An alas now vanished great friend of the counterweights editors, from a vanished era in the life of the city, used to say that he seldom agreed with the newspaper columnist Alex Barris. But he almost always read his columns because he found them stimulating. We sometimes have similar feelings about the present-day Toronto Star […]
Recent attempts by aspiring establishments to salvage the expiring Canadian role of the British monarchy are one measure of how our political system is falling more and more out of step with what our Constitution Act, 1982 calls the “free and democratic society” in Canada today. In some ways, the amazing thing about the latest […]
“Great Britain, the United States and Canada” is the title of a now 65-year-old essay by Harold Innis, Canada’s pioneering great economic historian (and the godfather of Marshall McLuhan). As winter at last gives way to spring north of the North American Great Lakes, a few vaguely parallel thoughts about our time today have been […]
Still strangely enthralled by legendary Tory oligarchs of the 19th century, the mainstream media usually tries hard not to notice. But there is nonetheless an ardently gurgling Canadian republican activism even in various anglophone parts of the country in the early 21st century. This activism has a number of reasons for wanting to retire the […]
As a kind of coda, footnote, or l’envoi to various recent postings on this site (including the October 4 tribute to the late great Charles Roach), we’d just like to offer a quick thumbs up to a provocative passage in Chantal Hébert’s October 5 column in the Toronto Star, “Here’s how the Liberals can make […]
For all our vast technical progress over the past few centuries, we mere human beings still don’t seem to know much more about the vast mysteries of death than our ancestors several thousand years ago. And perhaps it is true enough — in some profoundly mysterious way — that certain kinds of people more or […]
For some Canadians – if opinion polls are to be believed, even for at least a bare majority, coast to coast to coast – the news that “Canada and Britain to run combined embassies” or “Canada, Britain to sign deal to ‘link up’ embassies abroad” or “Canada and Britain to join diplomatic forces” or “Canada, […]
I was getting all steamed up. I was ready to add my own obscure voice to the wider protest over the Canadian Mint’s insistence that Dave Gunning, the “Canadian Folk/Celtic singer-songwriter born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia,” must pay a copyright fee for the use of images of pennies on the cover of his next […]
There have been various explanations of the Harper government’s decision last Friday to suspend Canada’s diplomatic relations with Iran. See, eg: “By cutting ties with Iran, we just shot ourself in the foot” ; “Burman: What has prompted Canada’s move against Iran?” ; and “Canada’s last Iran ambassador: Cutting off Tehran looks like a mistake.” […]
This past Friday the Victoria Times Colonist published a piece by Murray Brewster of the Canadian Press, entitled “Royal branding of Canadian Forces to be extended … Suggestions for smaller branches forwarded for approval to Queen.” As Mr. Brewster has explained: “Restoring the ‘Royal’ prefix to the navy and air force has … become a […]
