Can anyone really be surprised that Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois is attacking the continuing strange status of the British monarchy in the Canada of 2012? Or, as the Globe and Mail has explained: “With the Quebec election campaign in full swing, the royals have become for the PQ a symbol of the federal Conservative […]

Pranab Mukherjee was elected President of India last Thursday, July 19, 2012. The results of the election were announced by the country’s electoral authorities on Sunday, July 22. Mr. Mukherjee will be sworn into office at the Central Hall of Parliament House in New Delhi tomorrow, Wednesday, July 25, by the Chief Justice of India […]

This past Saturday, June 30, 2012, marked “25 years since Canada ditched its one-dollar bill in favour of a gold-coloured coin.” Every time I go to the United States, I still remember the alternative convenience of having several lightweight $1 bills in your pocket. I nonetheless agree that “while the move was somewhat controversial at […]

On Canada Day 2012 a recent welcome comment from the unsung great historian of French and Indian Toronto’s great granddaughter has drawn our attention back to an earlier posting on “Canada Day 2009 : Percy Robinson and the reluctant Canadian republic.” Three years ago we urged that Percy James Robinson (1873—1953 and, among many other […]

Current Argentine president Cristina Kirchner, widow of former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, is viewed by many observers of such things as one of the “Hottest Female World Leaders” extant. So you might think that when she and UK Prime Minister David Cameron bumped into each other at the G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, earlier […]

A week can be a long time in politics, as the legend has it. And getting back to the home and native land from the counterweights Western Europe conference circuit suggests that two weeks and a few days can be even longer. It’s almost as if since we’ve gone the nights of Canadian politics have […]

This past Friday Canada’s self-confessed national newspaper revealed that “Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine will be celebrating their first wedding anniversary on Sunday … Intolerable media intrusion was cited by many sources as the reason the couple broke up in 2007, but they soon got back together and married in a global ceremony […]

“Today,” my wife remarked as we were getting up, “is the original ‘great day for Canada.’” Having acquired much familiarity with our nuclear family legends, I knew what she meant. But I asked the obvious dumb question anyway: “You mean,” I said, “that this is your grandfather’s birthday?” (My knowledge of the legends  does not […]

Stephen Harper’s new passion for restoring the British monarchy to the kind of position it enjoyed in Canada before the Second World War may be impressing a few people in other parts of the global village today. But others who watch Canadian current events remain unconvinced. On Saturday, February 4, 2012, eg, Greg Barns and […]

In a number of respects the Liberal Party of Canada biennial convention in Ottawa this weekend has been a surprising success. It was, eg, attended by some 3,200 delegates – considerably more than expected. As Jane Taber has also reported: “The party had wanted to show it can reinvent itself by becoming more open. It […]