This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, March 29, 2020. Responding to the events of the past few weeks, Canadians have proven their remarkable capacity for compassion, understanding and sacrifice. As the impact of COVID-19 has set in around the world, here at home our governments, businesses and fellow citizens have, for […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, March 22, 2020. As the spread of COVID-19 has utterly transformed life as we know it, it has also emerged as the most profound test of political leadership in a generation or more. Of course, the pandemic is, first and foremost, a health crisis. In […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, March 15, 2020. I was disappointed this week to learn that one candidate in the race for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership had stooped to a new low by besmirching the name of an opponent while hoisting the standard of racism and Islamophobia. If […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, March 8, 2020. As the latest coronavirus outbreaks have reached us at home, Canadians’ concern has morphed into a growing hysteria. The virus will, no doubt, have some long and lingering effects on our economy and tragic consequences for some of our elderly and most vulnerable populations. […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, March 1, 2020. Two political debates in two countries, What a striking study in contrasts. The first was the Democratic debate in Las Vegas. I wrote last week how Bloomberg’s entrance to the ring has revitalized the primary race, and how his first debate was about worthy […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, February 23, 2020. In his 1913 book, “Essays in Rebellion,” British journalist Henry Nevinson illustrated an issue facing the Atlantic fishing trade. The problem: when shipped in tanks overseas, cod tended to be “lethargic, torpid … prone to inactivity, content to lie in comfort … rapidly deteriorating […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, February 16, 2020. As a surge of populism sweeps the world, many Canadian commentators climb onto their high horses, pat themselves on the back and declare Canada immune to this short-sighted selfishness. Problem is, if you look below the surface, that notion simply doesn’t hold water. Canada […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, February 9, 2020. If there is one lesson we learned this week, it is that digital media continues to shape politics in ways we still do not understand. Since its inception, strategists and pundits have treated digital media as a tool: a way of better understanding constituents […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, February 2, 2020. Once upon a time, grief was something private. We took pains never to speak ill of the dead. When a person of some profile died, an obituary might appear in the morning paper. Early acts of public grieving were proper and decorous. One’s legacy […]
This editorial first appeared in the Toronto Star on Sunday, January 26, 2020. Here we go again. Another race for the leadership of the Conservative Party, another case of medieval ideas rearing their ugly head. This week it was former Harper staffer Richard Décarie, who shared his views on the LGBTQ community, the very name for which […]