Strictly speaking, counterweights turned seven years old this past summer. Our very first full-length article, “John Ibbitson’s next Canada” (by Randall White) appeared on August 19, 2004. We very quietly marked our seventh birthday, as it were, with “Just what was PM Harper thinking .. how about ‘Canadian Navy, Air Force Name Change Divides NDP […]

Susan Bonner on CBC TV, reporting from Washington, had just said that the new Canada-US border deal (aka US-Canada border deal ) just wasn’t on anyone’s radar in the USA. No one there was paying attention. So I was a little surprised when, flipping to my favourite US political TV channel, MSNBC, I saw the […]

So … this just in from the Canadian Press: “Pakistani actress Veena Malik is suing a popular Indian men’s magazine for millions of dollars, accusing it of publishing photos she says were doctored to make her appear nude, her lawyer said Monday.” We here are interested, because we used two of these photos this past […]

[UPDATE DECEMBER 4 : Initial impressions of first NDP/NPD leadership debate – SEE BELOW]. Tomorrow, Sunday 4 December 2011, at 2PM ET / 11AM PT, the nine (count em) contenders for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada / Nouveau Parti démocratique du Canada will be holding their first debate in Ottawa – […]

No one expects Nathan Cullen to win.  As a recent Barbara Yaffe column in the Vancouver Sun notes, he has been labelled “a long shot and an underdog in the [federal] NDP leadership race.”Â  And: “With nine candidates – nearly 10 per cent of the caucus” – vying “to replace Jack Layton, the Skeena-Bulkley Valley […]

[UPDATED DECEMBER 1]. One of the good things about Canada is that it is more serious and high-minded than other places, right? And a good example of this is the Globe and Mail – whose semi-post-modern headquarters at the edge of the lakeshore rail line into downtown Toronto still proudly proclaims “Canada’s National Newspaper”? Right […]

[UPDATED WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11,  AUGUST 22, 2012 ; TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2016 : scroll to bottom of page]. Tuesday, November 29, 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Natalie Wood, aka Natalia Zakharenko, aka Natasha Gurdin, aka Natalie Wood Wagner – “a movie star, from probably the last period when stars were still […]

There’s a lot of talk about the troubled Ontario regional economy lately, that tries to paint government “big spenders” as the crucial problem.  (See, eg, Terence Corcoran’s somewhat alarmist National Post article on “Ontario gets closer to EU-style crisis.”) A few recent reports in the Globe and Mail, however, point to some crucial trends in […]

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO, QUEEN’S PARK, TORONTO. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011. Ontario throne speeches are seldom inspiring – or, some cynics might say, even interesting. The test of a good speech of this sort (others have already long ago explained) is that you can drop its unbound pages on the floor, pick them up in […]

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA. SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2011. This afternoon will see this city’s 107th annual Santa Claus Parade. From 1905 to 1982 the event was sponsored by the now defunct Eaton’s department store. Then a consortium took over. This year’s sponsors include Coca Cola, Lego, Mattel, McDonalds, Mercedes-Benz, Pfizer, Scotiabank, Shopsy’s, Sony Pictures, Tim Hortons, […]