As Machiavelli taught long ago, lying has always been part of the modern political arts and crafts. But even he stressed the limits to the phenomenon. (“Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it …”, etc, etc.) As the unsettling […]
[UPDATED AUGUST 28]. Just over a week from now, the people/peuple of la belle province (which is, of course, not a province like the others, because of its beauty and many other things) will be choosing their next provincial government. It still seems wrong to jump to any big conclusions just yet – especially perhaps […]
QUEEN’S PARK, TORONTO. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 3:30 PM. Some three and a half months ago, I was wondering: “Is Liberal Conservative détente next big thing in Ontariario .. and will it work?” My inspiration was a Toronto Star column by Martin Regg Cohn, which urged : “As labour tensions dominate the agenda, Liberals and New […]
Like other individuals and institutions in anglophone Canada lately, the Toronto Globe and Mail has a bit too often seemed to be trying to return to the now vanished golden age of the greatest empire since Rome, on which the sun never dared to set. This particular retro-colonial version of the Peter Pan syndrome, on […]
This past Friday the Victoria Times Colonist published a piece by Murray Brewster of the Canadian Press, entitled “Royal branding of Canadian Forces to be extended … Suggestions for smaller branches forwarded for approval to Queen.” As Mr. Brewster has explained: “Restoring the ‘Royal’ prefix to the navy and air force has … become a […]
Ghosts must exist in some sense. That at least is the conclusion I have drawn from the various celebrations of the 35th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42. The biggest celebration was no doubt at Graceland itself, where “75,000 […]
Having spent a few weeks, a few months ago, visiting various parts of Europe with a few thousand mostly congenial Germans, we can appreciate the superficial motivations behind German Chancellor (ie Prime Minister) Angela Merkel’s visit with our Canadian PM Harper and others in Ottawa and vicinity today and tomorrow. (See “Euro crisis ‘elephant in […]
Last week we heard that, out in the ancient agrarian democratic heartland of northern Southwestern Ontario, the architect Peter Ferguson has “filed an application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in a bid to get his local Grey County council to stop praying and turning council into what he calls a ‘Christian zone.’” Or […]
Can anyone really be surprised that Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois is attacking the continuing strange status of the British monarchy in the Canada of 2012? Or, as the Globe and Mail has explained: “With the Quebec election campaign in full swing, the royals have become for the PQ a symbol of the federal Conservative […]
There seems at least some anglo central Canadian consensus that, as Lawrence Martin urges in today’s Globe and Mail, in the Quebec election that Prime Minister (Premier?) Jean Charest has just officially called for September 4, 2012, “The Péquistes don’t scare Canada now.” The latest survey data does show that “Parti Québécois takes the lead […]
