In Brief

What Fani Willis has done in Georgia means that Donald Trump is finally not going to get away with his un-creative destruction of democracy in America

Aug 22nd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO . TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2023. There have been, I think, two main channels in my deep attraction to Fani Willis’s “Overwhelming Show of Force…Shock and Awe” fourth Indictment of Donald Trump, for his Georgia misdeeds in the 2020 US presidential election. The first channel is just Ms […]



RIP Happy Warrior of Canadian politics — who spoke with a broader voice that needs to be louder in the 2020s.

Aug 12th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2023. I did not know Hugh Segal personally. I never met him face to face. The closest I came was when my real-world acquaintances among Ontario bureaucrats urged that some document under discussion betrayed the Hugh Segal touch. I have, on the other hand, read and even […]



Trump 2020 election indictment and Trudeau separation — so much for “nothing serious happens in summer”

Aug 3rd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO . THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 2023. We had just arrived home from a short late-July adventure in the northern woods. Suddenly the TV and all other mainstream mass media were reporting that “Trump indicted for efforts to overturn 2020 election and block transfer of power.” Then the next […]



Summer 2023 : some small good news from Westminster in the UK

Jul 23rd, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

RANDALL WHITE. FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO. SUNDAY JULY 23, 2023. There was a time in these parts when more than a few citizens of the modern Canadian democracy still looked up to the political culture of the United Kingdom. In my mind (in casual gear at any rate) all this is still vaguely reflected in the […]



Is downtown Toronto on its way out?

Jul 14th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2023. To start with, Joyeux quatorze juillet et Bonne Fete Nationale! (Or in the American language Happy Bastille Day.) Meanwhile, on the morning of Tuesday, July 11, 2023 my business partner and I went on a downtown Toronto excursion to test the argument that […]



On the beach : why do people in Hollywood movies of 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s still somehow seem real in the 2020s??

Jul 9th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

SPECIAL FROM L. FRANK BUNTING, GRAND BEND, ON. 8/9 JULY 2023. We’re supposed to be getting some light rain tonight.. But I’m not worried. I’m safe in our place here, watching TV on a Saturday night and Sunday morning. Right now I’m into a recording I made of a TCM movie from this past Friday […]



Happy Canada Day 2023 to Canadians not proud to be Canadian right now (and of course to those who are too!)

Jul 1st, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. SATURDAY, JULY 1, 2023. The dread Canadian wildfires of late spring/early summer 2023 affect Canadian as well as US cities, suburbs, exurbs, rural small towns, rural townships, district townships (in Northern Ontario) and (especially in Canada) the still quite vast North American wilderness beyond. And in some parts of the second […]



Will Olivia Chow become new Mayor of Toronto — and will Yevgeny Prigozhin still be alive when she runs again??

Jun 26th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2023, 2:00 AM EDT. UPDATED 10:30 PM EDT. The unusual Toronto mayoralty byelection is the big local political event today. It already seems almost clear enough, however, that left-wing progressive Olivia Chow will be the city’s next mayor. The biggest news will be if […]



Democracy in Toronto 2023 : looking at the “mayoral byelection” coming soon to Canada’s largest metropolis

Jun 17th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

COUNTERWEIGHTS EDITORS, GANATSEKWYAGON, ON. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 2023. This past Thursday night we watched a cp24 debate among what cp24 regards as the “seven top candidates vying to lead Toronto” in the unusual mayoral byelection this coming Monday, June 26 — only nine days hence. The seven leaders are, in alphabetical order by surname : […]



Why one Phil Nimmons at 100 is worth 74 million Donald Trumps (at almost 77)

Jun 10th, 2023 | By | Category: In Brief

NORTH AMERICAN NOTEBOOK. RANDALL WHITE, FERNWOOD PARK, TORONTO, FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2023. As I start writing it’s about 11:30 PM ET on June 8. I’m finishing, after a break for sleep, meals, and whatnot, about 11:30 PM ET, June 9. (Even if all this does not finally get posted till the early morning of Saturday, […]