There’s been not a peep on this blog about Lt. Chris Saunders who died last week after battling a fire on board the HMCS Chicoutimi – and that’s a terrible oversight. Saunders’ funeral was held today in Halifax. If everything is indeed political, then surely the unnecessary death of this brave young man is making […] More »

Couldn’t have put it better than Paul Wells: What does the Parti Quebecois mean when it promises Quebecers a “real country”? For one thing, it means a country whose government sees more in the world than focus groups and hospital waiting lines. Mayors can worry about plumbing; it is a national government’s job to face […] More »

Now that The Headwaiter is out of the country for a few days, we can rest easy that he won’t go and hand GST revenues over the Assembly of First Nations or something equally idiotic. At any rate, while The Headwaiter is bent on disembowling the federal government, two of his Quebec ministers are behaving, […] More »

Finally, something fun has emerged out of the US presidential debates. It seems that there’s speculation that Bush was wired up, receiving covert prompting from his handlers. Check out this site for photos and stuff. It’s pretty intriguing, if only because it would confirm that the frat boy Bush can’t stop himself from cheating on […] More »

Update: Here’s the obit in Le Monde Ok, this just calls out for grad-school witticisms. Come on, bring on the clever remarks, the ultra-in jokes, the high irony archness of it all. Andy Lamey, are you out there? Please help. Philosopher Derrida Dies in Paris at 74 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 12:25 p.m. […] More »

I’m not trying to be snarky, but the Giller nominees have just been announced Alice Munro, Wayson Choy, Shauna Baldwin, Miriam Toews, and Paul Quarrington. Apart from one Quarrington (Whale Music) and the few Alice Munro short stories I was forced to read in grade 10, I’ve never read anything by any of these writers, […] More »

Columnist Chantal Hébert socks it to the NDP for being out of the loop in last night’s near-death experience for the Liberal minority government. Along the way, she gives Jack Layton a history lesson on how to get your way as an opposition party with clout. All of which might be fair criticism if last […] More »

Thanks to meredith for passing this on: MANITOBA TO BECOME CARIBOU Dan Snaith, who released the albums Up In Flames (2003) and Start Breaking My Heart (2001) under the name Manitoba, has changed his name to Caribou following a lawsuit in the US. Frontman for punk band The Dictators, Handsome Dick Manitoba, sued Snaith for […] More »

I know this is a distraction from the fascinating US election campaign, but back here in meaningless ol’ Canada, the government is poised on the edge of a knife. The Bloc has tried to amend the throne speech with a call for Ottawa to address the “fiscal imbalance”, this mythical idea that holds that the […] More »

A press release today from the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (my employer) delights in a landmark copyright ruling in Ontario. And I quote: “…the Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling in favour of PWAC member Heather Robertson, who is leading a class action suit on behalf of thousands of freelance […] More »

CNN’s Tucker Carlson writes a live-action blog during the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates. Few surprises in his responses to the Cheney/Edwards debate (the man wears a bow-tie), which most media concedes was a hard-fought draw between two tenacious, intelligent politicians. But one comment from Carlson starts the bells ringing for me, and I’d like some […] More »