Summer seems to have finally arrived in southern Ontario (thanks probably to all those devastating storms happening south of us). I have a message in my inbox today from a worthy cause and a good excuse to get outside this weekend and over the course of the rest of September. The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup […] More »

Canadians are about to get a nice lesson in one of the curious features of our Parliamentary system. Contrary to popular belief, party discipline and cabinet solidarity do not undermine reponsible government. Rather, they embody it. In many ways, party discipline is just an extension of cabinet solidarity, reinforcing the idea that, in Parliament, there […] More »

Edited b/c I can’t spell Purolator Last week, I was waiting for a Very Important document (ok, a cheque) to arrive by Fedex. Oops — Ms. Delivery Woman knocked while I was in the shower, leaving a note saying “pick it up tomorrow at…” But I wanted the cheque NOW. So I called Fedex, got […] More »

Further to Potter’s comment on my post about “root causes” of terrorism, New Statesman has an article about significant changes underway in Islam, prompted at least in part by the activities of al-Qaeda and the fact that many moderate Muslims are sick of the bad name their faith is getting worldwide. A short excerpt: “For […] More »

I had to laugh when I got this response from my good friend Christy while warning her about the perils of Google’s new Gmail service. Gmail is a free, web-based, e-mail service (similar to Hotmail) that is in beta testing now; it uses Google’s search and advertising technology to read through a user’s messages and […] More »

The Walrus settles into a comfortable position just below THIS Magazine as one of Canada’s most interesting and relevant general interest magazines. October’s issue responds to THIS magazine’s profile of Jack Layton with a look behind the curtain at Stephen Harper’s Conservative strategy machine. Most interesting is the debate-by-essay on the American election, featuring psychographics […] More »

Buy an iPod! No just kidding. Here’s one more rainy day activity for you all: Say you were rich, like Carnegie/Thomson/Gates rich, and you wanted to get all philanthropic. What would you do? Over at Marginal Revolution, they’ve been debating whether it is better to endow a general foundation, or to sponsor a prize for […] More »

Pouring rain here in la belle province, though I note that the squeegee kids at Parc and Mt. Royal are still at work. So, if you don’t really have a job or are bored at the one you have, two things to while away the day: 1. Pick up the National Post and read all […] More »

A few years ago, Michael Bliss gave up a promising career as a historian so that he could be a mediocre political pundit for the National Post. In today’s Post, he kicked off a five-part series on “Canada’s myth of single-tier healthcare” with some observations about the place of healthcare in Canada’s constitution and in […] More »

This is a fine and impressive bit of journalism. Looks like Klein happened to schedule her several weeks in Baghdad just as the last hopes for a reasonably stable transition were, literally, exploding—the attack on the Palestine Hotel, the grisly murders in Fallujah, the beheading of Nicholas Berg. Klein courageously does her duty as a […] More »

Now that we’ve had the official word on “security,” “opportunity,” and “freedom” – key words all in George W. Bush’s acceptance speech last night at the RNC, here’s a rhetorical alka seltzer: Operation Truth – tales of the Iraq war in the words of those who are actually fighting it. I have a natural aversion […] More »