ONTARIO TONITE. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, TUESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2022. John Kerrigan, the Cambridge University literary scholar (and convener of the Cambridge Group for Irish Studies), has just published a more than 7000-word discussion of one movie (Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast”) and 15 recent books about Ireland today, in the October 20, 2022 issue of […]

RANDALL WHITE, TORONTO. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2022. Now that the slender Republican majority in the House has been confirmed, I can report on our journey to northeastern California for the 2022 US midterm elections. (And Nancy Pelosi’s announcement yesterday of her resignation as leader of the Democrats in the House, while continuing to represent her […]

RANDALL WHITE, TORONTO. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2022. Early this Sunday morning we’re off to the airport, travelling to Vancouver and then from there to Sacramento, California (and then from the airport there to the north end of Sacramento County by car), in time for the US midterm elections on Tuesday, November 8. Catching Bill Maher […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. OCTOBER 27, 2022. “History has many cunning passages” (T.S. Eliot). And in one of them, in the Canadian House of Commons, yesterday’s very clear defeat of a Bloc Québécois motion to sever ties with the “British monarchy” could somewhat ironically prove the effective first step on a long inevitable journey to […]

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER 2022. Like a few others (as best I can tell) I think I am finally ready to express my ultimate personal disappointment in PM Justin Trudeau. I say this while remembering that just over a year ago I wrote about “Why is so much […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. OCTOBER 6, 2022. We at least ought to be living in an era that is growing increasingly more aware of its own history. (In any case, we seem to be increasingly faced by key current issues with deep roots in a past we understand imperfectly at best.) Here in the Ganatsekwyagon […]

ONTARIO TONITE. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2022. Andrew Cohen is “a journalist, professor of journalism at Carleton University and the author of Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History” (and The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are). Back in the middle of June last […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. SEPTEMBER 18, 2022. The extravaganza following the death of Queen Elizabeth II has been especially concentrated in the old imperial metropolis across the seas. And there as well the Queen’s state funeral tomorrow will begin at 11 AM BST (or 6 AM EDT here in North America). Whatever else, all this […]

ONTARIO TONITE. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, THURS SEP 8, 2022. [UPDATED SEP 10]. As the new fall cultural season begins, I seem to be contemplating two confusing but nonetheless intriguing stories in the news of the day/week/month etc : (1) Lieut. Gov. Salma Lakhani & Danielle “Sovereignty” Smith in Wild Rose Country (and then […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. AUGUST 23, 2022. According to the Angus Reid Institute, 56% of Canadians across the country agree that “I can’t keep up with the cost of living,” and 39% disagree. At the provincial level, Quebec has the smallest proportion agreeing with the statement (41%), and Saskatchewan the largest (71%). Quebec election Oct […]