Trudeau’s fourth and final term was to be his most controversial of all
Trudeau’s fourth and final term was to be his most controversial of all There was a whiff of unreality in the air as Canada’s 32nd parliament met for its inaugural session in the spring of 1980. Mere months earlier, Pierre Trudeau had been consigned to the political scrapheap and Joe Clark’s newly-minted Tory government was…
An enthusiastic polemicist with no qualms about giving voice to his particular perspective on the world The English journalist Paul Johnson died on January 12 at the age of 94. In addition to being a columnist and author of popular histories, he was an enthusiastic polemicist with no qualms about giving voice to his particular…
After the Trudeau-Chretien wing of the party turned on him, an offer of help came from an unlikely source – Brian Mulroney My previous column was prompted by Steve Paikin’s new book – John Turner: An Intimate Biography of Canada’s 17th Prime Minister. But there’s more to Turner than I was able to address in…
Chretien’s assessment? “He looks good until you put him on the ice.” Mulroney’s? “A great man and a victim of timing” On the occasion of John Turner’s death in September 2020, a column of mine earned a gentle rebuke from a regular reader. The problem wasn’t that I’d said anything factually inaccurate. Rather it was…
If the term “his own man” applies to anyone, it certainly applies to Ian Tyson Toronto in the mid-1960s was very different from what it is today. Much smaller in population and historically perceived as a primly Protestant city, it was in the early stages of shedding the image of “Toronto the good.” To paraphrase…
The entertainment imperative trumps ‘authenticity’ every time People raised in North America aren’t usually exposed to the phenomenon of the Christmas pantomime. Some might even think it has something to do with mime, which it most assuredly doesn’t. But those who grew up in Britain or Ireland will have an entirely different perspective. Pantomime –…
Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever Roadshow movies were once a thing, particularly in the 1960s. And certain characteristics defined the genre. You could reserve seats in advance; tickets were pricier than the norm; and the films were longer than usual, thus facilitating an intermission that mimicked the live theatrical experience. While it didn’t quite have live…
Bing Crosby’s Silent Night is one of the best-selling records of all time Silent Night, probably the most famous Christmas carol of all, will be over 200 years old this Christmas Eve. It was first performed at the parish church in the Austrian village of Oberndorf during midnight mass on Dec. 24, 1818. And, fittingly,…
After the 1958 World Cup, international football suddenly had a new superstar Albeit in a sad way, it’s perhaps appropriate that news of Pelé’s declining health coincides with the World Cup. The tournament was, after all, the stage where he first came to international attention back in 1958. He was 17 at the time. Being…
Sales of the book far outpaced expectations I was 12 years of age when I first became aware of reincarnation. And it came courtesy of the movies. That happened a lot. While it would be too pretentious to call our local cinema a theatre, the Sunday matinee was a staple and one Sunday’s featured film…