“Great Britain, the United States and Canada” is the title of a now 65-year-old essay by Harold Innis, Canada’s pioneering great economic historian (and the godfather of Marshall McLuhan). As winter at last gives way to spring north of the North American Great Lakes, a few vaguely parallel thoughts about our time today have been […]
With some three weeks to go before the Liberal Party of Canada chooses its next leader, there seems little doubt that Justin Trudeau will be the man (or woman, of course, as the case may in theory be : “Joyce Murray and Martha Hall Findlay are fighting over who’ll finish second.”). Even those who are […]
Sometimes, when not much seems to be happening on the current political scene, you can catch glimpses of a more fascinating long-term future in the minor events of the day. The headline on Andy Radia’s recent interview with the now retired Stockwell Day, in the wilds of BC, may qualify under this heading, despite all […]
I was asked by the editors to make a few remarks on the latest alleged big municipal politics scandal in the Canadian big city everyone loves to hate (including many who live there). This is meant to draw attention to “Monday 11 March 2013 : The Mayor Can’t Help It????” –Â the latest episode in […]
This past Thursday Steve Paikin wrote a short “Inside Agenda Blog” on the TV Ontario website called “Why Stephen Harper May Step Down This Summer.” The Huffington Post repeated the item in its Politics Canada section. On Friday Andy Radia on the Yahoo Canada site wrote that “Steve Paiken – a journalist for TV Ontario […]
Like many others in the true north, strong and free, I was saddened to hear that Stompin’ Tom Connors passed away, at the age of 77, on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. I can’t pretend to be any great fan of Stompin’ Tom’s, or any kind of expert on his life and times. All I can […]
This past Sunday night, in between David Starkey’s tidy explanations of the start of the authentic British (as opposed to just English) monarchy, on TV Ontario, and the premiere episode of Vikings on the History Channel, we dipped into the first Canadian Screen Awards on CBC. A half dozen domestic headlines –Â from the Pacific […]
A week or so ago Heather Mallick at the Toronto Star published a passionate defence of “British novelist Hilary Mantel’s elegant writing on Princess Kate” – which had been “viciously attacked” by various individuals and organizations in the United Kingdom. Ms Mantel’s writing had appeared, online and then in print, in the London Review of […]
