In a comment on my post on “the Conservative International” (below), A.M. refers to George Grant’s Lament for a Nation (1965). More than forty years old though Grant’s book may be, reading the following footnote makes one wonder if George was less a traditionalist conservative and more a visionary:
The next wave of American “conservatism” is [...]
Read Full Post »
My friend and fellow blogger Jeet has suggested that Barack Obama should ”wave goodbye” to his economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee - but not, mind you, because Goolsbee has done anything wrong. In the recent controversy involving Canada, NAFTA and the Obama campaign, Jeet even believes that ”Goolsbee was the innocent party.” Why, then, does Jeet think Goolsbee should go? In a word, “because of his policies.” What [...]
Read Full Post »
In his Guardian essay (here, and introduced in his post below), Jeet raises a very interesting question: just what was it that caused political conservatives in Canada and the United States to first join hands? As he correctly points out, Canadian conservatives have traditionally been more suspicious of America than have their liberal counterparts: “No [...]
Read Full Post »
Canada has played an unexpected and controversial role in the U.S. Democratic primaries. In today’s Guardian, I try to give some context to the emerging scandal. You can read the whole article by clicking on the link above.
Here are some choice excerpts:
Barack Obama’s political momentum, seemingly irresistible a week ago, was sideswiped by false reports from sources within the Canadian [...]
Read Full Post »
The great pianist Oscar Peterson.
According the Graeme Hamilton, writing in the National Post, the word “Canadian” is now used as a coded ethnic slur in the American south to refer to blacks:
The bigger mystery is how “Canadian” came to be code for black. An online directory of racial slurs defines Canadian as a “masked replacement” for black.
Last August, a blogger in [...]
Read Full Post »
What are friends for, if not to politely ignore the fact that you’ve become an alcoholic and started beating your children? In such a spirit, Canada proved itself once again a faithful and utterly harmless pal of the United States yesterday when our government fell all over itself to retract a “torture awareness” manual given [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Canadian politics, Media on January 17, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Two Canadian journalists are currently fighting separate battles for freedom of expression. One, a flamboyant, and over-the-top conservative publisher, is angry that he has been forced to attend a government hearing. The other, an equally flamboyant and over-the-top leftist publisher, would love nothing more than to receive a hearing from the government. In their different [...]
Read Full Post »
Some very smart blogs in the United States defend Mark Steyn’s free speech rights.
Read Full Post »
Above: Orwell’s Big Brother. The inspiration for U.S. asylum law?
Last week Canadian federal judge Michael Phelan struck down Canada’s so-called Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. The 2004 agreement allowed Canada to turn away asylum-seekers who arrived at the Canadian border on foot, on the understanding that they should make an asylum claim [...]
Read Full Post »
“Polar meltdown” (Photo: Arne Naevra)
Okay, so I fibbed. Two posts ago I told you that I’d explain in my very next post why I voted Green in the recent Ontario election. And then, without even signaling, I left the road in a shower of gravel and ended up talking about Stephen Fry’s new blog. But let’s [...]
Read Full Post »
