Regulations, like the road to hell, are paved with good intentions
It is agreed: Canadian children would be better off without their parents! The media consensus is reaffirmed by a growing campaign to censure mothers and fathers who use tobacco when driving with children. “Stop That Smoking Car!” as The Canadian Medical Association Journal put it. Hastily adopted and probably unconstitutional, the measure underscored a striking […]
Is it just me or did political correctness die in 2007?
It was the year political correctness died–2007. Once a simple effort to promote good manners, correctness evolved into a campaign of vigorous witch hunts until this, too, grew humdrum. It couldn’t last. Who has the energy for perpetual indignation? In my opinion, evidence of its passing came on Dec. 20, the day the most derogatory […]
The year 2007: it was instructional for corruption, futility, and incompetence, no?
It’s been an instructional year. Canadians learned new keywords for corruption, futility, and incompetence–Airbus, Bre-X and Cash Only. The year 2008 marks the fifth year some ongoing federal inquiry delved into alleged official corruption. It is so bad The Western Catholic Reporter tried to comfort readers: “A corrupt democratic government is better than no government […]
Few reporters ever ask: what on earth does city hall do with the money it already has?
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a gimme list from Canadian cities. Yet when faced with municipal demands for more federal aid, few reporters ever ask: What on earth does city hall do with the money it already has? In Toronto last week two aldermen demanded special audits following disclosures fellow councillors spent office allowances on […]
Globe’s Wente was behind Martin’s Mr. Dithers nickname
OTTAWA–Who invented Mr. Dithers? The derisive nickname for Paul Martin rates with Joe Who and Lyin’ Brian as one of the liveliest prime ministerial putdowns of our age. Yet its origins are disputed, and the journalist who coined it has never received proper credit. “Great ideas are often misattributed,” she joked. This may be the […]
Strangely, Mulroney’s recent book carries no mention of Schreiber
OTTAWA–The bookstore across the street marked down Brian Mulroney’s memoirs, 30 per cent off. A sweet offer, yes? I’m holding out for free gift wrap and a companion Dictionary of Palmistry. It would help decipher the Mulroney story (vanity = third finger abnormally long) or Jean Chrétien’s ghostwritten autobiography (habitual anger = pale nails). It’s […]
Members of the Red Chamber accustomed to public loathing
If you were 140 years old and didn’t have any friends, you probably deserved it. In questioning whether to abolish the Senate, it’s striking how few friends the Upper House has. There it stands, all alone atop a windswept bluff on the Ottawa River, with only velvet curtains and an $81,844,963 annual budget to keep […]
War was easier to digest when we didn’t have any
War has gone and spoiled Remembrance Day. The anniversary of the armistice used to be the media’s cue to broadcast patriotic retrospectives or talk-radio rants about the petty injustices suffered by non-combatants at Royal Canadian Legion beer lounges. The war came along and ruined everything. Instead of old newsreel heroes, Canadians think of young legless […]
Daylight saving time = Canadians, mad as damp owls
If Canada lasts for 1,000 years they will still say, “Boy, those people had their troubles with daylight saving time.” We were the last industrialized country on earth to introduce the measure, in 1918, and have resented it bitterly ever since. As The Hamilton Spectator once moaned, “What is the next piece of freak legislation […]
This just in: we’re winning the war in Afghanistan, at least in TV land
It is a Canadian first in wartime. Despite new evidence Afghanistan is more lawless and violent than a year ago, a handful of media have simply polled their way to victory. Journalists often defer to opinion surveys as newsworthy, but rarely when the stakes were so high. I refer to an Afghanistan survey paid for […]
