Marnie Ko One week ago, I sat in a packed walk-in medical centre with my child, waiting restlessly to see a doctor on a Sunday. I had hoped the clinic would be faster than the nearest hospital, and while our visit was urgent and could not wait until a weekday, it was not a life […]
Canada
Jack Layton: thanks a lot, buddy
There is a reason that the New Democrats will never form a federal government. They keep making the same mistake over and over again: Stupidity. Years ago, I actually thought the NDP had a reasonable chance at not coming off as butt-stupid until Audrey McLaughlin’s shrieking interjection during a televised three-party debate: “But what about […]
Peace, 10 minutes at a time
There is a way through the mess in Iraq. But it will require patience and impulse control, something that — like my kids — Americans currently seem to lack. It will require talking to people who dislike each other intensely. Americans have been able to do this in the past: Nixon opened China and Reagan […]
The Bullshit of Balance
Every time a government wants to dodge addressing an issue, it spews a bunch of kak about “balance.” For instance, the need for humanity to “balance” its desire to consume far more than is necessary with the imperative not to shit in its own nest. Or, say, the need to “balance” the greedy-guts desire of […]
Note to Harper: Canada is spelled $$$
Alas, poor Stephen; not only is Quebec insufficiently grateful that he proclaimed it a “nation,” but his party’s fortunes are sliding faster there than a toboggan at the Winter Carnival. According to an Ipsos Reid survey released this past weekend, the Conservatives have dropped five points in Quebec, to a dim 13% support among voters, […]
What mother does not like Stephane Dion?
It occurs to me, as I reflect upon my tropical beverage in the midst of Alberta’s midwinter heat wave, that rum and diet cola is a strange choice. Given the calories contained in a shot of rum, not to mention the source of rum itself, I wonder why I bother with the aspartame? Similarly, why […]
The empty moral space
Let me get this straight: the prairies experience a turn in the weather cold enough to take the lives of a homeless couple (who asphyxiated from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to keep a bus warm) and Edmonton’s response is to dispense second-hand mittens? Seriously? Are they serious? Meanwhile, Edmonton’s spanky city hall with its […]
The Alberta party line
These are mildly interesting times in Alberta, what with the resignation of King Ralph and the shuffling of candidates hoping to ascend the throne of the new centre of Canada. Albertans, though, seem not particularly interested in the outcome of the election, despite the fact that whoever is chosen by Progressive Conservative party members is […]
I remember
Today is Remembrance Day and, for better or for worse, I remember. I did not fight in any war but I remember how my Granny suffered all her life over the loss of her brother in the trenches of the First World War. I also remember my other Grandmother telling stories of doing without her […]
October 28, 2000. Saturday Night. “Book Club”
On November 7th, the 2006 Giller Prize went to Toronto MD-author Vincent Lam for his book Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, published by Doubleday Canada. In this column of six years ago from “Saturday Night,” Frank Moher took on the big-publisher, Torontocentric award. The juries and short-lists for the Giller have improved since those days, though […]
