Stuff Still Happens IV, the Reckoning, Week 24: Raptors? What Raptors?
If you’re a regular reader of this blather, you’ll know that I am most decidedly not a “fan” of the Toronto Raptors (and for the record, neither are the millions…
Maurice Tougas
Stuff Still Happens IV, the Reckoning, Week 23: Genocide? Not in my country
The final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (shorted to the ungainly MMIWG) was released this week. The final report was about 1,200…
Stuff Still Happens IV, The Reckoning: Week 22: Welcome to the new normal, and it’s not nice
It’s summertime here in Alberta (well, actually it’s not, but we tend to call anytime without snow on the ground summer), a time when the sun shines for 18 hours…
Stuff Still Happens IV, the Reckoning, week 20: The issue that won’t go away
If you want an example of how Canada and the United States differ, look no further than developments in Alabama this week. Alabama – a southern U.S. state with such…
Stuff Still Happens IV, the Reckoning, week 19: The Greens are coming, the Greens are coming!
Don’t look now, folks, but the Green Party has quietly become a force in Canada. In British Columbia, the Greens hold the balance of power in the minority NDP government.…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 18: Jason Kenney goes to war
No one can say that Jason Kenney is easing into his new job as premier of Alberta. After appointing his cabinet this week (one from Edmonton, as expected, most of…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 17: God bless the Bruins
The first 16 weeks of the year have been pretty heavy on the news side, what with elections and mass shootings and bombings and Mueller reports and SNC/Lavalin and resignations…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 16: The results, and Paris is burning
On Tuesday night, I was listening to Rachel Notley’s defiant concession speech. At one point, she said that child poverty in Alberta had been cut in half during her four-year…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 15: The end is near …
As a citizen of the province of Alberta, I will dutifully head to my nearby polling station to cast my vote in the provincial election on Tuesday. I admit that,…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 14: Debating the debate
During any political debate, voters and the media are always looking for the knock-out punch. Brian Mulroney famously destroyed John Turner in one debate in 1984, and Jim Prentice notoriously…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 13: On GSAs, Mueller and JWR’s illegal wiretap
We all know that Donald Trump is a dirtbag, but is he a worse dirtbag than Justin Trudeau? An Ipsos poll on Thursday gave Trudeau an approval rating of 40%,…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 12: It’s the RNP vs. the UCP
Finally, after weeks of a pre-election posturing, the real posturing has begun. Here in the People’s Republic of Alberta, Rachael Notley recalled the legislature, had the Lt. Gov. read a…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 11. The real world comes to New Zealand
We don’t hear a lot about New Zealand. Peaceful, stable countries don’t tend to make the news. Tragically this week, Australia’s little brother was thrust into the world’s spotlight for…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 10: Do you SNC what I SNC?
It was another week of developments, and non-developments, in the ‘Lavscam’ scandal/affair. Where to begin? Let’s start with Jane Philpott. Remember her? She was the minister of something who resigned…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 9: Justin Trudeau’s very bad, awful week
If only he weren’t so sanctimonious. If only he hadn’t presented himself as a paragon of virtue in a corrupt, fetid political swamp, then maybe we’d cut him some slack.…
Stuff Happens, IV: The Reckoning, week 8: It’s Oscar Sunday … zzzzz
Well, it’s Academy Awards Sunday. Remember when that used to be a big deal? As a longtime movie fan and pop culture junkie, I’ve always watched the Oscars with varying…
Stuff Happens IV: The reckoning, week 7: Tru-d’oh!
I think it’s safe to say that the second week of February, 2019, was the worst week of Justin Trudeau’s leadership. And with the House of Commons returning to action…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 6. The Trouble with Trudeau
This was not a good week for Justin Trudeau. The coming weeks may not get any better. The Globe and Mail reported on Thursday that Justice Minister Judy Wilson-Raybould had…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, week 5. Breaking news: Winter is cold
Millions of Americans and not a few Canadians made the shocking discovery this week that winter can be very cold. Baby, it’s cold outside. Or are we not allowed to…
Stuff Happens IV, The Reckoning, Week 4: The kid in the MAGA hat
There was a time, not long ago, when the mainstream media drove the agenda. Newspapers decided what was news, TV news copied whatever was in that day’s paper, and that’s…