It’s taken some time to write this but I can’t wait any longer. It’s more than obvious that the Holy See simply doesn’t get it when it comes to child abuse.Not that long ago, in July of this year, an independent inquiry in Ireland led by Ju…
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Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Legacy of sports or legacy of debts?
Heaven help Hamilton on this one. Another round of Pan Am chicken.No sooner did it seem we call Red Hat owner Bob Young’s bluff and offer to do a renovation of Ivor Wynne than it turns out that the proposal as set was for bleachers an…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Real questions for less than real Ontario leaders
Dear Leaders:I have made the decision that unless one of you does something so egregious that it merits a comment I will not — will not –make any running commentary about the current election in Ontario. Frankly, the platforms are all uni…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: If you want to win votes, play the ethnic card
It’s true.It’s how the GOP have been able to divide and conquer for most of the last 3 decades in the States, it’s worked marvelously well for the Cons in Ottawa and now Tim Hudak, trying to unseat Dalton McGuinty in next month’s provincial election, i…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Who to lead the progressive torch (es) ?
It may not happen during the current cycle, but I think it is inevitable — despite the huge gap that exists in a number of policy fields between the Liberals and the New Democrats, some kind of alliance between the two or even an outright merger is bo…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: DSK walks
In probably his most humiliating moment since becoming Manhattan’s DA, Cyrus Vance Jr has dropped all seven charges against Dominique Strauss Kahn in the allegation that he raped a hotel worker, now identified as Nafissatou Dialou — and the courts hav…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: RIP Jack Layton
Shocking news within the last hour, that Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democrats, has died.How this shakes down and what it means for Parliament is anyone’s guess, but this is no time for a snark attack or schadenfreude.
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: So long, Ka-Taffy!
Looks like the rebels have all but taken control of Tripoli.Adieu, Moammar. About the only good thing you ever did was dismantle your nuclear weapons (the only other country to have done so to date is South Africa). Other than that, y…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Trademark this ™ (part 473)
The federal Conservative Party ™ can’t have it both ways. It is going after a retired university professor who is using the party’s logo within an ad banner on her website asking why it is Canada severely restricts and in the vast majorit…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Enter stage right — WAY right — Rick Perry
Just as former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty — probably the only guy who’s close enough to the centre that he could actually beat Barack Obama in next year’s presidential race — withdrew his candidacy, current Texas governor Rick Perry announced he…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Adieu, Wendy
It’s hard to imagine a world without Wendy Babcock. She died three days ago at the age of 32. After a truly horrible life including life on the streets as a sex trade worker, she fought back by getting her GED and then winning a…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Latest Fed decision, and de Tocqueville on bombastic simpletons
The US Fed dropped its usual pretentiousness and the technocratic language often used in its statements on interest rate decisions and was remarkably clear in yesterday’s decision, in which it pledged (by a vote of 7 to 3 with two abstentions) to…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: UK lights up — is Canada next?
While no act of law enforcement, and no austerity measure, can justify the kind of rioting that has happened in the UK the last few days, one cannot help but appreciate the need to vent. These are not easy times and budget cutbacks can only…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: When "Free Trade" ain’t free
In the absence of any long term prospect for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, Canada has decided to go it alone and try for bilateral agreements. This started with the Chrétien Liberals but has continued under PMS.To date, we’ve si…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: The other shoe drops in the States
Finally, at least one of the bond rating agencies in the United States has owned up to its hypocrisies — and slapped down the country’s long standing credit rating, from AAA to AA+. The press release indicates that the agency, Standa…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: $10 million is the new $137 million
Only in Hamilton. When Ontario deregulated power in 2002 (huge mistake still, in my opinion) it was left to the local utilities on what to do with the new local power companies which legally had to incorporate separately from the citi…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: All the "easy" oil and gas may be gone, but still …
While most regions of Canada have imposed moratoriums on “fracking,” using jackhammers and / or high pressure water injections to get out natural gas, one province — British Columbia — is going, pardon the expression, full steam ahead and allowing ou…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: What if what happened in Norway, happened here?
If what happened last weekend in Norway — the murders of 70+ people — were to happen here in Canada, what would our reaction be? Would we retrench and abandon our decades-old open door policy on immigration and adhere instead to a “Nativi…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Where to build the so-called "Road to Nowhere"? There’s really no where else to put it
Now this is interesting … the “Canadian Transit Company,” which sounds like a coalition of the urban public transit providers in Canada but is in fact the Canadian face of the American-owned Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario with Detroit,…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Another Catholic bishop bites the dust
Yet another RC bishop has tendered his resignation over the never-ending sex abuse scandal. This time it’s Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia.One can only hope Joe Ratzinger doesn’t take the coward’s way out like his pre…
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