Author: Warren

Above: the teenaged lead singer of the Hot Nasties, circa 1977-78. Photo located last night under a pile of old records. Note the rasta handle. SFH’s fate seems inextricably linked, in myriad ways, to Toronto “mayor” Rob Ford.  We can’t shake him, as hard as we try.  He’s like herpes

Dear Chief Blair: Other folks want to canonize you as a saint. I’ve never felt that way, for various reasons. Another reason: your guys had the goods on Rob Ford six ways to Sunday. Schedule One narcotic use and possession (as he’s admitted); extortion (threatening the power of his office

ROB FORD DOES HEROIN. That would’ve been my headline. Call me crazy, and many do, but it seems to me that that is news. Wow.

My Aunt Irene passed away on the weekend, another family member felled by cancer. Her funeral is today in Knowlton, in the Eastern Townships, and I couldn’t get there on time. My Mom is there, however. What can I tell you about her? To me – as a kid, as

Hey! Somewhere in the past few days, I acquired more than 14,000 Twitter enthusiasts. At the moment, 14,234, to be precise. I have some small distance to go before catching up to a Future Prime Minister and Our New Twitter Overlord, but not much. So, do I get an award

Jim Watson calls Gord Brown “Gordie.” Good God! The horror! Oh, wait.  I call Gordie “Gordie,” too, because he’s one of my oldest friends. I’m friends with Michael McSweeney, as well.  I wish to assure the Citizen’s crack investigative team that I do not, however, call Michael “Mike.” So, let’s

I’m no PMO shill, obviously, but I think this Chong bill is a trap. It is dangerous. Among other things, it would render this sort of nightmare – which I lived through, day after day, from 2000 to 2006 – a constitutional crisis. Well-intentioned, but a bad idea. Cure is

Junior Murvin, a giant of my teenage punk years, died yesterday in Port Antonio.  He was in his sixties.  No one knows yet what was the cause, apparently. The Clash famously covered Police and Thieves, of course, but Murvin should be remembered for more that one amazing tune.  He was

Dear Rob Ford: We decided to have a meeting, and limit attendance to people who haven’t committed a number of major crimes.  Sorry. Sincerely, Kathleen Wynne and Norm Kelly

Rob Ford went to see a football game on Sunday night. The rest of us got to see what people really, truly feel about him. They flocked to him. They swarmed him. They surrounded him as they tried to get a photograph of themselves with Toronto’s mayor, as he took

I own all but a couple.  You?

Remember how Kooky Kavoukian and the Ontario PCs shrieked and brayed about how the routine deletion of emails was a “crime”? How democracy itself was at risk?  Remember all that? Well, take a look at this morning’s papers, and the stories about the metastasizing Senate scandal.  Read this bit: “…When

Can public opinion polls suppress voter turnout? Of course they can. Do they? Yes, a lot, a lot. If a poll shows the electorate evenly split, turnout typically surges — because people feel energized by the notion they might help to cast a pivotal, deciding vote. On this, studies abound.

Quote: “…For all the potential missteps, Mr. Dinsdale says he’s not looking back. He plans to run in 2015. “In an election, many, many things go your way. Many, many things screw up. We had our share of good fortune, and stepping in puddles. We can’t think that this or

…and because I haven’t commented on Ontario politics in a long time (get used to it).

Raj, who I think is one of the best political reporters around, caught the contradiction (along with a colleague): here. That is, Justin Trudeau has said he will not go negative. In paid media, he has kept his promise. But on social/non-traditional media, he sure hasn’t. I would argue that

Great story by Mike Bell about Art Bergmann in the Calgary Herald, here. I didn’t know Bergmann. He was a big wheel from Vancouver’s punk scene, all dark clothes and dark habits. Unlike a lot of the Vancouver bands, we in the Hot Nasties and the Sturgeons and the other

Dear U.S. Friends: I know at least one of you is likely to read this, because I see evidence of your visits in my web site’s analytics all the time. As you may have heard, there has been some speculation in Canada about whether the mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford,

…if someone stops dithering, that is. Man, am I ever glad I never throw out any of my old political stunt stuff.