In Brief

Are Trump’s US trade policies a new argument for the Trans Mountain pipeline to Asia in Canada?

Jun 16th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED 4 PM]. The brief but fierce big rainy wind that toppled a huge old oak tree down by the lake is over, here in this big-urban Ontario NDP electoral district. But it also almost seemed like a meteorological comment on key current political events. The human dramas have calmed down now, along with the […]



Ontario election 2018, V : Is it really “more volatile than the polls suggest”?

Jun 7th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

If you altogether accept the polls as the best guide to what will happen in Ontario election 2018, it seems clear enough that the Ford Nation Progressive Conservatives will indeed win a majority government at Queen’s Park on June 7. There are 124 seats in the Ontario legislature now, making 63 the minimum for a […]



Ontario election 2018, IV : Could unlikely Liberal blip at the end lead to bold experiment in challenging times?

Jun 3rd, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

OLD STREETCAR SUBURBS. SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2018. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny afternoon. At one point the sound of birds in the yard reminded me the world will still be beautiful, no matter what happens in the Ontario election on Thursday, June 7. And the announcement on TV  – in which an “emotional Kathleen Wynne […]



Ontario election 2018, III : Maybe it’s NOT turning into the Con vs. NDP struggle Stephen Harper dreamed of ????

May 25th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

UPDATE MAY 28, 12:30 AM ET –  INITIAL REACTION TO ONTARIO ELECTION, SUNDAY LEADERS’ DEBATE : Whatever else, on this kind of subject Twitter cuts closer to the bone (and thus more intriguingly) than the much-abused mainstream media. Everyone has their own tastes and convictions. Two tweets from justly eminent conservative journalist John Ibbitson – […]



Ontario election 2018, II : Is it turning into the Conservatives vs. New Democrats struggle Stephen Harper dreamed of ????

May 24th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

GANATSEKWYAGON, ON., MAY 24.  [UPDATED 1 PM ET]. According to CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier’s latest calculations, the rounded-off polling averages for Ontario election 2018 are now Ford Nation PCs 37%, Andrea Horwath New Democrats 36%, and Kathleen Wynne Liberals 21%. M. Grenier explains the future between now and the June 7 election day with […]



Ontario election 2018, I : On the apparent inevitability of the Donald Trump clone north of the North American Great Lakes

May 13th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED MAY 19]. I will still be voting for Kathleen Wynne in the Ontario election this coming Thursday, June 7, 2018.  (Or more exactly, for those less familiar with the system up here in We The North, I will be voting for her Liberal party candidate in the electoral district where I reside, on the […]



Toronto van killings : strong city that ignores painful truths joins real global village at last

May 2nd, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

It was strange being in the USA (well, California at any rate) when a 25-year old man from Richmond Hill was reported to have deliberately driven a rented van along the sidewalk on north Yonge Street in Toronto, killing eight women and two men, and injuring another 16. At least the TV we were watching […]



Off to Trump’s America again in .. just what is going on there anyway (& in good old ontariario too) ????

Apr 17th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

In some ways we cannot really say that almost all of us in the Toronto editorial office here will be headed for Trump’s America on April 18, 2018, for one of our regular conferences with our growing technical staff in northern California. California generally is not really in Trump’s America, of course,  and northern California […]



Does Doug Ford actually resemble old Dief the Chief in Canada, 1957—63, and not Donald Trump in USA today?

Apr 8th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

The other night on TV the eminent and excellent CBC News poll analyst Éric Grenier advised that, based on current polling data, the coming June 7 election in Canada’s most populous province is “Doug Ford’s to lose.” This has various people nervous, including us. However you look at it, the new provincial Progressive Conservative leader […]



Are we down to the wire on Ontario PC leadership yet? (Yes .. and believe it or not Doug Ford has won .. finally)

Mar 9th, 2018 | By | Category: In Brief

GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. FRI 9 MAR 18. 5:45 PM ET. [UPDATED 7:55 PM ; SAT 10 MAR, 5:20 PM ET ; SUN 11 MAR, 2/3 AM ET/EDT]. It fits with all the strange things which have happened so far in the quite bizarre surprise Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race of 2018 that, less than 24 hours […]