On this day in May.
Before we send out more distress signals, we need to take stock of our situation. We have been hiding in our homes for less than two months while essential workers…
Peter Lowry
Some people never learn.
Writing about the ministry of education in Ontario yesterday reminded me of the time in the early 1980s when I complained, loudly, that Dr. Bette Stephenson, then minister of education,…
Give Ford the credit he deserves.
Premier Doug Ford of Ontario had two choices. He could continue the bombast and bluff of his usual approach to politics, or he could learn from his mistakes and tone…
It’s all about politics.
There was a suggestion in the news the other day that few of us are interested in politics at this time. The assumption was that the coronavirus has chased politics…
Making a stand, in Dixie.
It is only appropriate. If any music is right for the coronavirus in the United States, it is Dixie. In the American Civil War, Dixie was the song of defiance…
Ontario NDP: A party of survivors.
If you came to Ontario recently, you would have a problem figuring out what goes on at the provincial parliament at Queen’s Park. With that big blowhard who seems to…
Justin’s magic bag of money.
Watching the daily news conference by the prime minister the other morning, I lost track of how much money he was promising. No doubt our news media people are keeping…
Blame Alberta’s Jason Kenney.
You would think that one of these days, the people of Alberta are going to catch on to their premier Jason Kenney. Those of us who consider him something of…
What Jinping, Putin, Trump have in common.
Why are we surprised if American president Trump wants to be named president for life? The man hardly wants less than his counterparts, Xi Jinping, president for life of China,…
Is Chuckles shooting blanks?
The lame duck conservative leader and leader of the opposition in parliament, Andrew Scheer, has a problem. Is nobody paying him any attention? Is it that difficult for him to…
In a half-full Canada.
How many attractive countries are there to help alleviate the overcrowding, the poverty and the tensions of so many countries of this world? And of one of the more desirable…
Learning to love your local MP.
In our time of need, do you not love the attention we are getting from our local politicians? I am thinking here of your federal member of parliament. This person…
“Are we there yet?”
That man-child in the American White House reminds me of taking the kids on a road trip. How soon they would tire of their prison in the back seat of…
The populism of the coronavirus.
We live in an age of populist political solutions but we never expected to have to deal with a populist pandemic. The problem is that a populism pandemic is blind.…
Jason Kenney puts on his black hat.
Just when you start to think Alberta premier Jason Kenney is not such a bad guy, he drops a political stink bomb. He says his province can ignore our federal…
The impatience of Donald Trump.
While Canadians have mostly been enjoying the unusual unanimity of their federal and provincial leaders in this time of the pandemic, the situation in the U.S. is reversed. In a…
The good and the ugly in tough times.
It has been more than a few years since I was traveling around Ontario lecturing business students at our universities. At the time, the subject of my lectures was the…
A man and his ideas.
Bernie Sanders has taken himself out of the race for the democratic nomination for president. He left his legacy behind. The Vermont senator is probably tired but he can be…
Masking the problem.
Some advise to progressive bloggers today: Do not get into an argument over wearing face masks in an epidemic. I got e-mails about that one! All, I did was mention…
“The darkness has gathered.”
Those were the words of Pope Francis, mentor to the world’s Catholics, who marked the way of the cross Friday in an empty St. Peter’s Square. Not being religious, I…