On the anniversary of 9/11, Chris Hedges offered these thoughts: The explosions and collapse of the towers, however, were, to me, intimately familiar. I had seen it before. This was the familiar language of empire. I had watched these incendiary messages dropped on southern Kuwait and Iraq during the first Persian
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: The Shame Of It
I was never a fan of George W. Bush. He made some terrible decisions that had far-reaching consequences. But, yesterday, in a speech in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, he spoke the unvarnished truth. Jennifer Rubin writes: In perhaps the most important words spoken in his political career, Bush in his remarks at the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Debate
I tried to listen to the English language leaders debate. I turned it off after about forty-five minutes. It wasn’t a debate. Michael Harris correctly characterizes it as “a third rate cage fight:” The confrontation that everyone was waiting for, Trudeau versus O’Toole, never materialized in any coherent way. Given
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Quebec Does It Again
Justin Trudeau was pretty happy after the second French leaders debate. Then Francois Legault rained on his parade. Ian MacDonald writes: Justin Trudeau should have been feeling pretty good on the morning after the night before, about his strong performance in the second French leaders’ debate, and confident about his
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Worst In Us
The West Island is that part of Montreal that hugs the shores of Lac St. Louis, from Dorval to Ste. Anne de Bellevue. It used to be an Anglophone ghetto — a glaring example of what we used to call The Two Solitudes in Quebec. In the last forty years,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Erin O’Toole’s (And Jason Kenney’s) Healthcare Plan
Erin O’Toole says he’s going to reform Canadian healthcare. But, when you get into the weeds, O’Toole’s plan sounds a lot like Kenney’s policy. Gillian Steward writes: Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s comments about how a government led by him would improve public health care seem designed to evade the whole
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Way Past Redemption
Jennifer Rubin wonders why Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are still members of the Republican Party: To recap: Kinzinger and Cheney’s party pushed the “big lie” that the election was stolen, overwhelmingly opposed impeachment, blocked a bipartisan commission, tried to undermine the committee and now has threatened private companies
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Conservatives and Guns
The Conservatives were going to lift the Liberal ban on assault rifles. But now they’ve changed their minds. John Ibbitson writes: In a week that shook up the federal election campaign, both Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole focused on guns and crime, leading the Conservative Leader
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Looney Candidates
Every election has its share of looney candidates. One such candidate is Cheryl Gallant for the Conservatives. Robin Sears writes: Conservative candidate Cheryl Gallant, is back. This year she launched a hilariously wacko set of YouTube videos insinuating that the Liberals plan a “climate lockdown.” (What does that even mean?
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: We Never Learn
Andrew Nikiforuk writes that there are seven lessons that the American withdrawal from Afghanistan should teach us. Here are three of them: 1. Interventionistas by definition do harm. The straight-talking philosopher and risk expert Nassim Nicholas Taleb lays out the disastrous hubris of interventionista thinking in his excellent book Skin
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Pure Claptrap
The state of Texas has passed a blatantly unconstitutional law on abortion. And the Supreme Court has refused to do anything about it. The New York Times editorializes: The Texas law, known as SB 8, is the most brazenly anti-abortion law in the country. It bans abortions after six weeks of
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No More Detente
Doug Ford was going to stay out of this election. But he’s now in a big way. Susan Delacourt writes: So much for the election truce between Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau. The detente appears to have crumbled over the issue of vaccinations — proof of vaccination, in particular —
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Hard To Accept
Yesterday, Joe Biden told a lot of Americans what they don’t want to hear. Jennifer Rubin writes: As he began, he sounded pugnacious if not angry. “I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not going to extend a forever exit,” he said. He praised U.S.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Generating Insanity
Paul Krugman writes that there’s an interesting connection between right-wing politics and the peddlers of snake oil: Right-wing extremists, and to some extent even more mainstream conservative media, rely on financial support from companies selling nutritional supplements and miracle cures — and that financial support is arguably a significant factor
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Future
Andrew Nikiforuk writes that expecting governments to fight COVID is yet another example of misplaced faith: When governments play with viral fires, it is ordinary citizens, including our unvaccinated children, that get burned. And so the fourth wave has arrived in our midst like some crazed arsonist in a dry
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Conventional Wisdom Could Be Wrong
Justin Trudeau rose to power on The Politics of Hope. An old political trope is that Hope defeats Fear. But sometimes, Robin Sears writes, the politics of hope backfires: Such moments delivered us Mike Harris, Stephen Harper, Doug Ford and Donald Trump. Why? The thread which seems to run through
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Best Possible Outcome
Justin Trudeau is in trouble. Chantal Hebert writes: Since the election call the Liberal lead has melted. At week’s end, a handful of polls put Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives in first place. But while the current national numbers bear a striking resemblance to the CPC/Liberal 2019 finish, there are major qualitative
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: What Now?
Yesterday in Afghanistan was horrific. Observers are comparing the American withdrawal from Afghanistan to the American withdrawal from Saigon in 1975. Marc Thiessen writes that the real analog is Beirut in 1983: On Oct. 23, 1983, terrorists detonated a truck bomb at the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Same Old Song
For decades, conservatives have advocated for austerity. They are now planning to dish out more of it. Jim Stanford writes that during the pandemic, governments around the world racked up eye-watering deficits as they opened the fiscal taps to support personal incomes, subsidize businesses, and finance public health responses. Canada was
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Going Back
Paul Krugman writes that, when it comes to employment, workers are not going back to the pre-pandemic world: After a year and a half of working from home, many don’t want to return to the stress of commuting. And at least some of those who were forced into unemployment have
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