warned that trouble for the latest Stephen Harper step by step Senate reform adventures was brewing among the new Tory majority in the unreformed Senate of Canada itself (“Conservative senators balking at Senate reform agenda: sources”). Now a fresh wave of similar reports […]
Senate reform has been in the Canadian news again this past week. And – even with the new Harper Conservative majority in the elected “lower house” of Parliament –Â the sceptical bottom line is don’t hold your breath. Jeffrey Simpson concluded his latest shot in this dark forest with: “The Senate can’t be unilaterally abolished […]
They don’t take up much space in the 41st Parliament of Canada, which has just begun a very short housekeeping session, before fleeing for the traditional summer break. The future of the once high and mighty federal Liberals after their massacre this past May 2 nonetheless continues to attract attention. Among key current written texts […]
[UPDATED]. The Globe and Mail’s online poll on “Is the Conservative Party committed to reforming the Senate?” (38% Yes and 62% No, as of today) could be read as suggesting that only those who voted for Mr. Harper’s party on May 2 still believe in its public commitments on this front. Yet according to John […]
You sound more elegant when you speak French, Pierre Trudeau told his children. Those of us who don’t really speak French will never quite know what this means. But we can catch a glimmer of it when we read in Le Devoir that “Le Torontois Bob Rae est devenu le chef intérimaire du Parti libéral […]
[UPDATED MAY 19, 20]. There is at least a strong perception that Senate reform will be one of the key issues on the early agenda of the new Harper majority government in Ottawa. (See, eg: “New momentum for Senate reform” and “Then it will be on to Senate reform.”) In speculating about today’s much-touted federal […]
Michael Ignatieff himself may have the best explanation of why he failed to connect with voters in the Canadian federal election of 2011. In the preface to his CBC Massey lectures on The Rights Revolution in Canada, written in September 2000, he worried that “I am writing about the rights talk of a country of […]
[UPDATED MAY 1]. Two additional bits of polling data are now offering some degree of support for the dramatic scenario of change in Canadian federal politics this coming Monday, May 2 posed by the April 25 EKOS poll. (In case you’ve forgotten: Conservatives 33.7%, New Democrats 28.0%, Liberals 23.7%, Greens 7.2%, Bloc Quebecois 6.2%, and […]
