So, it would seem that the Liberal equivalent of the NDP’s name-change resolution and Conservative party’s abortion/gay rights/pick-your-social-conservative-issue resolution at this year’s party convention will be a youth wing resolution to consider severing ties with the monarchy. I’ll be shocked if this resolution ends up being seriously debated, and even
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Pample the Moose: Anniversary Post and a Call for Political Advice
Pample the Moose is seven calendar years old today. I’m not sure how old that is in blog years. My posting has become more erratic in recent years, but I’m still committed to keeping it going for the foreseeable future. So as to have some content here beyond a simple
Continue readingPample the Moose: Long-form Census – Festive Edition
A random thought occurred to me today, as I take my first day off for Christmas vacation. The biblical-era Roman census, which required that Mary and Joseph return to his hometown of Bethlehem to be counted – finding no room at the inn, spending the night in a stable, etc.
Continue readingPample the Moose: Partisan dreck: Seat Redistribution Edition
The new seat redistribution bill recently passed the House of Commons, awarding new seats to Ontario, Quebec, BC and Alberta. Rarely have I seen commentary about legislation so thoroughly skewed by short-term partisan and regional interests, and it makes me ill. I’ll get my principles on the table. I favour
Continue readingPample the Moose: Publications!
Just a quick post today to announce two new publications that I’m excited about. The first is my new edited collection, Contemporary Quebec: Selected Readings and Commentaries, which I co-edited with Michael Behiels at the University of Ottawa. We’ve been working on this book for the last six years (yikes!)
Continue readingPample the Moose: History and the Santa Claus Parade Weekend
There’s a history connection here, just wait for it! This weekend is Santa Claus Parade weekend in Toronto, where I grew up, and coincidentally in Guelph, where I live. It’s an important weekend in my family’s history, because this was traditionally the weekend when the no-talking-about-Christmas embargo was temporarily lifted
Continue readingPample the Moose: Official Bilingualism, Officers of Parliament and Supreme Court Justices
Much ink has been spilled of late about the decision of Stephen Harper to appoint a unilingual Supreme Court Justice (Michael Moldaver) and a unilingual Auditor-General (Michael Ferguson) in recent weeks. We’ve seen the usual range of commentary, whic…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Rick Mercer, the Globe, Bullying and Gay Visibility
This post is my response to the recent public debate about Rick Mercer’s Rant and the subsequent Globe and Mail editorial attacking his position on the need for gay adults to come out as part of the answer to fighting homophobia and bullying. If you…
Continue readingPample the Moose: New Directions in Political History – Post-Conference Observations
Last week, I attended a great conference on Canadian political history, held at York University (full disclosure, I was one of the organizers). About a hundred participants discussed a truly dazzling array of topics, ranging from the new citizenship g…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Ontario Election 2011 – Tight Races, Bedtime for Me
As I head to bed at 11 PM, the Liberals are one seat shy of a majority government in Ontario, with a handful of seats still teetering in the balance. I’m extremely pleased that the Conservatives failed to capture the government. As I see it, one way …
Continue readingPample the Moose: Canadian Political History Prizes / Prix en histoire politique canadienne
A few years ago, I helped organize and launch a Political History Group within the Canadian Historical Association. One of the group’s initial objectives was to promote the recognition of excellent scholarship in Canadian political history, and so las…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Chess, the Cold War and Musical Theatre
So… I know this blog is supposed to be about things political and historical in nature, but allow me a brief diversion into the world of theatre. If you insist, I can make the connection to the themes of the blog relevant. I want to encourage theat…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Ontario Election: Guelph Update
I unfortunately missed the all-candidates debate on social policy last week in Guelph, as a nasty cold took hold of me. I had been looking forward to checking out the candidates in person. From what a good friend and colleague told me though, the NDP…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Camera-test your ties – Ontario Leader’s Debate Edition
So, despite a deep-seated desire not to inflict pain on myself, I tuned in this evening to the Ontario election leader’s debate. To make this a productive hour and a half, I also set up the ironing board and a stack of 12 shirts. If you don’t feel li…
Continue readingPample the Moose: John A.: Birth of a Country
Last night, the CBC aired John A.: The Birth of a Country, a dramatization of the eight years of Canadian political history leading up to the formation of the Great Coalition government of 1864 – the government which ultimately drove the Confederation …
Continue readingPample the Moose: Canadian Political History Conference at York University
I’ve noticed that a number of people have landed at my site because many months ago I posted a call for papers for a Political History Conference at York University. The program for the conference “Transformation: State, Nation and Citizenship in a Ne…
Continue readingPample the Moose: On Royal Rebranding
In light of this week’s ministerial command to “hang the Queen” in Canada’s embassies abroad here are some comments from me in a story by Sarah Boesveld in the National Post. For the record, I’m shocked, shocked(!) by what Rudyard Griffiths had to say…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Ontario Election: GSAs, Greens and Catholic Schools
The issue of gay-straight alliances in Catholic schools in Ontario has heated up again, this time in the Toronto Catholic District School Board, which voted this week to place denominational rights above other rights in implementing the provincial equi…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Ontario Election: NDP gives up on Guelph, saves me a decision
I try so darned hard to support the NDP. I am sympathetic to their message of social justice, of social welfare programs, of equitable treatment for Canadians. I have had great respect for many of the party’s leaders past and present. If only I coul…
Continue readingPample the Moose: Symbols Matter – Canadian Forces Edition
Symbols matter. Traditions can be invented. Nationalism is the product of collective will to create an imagined community.
All of these concepts (which are debatable, of course) are vitally important to understanding the trajectories of Canadian id…
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