The classic two solitudes in Canada are French and English. But today’s blogosphere is full of the other great schism between East and West. And, as crowds in Kabul, Afghanistan shout “Death to America,” the supermarket tabloids say George W. Bush has taken up drinking again. Meanwhile, this week the Western Canadian premiers are talking […]

According to The Province in Vancouver: “A native group within the Vancouver area operating under the banner of the Six Nations Solidarity Network have been planning a response to see how they can support their Ontario native compatriots” in the Caledonia land-claim protest, which threatened fresh violence earlier this week. Just over 95 years ago, […]

There have been more than a few big surprises in Canadian federal politics over the past year. And, as unlikely as it may seem at the moment, the current Liberal leadership race could prove surprising too. Just how bad the Ontario-dominated crop of 11 “B-team” contenders looks depends on how you see the main objective […]

UPDATE. WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 11 PM ET. The duly elected federal Parliament did not get around to voting on the Harper minority government’s sudden surprise motion to extend Canada’s current mission in Afghanistan for another two years until shortly after 10 PM Ottawa time this evening. But in the end, as the Globe and Mail […]

What can you say about Mother’s Day 2006 that hasn’t been said already? You can review some key dates from James Trager’s intriguing mid-1990s publication, The Women’s Chronology, showing the progressive rise of the better half of humanity, from ancient times to the present. 2640 BCE. Silk manufacture is pioneered by the wife of the […]

Observers of the new Western quiet revolution in Canadian federal politics have now had time to catch a little breath. And it seems increasingly apparent that, yet again, the most surprisingly ironic things are happening in Quebec. It shouldn’t be surprising that Stephen Harper’s first Conservative minority budget will be sailing through Parliament this evening, compliments of […]

SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2006. Canada does not pay as much attention to the United Kingdom as it used to. But lately you might almost think that, inadvertently or otherwise, the new Conservative minority government in Ottawa has brought a few fresh Imperial Echoes of days that used to be long gone by. Even in Canada, e.g., Tony […]

It turns out that there’s not much to say about the first budget of Stephen Harper’s new Conservative minority government in Canada. Except that it does seem to definitively betray the clear but limited extent of the 2006 right-wing coup north of the unfortified border. For the intricate details of who gets what, and not, consult such reliable sources […]

Mr. John Ibbitson is arguably the most stimulating and even brilliant political columnist in Ottawa today. He is always worth reading, and often right. But for growing numbers of the Canadian people he is just wrong in his recent Toronto Globe and Mail column on “Why we need a Queen of Canada.” Electing the governor-general […]