In Brief

Happy Remembrance Day 2024 from Sol Mamakwa, MPP for the still mysterious Far North of Northern Ontario

Nov 11th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, ONTARIO TONITE, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2024. Before leaving Remembrance Day 2024 altogether I want to underline one heretofore unique event on the theme this year in Canada’s most populous province. On Thursday, November 7, 2024 Sol Mamakwa, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the also somewhat unique far northwestern […]



Will Trump’s 2024 electoral triumph in US finally become like 2016 triumph of Brexit in UK — falling down to support from less than a third of UK voters today?

Nov 9th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK,TORONTO. FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 8, 2024. Like others I am altogether surprised by the Trump Republican victory in the 2024 US election. Over the past few weeks, however, I can claim to have written at least one arguably prescient sentence on the subject : “I also can’t help wondering if America is quite […]



Could some happy surprise be blowing in the wind of Democracy in America? Apparently not ..

Nov 4th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO . MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2024. UPDATED WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 (SEE BELOW). There is much progressive excitement about the results of a regional poll that shows Harris ahead of Trump in Iowa! No one seems to think she will actually take “ruby red” Iowa Tuesday. But if she comes much […]



Will three of the four provincial governments in Western Canada soon be in the hands of New Democrats ?? Certainly not, it turns out !!

Oct 29th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, CANADIAN PROVINCES NOTEBOOK, TORONTO. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2024. The final count on the October 19 BC election results is now complete.. In round numbers : David Eby’s BC NDP has 45% of the popular vote and 47 seats in the BC Legislative Assembly (where a bare majority is also 47 seats) ; John […]



Is America ready to start singing Beyoncé’s new song? … Canadians are praying every night that the answer is yes!

Oct 26th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO . SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2024. The counterweights editors were wrong when they heard that “Randall White’s first short-short post” will cover BC election results, on Canada’s Pacific coast. (These results are still to come — I’ll return on this front Monday … or Tuesday.) Meanwhile, I am here a […]



Necessity is the mother of an at least temporary counterweights invention

Oct 24th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2024. [UPDATED OCTOBER 25: see below]. An at least temporary technological disaster has befallen our counterweights site. It is apparently not altogether uncommon. And our (not very expert) local staff will be working to fix the technical issues over the next (perhaps longish?) while. For the moment the […]



Wouldn’t it be nice if on Nov 5 Kamala Harris’s Democrats could do something like Susan Holt’s Liberals in Canadian province of New Brunswick on Oct 21??

Oct 22nd, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024. New Brunswick, some might stress, is the third smallest province in the present Canadian confederation. It is also the second largest province in Atlantic Canada, with a population — 854,355 as of the Third Quarter 2024 — somewhere in between the two Dakotas in the USA. To […]



Warren Harding — once thought America’s worst president — wasn’t as bad as Donald Trump (and then let’s get real on Canada’s constitution again, very gradually)

Oct 15th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS. GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2024. What to say in the midst of assorted disturbing numbers for the great cause of the free and democratic society in the USA today? Even if Michael Moore now (or still?) believes the Harris-Walz Democrats will win in the end on November 5. And more to the […]



The long future of Liberals and New Democrats in Canada : will Harper/Poilievre Conservatives finally get the progressive opponent they want?

Oct 6th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK,TORONTO. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2024. It still seems hard to know just where Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet is going with the “Bloc’s demand to increase old age security (supported by the CPC and the NDP so far).” According to our local (Liberal) MP here it “is too expensive and poorly targeted.” […]



Will Oct 19 election in British California say anything about Nov 5 election in USA?

Sep 24th, 2024 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE, NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK, TORONTO . TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2024. [UPDATED SEP 26]. The October 2024 just waiting in the wings could be called provincial election month in Canada. Voters in three provinces will choose new (or re-elect old) provincial governments : BC (5.6 million people) on Saturday, October 19 ; New Brunswick (846,000) […]