In Brief

What a difference a decade makes .. why are Sun newspapers dragging up PM Harper on bilingualism 6 May 2001?

Jul 15th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

You might wonder why today’s Toronto Sun includes “an edited version of a column that originally appeared in the Calgary Sun in 2001” –  by a Stephen Harper who was then merely the  president of the National Citizens’ Coalition. (For the record, it should be noted that the same  “edited version of a column” etc […]



Case of the vanishing gravy train … Has the Tory Toronto revival hit a bump in the road already?

Jul 13th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

I have vast respect for Bob Hepburn at the Toronto Star. But I was sceptical about his argument two weeks ago in “Ford honeymoon ends with Pride snub.” Yet by the time former TTC chief general manager Michael Warren reported on “Ford Nation’s grim future” – in the same newspaper just one week ago – […]



The debt-ceiling blues .. what does latest crazy Washington game of chicken mean way up north?

Jul 11th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

[UPDATED JULY 12, 2011]. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is apparently abandoning “effort for $4 trillion in deficit reductions … in the face of stiff GOP opposition to any plan that would increase taxes as part of the deal.” But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky) has nonetheless declared that “Nobody is […]



The “strong republican streak among Canadians” today will still be there when William and Catherine go home!

Jul 4th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

As the Ottawa Citizen has just noted, “opinion surveys have long uncovered a strong republican streak among Canadians.” So what are those of us who do not at all care for the British monarchy in Canada to make of the great flood of commentary on the monarchy’s Canadian future, induced by the current North American […]



Happy birthday Canada 2011 .. no relics of the 19th century can stop you now

Jul 1st, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

The “pattern of Canada,” the preface to the much-praised 1987 first volume of the Historical Atlas of Canada tells us, “has been taking shape for almost 500 years and by New World standards is old.” Just a few pages later, Plate 1 on “The Last Ice Sheets, 18,000—10,000 BC” can prompt the thought that our […]



Saying yes to Canada by voting no … two cheers for the death of the TMX-LSE merger deal

Jun 29th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

Shortly before 1 PM ET today it was announced that the “proposed merger of the TMX Group Inc. with the London Stock Exchange Group PLC is dead.” As explained by the official TMX statement: “TMX Group Inc. has agreed with London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG) to terminate their merger agreement … A majority of […]



Hooray for Bollywood .. in the 64% of Toronto, Canada that is still not part of the 2011 Tory last gasp!

Jun 23rd, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

According to  Daryl Bruce, a self-confessed “avid royal watcher since the wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah,” a “source in the Prime Minister’s Office” has “told the Canadian media” that the upcoming local tour of William and Catherine “could go a long way to cementing the monarchy in Canada for a new generation in the […]



Happy National Aboriginal Day 2011 Canada .. even if the Ossossane Ossuary in Old Wendake is still not perfect ..

Jun 21st, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

Tonight at 9 PM ET (6 PM PT) the CN Tower in Toronto will be lit in the colours of the traditional Medicine Wheel, to help celebrate National Aboriginal Day in Canada, June 21, 2011.  The first National Aboriginal Day was celebrated 15 years ago in 1996, when Governor General Romeo LeBlanc declared in Ottawa: […]



Here’s one former NDP voter who remains sceptical about returning to the fold, for the time being at least

Jun 20th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

According to back-of-the-envelope calculations I have just made, I cast my first democratic ballot in the Ontario provincial election of October 17, 1967. I did not know where my local polling station was, but I did know the NDP candidate’s campaign office. I went there to ask where to go to lose my electoral virginity […]



Northern summer : old memories and new directions in the Ontario past

Jun 12th, 2011 | By | Category: In Brief

My peripatetic summer journeys from the big smoke to the surrounding countryside are beginning early this year – in what is technically only the very late spring. I will be starting with a return to summer holiday scenes of my childhood, updated for the all too advanced age I and my siblings have subsequently achieved. […]