Flipping through the rather slender electronic file on the federal NDP motion for “a national referendum on abolishing the Senate” – slated for debate in the Canadian House of Commons today, after some procedural wrangling yesterday – forces you to dwell on just how beleaguered the cause of progress in Ottawa has become lately. The […]

In today’s Toronto Star Angelo Persichilli alludes once again to the prospects of Bob Rae as a future leader of the still much beleaguered Liberal Party of Canada: “I’m not saying Rae wants his party to defeat the government and force an election to accelerate the departure of his friend Michael Ignatieff.”Â  But … Mr. […]

In 1933 the incomparable Percy Robinson published his still too-neglected minor classic, Toronto during the French Regime, 1615—1793. In the book’s last chapter he noted how, in the 1930s, the capital city of Ontario (then still only the second-largest city in Canada, behind Montreal) was “the citadel of British sentiment in America.” Over the subsequent […]

Anyone who has perused the primary sources for the Canada-US trade agreements of the past quarter century will not be surprised to discover that the separate documents released by the “Prime Minister of Canada” and the “White House” this past Friday, February 4, 2011 are identical, with one recurrent exception. The Canadian version of “Beyond […]

Is there really going to be a 2011 Canadian federal election that changes the  present arrangement of the musical chairs in Ottawa, in any significant way? Who knows? But if there is, it will probably be the result of a few wonky issues that, somewhat unexpectedly (in at least some quarters), hit we the Canadian […]

The obvious big question about the 40th Parliament of Canada that resumes today in Ottawa is how much longer it will last. John Ibbitson has reported “Corporate tax cuts may bring down government.” He cites in particular the opinions of “NDP finance critic Tom Mulcair” (who “told CTV Question Period Sunday that it was ‘highly […]

[UPDATED JANUARY 31]. Given all the growing turmoil and fixed-date electioneering in Canada’s provinces this year, Chantal Hébert has just suggested: “It may after all be the perfect time to get a federal election over with.” And then just yesterday we heard as well that “Tory tax cuts could trigger election,” and (the day before): […]

Yesterday, in a piece headed “Harper’s talent for turning,” John Geddes at Macleans.ca opined: “Anyone can look good when they’re right. More formidable is the ability to look strong when events have proven you wrong.” This seems to me nicely written, but untrue. Or, at the very least, looking strong, like beauty, must be in […]

This coming Sunday, January 23 will mark the fifth anniversary of the 2006 Canadian federal election that first brought the Harper Conservative minority government to office. And Mr. Harper himself apparently thinks there is a “50-50 chance of election this year” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, as they used to say on Monty Python). If there […]

This past Tuesday, January 11, was John A. Macdonald’s birthday (and, intriguingly enough, also Jean Chrétien’s). Macdonald, in case you’ve forgotten (as almost half those Canadians consulted in a 2001 survey had) was the first prime minister of the present confederation in Canada – and remains “the only Canadian Prime Minister to win six majority […]