No one expects Nathan Cullen to win. As a recent Barbara Yaffe column in the Vancouver Sun notes, he has been labelled “a long shot and an underdog in the [federal] NDP leadership race.” And: “With nine candidates – nearly 10 per cent of the caucus” – vying “to replace Jack Layton, the Skeena-Bulkley Valley […]
[UPDATED DECEMBER 1]. One of the good things about Canada is that it is more serious and high-minded than other places, right? And a good example of this is the Globe and Mail – whose semi-post-modern headquarters at the edge of the lakeshore rail line into downtown Toronto still proudly proclaims “Canada’s National Newspaper”? Right […]
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO, QUEEN’S PARK, TORONTO. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011. Ontario throne speeches are seldom inspiring – or, some cynics might say, even interesting. The test of a good speech of this sort (others have already long ago explained) is that you can drop its unbound pages on the floor, pick them up in […]
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA. SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2011. This afternoon will see this city’s 107th annual Santa Claus Parade. From 1905 to 1982 the event was sponsored by the now defunct Eaton’s department store. Then a consortium took over. This year’s sponsors include Coca Cola, Lego, Mattel, McDonalds, Mercedes-Benz, Pfizer, Scotiabank, Shopsy’s, Sony Pictures, Tim Hortons, […]
The estimable Bill Maher was surprised a few weeks ago to hear that the most loyal follower of the United States – the one other country of the world which has enthusiastically joined every foreign policy adventure Washington has concocted over the past 60 years – was not Canada. (He had maybe been paying too […]
[UPDATED NOVEMBER 11]. It can’t come as much of a surprise to anyone in Canada over four years old that “a new survey conducted by Leger Marketing for the National Capital Commission and the Association of Canadian Studies” has found “Canada’s [current] biggest city is also the most disliked.” As Andrew Moran at Digital Journal […]
Some will stress that the Occupy protests in Canada have been pale echoes of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland, etc. When the “Toronto-based freelance author, journalist and activist” Nick Fillmore writes about “Occupy’s impact … Spontaneous movement a catalyst and inspiration,” he urges that continuing “strong citizen-led action could result in a number of […]
We need to be experimenting more these days, throughout the global village it seems. We can’t do anything of consequence about that ourselves, no doubt. (And look what has happened lately to Yes We Can among the broader community of Yankees to the south of us, who must south of us remain.) But we can […]
[UPDATE NOV 3, 12 NOON ET: There are now reports that Prime Minister Papandreou will be dropping plans for a referendum on the Greek financial bailout, in response to domestic political pressures. I’ll comment further when this prospect becomes clearer. Meanwhile, I can only say that it does nothing to change my admiration for the […]
BBC News Europe is reporting that: “The Labour Party’s Michael D Higgins has been officially confirmed as the ninth Irish president after one of the most remarkable comebacks in the state’s history … The poet and campaigner received 701,101 first-preference votes – almost 40% of the total … His victory over one-time favourite Sean Gallagher […]
