Somehow it seems right to be thinking about Senate reform in Canada in the dead of summer. Like almost everything else this time of year in the true north strong and free, it seems quite agreeable (to some of us at any rate) but not entirely serious. (It will not last, etc, etc.) What is […]
Australia’s June employment numbers were released today, and they caused some domestic concern: “Australia’s employers cut 27,000 jobs last month, sending the jobless rate higher.” The national unemployment rate actually increased to 5.2%, up from 5.1% in May 2012. But hey, wait a minute. Our Canada-wide unemployment rate in June was 7.2%. As some like […]
[UPDATED JULY 10]. One progressive view of the Liberal Party of Canada leadership contest – which will have its final moment of truth sometime in April next year (or at least “in the first half of 2013”) –Â is that it no longer matters. Consider, eg, these recent numbers: “Back on June 18 … we […]
At first I thought the estimable Ottawa pundit Lawrence Martin had stolen my idea (well, really just beat me to it, of course) for a Canadian Fourth of July 2012 posting. The Globe and Mail apparently published Martin’s column “Obama Remains Extremely Popular in Canada” yesterday. And it is still worth underlining its main theme: […]
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 […]
It has now become clear beyond any reasonable doubt that, in the language of the first people who called themselves Canadians: “Le Globe and Mail écrivait hier que le ministère de l’Immigration et de la Citoyenneté avait accordé un permis de résidence temporaire d’un an au magnat de la presse déchu,” Conrad Black. Moreover: “M. […]
I had just waded through an even two dozen articles on Michael Ignatieff and his latest thoughts about what Pierre Trudeau’s book of 1968 called Federalism and the French Canadians. (Well … that’s not exactly true : the first of the two dozen was actually an article by Michael Ignatieff himself – a review of […]
“And Barbara it’s starting to rain, very gently.” So a youthful Peter Mansbridge told David Frum’s mother – and TV viewers across Canada – as Elizabeth II approached the table to sign the proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982, 30 years ago, on Saturday, April 17, 1982. The ceremony was held outdoors on Parliament Hill […]
