The prize-winning economist Paul Krugman recently wrote: “Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet.” Earlier this year he also wrote about his “Financial Policy Despair.”
One of the arguably good things about Canada has been that nothing quite important enough to despair over ever quite happens here. But two [...]

In the midst of all the current Canadian electoral hyperbole, I was disappointed to hear that “Ignatieff rules out coalition with NDP, Bloc.” If  Canadians are now facing a federal “election that seems increasingly inevitable,” the opinion polls at the moment suggest we are likely enough to elect yet another minority government. And a recent [...]

The big Canadian national event July 3-12, 2009 is the Calgary Stampede. This year’s marshal for the July 3 Stampede parade was Canada’s most painstaking (and expensive?) TV handyman, Mike Holmes. He at least “lives outside of Toronto, ON.” And so a further blow of sorts was struck for national unity. East is east and [...]

TORONTO. SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2009. [UPDATED MONDAY, JUNE 1]. According to Time magazine, there was a crowd of 5,000 inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre yesterday, listening to former US presidents George W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton share their experiences … as commander-in-chief. Meanwhile, only a few hundred protesters gathered outside …. Most of the [...]

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009. Yesterday  Dr. Manmohan Singh, 76, was re-elected parliamentary leader of the Indian National Congress, following the May 16 election results that gave his party more seats in the Indian parliament than anyone expected. Today he was appointed prime minister for a second consecutive term, for which he will be sworn-in on [...]

OTTAWA, FEBRUARY 20, 2009. Many years ago now the long since departed Canadian historian Frank Underhill declared: “Canadians always vote Democratic in American elections.” Opinion polls have subsequently borne out the wisdom of this remark – through various shifts in demography, etc, etc. That may be because US Democratic politicians have at least sometimes shown [...]

It was not easy to be cheerful when we saw headlines like: “Think 2008 was bad? Just wait, economists say” ; “Economists grim in their forecasts for 2009” ; and “2009 to be ‘weakest year’ since World War II.”On the other hand, on the second-last day of the fateful old year we heard as well that [...]

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21. TORONTO. The Vancouver Sun this weekend ran an intriguing piece called “Any meaning in Christmas? An atheist, Christian, Sikh and ethnic Chinese respond.” It made me think a little more than I usually do about what the year-end holiday season means to me nowadays. Further exercise shoveling snow, and a headline on [...]

TORONTO. AUGUST 10, 2008. (UPDATED AUGUST 12). Punctuated by a dramatic propane plant explosion very early this morning, the news that Forbes magazine has just rated the old Canadian hogtown # 10 among the “World’s Most Economically Powerful Cities” is striking many in this place as a kind of (pleasant enough) joke. Only nine days [...]

The “Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday [August 4] shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when leaners’ are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%. … This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically [...]