Counterweights » Canadian politics

On first 8 months of Trump II presidency (and beyond) — “We’ve got a lot of stupid people in this country running things” (and it may be starting to show?)

Sep 28th, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2025. When the now daily tragedy of contemporary American history next door just gets too much to digest I walk to the foot of my street and sit on a bench at the edge of the boardwalk. From the bench I am about 15 yards from the […]

Tags: Adam Schiff, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Canadian politics, Donald Trump, George Soros, ICE, James Comey, Jimmy Kimmel, Letitia James, Mark Carney, Mysterious drone sightings in Europe, Nathan Gill, Nigel Farage, Pete Hegseth, Portland’Oregon, Robert Reich, Russia and Reform UK, Secretary of War, Trump II tipping point, Trump tariffs, United Nations, US border officer and Canadian tourist, US politics, Vladimir Putin Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

How long will Ms Gilmore have to wait to escape Trump’s crazy USA? We at least know M Poilievre’s Conservatives will be scant help in Canada!

Sep 21st, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2025. It is true enough that the Canadian people are not as divided as the American people at this point in time. And like many other Canadians I’m grateful for that. A recent article by David Beers and Jen St. Denis at The Tyee in BC, however, […]

Tags: Andrew Coyne, Andrew Scheer, Bloc Québécois, Brigitte Macron, Canadian politics, Charlie Kirk, Conservative Party of Canada, David Beers and Jen St. Denis, David Brown, democracy in America, Donald Trump, Green Party in Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, London Review of Books, New Democratic Party of Canada, Pete Buttigieg, Rachel Gilmore, The Tyee, Trumpism, William Davies Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Ms Close says Canada has “stood up to you know who” .. Mr del Toro thinks “Canada is a bastion of hope in the world right now”

Sep 10th, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2025. I’m personally embarrassed when local TV reports on the Toronto International Film Festival ask visiting foreign (albeit usually just US) celebrities : “What is your favourite thing about Canada?” (I should quickly note that the countervailing logic has been voiced by my wife : “I like […]

Tags: American politics, Canadian politics, Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, favourite things about Canada, Glenn Close, Guillermo del Toro, Keir Starmer, Mark Carney, Republicans against Trump, Toronto International Film Festival 2025 Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

The global village is cracking up (well part of it anyway) .. but in Canada we just Carney On as if we knew what we’re doing

Sep 1st, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 (LABOUR DAY) 2025. Canadian pundit Andrew Coyne’s recent column in the Toronto Globe and Mail — “Donald Trump is on the brink of becoming a dictator. Can he be stopped?” — has its alarming moments. The “defenders” of “democracy in America,” it urges, “are running out of […]

Tags: Andrew Coyne, California, Canadian politics, Clay Thompson, democracy in America, Donald Trump, Ezra Pound, Frank Graves, Gavin Newsom, Mark Carney, Northeastern States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Robert Reich., UC Berkeley, US politics Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Looking at USA’s genuinely crazy president from north of the lakes .. and hoping “hopeful signs from US public” finally thwart the “capitulation of elites”

Aug 10th, 2025 | By L. Frank Bunting | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM L. FRANK BUNTING, GRAND BEND, ON. AUGUST 10, 2025. It is now more than a year since my last contribution to this august space — “Democracy in America holds Donald Trump to account at last in New York, New York (if not in more rural red states),” May 31st, 2024. As I contemplate […]

Tags: Canadian politics, democracy in America, elite capitulation to Trump, Mark Carney, mass resistance to Trump, Trump mid 2025, Trump's White House vandalism, US politics Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Early summer notes on Canada and the United States, Conservatives and Canada, and Democracy in Canada and the new global village today

Jul 6th, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SUNDAY, JULY 6, 2025. As this summer weekend began (with a somewhat boisterous outdoor wedding party, on the lot immediately behind us, next street over), I suddenly stumbled across four quick notes on key current events in Canada and the wider global village today : (1) “The world will adapt […]

Tags: books on democracy in Canada 2025, British monarchy in Canada, Canadian international trade policy in second Trump interlude, Canadian politics, Canadian republic, Children of the Global Village, Jim Stanford, Manitoba independence??, Peter Ratcliffe, PM Mark Carney?, threats to Democracy in Canada from Trump's USA, Weakness of Conservative commitment to Canada 2025 Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Two days after the real 24th of May 2025 : three quick notes on the United States, Canada, and Alberta (and Quebec)

May 26th, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. MONDAY, MAY 26, 2025. This is the last day of the Memorial Day long weekend in the USA. Our version of something similar in Canada was last weekend. (We like to keep things a little different in Canada.) It is now celebrated as Victoria Day — “a federal statutory […]

Tags: Alberta and Quebec separatism, Canadian politics, check on Donald Trump, Conscription in Canada, Marc Elias, Mark Carney, Memorial Day US, US Congress, Victoria Day Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Some conservative vibrations .. but only slightly closer look at PM Carney’s new cabinet suggests strong liberal edge

May 16th, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, “CANADA’S CAPITAL REGION FROM FOUR HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES WEST”. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2025. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new Canadian federal cabinet held its first meeting the day before yesterday. One of its “first orders of business” was a “tax cut for the middle class. Starting July 1, hard-working Canadians will keep more […]

Tags: Arctic development in Canada, Canada-US trade, Canadian politics, diversifying Canadian exports, Indigenous cabinet ministers in Canada, Mark Carney's new cabinet in Canada, middle-class tax cut in Canada, One Canadian Economy, regional representation in Canadian cabinet, secretaries of state in Canada, Stephen Harper, strengthening military in Canada Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Australian election 2025 has some striking similarities with Canadian election five days before (compliments of current strange politics in USA)

May 5th, 2025 | By Greg Barns | Category: In Brief

GREG BARNS SC. HOBART, MELBOURNE, BRISBANE, PERTH, AUSTRALIA. MONDAY, MAY 5, 2025. Newly minted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberals have something in common with the winner of Australia’s national election on Saturday, Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Both brought their governments back from the brink of defeat partly because […]

Tags: Anthony Albanese, Australian election 2025, Australian Labor Party (ALP), Canadian politics, Jacinta Price, Liberal and National Party Coalition, Mark Carney, Peter Dutton, Pierre Poilievre, Reserve Bank of Australia Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

PM Carney just lost me : yes I think he’ll do great against Trump; but I don’t want to build a Canada that still has an offshore monarch as head of state

May 3rd, 2025 | By Randall White | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, “CANADA’S CAPITAL REGION FROM FOUR HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES WEST”. SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2025. I should make two (or maybe three) things clear up front. First, I am a (somewhat cranky?) 80- year-old man who was born in Canada. I have lived here all my life, with brief exceptions for travel abroad. I […]

Tags: Alexander Panetta, British monarchy in Canada, Canadian politics, Canadian republic, Charles III, David Coletto, Governor General of Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, Mark Carney, New Democrats in Canada, Peter Donolo, Speech from the Throne in Canada 2025 Posted in In Brief | No Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘ Canadian politics ’