COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, EAST TORONTO OFFICE. AUGUST 12, 2021. Today’s news that “Canada PM Trudeau planning snap election, seeks approval for COVID response” bears out much of the particular prediction in Abbas Rana’s August 1 Hill Times piece : “Others are preparing for the writs to be issued on Aug. 15, with an election to take […]

ONTARIO NOTEBOOK – RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. AUGUST 9, 2021. Like so many others I was saddened to hear that the 18th premier of Ontario – bland Bill Davis from Brampton – died peacefully at his home yesterday morning, with his family by his side, some nine days after celebrating his 92nd birthday. There […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, EAST TORONTO OFFICE. AUGUST 4, 2021. In the capital cities of both Canada and Ontario in the middle of the summer of 2021 – and who knows where else from coast to coast to coast – there have lately been rising rumours of a Canadian federal election very soon. The mood as of […]

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK – RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. JULY 26, 2021. My TV set has confirmed that Mary Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General, is now properly installed in office. My own related thoughts lately go back to June 11, when : “A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds that one-in-five […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, EAST TORONTO OFFICE. Back on Canada Day 2021 Mano Majumdar, a lecturer at Western University’s Ivey Business School, started a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, “to replace the provincial flag with a more distinct and inclusive flag, chosen by democratic means.” For those who may have forgotten (“You mean Ontario has […]

SPECIAL FROM THE DEMOCRATIC DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. K0L 0C1. On a grey day in the Kawarthas two or possibly even three big political questions float on the clouds. (While even with the sun not shining the government tourism ad is strangely truthful : “You never forget the feeling of summer in Ontario.”) […]

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK – RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. JULY 4, 2021. [UPDATED JULY 6]. Susan B. Glasser’s credentials are impressive : “… currently a staff writer at The New Yorker … Prior to her joining The New Yorker … she founded the award-winning Politico Magazine … previously served as the editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy […]

SPECIAL FROM DOMINIC BERRY, MAN ABOUT MAIN STREET, GRAND BEND, ON. JUNE 29, 2021. It’s been hot enough here lately. But not quite like : “Extreme heat warnings remain in place over much of Western Canada as a historic heat wave that has shattered 103 all-time heat records across BC, Alberta, Yukon and NWT moves […]

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. JUNE 20, 2021. We (well most of us anyway) like Justin Trudeau’s current Liberal government of Canada more than some we know. It is not even close to half-perfect, but to us it’s still head and shoulders above any available alternative. One thing we do not at all admire from the […]

SPECIAL FROM THE DEMOCRATIC DESKTOP OF CITIZEN X, BUCKHORN, ON. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 2021. A great many individuals and organizations down in The Smoke (also capital city of Canada’s most populous province) are up in arms today. Using the so-called “notwithstanding clause” in section 33 of the Constitution Act, 1982, the Ford government is going […]