“Do the best with what you’ve got.”—Gordon Lightfoot News of Gordon Lightfoot’s death, while not unexpected, still came as a shock. We didn’t think he’d live forever; truth be told we didn’t think about him very much anymore, then boom! he was gone. And I’ve been thinking about him
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Susan on the Soapbox: Thoughts on the Death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday Sept 18, 2020 at the age of 87. She was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and had been battling cancer in one form or another since 1999. She vowed to remain on the bench as
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: An Interview with Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
I was delighted when Shelley Youngblut, CEO & Creative Ringleader of Wordfest, asked if I would like to interview Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, on stage before a live audience about her new book Truth Be Told: My Journey through Life and the Law.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Shakespearean Analysis of Jason Kenney
How many books and articles have we read about the rise of Donald Trump in America, Doug Ford in Ontario and Jason Kenney in Alberta? How many more historians, political scientists and armchair experts do we need to tell us how we got into this mess and how to get
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Personal Will, Anyone?
Question: What do Stephen Hawking and Shamsia Husseini have in common? Answer: They both know the power of personal will. Ms Soapbox has been thinking a lot about “personal will” since she heard the term used by Sally Armstrong in a speech at the Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: An Evening with Michelle Obama
Last Friday Ms Soapbox and her friend spent an intimate evening with Michelle Obama. True, we were packed into the Stampede Corral with 6000 other people, but as soon as Michelle Obama stepped on to the stage, we were captivated by her intelligence, kindness, and wit. Michelle told us about
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney Was Just Kidding about Peter Lougheed…really?
In 1999 a young Jason Kenney told the National Post that “Klein realized Alberta could no longer afford the neo-Stalinist make-work projects of the Lougheed and Getty years, and he set about to distance himself from them.” This is an inflammatory comment of Twilight Zone proportions, particularly given the lengths
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Ten Things We Learned from Trump’s Presidential Campaign
Barring a catastrophe Donald Trump will not become the 45th president of the United States. At the risk of tempting fate Ms Soapbox would like to present a top 10 list of things we learned from Trump’s doomed presidential campaign. The Top 10 List TEN: The Republican Party is in
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Never Watch a Presidential Debate When You’ve Got the Flu
Ms Soapbox has the flu and missed Thanksgiving dinner last night with her family and friends. She stayed home and watched the second Presidential debate. It almost finished her off. But even in her foggy state of mind Ms Soapbox couldn’t help but notice that Mr Trump is a peevish,
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: How the Conservatives Spun Murray Edwards and Vicki Kaminski
This week the conservatives spun Murray Edwards’ decision to move to England and Vicki Kaminski’s decision to leave Alberta Health Services for a job in Australia to convince Albertans to ditch the NDP. The spin looked like this: Facts [Edwards/Kaminski … Continue reading →
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Fortress Calgary: The “Gate” in Mahogany Manor
What is it about gated communities that sends us into orbit? Calgary Planning Commission (CPC) just approved the construction of a “gate” in the southern Calgary to keep the hoi polloi out of Mahogany Manor despite the fact that the Planning Department recommended refusal. The “gate” is actually a seven
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Breakfast with Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Calgary last week to give the keynote address at a breakfast meeting of 2500 Calgarians who paid about $500 to hear her speak. Luckily my friend, the Zen Banker, invited me to attend as her guest. Hillary is like the Chloe Diamond—brilliant, mesmerizing, multifaceted and
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “What Makes Canada So Great?”
Michaela Pereira, CNN television personality and news anchor (I use the term loosely) asked a member of the Canadian Olympic skiing team this question: “What makes Canada so great?” My immediate reaction was: What a goofy question. Luckily the Canadian athlete had more tact. He replied: “Teamwork”. He may be
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Redford and Mandela: Hypocrisy Meets Hope and Learns Nothing
The Redford government’s capacity for hypocrisy knows no bounds. In the same week that Redford’s PC government passed two corrosive pieces of anti-labour legislation, Ms Redford reflected on what she’d learned as a young lawyer working with Nelson Mandela to reform South Africa’s legal system. Nelson Mandela “He taught me
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Congratulations Mayor Nenshi!
John Macfarlane, editor of The Walrus,* asks the question: When did society turn against its best and brightest and more importantly, why? He was bemoaning the fact that Torontonians had elected Rob Ford—a man he described as wearing “his ignorance like a badge of honour”—to be their mayor. Mayor Rob
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Dinner with Justin Trudeau: Gimmick or Doing Politics Differently?
“Have dinner with me, Susan.” What a charming invitation. Too bad it’s part of a fundraising campaign directed at 300,000 supporters of the federal Liberal party. But wait…let’s think about this for a moment. For a $5.00 donation, Ms Soapbox and four of her closest friends and relatives get a
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Conrad Black and Danielle Smith
Conrad Black, the Canadian media mogul and convicted felon* was in Calgary last week to have a “conversation” with the Calgary business elite (and me) over lunch at the Calgary Petroleum Club. The big question is why does Baron Black of Crossharbour—oh let’s just call him Conrad—continue to draw sell-out
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