Yearly Archive: 2015

Every December when I read or listen to A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas – “All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea …” I am reminded of the first time. The technology, of course was different. Now I can listen on my iPad, but then I was in Grade Twelve at John F. Ross C.V.I. in Guelph. My English teacher, Isobel Cowie, had lugged in from her home what passed in those days for a portable record player. With it she brought a vinyl recording of the reading by Thomas that she played for the class. The performance ran for about...

It’s wonderful that Seymour Schulich is getting the kind of recognition his philanthropy deserves. In recent days, half-page newspaper ads have trumpeted his gift, in partnership with Daniel Woolf, principal of Queen’s University, of 400 rare books to Queen’s. A batch of full-page ads have commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Schulich School of Business at York University. Schulich, who made his money investing in gold, turns 76 next month and is busily giving away much of what he made. His total givings to date are probably in the $400-million range. I can’t think of anyone else in Canada who...

The folks at the Globe and Mail held the topping-off ceremony yesterday at their new 17-storey building on King Street East. As they prepare to move in next year I plead with them to take a close look at what their newspaper has become. Here’s what’s on page one of today’s Weekend paper: no actual stories, just blurbs and photos. Above the fold, the part meant to appeal to readers at a newsstand, the carefully curated offering includes a pointer to a crossword puzzle, the announcement of a celebrity chef columnist, top moments in the year’s culture and lessons learned from Somalian...

I can’t read e-books; my attention wanders. I’m OK reading one on my iPad on an airplane, where the only other choice is a safety pamphlet, but on the ground I need paper and binding and a bookmark. I tried in digital format Robert Caro’s latest installation in the life of Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power, and finally gave up. I couldn’t stomach always seeing variations of the line at the bottom: “You are on page 133 of 1,878.” I bought the hard cover with “only” 700 pages. I highly recommend it in whatever format you prefer. I also enjoyed Margaret...

Of all the overindulged groups in all the world, Ontario teachers must surely be the most mollycoddled. First, there was the news that expenses for negotiators were paid for by the other side; now their bloated pensions are being buttressed by full credit for time off during an illegal strike. And what to say about the Ontario government toll-gating political contributions from the teachers? Taxpayer money is being recycled like it was rotten food meant for the green bin. Teachers hardly even do their jobs anymore. They refuse to reply to emails from principals received after 3:15 p.m. They don’t even respond to...

To get some understanding of just how high house prices have risen in Toronto, I cite my grandparents’ place in Etobicoke. My grandfather died in 1961, my grandmother in 1966. Their three-bedroom bungalow with a self-contained basement apartment sold in 1967 for about $25,000. Today, the same house, with no additions, would come on the market for $1 million and might even attract multiple bids. What else has risen forty-fold in the intervening almost 50 years? Nothing I can think of. Certainly not incomes. When I graduated from university in 1967, my starting annual salary was $6,000. Humanities grads now get around...

How would the Canadian election have turned out if the terrorist attacks in Paris had happened before the vote? My dentist put that question to me today when, fortunately, he had so many implements in my mouth that speech was impossible. I say “fortunately” because I could not have mustered a response even if my mouth was available. By the time his work was done, my lips were frozen and the moment had passed. I’ve been wrestling with the question ever since. Watching the televised clip of Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit in Turkey was like looking at a man who’d been...

Today’s Remembrance Day services in Ottawa offered a number of new sights. There was a new prime minister and his wife who wore a hat straight out of Downton Abbey, a new Sikh minister of defence who served in Afghanistan and a new minister of veterans affairs in a wheelchair. But it wasn’t the new I sought. It was the War Memorial itself, the silver cross mother, the twenty-one gun salute, the children’s choir and the aged faces of veterans. I never lost a loved one in any war. Oh, I had an uncle and and an aunt who served and...

A few of us were standing around the bar at the National Press Club in Ottawa on a Friday night in late 1975. Some couples were dancing in the next room. Mostly it was just the usual bar scene, boozing and boasting. Until Margaret Trudeau swept in with a certain devil-may-care attitude and a security detail officer a few steps behind. Such a drop-in was unheard of. A few MPs might come for lunch, a lobbyist or two might mingle, but not the prime minister’s wife. Margaret had recently been in the news so maybe she thought she should come hang out with...

Baseball season is over. The Blue Jays pushed the World Series winners to six games in the American League finals, one game better than the Mets fared against the Royals. Jose Bautista showed the world that Toronto has style with his bat flip. Josh Donaldson won the Hank Aaron award and is in line for the Most Valuable Player award. We should be celebrating a successful season, the best in 22 years. But we’re not. We’re mired in a he said-he said-he said controversy about the unhappy departure of general manager Alex Anthopoulos, the man who made this year happen. He said...

The election night resignation by press release of Stephen Harper was cheesy. He offered no thank you, no list of accomplishments, no closure for supporters. It did, however, trigger a leadership race. Comebacks are always possible. The Progressive Conservative Party won only two seats in 1993, changed its name, and was returned to power a decade later. The Liberals, written off in 2011 by no less an observer than the indefatigable Peter C. Newman, rose from the dead: 34 seats to 184 in only four years. So here’s my list of Conservative leadership candidates: From Atlantic Canada, only Peter Mackay is likely...

The longer-than-usual election campaign has been tough on the media. First the Globe and Mail endorsed the Conservative Party but not its leader, saying Stephen Harper should step down. The response to this risible position was both swift and satirical. “Hell but not Satan,” said one tweet. “Hilary’s pantsuit but not Hilary,” said another. “Duran, but not Duran,” went a third. Equally grabbing, but a different form of foolishness, came today when Andrew Coyne resigned as editor of editorials and comment at the National Post. Seems he didn’t like the edict from the owners that the paper would be supporting Stephen...

Far be it from me to rain on the Blue Jays parade, but I’m about to. No one was more happy than I with last night’s come-from-behind win. It had to be the wildest game of all time. There have been other spectacular victories recently that also rank with the ages. And I speak as a fan who froze his butt off at Exhibition Stadium in the early years. For all this time I’ve been part of one group or another that share a pair of season’s tickets so I go to the ball park for maybe a dozen games every year....

I’ve been wavering about Justin Trudeau for prime minister. When I first heard him speak in March 2013, I was a fan and said so in a blog post. (Justin Time.) He was articulate, well-informed and worked the room well. When I next heard him in May 2015, his speech was lacking in passion and his performance was poor. I was less impressed and said that, too. (Flatlining on Front Street.) During the election campaign, his presentation has improved and his economic policies seem appropriate. The Nanos poll has the Liberals in the lead by six points while Ekos says the Conservatives are...

Now that the first official photos of the new BlackBerry Priv have been released, there’s hope for us BlackBerry users and fans yet. Dimensions are not yet known, nor is the price, but it looks both thin and robust as well as equipped with a slide-out keyboard. And for those who care about apps, it’s an Android device. CEO John Chen has finally shed the BlackBerry cloak of using only its own operating system while, he says, continuing to maintain security. He admitted that because of “logistic and financial reasons” he couldn’t put apps and the BlackBerry 10 together. “This is the best...