Trump Predictions
(Guest post by Jim Stewart) Prediction: Buyer's Remorse? By Remembrance Day this year (2025), the US will be experiencing the Mother of All Buyer's Remorse. The Reaganesque question "Are you…
Checkers
When Qatar gave Donald Trump a jet, I started thinking about past gifts to politicians. Checkers came to mind. A Cocker Spaniel pup and a $400 million 747-8, and two…
What Trump said
It’s easy to forget things. But some things shouldn't be forgotten. So in case you’ve not been following Donald Trump news, and you’re looking back at his time as president…
One Man’s Journey
Early in my reading of Calvin White’s One Man’s Journey: The Mi'kmaw Revival in Ktaqmkuk, I realized how much I owe Gus White, Calvin’s father. The characteristics that made Calvin…
The Trump Goodbye
Every day there's something on the television screen that you've never seen before. Something that you want to capture for your own historical record. The departure of Donald J. Trump,…
Mary Jo Kopechne
Known best as "the girl in the car," Mary Jo Kopechne had a promising career as a political worker in Washington. She was idealistic and enthusiastic - the sort of…
Martin Luther King
I don't remember what I was doing when I heard that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed. I do remember the shock and horror I felt.…
Ford Ontario
The Ontario Progressive Conservative party yesterday chose Doug Ford as its leader. That's Doug, brother and advisor to the late Rob Ford who has to have been the weirdest mayor…
One Trump Year
One Trump year is like one dog year - very long! Tomorrow, January 20th, is the first anniversary of his inauguration as the 45th President of the United States. A…
Un-American Affairs
A selection from More in Anger (1958), a collection of essays by American social critic and satirist Marya Mannes. From 1904 to 1990, her life spanned most of the 20th…
First Hundred Hours
In his first hundred hours - from midday Friday to this afternoon, President Donald Trump has been busy. Signing executive orders: Directing all federal agencies to ease the "regulatory burdens"…
Trump Imagery
What is the appeal of The Donald as president? Trump imagery over Trump policy, I suspect. But why? Reading The Englishman's Boy, I got a clue from a 1923 fictional…
Battle of Ridgeway
Today marks a bizarre incident in Canadian history. Irish-Americans invaded Canada, planning to hold it hostage as leverage to end British rule in Ireland. My family's farmhouse was smack-dab in…
Ford Branding
Tobacco companies are probably heaving a huge sigh of relief. As far as we know, no cigarettes were smoked by Mayor Rob Ford. So they do not need to distance…
A Nation’s Songs
Whatever one might think of the US of A, they got good national songs. Watching Monday’s Presidential Inauguration, the high point for me was the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir giving it…
Reading History
Well-written and well-researched historical fiction gives the reader a two-fer: a good story and a history lesson that you may have slept through during school. Recently, I’ve been living in…
Recorded Campaigning
This election I don’t know who I’m going to vote for. When the electioneering machine started cranking up, so did the recorded messages. You know, the taped messages that lazy…
Qalipu Band of the Mi’kmaq Nation
Monday it was announced: Mi’kmaq people of Central and Western Newfoundland are now members of the Qalipu band under the Indian Act. It’s been 39 years since they began politically…
Rwanda
Seventeen years ago, one hundred days of genocide ended in Rwanda. It was part of a long-standing conflict between Hutu and Tutsi, two groups who uneasily co-exist in the small…
Hats off (or on) to the past few days!
It’s been quite a four days – perhaps best summarized with The Hat. Everybody’s had a go at this new game. So hats off to creativity. The Hat - the…
Tilting at Windmills
Thinking about why so many oppose windmills for power generation, my mother and garbage disposal came into my head. Specifically, her reaction when the town brought in a recycling programme.…
The King and Us
Wallis Simpson makes me think that there may well be a God, and that He is on “our” side. I cannot imagine what the world would look like had King…
Sarah Palin and Targets
The first time I saw Sarah Palin on television, I was impressed. It was soon after she was announced as John McCain’s running mate for the 2008 US presidential election.…