In a recent Globe and Mail piece Roy MacSkimming reviewed a new biography called Marginal Man: The Dark Vision of Harold Innis, by Alexander John Watson. He concluded with: “This is surely one of the important books of the year.” The prediction applies only to Canada. And even here you have to wonder if it […]
The present Canadian Senate, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has aptly said, is “a relic of the 19th century.” And there are some enlightened voters in Canada’s most populous province who do believe in the confused cause of Senate reform – as a long-term nation-building solution to the increasingly acute problems of regionalism in the diverse […]
One question raised by the new and surprising income-trust agonies of the “Team Martin” Liberals concerns the role of the RCMP in politics. Press sources have noted that it is highly unusual for the Mounties to announce a “criminal investigation into the possibility that Ottawa’s plans for income trusts were leaked,” at such a strategic […]
With all the current talk about old and new Canadas, it was intriguing to spend a grey November Saturday at an almost colourful history conference in the University of Toronto’s traditionally Catholic St. Michael’s College. The unlikely subject was “The Orange Order in Canada.” The Orange Order, in the apt formula of Donald MacRaild from […]
How many of what the 2001 Census called the 20 fastest-growing “census subdivisions” in Canada’s most populous province of Ontario can you name? If you guess the City of Vaughan, just north of Toronto, you are not doing too badly. That was number 20. If you go on to guess the Town of Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay, you deserve a small […]
Sunday, October 30 will mark the 10th anniversary of the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum. And the Globe and Mail and CTV News have commissioned the Strategic Counsel to conduct a poll on how Quebeckers and other Canadians see the issue today. The results? “Ten years after the referendum that almost broke Canada in two, Quebeckers say […]
Fortunately the impact of Hurricane Rita on the US Gulf Coast has not proved as disastrous as the worst-case scenarios predicted. Meanwhile, this past week has brought further evidence that storms and disasters of other sorts are also abroad in the North American wilderness. Way up north, some Canadians have even been pleased by fresh reports […]
Western Canadian political guru Preston Manning’s “newly formed, not-for-profit national organization to be called the Manning Centre for Building Democracy” seems to underline the current problems of federal Conservative leader Stephen Harper. The Manning Centre will arise on the ashes of “an informal roundtable” of “100 conservative-minded people from across Canada,” over the September 17-18 […]
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAYALBERTA AND SASKATCHEWAN – SEPT 1, 2005 OTTAWA. Tuesday, August 30, 2005. 6 PM. Prime Minister Paul Martin is apparently thinking about calling federal Members of Parliament back early from their summer recess – to deal with the latest whatever-it-is (not exactly “a crisis,” surely?) over the never-ending Canada-US softwood lumber trade dispute. Meanwhile, Jean […]
The politicians are apparently still wrangling on Parliament Hill. But already we have been told that Stephen Harper will be humanizing his image on the barbecue circuit this summer. Out in the wider countrysides and cityscapes beyond, it is time to worship the sun – and seek its wisdom on just what has been going on […]
