In Brief

General McCaffrey on Donald Trump’s “gangster nation” USA (also # 8 in 2025 stock market increases — Canada # 1!)

Jan 6th, 2026 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2026. To start with this is the fifth anniversary of the wild and crazy attempt to overturn the 2020 US presidential election in Washington, DC — at and in which President Donald Trump was both present and an involved observer (or much more?). I may not […]



Our counterweights Fourth Quarter 2025 — from Blue Jays surprise World Series to (some) seriously crazy GOP voters in USA (and sensible PM Carney in Canada!)

Dec 29th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2025. Santa has now come and gone, here as elsewhere. We have a few last moments to contemplate our own record for the fourth and final quarter of the very fateful year 2025. For us here on the northwest shore of the Great Lake Ontario, one very big […]



Our third quarter of 2025 — from made-in-Canada US Christmas movies in middle of summer .. to “a lot of stupid people in this country running things” in early autumn

Dec 23rd, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2025. Santa is almost on his way, in these parts of planet earth at least. And late this afternoon of the day before Christmas Eve (which we still do commemorate in these parts, as a cultural if not exactly religious event) we counterweights editors met in the first-floor […]



How the second quarter of 2025 looked to us — from Trump’s ultimate MAGA view that Canadians do not exist to the June Days first No Kings protests in the USA

Dec 20th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2025. By the start of the second quarter of 2025 here on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in ”northern North America”, the crazy Trump tariffs had set in globally (including 10% on the Heard and Macdonald Islands near Australia, inhabited only by penguins). Meanwhile the second incarnation […]



Trump in USA and Trudeau and Carney in Canada are the white male leaders who dominated first quarter of 2025 for us, here on the north shore of Lake Ontario

Dec 16th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2025. For Canada in some grand existential sense — as for much else in the contemporary global village — the great shadow event of 2025 has without doubt been the arrival of the even wilder and crazier Donald J. Trump II regime in the (alas) no longer great […]



Beware of (some) seriously crazy GOP voters in USA (while still taking comfort from Canadian PM Mark Carney)

Dec 8th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2025. Robert Reich’s “Sunday thought” yesterday set the stage for my current further reflections on the USA next door, some 17 days before Christmas 2025. (And I am using my father’s understanding of the universe as I mention this particular holiday in Toronto today. When asked […]



The case for reviving George Orwell’s December 1946 seasonal celebration values in December 2025

Nov 30th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2025. Some recent seasonal advice from the estimable www.independent.co.uk started me thinking. It came in a “Health Check” from Emilie Lavinia, Fitness and Wellbeing Editor, on “The true cost of drinking alcohol” — as you spread your glad tidings of good cheer over the next 30 days. […]



Is Liberal PM Mark Carney in 2020s reviving at least one side of Liberal PM William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s ??

Nov 21st, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025. This past Monday Carleton Place, Ontario journalist David Krayden posted a Twitter/X piece on “Why was Mark Carney Booed at Canada’s Grey Cup?” I have not myself delved into any TV or other footage that shows this booing taking place. I take the word of Mr […]



Remembrance (aka Veterans) Day 2025, on 80th anniversary of end of Second World War, also means “vigilance in an increasingly dangerous and divided world”

Nov 11th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2025. We have had an early almost sudden and surprisingly serious snowstorm in these parts. It somehow seems to fit these several days in early-mid November. Through such events as Indigenous Veterans Day (November 8) and Remembrance Day (November 11), our official public life still tries to […]



A week is a long time in politics .. but Liberal budget in Canada and Democrat victories in USA state and local elections mark November 4, 2025

Nov 6th, 2025 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025. Up here in the Canadian northern wilderness Tuesday, November 4, 2025 was a double-edged sword. The main evening political entertainment on TV in Canada as in the United States was the first wave of US state and local elections since President Trump took office for […]