Quebec’s Premier Philippe Couillard has introduced a new era of “fiscal rigor,” the new code word for austerity. His inaugaral address when the legislative session opened this week was full…
Okay, it’s past the time to un-elect Philippe Couillard premier of Quebec, but some serious questions should be asked about his relationship with Arthur Porter, the disgraced former head of…
Rekha Bitta and her family, whom I met nine years ago when I was doing research for Green City in Kochi, Kerala State India, was in town over the weekend.…
It’s a no brainer, isn’t it? Pay people decently and they’ll work. I’d like the think that Stephen Harper and his friends are beginning to see the wisdom in this.…
This week I’ve been rereading Téa Obreht’s fascinating The Tiger’s Wife in preparation for the Atwater Library’s book discussion. The book, which take place in the aftermath of a war…
This was taken four years and a week ago, when the daffodils were at their best. This year everything is late, and the daffodils are just coming into their own.…
The past few months have been tough for Can Lit: Alistair MacLoed and Mavis Gallant both dead, and now Farley Mowat falls. The Globe and Mail’s obituary quotes him as…
Jeanne spent part of the dinner hour dancing around the dining room (with Thomas cheering her on from his highchair) to a variety of jazz pieces. Her dance technique veers…
French economist Thomas Piketty’s best selling Capital in the Twenty-first Century is sold out–not bad for a 1000 page treatise on what’s wrong with current economic thinking. But if you…
While I’ve been revelling in postive health things (new eyes!) and negative ones (shingles!) I have been somewhat insulated from reacting to the increasing number of things that are going…
And the patch was removed this morning so I can see in the world in full binocular mode, with colours gorgeously clear and all the details vibrant. A little discomfort…
The kitchen is just about clean, after my new eagle (left) eye uncovered all the grime. Today is the day the right eye (formerly my better eye) gets done. Back…
The Charbonneau Commission into corruption and illegal political party funding has started work again after the Quebec provincial election. Just what it will come up with when it’s finished its…
The news this weekend was that Alistair MacLeod, short story writer and novelist, is dead at 77. As it happened, his only novel No Great Mischief was the focus of…
Too busy to say much because I realize just how dirty everything is around here, now that my eyes are working as they should. People had warned me that I…
The knives were out last week at the CBC and Radio Canada: 657 jobs will be cut and $130 million slashed from the budget. This is just the latest in…
Came across this in The New York Times today: a town in Norway which now has mirrors beaming sun down into the town square. It’s not a first: the BBC…
Out walking this morning and sighted the first robin so far this spring. The grass is mostly free of snow, but now yet green here, nor are there any leaves…
Missed this because our National Geographic subscription has been transferred to the grandkids, which is probably quite fitting: given the rate of racial and ethnic intermarriage in the US, by…
