The boring battle over bitumen.
It is really not our favourite topic. Bitumen is boring. The conundrum we are facing is that the Harper Conservatives are so bereft of any solutions to our country’s economic…
Peter Lowry
Joining the Fords to defend democracy.
Issues often make strange bedfellows. You would have thought that the entire left wing of Toronto Council would have voted with Mayor Ford on Monday. Instead, most of these people…
Marois bares Quebec bigotry.
Bigotry in Quebec has deep roots. In the past week, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has been testing those roots. Her planned ‘Charter of Quebec Values’ is nothing but a bigot’s…
Whoring with the Ottawa press gallery.
You used to be able to take a story to the Press Gallery bar. It was right there on Wellington across from the Houses of Parliament. The drink prices were…
It’s always April Fools’ at the Fraser Institute.
You have to wonder how anyone could come up with anything as ridiculous as the Fraser Institute. For these people it is always April Fools’ Day. For the past 35…
Remember Justin, pot is just small beer.
Ok, point made. Moving on, Canadians have far more important issues to consider than legalizing marijuana. Let us not keep gilding the cannabis. Sure the news media are always in…
How to tell if the publisher is angry.
The best gauge newspaper people have to tell the publisher’s mood is by the placement of his signed editorials. If it is on the editorial page, he probably has just…
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
The Hair is doing Canada’s north. That just might be the only part of this country where the Hair can find a friendly audience. He took his hairdresser, his wife…
Heavy-handed Heather hypes Torstar.
Having usually enjoyed Heather Mallick’s writing in the Toronto Star, there was some consternation the other day when reading her piece extolling Torstar’s electronic output. While you never blame the…
The environmental waiting games.
The games are endless. Only the representatives of the people change. The current combatants are President Obama of the United States and Prime Minister Harper of Canada. Both have finite…
Will Wynne win with Waitzer?
The confirmation process of Ontario’s provincial government was shown up for how artificial and shallow it is the other day. A lawyer named Ed Waitzer appeared before the Standing Committee…
Buffett’s Berkshire buys into bitumen.
When the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, buys, Wall Street listens. That is why the recent $500 million investment in Suncor Energy Inc. by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment company was…
Settling the Senate problem is only a start.
Reading the rambling discourses of the pundits, you would think that the current outcry against the Senate is easy to solve by simply abolishing the place. If it was that…
What’s with the turnover at the PMO?
Reading Andrew MacDougall’s farewell to the turnstile at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) yesterday, you have to be puzzled. You wonder that, after the experience of serving Prime Minister Harper…
Helping health units that hate gambling.
“For some individuals, gambling is a devastating problem,” says the Ottawa health unit. From this you can deduce that the unit is somewhat negative about the siren lure of casinos.…
Ontario’s Sousa is searching for solutions.
It’s a daunting task and we can only hope that Finance Minister Charles Sousa is up to it. He is travelling Ontario searching for solutions to Ontario’s economic malaise. Needless…
Toronto’s ‘good-ole boy’ mayor.
You sometimes wonder where Toronto voters parked their brains when they elected Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto. What was understandable throughout that mayoralty campaign was that they wanted to…
In the dog days of summer.
It must be the dog days of summer. That is when all the politicos, politicians, pundits and prevaricators take time out to refresh and recharge for the political wars. Because…
Big Brother becomes capricious.
You have seen the full page advertisements in the newspapers. You have wondered just who the big telecoms—Bell, Rogers and Telus—are trying to reach. And you also wonder why they…
Our Tories are troubled tra-la!
When writing about the ‘Dump the Dummy’ campaign among Ontario Conservatives a couple days ago, we could hardly imagine the Tories having any choice. It gives you serious pause though…