Democracy, according to much hyperbole in the air these days, is or ought to be the one thing we can all agree on. (As in the “Democracy Plaza” established by NBC at Rockefeller Center in New York, to help report on the perhaps somewhat historic US election of 2004.) In Canada especially we have assorted […]

Someone at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation thought it would be useful for Neil Macdonald to interview US neo-con author Ann Coulter on his new “Face to Face” TV show recently. He did not seem to dent her conviction that she is right about everything. But he did annoy her visibly a few times. Finally Ms. […]

One of the quieter but potentially more interesting parts of the recent federal throne speech in Canada alludes to “the social economy–the myriad not-for-profit activities and enterprises that harness civic and entrepreneurial energies for community benefit.” Paul Martin’s government argues that these enterprises can make the country’s “Cities and Communities” stronger. To help “create the conditions […]

George Orwell used to say that democracy requires a certain tolerance for dirt. (He also once called Canada a country that “could be fun for a bit, especially if you like fishing.”) Paul Martin, responding to the October 7, 2004 hi-jinks over his first throne speech as a minority prime minister, has invented a variation on […]

Almost everyone who very intently watches Ontario government and politics nowadays reads Inside Queen’s Park – the newsletter published by G.P. Murray Research Limited, out of a surviving fine old office building on Adelaide Street in the Toronto financial district. People in Canada’s most populous province generally, however, “do not follow provincial politics as closely […]