05 Dec 2008 the hell just happened? (canada, politics)

Jeffrey Simpson has a good essay in the Globe today, summarizing how we got to this past week of politics in Canada. I will say, this is pretty entertaining political theatre, though more the bloodthirsty backstabbing of Richard III than the noble self-sacrifice of Henry V, if I may get all English major for […]

03 Dec 2008 my blatantly ill-informed predictions (canada, politics)

Coalition replaces the government. Harper stays on as leader of the opposition, survives a leadership review. Ignatieff becomes unelected PM. Economy worsens. Coalition falls apart. Grits take most of the blame, because nobody really expected anything better from the NDP or Bloc. Election late 2009/early 2010. Grits lose […]

09 Oct 2008 Caribou wins Polaris Prize (canada, music)

Okay, I’m a little late on this, but it’s pretty cool news. On September 29, Caribou’s album Andorra won the Polaris Music Prize. I’m not much of a fan of the first couple of Polaris winners, which I think were not bad, but maybe more conceptual than enjoyable. I mean, does anybody really, […]

22 Sep 2007 Canadian Indie-Rock Primer (canada, music)

Don’t you love it when two awesome things come together? My fave pop-culture web site, The A.V. Club delivers a cool primer — complete with tons of videos — on the Canadian indie music scene, which has just been going from great to Ubergreat for the past few years. It’s a pretty cool […]

01 Jul 2007 “what a drag”, indeed (annoyances, canada, media)

On the Canada Day theme, I just want to harp on one of my favourite targets: bad statistics in the media. The Globe and Mail has a prominently featured article, Canadian citzenship and the generational divide, which claims that something called “The Dominion Institute” has found there are “remarkably different attitudes among those between […]

01 Jul 2007 happy 140th, you big ol’ country, you (canada)

Is it shallow to feel a tinge of national hipster-geek pride just because my country happens to be producing a lot of great indie music right now? Probably, but still, I’m listening to the CBC Radio 3 all-request Canada Day podcast, and frankly, we rock. My recent proudest moments as a Canadian were […]

02 May 2007 Yann Martel vs Stephen Harper (books, canada, politics)

Yann Martel has attempted to join in the prestigious circle of successful novelists to publicly crawl up their own asses.