With the big victory for the NDP in the Manitoba election on Tuesday, the western provinces are now bookended by social democratic governments. In between are two conservative governments but even here the NDP form the opposition. I think it would be fair to say The Orange are now the
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Views from the Beltline: The West? Really?
Many Canadians think of “the West” as one monolithic block. This concept seemed to firm up in many minds back when Preston Manning and his Reform Party stormed Ottawa proclaiming “the West wants in.” I remember Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson giving a talk to a standing-room only crowd
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: East trumps West in COVID fight
The biggest problems we face in the modern world, including the biggest one of all, global warming, are human problems, i.e. problems we must face as a species rather than in our usual fashion as tribes. In the case of the coronavirus, we in the West are having some difficulty
Continue readingParis—the blowback of imperialism
U.S. President Barack Obama has referred to the atrocities in Paris as attacks “on all of humanity.” He is wrong, of course. The attacks were specifically directed at France, an ex-imperialist European nation that has a long history of colonizing, oppressing and exploiting the Muslim peoples of North Africa and
Continue readingWhy Britain is culpable for the slaughter of its citizens
British Prime Minister David Cameron is enraged at the massacre on a beach at the Sousse resort in Tunisia last week. And well he should be: thirty of his countrymen and women were slaughtered. He has pledged a “full spectrum” response, whatever that means. But while Mr. Cameron is engaging
Continue readingWorlds apart—women in Iran and Saudi Arabia
On receiving her Master of Architecture degree from the University of British Columbia, Leila Araghian won the UBC Architecture Alumni Henry Elder Prize. Ms. Araghian has since continued in her prize-winning ways. Her Pol-e-Tabiat, or Nature Bridge, in Tehran has won three awards in Iran as well as a Popular
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