It sometimes seems that little of real interest would happen in Canada without the first people who called themselves Canadians in Quebec. (This is also a good argument against real Quebec “separation,” for those Canadians outside Quebec who value interesting things.) To take just one current case in point, the first meeting of provincial premiers […]

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 […]

As the end of the first month of 2013 looms, in the middle of yet another vaguely puzzling Canadian winter, a few less than crucial events have raised the oh-so-boring question of “Quebec independence” yet again. (Last night’s TV news videos of a flooded Sherbrooke Street in Montreal were more interesting than the NDP’s Sherbrooke […]

Six recent articles, mostly but not entirely from the Globe and Mail, raise some provocative prospects about Ontario’s changing role in the Canadian confederation: “Ontario Liberals brace for a tumultuous year” (Adam Radwanski) ; “Flaherty’s corporate-tax plan hits stumbling block in Ontario” (Bill Curry) ; “Saving John McCallum’s seat will be true measure of Liberal […]

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 […]

It says a lot about the ongoing problems of Senate reform in Canada that the main source for news on the latest wrinkle in Bert Brown’s “Triple E” Senate concept is the Edmonton Journal. (And what we’re talking about here, I should make clear, is not PM Harper’s two “step by step” and non-constitutional reform […]

For those who still think the Central Canadian mind is worth pondering, two somewhat contradictory recent Globe and Mail opinion columns on the current state of Canadian federal politics are probably worth a bit of further attention : John Ibbitson’s  “Harper’s moment to entrench Conservative politics has arrived,” in yesterday’s print edition, followed promptly today […]

One of the things keeping democracy in Canada alive – in the face of recurrent improbable odds, in Ottawa and elsewhere – has been a steady supply of very good people who watch over and write on the Canadian political scene (in all its vast diversity and both official languages). A historical list could go […]

It was not that long ago that even seasoned observers of Ontario politics who did not like Dalton McGuinty were agreeing he was probably close enough for jazz to a “three peat.” He was the likely winner of three straight provincial elections – the Premier Dad who was looking more and more like the very […]

[UPDATED FEBRUARY 26, 6:50 PM PT]: For many in many parts of the world the Oscars this Sunday are the big event this weekend. But for hard-core Canadian political junkies it’s the BC Liberal leadership contest tomorrow. An internal poll “conducted by Ontario-based Praxicus Public Strategies” gives Christy Clark, the one lady in the race, […]