The plastic grocery bag burns brightest in the hellfire of environmental sins
Did a corporate sales gimmick inspire a media “green” campaign? The plastic grocery bag burns brightest in the hellfire of environmental sins. When the Toronto Star recently polled readers on whether to abolish the bags, one unhelpful respondent replied, “Yes, but not until publishers stop cutting our forests for newsprint.” Newsrooms that never turn off […]
What Ottawa’s not: a ‘sub-Arctic lumber camp,’ ‘a really sick town,’ or ‘like Regina only smaller’
It’s the place the whole country loves to cuff. “A really sick town,” Brian Mulroney called it. “Sub-Arctic lumber camp,” wrote a 19th century editor. “Dullest reputation of any Canadian city,” reported The London Daily Telegraph. “Like Regina only smaller,” jokes a friend from Saskatchewan. Oh, they go on and on. “The Town Fun Forgot,” […]
Media and public warned: there will be no politics at Beijing’s Summer Olympics
Media and the public are warned: There must be no politics at next week’s Beijing Summer Olympics. “China won’t accept the Olympic Games being politicized,” the Communist People’s Daily explained. The Olympic torch was paraded past a portrait of Mao. No politics there. They broadcast the Olympic slogan “One World, One Dream” at the same […]
Polar bears and July days revive a media bogeyman that frightens small children
These warm July days are reviving a media bogeyman that frightens small children: The Legend of the Drowning Polar Bear. They teach it in schools, where dark theories of global warming replace catechism as the new religion. Students take it on faith that climate change is unnatural, catastrophic and unfurling its terribleness at lightning speed. […]
There appears to be a media consensus to clear the sidewalks
It was lunch hour a block from the Bank of Canada, and women in summer dresses walked softly in the sunshine, in the manner of Ottawa office workers who spend too many hours in fluorescent light. Then it happened. A homeless man unzipped his trousers, gripped himself, and urinated for all to see on Queen […]
Bill S-210 to outlaw suicide bombing in Canada
The Senate is sometimes known to complain it doesn’t get the media attention it deserves. I agree. Members of the Upper House ought to be kept under constant TV surveillance. Resulting video should be broadcast, over and over, until children run screaming from the room. The secret weapon of every Senate abolitionist is the Senate, […]
My 10 most excellent and outstanding Canadian IQ questions for the year
It wouldn’t be Canada Day without some killjoys at the Dominion Institute trying to spoil the picnic. The group dedicated to promoting national history has made a yearly ritual of releasing holiday polls identifying how many Canadians think D-Day is a tag sale at Sears. Such findings typically provoke media frowning. “Dispiriting,” wrote The Globe […]
Some media can barely contain themselves on Liberal Leader Dion’s carbon tax proposal
Evidence shows Canadians don’t mean it when they claim to welcome eco-taxes. Yet a strange and wonderful myth persists that we are a nation of jolly environmentalists desperate for new ways to burn money. Not for long. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion detailed a national carbon tax plan on Thursday in Ottawa that indelibly links his […]
Hockey song drama a big deal in a TV nation and more
The TV nation tempest over a hockey song was enough to make sales executives, politicians, and even journalists take notice. Anxiety over the feared cancellation of the Hockey Night in Canada theme provoked sorrow over the fate of a jingle. The Calgary Sun called it a “tragedy.” Some media mourned it as though a childhood […]
Media mostly ignore figures showing Canadian economy in serious trouble
New data show the economy is almost certainly in a recession. Funny, I don’t remember seeing that news release. Apparently CBC-TV’s The National didn’t either; on the same day disastrous economic figures were released, they dropped the story and led that evening’s newscast with an item on Brazilian pygmies. The news blackout spread to the […]
