Gary Mason – Where Did Ontario Go?
Most of my relatives live in Ontario. Until 40 some years ago so did I. Some great memories. That first school trip to the Big City in the 60s when…
The Mound of Sound
What Is the Window of "Creeping Normality"?
Think of it as the “new normal” or as Wikipedia puts it: “Creeping normality or death by a thousand cuts is the way a major change can be accepted as…
If the Official Reason Doesn’t Make Any Sense, Look Elsewhere.
I know, I know that sounds like the stuff of conspiracy theories. Oswald didn’t kill Jack Kennedy, it was the CIA or little green men from Mars. Still, it’s hard…
Nobody Escapes the Ford Nation. Not Even Me and I’m Out On an Island in the Pacific
I’m not sure you would want to see any of these guys roll up your driveway on a dark night. They’re the Ford boys. Dad, Doug Sr., is gone. Youngest…
A Tale of Prime Ministerial Cowardice and a Situation That Should Never Have Happened in Canada
It’s hard to respect cowardice. Yet that has too often been the story of Justin Trudeau’s premiership. One of the most glaring examples of Trudeau’s cowardice is found in his…
At Least They Gave Him a Warm, Safe Place to Die
74-year old Ted spent the last hours of his life in his favourite seat inside the Tim Hortons on West Broadway in Vancouver. In the city with the most expensive…
An Obituary for a Planet? "Climate Change Has Run Its Course" – WSJ
Has the plutocracy outwaited the climate change issue? According to the Wall Street Journal the global political caste has lost interest in the whole carbon emissions cutting thing. That’s over.…
Well, With 2019 Drawing Near, Maybe It’s Time to Dust Off this Classic
It was written for Harper but I’m thinking it’s going to be okay for Pipeline Pete. In 2019, we’ll get our chance to, well, listen to the song. They won’t…
Liberal Democracy Cannot Survive Undefended.
Since the advent of the neoliberal era, the reign of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney, liberal democracy has been left to its own devices. The warning sign, the red flag, was…
Climate Change Resilience? Maybe I Was Too Hard on Government.
I was wrong. Our governments aren’t ignoring all climate change impacts and the need for adaptation strategies. Infrastructure – power grids, roads, bridges, basic utilities, ports, that sort of thing…
"Iceberg, Dead Ahead!" Trudeau’s Multi-Billion Dollar Pipeline Blunder.
The J. Trudeau Memorial Pipeline could be transformed into a multi-million dollar blunder, swept away by a bursting carbon bubble. We’ve been warned about the carbon bubble for years, well…
Hey, Isn’t That Even More Insulting than Calling Canada a National Security Threat?
Justin Trudeau, bless his little heart, has denounced Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum exports as “insulting.” That’s because Team Trump has used the contrivance that the tariffs are in…
Taking Democracy for Granted. We’re Probably On This Road Too.
Andrew Sullivan has a thought-provoking essay in New York Magazine about how we’re killing off liberal democracy and not just in Poland or Hungary or the United States either. This…
How Henry Kissinger Learned How the Enlightenment Ends.
It came to Hank at a conference on transatlantic issues a few years back. There was an address on artificial intelligence that to Kissinger was a yawner until the presenter…
This Would Work – Wouldn’t It?
Donald Trump is going ahead with a planned meeting with Rocket May, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Trump wants Kim to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Kim…
The Funny Thing Is – It’s Here and What Have We Done to Adapt to It?
You might not have seen video of the dramatic flash flooding that swept the historic town centre of Elliott City, Maryland, but that doesn’t matter. Perhaps you didn’t see the…
The Perils and Pitfalls of the J. Trudeau Memorial Pipeline – They’re Very Real
To hear many east of the Rockies tell it, a dilbit spill in British Columbia’s coastal waters isn’t going to happen, although it is, and, should it, they have a…
There’s Compromise and There’s Compromise.
Look at it this way. Your prime minister defends steamrollering British Columbia on the Trans Mountain pipeline as an integral part of an essential compromise on slashing greenhouse gas emissions.…
Niall Ferguson’s "Roseanne" Moment
Scotland’s hard-right historian and annoyingly pompous loudmouth, Niall Ferguson, has stepped in it this time and it’s all due to someone leaking his email messages. Niall Ferguson, the conservative British…
The Struggle to Preserve American Hegemony Over Europe
For decades the United States has been trying to prevent any direct line connecting Russian fossil energy and Europe. Few recall that, prior to the 9/11 attacks, American firms were…