RANDALL WHITE, CANADIAN REPUBLIC NOTEBOOK. TORONTO. FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2026. Toronto’s annual “Canadian National Exhibition” (CNE) starts just a week ahead — August 21, ending Labour Day, September 7. And this is just one day before the start of Vancouver’s 2026 “Pacific National Exhibition” (PNE) — August 22–September 7. These seasonal fairs in the air […]

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2/026. With the fabled local “Exhibition Weather” almost about to settle over this Canadian metropolis where I live, I have just been inspired by two pieces in the July 23, 2026 issue of the New York Review of Books. The first is “Space Oddity … Quinn […]

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2026. A few days ago Curtis Fric at Canadian Polling posted “After Years of Control, Ford Faces a Real Fight … A string of weaker polls and collapsing approval ratings are raising new questions about Doug Ford’s political future.” (1) Ford faltering? Curtis Fric’s post also raises […]

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2026. Among many other things, the 180 forest fires currently burning in (mostly Northern) Ontario — see eg “Ontario firefighters battling record wildfires … Ford government says it has increased resources” — bring a largely still evaded big difference between “Near Northern” and “Far Northern” Ontario into […]

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2/026. One of my approaches to coping with the extreme summer heat and wildfire smoke we are currently assailed by in Toronto (along with many adjacent places in both Canada and the US) has been to sit in my most air-conditioned room, and read the latest […]

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SATURDAY, July 11, 2026. The already hazy early summer probably is a good time for Prime Minister Carney (acting as principal advisor to the Governor General, in strictest 1867 written constitutional terms) to make his first four appointments to the still unreformed Senate of Canada. Appointees include two new representatives […]

RANDALL WHITE, TORONTO. FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2026. Here’s to a belated Happy Canada Day 2026 this past Wednesday, July 1 — the 159th anniversary of the Canadian confederation of 1867 (which gave the old Canada or New France, almost certainly named after an Iroquoian word more or less like Kanata, its most recent modern lease […]

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, JUNE 26,026. One so far surviving feature of Democracy in America even under Donald Trump II is frequent elections. On the way to the big November 3 federal midterms, this past Tuesday, June 23 offered primary elections (within political parties) in four states : Maryland, South Carolina, Utah, […]

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2026. Today marks the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. In the middle of so much so wrong about the USA today, the event reminds us that some sides of the American past, present, and future still look “close enough for jazz.” Every […]

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2026. It seems likely enough that Doug Ford, Premier of Canada’ most populous province of Ontario , is not too popular with US President Donald Trump these days. See eg : “U.S. Chamber of Commerce event with Doug Ford cancelled after White House complaints, sources say” […]