Meghan Markle and Harry Wales have now shown the world that the British monarchy does have some kind of modern future. (Though, somewhat intriguingly, what was once the website of “The British Monarchy” nowadays just calls itself “The home of the Royal Family.”) Meanwhile, back in the most northerly North American UN member state, Canada […]

The recent Radio Canada report “Noted nationalist and author Mel Hurtig dead at 84” has coincided with several bursts of fresh interest in old Justin Trudeau articles on this site. See, eg : * “The quiet evolution of ‘La femme de Justin Trudeau’ carries on” ( 5 Mar 2012) ; * “The unbearable lightness of […]

According to Susan Delacourt at the Toronto Star, the debate over the “suicide crisis” (aka “mental health crisis”) on the Attawapiskat First Nation reserve “sparked a rare outbreak of civility among rival parties this [past] week” in the Canadian House of Commons. For a while now there has seemed to be a growing consensus among […]

At the end of the 1864 Quebec conference that forged the constitutional beginnings of the  confederation of 1867 George Brown, founder of the old Toronto Globe and early Canadian Grit/Liberal/Reform political leader, wrote a hasty letter to his wife. He reported : “You will say our constitution is dreadfully Tory –  and it is – […]

Remembrance Day 2013 – the day before yesterday – is still somewhat on my mind. And I am remembering that the fall of France in June 1940 had a brief dramatic impact across the sea in Canada. As the historian Arthur Lower explained in his old textbook Colony to Nation : “When the fall of […]

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.” […]

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 […]

TORONTO. SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2009. The Canada Day that looms ahead this year is looking a bit gloomy in Canada’s most populous metropolis. As just one of many cases in point, an Ontario cabinet minister from faraway Windsor has called Torontonians “babies” for complaining about a garbage strike right when the weather gets hot. Premier […]