Keeping the estate
When I write this column, I occasionally imagine the reader lying in bed, at the breakfast table, sitting in an armchair by a fire, or on a couch at one of the County’s coffee shops, enjoying the paper. It’s a pleasant image, but one that’s slowly dying away. Community papers have not suffered the decline […]
A bridge too far?
It’s public infrastructure spending time again. Wellington did pretty well last time around. I don’t think we’ll be quite as lucky this time. The major urban mayors are already twisting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s arm; Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto have all but been handed their cheques. What we may be looking for, then, is a […]
Who’s my ginger peach?
In a recent column (or two) I wrote about clearing out the old stuff and donating locally. I’m still at it. Of course, my front and upper hallways look a bit like an episode of Hoarders or one of those garages on Backroad Bounty. I might be weakening, because I truly hope the Clothesline folks […]
The thing about ice
Seems like all it takes is the sound of a shovel or skates scraping an ice surface out-of-doors and I time-travel: winters of youth when you dared to hitch a ride behind the bumper of a car; took bets from friends while in your head, you heard your mother’s voice telling you not to put […]
Rich history
Not until you visit a country can you truly appreciate its uniqueness. Portugal, for example, is a country rich in history—with some suggesting that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens might have long ago co-existed in its north. Grapes have been cultivated on the Iberian Peninsula since at least 2,000 BC. When the Phoenicians arrived, they not […]
The Wideman hit
For any of you who have ever worn stripes or called balls and strikes, the behaviour of Dennis Wideman of the Calgary Flames likely upset you. Wideman is a professional hockey player with several years in the NHL, and a reasonably good reputation as a clean player. After being checked in the corner, during the […]
The monumental charm offensive
Did you see that photograph of the big gold statue of Chairman Mao erected in rural China? Here one minute; but gone the next, after the public reaction to it was less than fulsome. And then there’s the news that the proposed Mother Canada monument planned for Cape Breton Highlands National Park is being reevaluated. […]
Purge
In the 1990s, when I decided to go back to school, the Internet was available to the public but it hadn’t gained a reputation as a place to do research for an essay or a thesis. At that time, most family homes and public libraries still had hard copies of encyclopedias on their bookshelves. The […]
When civil discourse fails
Last week, a well-watched trial ended with charges being dismissed, a cliff-hanger ending to what was considered a potential turning point in free speech on the wild west of the Internet. Gregory Elliott was charged with criminal harassment for an online war of words turned ugly. The backstory is convoluted. Elliott was reacting to three […]
Hero complex
After a rocky start in late 2015, the federal government’s promise to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canada is well underway. Though opinions on this effort—along with an understanding of both the definition of refugees and the Syrian conflict—vary, one conclusion seems inevitable: unforeseen problems will emerge. Earlier this week, an article published by CBC […]