George Orton won Canada’s first gold medal in the 2,500-metre steeplechase in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris
The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, are over. They came pretty close to never materializing, however. The Tokyo Games were delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. And a surge in COVID-19 cases in Japan this year led some health experts to suggest the Olympics should be cancelled. The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun…
As with every aspect of the pandemic-postponed Olympics, the virus will cast a long shadow on how people are fed
The Tokyo Olympic Games are finally upon us. Most of the attention will be given to the athletes, the sports, the empty stands and, of course, COVID-19. But every Olympics brings the gigantic task of feeding an entire village of high-performing humans from all over the world. In Tokyo, that means organizers need to feed…
We are seeing the rebirth of a more capable and clear-eyed Japan
The recent talks between Chinese and American officials in Anchorage, Alaska, were preceded by both sides trading in fittingly icy and prickly barbs during their opening statements. Many of these centred on the domestic situation in China or the Chinese rebuttals to these charges. In March, Chinese Foreign Policy Spokesman Zhao Lijian delivered some of…
The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the warning: dependence on Chinese products is a key vulnerability for Western nations
Many key pharmaceutical ingredients used in North America reportedly come from China or, in the case of generics, India. In turn, India imports key ingredients from China. So diverting imports from China to India might not reduce our dependence on Chinese manufacturers. In addition, China reserves the right to provide its citizens with vital drugs before…Language, religious laws and practices, cultural and culinary traditions all function to discourage, prevent or, at the very least, slow down assimilation
There are approximately 260 million immigrants in the world. An immigrant is defined as someone residing in a country other than their place of birth. Of that number, roughly 50 million are “illegal immigrants” who lack official authorization to reside in their host country. In 2017, roughly 3.4 per cent of the world’s population of…
Based on the results in South Korea, Canada’s formula for future Olympic success is obvious: emulate the freestylers
I know it’s still four years until the next Winter Olympics in Japan. But when they start the planning for Canada’s next Winter Games contingent, might I recommend that they let the freestylers run the show? You may have noticed the Canadian freestyle skiers and snowboarders as they took on half-pipes, ski cross, moguls and…
While Asian nations are interested in our goods and services, not one of them is interested in buying the values that Trudeau keeps proselytizing
Engaging in international trade is perhaps the greatest of Canadian economic traits. We’ve been traders since the first Europeans arrived. The accounts of the competition between les voyageurs and les coureurs du bois, and between the Hudson Bay Co. and the North West Co., are part of national folklore. Canada has always been a nation of…
Some of the comfortable assumptions we have been living under are under increasing pressure
If you’re not paying attention, you should. Some of the assumptions we consider axiomatic are under increasing pressure. The conventional orthodoxies are endangered and the ground is prospectively shifting. For instance, Austria’s October 15 election was the latest demonstration of popular resistance to the tide of supra-national multiculturalism. Notwithstanding its status as received wisdom, the…