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 […]
UPDATED JULY 19. Even if you are just remotely interested in economics, you probably ought to be somewhat alarmed by the economic headlines haunting English-language media around the global village lately. To take just a few small examples: “Australian business hits the skids, report shows“; “Markets spooked by grim warning of recession” ; “World stocks at 21-month low […]
According to a report in the June 27 Globe and Mail: “Anger at soaring gas prices has supplanted fear about global warming as the No. 1 issue Canadians say is facing their country …The environment, last year’s top issue, has been pushed to No. 3 … This shift could make it more difficult for Liberal […]
Who of the ages Hillary Clinton most attracts can forget the intoxicating John Denver refrain: “Country roads, take me home / To the place I belong / West Virginia, mountain momma / Take me home, country roads”? On the evening of Tuesday, May 13, 2008, in any case, the vote soon enough came in. And […]
Maybe he did get a rough ride from Hillary in their (hopefully?) last debate. But Barack Obama is right when he says there are a lot of bitter souls in the USA today. And they have their reasons, no doubt. Meanwhile, back way up north for a moment it almost seemed that Calgary and not […]
RICHMOND, VA. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2008. 12 NOON. According to the Washington Post: “Voters in Maryland, Virginia and the District [of Columbia] lined up early this morning to vote in the region’s much-anticipated Potomac Primary,’ eager to cast a ballot in one of the most closely contested and historic [US] presidential races ever.” According to […]
TORONTO. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11. 12:30 PM. Now that the day of Conrad Black’s sentencing is over, and the endless TV coverage up here in Canada has ended, my own most prominent emotion is no emotion. I see that the Globe and Mail is still referring to “Lord Black,” with no apparent satire intended. And I […]
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2007 [UPDATED NOVEMBER 8]. The Canadian dollar touched somewhat more than $1.07 US in international money market trading yesterday – said to be its highest value since the late 19th century. (It has since gone as high as $1.10, and then back to the $1.07 range.) But that’s just the half of it. […]
