The influx of donkey and elephant images these days got me to thinking: how the hell did these random animals come to represent America’s two biggest political parties? And, why don’t Canadian parties have any funny animals? I’m sure I’m not alone in these musings, so I decided to not only find out where the […] More »
Nunavut’s tourism industry is in decline, according to an article in today’s Nunatsiaq News. While most visitors to our newest territory were traditionally government workers, Nunavut had seen an increase in true tourist traffic in recent years. The decline is being attributed to some of the reasons tourism has waned in the south — SARS, […] More »
Although Canada is sending one of its smallest summer games teams in decades to Greece, COA officials had plenty of excellent citizen-athletes from which to choose a flagbearer. Triathlete Simon Whitfield, the amazing hurdler Perdita Felicien, or – my personal choice – wrestler Daniel Igali. Instead, they chose judoer Nicholas Gill. Sure, he’s going into […] More »
The Americanization of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, is driving up land prices in this hippie hideoutand inspiring long-time residents to take matters into their own hands
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British Columbia — and Vancouver in particular — has one of the most concentrated local media environments in the country: The Victoria Times-Colonist, the Vancouver Sun, the Province, and National Post are all owned by Canwest. Wherever is one to go for alternative local news? Behold The Tyee. Forget Rabble, the Tyee is the finest […] More »
(Edited because I can’t spell) Some quick thoughts on Martin’s new Cabinet: 1. It’s nice to see my hero Stephane Dion back in Cabinet. Paul Martin seems to have had second thoughts about how he wants to treat the architect of the most important piece of legislation of the Chretien years. (That’s the Clarity Act, […] More »
Sorry for the long delay between postings, but I’ve been enjoying the fine weather, finer beaches, and terrible drinking establishments of British Columbia. I also managed to finally get to Fahrenheit 9-11, the Michael Moore doc that’s breaking attendance records everywhere. There’s something about the combination of me, Moore, and Vancouver that does not mix […] More »
I’ve never found the University of Toronto downtown campus particularly welcoming. As a shy undergraduate living off campus (and commuting more than three hours a day for much of my time there) its ivied and gargoyled buildings were beautiful but intimidating. I made very few friends there, and, like many alumni, have a somewhat sour […] More »
The Vertical Struts, named from a photo of the remaining stubs of one of the World Trade Center towers, are a two-man (Raymond Biesinger and Trevor Anderson), ’50s-style garage-rock combo from Edmonton. They are self-proclaimed throwbacks with songs about boys who love boys, boys who love girls and socialism. They recently released their first single—recorded in Edmonton by Veal’s Nik Kozub—solely on seven-inch vinyl.
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