Canada’s best Presidents

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 4:32 PM - 3 Comments

In August 1943, two years before the end of the Second World War, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood at the base of Ottawa’s Peace Tower and addressed his “good friends and neighbours of the Dominion.” The crowd, reportedly numbering 27,000, covered even the rooftops of the capital.

Roosevelt, who had summered as a boy and, later, as president at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, spoke stridently of the Nazi menace in Europe and confidently of what would come from the meetings in Quebec City between himself, prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and British prime minister Winston Churchill. “Mr. King, my old friend,” Roosevelt said, “may I, through you, thank the people of Canada for their hospitality to all of us. Your course and mine have run so closely and affectionately during these many long years that this meeting adds another link to that chain. I have always felt at home in Canada, and you, I think, have always felt at home in the United States.”

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Tempest in a bottle of mouthwash

By Kate Lunau - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 4:31 PM - 2 Comments

It’s a ritual observed by thousands of Canadians every day: brush, floss, gargle and spit. Rinsing with mouthwash doesn’t just provide a scrubbed, minty feeling; it’s good for our health, we’re told, curbing plaque and gingivitis (not to mention bad breath). Some brands even carry the Canadian Dental Association’s official seal. But this so-called healthy habit could be doing more harm than good. Australian researchers recently concluded that mouthwashes containing alcohol may contribute to oral cancer.

Tobacco use is the biggest risk factor for oral cancer, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. Combined with excessive drinking, it’s even more dangerous—a heavy smoker and drinker is up to 30 times more likely to develop it. Even so, “there’s a small group of patients who don’t seem to have any risk factors,” says Michael John McCullough, an associate professor at the Melbourne Dental School and one of the experts behind the report. “I noticed some were saying they’d used alcohol-containing mouthwashes over a long period of time.”

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In praise of older mothers

By Nicholas Köhler - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 4:30 PM - 2 Comments

Though he’s unfailingly polite, Tony Hayer is fed up. Last week, two days after his 60-year-old aunt Ranjit became the oldest woman in Canada ever to give birth, delivering twin sons, the newspapers started calling. Incessantly. And Tony, genuinely perplexed by the interest, has had enough. “It’s a personal decision,” he says. Nor is his aunt’s ardour for children a product of her Punjabi background, a media conceit Tony particularly dislikes. “It’s not specifically a cultural thing,” he says. “They’re independent, they’re going to take care of the children and that’s it—it’s just a normal family. It just happens to be, they’re 60. That’s all.”

Ranjit and her boys, Manjot and Gurpreet, remain in hospital, healthy but suffering the hangover of a bumpy pregnancy. Her husband, Jagir, also 60, is overjoyed, long in tooth or not. Reportedly a warehouse worker, he saved for years so that Ranjit, who was refused the treatment in Canada because of her age, could undergo in vitro fertilization in their native India. Last year she became pregnant with triplets. Back home in Calgary, she ran into complications. Doctors terminated one embryo, then delivered the twins seven weeks early due to severe bleeding.

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Obamathon: And another rogue photo op breaks out! (Or does it?)

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 4:09 PM - 25 Comments

Actually, from what I’ve been told by those who were in attendance at yesterday’s background on-the-record briefing for bureau chiefs, Kory Teneycke declined to provide reporters with any details on media availability around the Obama-Ignatieff meeting, saying that it would be up to the Liberals  — and the president, of course — to decide whether to invite the nation’s press to capture the moment for posterity. The suspense, needless to say, was killing us.

And so, hot off the gallery listserv, we have our answer:

For Immediate Release
February 18, 2009
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff Holds Photo Opportunity with President Obama

Event: There will be a photo opportunity (pool) of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Canada Reception Centre
Hangar 11
Ottawa, Ontario

After the president departs — and you know, it just occured to me that we don’t know whether who, if anyone, will be there to see him off; will Ignatieff — or the Governor General, for that matter — be allowed to stand on the tarmac and wave? Anyway, once he’s gone, Ignatieff heads back to the Hill for a post-Obama press conference. (No word yet on whether he’ll shut the whole thing down if we don’t behave ourselves at the airport.)

MUSIC: John McGlinn, 1953-2009

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 3:31 PM - 1 Comment

I’m surprised and saddened to read of the death of conductor and musical-theatre archivist John McGlinn, of an apparent heart attack. He was 55.

McGlinn was essentially a Broadway musicologist, someone who studied and brought to light the traditions of Broadway musical performance. He was particularly interested in original orchestrations, and the idea that the classic songs of the Broadway musical should be performed not with new arrangements, but with the orchestrations that were used in the original productions (and, while usually not done by the composer, at least done with the composer’s approval). He helped reconstruct the orchestrations of various shows after 1982 brought about the theatrical equivalent of a great archeological find: people were looking into the contents of a warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey, and discovered that it had been used to store the original manuscript scores of many Broadway musicals from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s — including the original parts used by the orchestra. Suddenly an “authentic” performance of an old Broadway musical was potentially a reality.

McGlinn was one of the people who helped turn it from a potential reality into a, well, real reality. He took up conducting in 1984 for a Reader’s Digest album called “Songs of New York” (Reader’s Digest used to have its own recording label for subscribers, and made many excellent recordings of classical music and show tunes) and led concert performances in New York of some original scores by Jerome Kern, his favourite composer. In the ’80s, after the success of Leonard Bernstein’s recording of West Side Story with opera singers, other record companies were looking to do the same thing, and McGlinn sold EMI on the idea of doing Kern’s Show Boat — arguably the greatest American musical — with a mostly operatic cast and the original orchestrations. Furthermore, he talked the company into making a recording of every note Continue…

Maclean’s Interview: Tooryalai Wesa

By John Geddes - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 3:00 PM - 1 Comment

Agriculture expert Tooryalai Wesa, 58, grew up in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, but has lived in Coquitlam, B.C., for 13 years. After spending much of the past four years back in Afghanistan working as a development consultant, he was appointed Kandahar’s governor late last year.

Q: You were in Europe in 1991, with your wife and three daughters, when mujahedeen fighters overthrew what had been the Russian-backed government in Kabul. How did you end up in Canada?

A: We went first to Switzerland. I applied to different universities in Canada and luckily the University of British Columbia accepted me as a Ph.D. student, and we moved to Vancouver. It was a hard time—no word of English, three children. My wife was a professional medical doctor, but she wasn’t able to practise. In 2002, I completed my program. I taught for a year or so in the Asian studies department of UBC, then started working as a consultant on Afghanistan with international organizations.

Q: And that work brought you to President Hamid Karzai’s attention?

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Reality sinks in

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:45 PM - 22 Comments

It had been the great promise of Barack Obama. From the day he burst onto the national stage at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, he sold a dream not only of bridging a racial divide, but of bringing the blue states and the red states into a single mythical, post-partisan United States. It was the thing that Hillary Rodham Clinton was said to be incapable of, as a polarizing figure whose politics were forged in the divisive culture wars of the 1960s. It was a sales pitch that made John McCain scoff with particular bitterness as he pointed to the deep political scars he wore from years of trying to forge bipartisan deals in Congress while Obama had been writing memoirs and voting the party line.

Things started out well at first. In his first days in office, Obama kept on George W. Bush’s defence secretary, Bob Gates, and eventually added two more Republicans to head the departments of Transportation and Commerce. He surrounded himself with bipartisan economic advisers. He had dinner with conservative pundits at the home of syndicated columnist George Will, while liberals got a meeting the next day—without food. But as soon as he began work on his first legislative effort—a massive stimulus package to revive the rapidly deteriorating economy—he couldn’t bridge the partisan divide, and steered right into it. It was far from the only stumble during Obama’s first weeks on the job. In fact, the man who had entered office with a message of hope and change quickly found himself at odds not only with Republicans but also members of his own party and liberal supporters on a number of issues—confronting the gulf between some of his lofty campaign promises and cold, hard reality.

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Consolation prize

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:40 PM - 13 Comments

Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff and Michaelle Jean will have their respective time with the American president tomorrow.

As for Jack Layton…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 18, 2009

LAYTON MEETS WITH MAYOR OF SARNIA

SARNIA, ON – New Democrat Leader Jack Layton will meet with Mike Bradley, mayor of Sarnia on Thursday, the morning after hosting a town hall to listen to the concerns of local families.

“As one of the communities sitting on the Ontario’s border with Michigan, Sarnia is a manufacturing stronghold and it’s hurting,” said Layton. “Mayor Bradley knows this community better than anyone and he knows where stimulus can be used right now.”

Bradley has been Sarnia’s mayor for over 20 years. During this time, he has been a strong voice for Southwestern Ontario, calling on the federal government for help funding infrastructure projects around the region.

Diplomacy

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:34 PM - 5 Comments

Apropos of nothing except the fact that I’m reading it, here’s a tale from the second volume of Lester Pearson’s memoirs.

In 1955, Pearson became the first Canadian foreign affairs minister to visit the Soviet Union and along for the trip was one of his diplomats, George Ignatieff (father of Michael). This anecdote is from the Canadian delegation’s dinner at Nikita Khrushchev’s holiday retreat. Continue…

'That is not where the debate lies'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 1:23 PM - 1 Comment

With the official translation now posted, here is the exchange between the Bloc’s Paul Crete and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, at committee last week, concerning Omar Khadr’s status as a child soldier.

Last month, the Prime Minister told an interviewer that he didn’t regard Omar Khadr as a child soldier. His office has so far declined to back-up his statement. And here is Mr. Harper’s foreign affairs minister also refusing to comment. Continue…

A small study in posture

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 1:11 PM - 15 Comments

One thing that differentiates these two profoundly similar men.

This guy looks like he enjoys being interviewed.

This guy doesn’t.

Liz Lemon = Caroline Duffy?

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 1:09 PM - 6 Comments

I was trying to figure out who the character of Liz Lemon on 30 Rock reminded me of, and it finally occurred to me after I was sent a link to this collection of half-hour TV scripts in PDF form, and saw this on the second page of the pilot for Caroline in the City:

Caroline Brody – Mid-’30s, very real and much more attractive than she believes herself to be. She’s a successful cartoonist, and her Cartoon Caroline will serve as her alter ego throughout the series.

A neurotic single woman in her mid-’30s who is a successful [cartoonist/comedy writer] in New York City and is “much more attractive than she believes herself to be” — dear Lord, Liz Lemon reminds me of Caroline (whose last name was changed in the series).

Actually, 30 Rock does resemble a late ’90s NBC comedy in some ways; the premise, lead character and some of the story ideas do feel like throwbacks to the era of Suddenly Susan. The difference is in the execution, not just the single-camera format and cutaways, but the fact that the lead character’s neurosis and pathetic qualities, instead of being played down or made to seem lovable, are played up. Liz is the craziest, most malajusted person on her own show. It’s like the writers have taken the old NBC comedy format and drained all the cuteness out of it, until all that’s left are a bunch of weird people doing weird — but funny — things.

Speaking of Caroline in the City, there’s a season 2 DVD coming out sometime (but from CBS/Paramount, so music cuts galore!). It was not actually as bad as the second wave of post-Friends NBC comedies, like The Single Guy; but it was pretty weak, mostly because of the casting. The decision to cast the show from top to bottom with young, good-looking people, instead of having at least one person who was older, weirder-looking or funnier, was a sign of how corrosive the influence of Friends had become. (There was no room for an Alec Baldwin or a Jack McBrayer on the NBC of 1996.) But while the cast was bland, it wasn’t that bad, just mediocre — but as this MAD TV sketch reminds us, it was probably one of the most-mocked shows of the decade:

Afghanistan: Surprise! Yes they can, "they" in this case being the Europeans…or some of them…

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 12:42 PM - 16 Comments

From our far-flung network of correspondents (OK, two websites) comes news that the French, the Germans and the Italians are all in for increased Afghanistan deployments, for varying terms and, in each case, to the tune of about 500 soldiers. (The Germans will probably come with the usual caveats, which substantially reduces but doesn’t eliminate their usefulness.) Other U.S. allies expect to get the tap on the shoulder soon, and there may indeed be further news out of a NATO ministerial in Krakow this week.

I want my Al Jazeera!

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 12:21 PM - 36 Comments

Y’know, when I was living in France, a big part of my newsgathering day was devoted to watching Al Jazeera English, a surprisingly vibrant, engaging, thoughtful and generally-non-jihad-endorsing all-news television network. Under former CBC exec Tony Burman, Al Jazeera is now pushing hard for a chance to broadcast (well, cable-cast) in Canada. You can learn more about them at this website. On the other hand, if you’re the sort who doesn’t want Al Jazeera in Canada, then this website will be more your style.

(Full disclosure: I have friends who work at Al Jazeera. As far as I know, they’re gonna keep getting paid whether the network is available in Canada or not.)

Want to stop West Coast gang violence? Legalize drugs, says expert

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 35 Comments

On the 80th anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, Ehor Boyanowsky, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University, draws a compelling parallel between the gang wars of Prohibition-era Chicago and those in modern-day Vancouver, arguing the drug trade has taken on the proportions of the booze trade back in the 30s.  Boyanowsky, who specializes in violence and aggressive behaviour, compares current “empty prattling of countless learned commentators regarding the need for increased police resources” to the misguided campaigns of the Depression-era temperance movement. “The only panacea,” he says, “is the legalization and government regulation of illegal drugs.”

The Vancouver Sun

I saw no ships come sailing in / on Budget Day, on Budget Day

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11:00 AM - 5 Comments

Hey, shipyard workers! Remember back in December, when Defence Minister—and Atlantic Canada’s man in cabinet— Peter MacKay told you that the upcoming stimulus package would haul your industry out of drydocks by fast tracking big ticket projects—replacing the Navy’s aging fleet of frigates, building the mighty Diefenbreaker, that sort of thing? Turns out the minister was lost at sea without a compass as far as his budget predictions. According to the Ottawa Citizen, industry officials got the bad news earlier this week: no new construction projects are on the horizon, as far as shipbuilding goes, and as for the jobs already on the agenda, no contracts have been awarded, which means that any actual work is years away.

Ottawa Citizen

UPDATED – Obamathon: We have an ETA! And — possibly a constitutional crisis!

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:43 AM - 57 Comments

Note that Rideau Hall seems to have beaten PMO to the punch as far as putting out the first official announcement on President Obama’s arrival. (No, the background briefing for bureau chiefs doesn’t count; it has to be on paper. Or pixels. You know what I mean.) Not that ITQ is keeping track, of course.

Governor General to meet with President Obama upon his arrival in Canada

February 18, 2009
OTTAWA—Their Excellencies the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and Jean-Daniel Lafond, will welcome The Honourable Barack H. Obama, President of the United States of America, on Thursday, February 19, 2009, at 10:30 a.m., at the Ottawa International Airport. The Governor General will then meet with President Obama.

For information on media accreditation, please contact 613-995-xxxx.

A couple of questions that spring immediately to mind:

“Honourable”? Really? Is that the standard honorific? I’m not sure why that surprises me , but I guess I expected something a little more impressive for a sitting president of the United States of America. I mean, any old Privy Councillor can be styled “Honourable”.

Also, re: the very last line: “media accreditation”? More media accreditation? By the time the plane touches down, we’re going to be so weighed down by lanyards and badges that we’re not going to be able to chase the motorcade, yelling questions at random SUVs. (Unless … that’s the whole cunning plan!) (Just kidding, PMO.)

Seriously, though, didn’t yesterday’s briefing stipulate that there would be “no TV cameras, audio equipment, or reporters [...] permitted in the airport lounge where the president will meet with Jean for 15 minutes,” according to Canadian Press? This isn’t going to turn into a showdown between PMO and Rideau Hall, is it? Because — actually, come to think of it, at this point, bring it on.

UPDATE: Okay, I think we may have a simmering  four-alarm protocol fire on our hands here. According to Miss Manners, the president is styled as, simply, “Mr. President” or “The President of the United States”. The Canadian Heritage guide to protocol does allow for the use of “The Honourable”, but only when it follows “His Excellency”, which would still render the above incorrect — unless, of course, excellencies don’t address other excellencies as His Excellency, which makes just enough nonsense to be the case. Still, I’d tend to go with Miss Manners when it comes to anything involving American etiquette, or, really, anything else. She’s kind of awesome.

Tiger by the tail

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning adult fable Life of Pi, said to be unfilmable because it pairs a Bengal tiger with a kid on a raft in the ocean, has already eaten through M. Night Shyamalan, director of The Sixth Sense, and Alfonso Cuaron, of Harry Potter fame. Now comes word that Ang Lee, the director who never met a genre he didn’t like—Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, Lust, Caution—will make Pi using a mixture of live action and CG wizardry.

Telegraph

Obama's CBC interview & White House briefing

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:25 AM - 18 Comments

Local protectionism is in the air (Or is that boosterism?)

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 1 Comment

Barack Obama has confirmed that U.S. mayor and governors can be expected to try to buy local as they spend their share of his stimulus money. Stephen Harper chimed in that “sub-national” governments in Canada—provinces and municipalities—are free to also prefer home-sourced goods and services. And here’s a story from Nova Scotia, in which an MLA says “NAFTA be darned” in his push for a law to favour local produce.

The Chronicle Herald

Mini-Madoff A Hit

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 10:10 AM - 0 Comments

A U.S. toy company has released a product called Smash-Me Bernie: a smiling seven-inch effigy of Bernard Madoff dressed in a red devil’s suit. It comes with a “commemorative” hammer, to be used to smash the Madoff look-alike. Next up, a doll that looks like ex-Merrill Lynch CEO, John Thain, famous for spending $1.2-million redecorating his office, as he was axing thousands of jobs at the ailing securities firm.

The New York Times

Taking a double shot at Starbucks

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 9:50 AM - 0 Comments

Note to businesses operating in the UK: make sure your own bottom line is healthy before you criticize the British government. That’s what Starbucks found out when their CEO criticized Gordon Brown’s policies. Brown’s cabinet attack dog Peter Mandelson—a key architect of New Labour who once fiercely defended Tony Blair against Brown, but whom the new PM recruited back into Cabinet last year—promptly tore Starbucks a new one, first in a relatively genteel TV interview, and then in a profanity-laced cocktail-party rant. Too much coffee, Minister?

Guardian.co.uk

Men Lust, Women Sin Over Pride

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 1 Comment

A Vatican study based on what women and men admit to during confession has found that pride is the most common sin committed by women, while men sin over lust more than anything else. The survey was conducted by a 95-year-old Jesuit priest, Roberto Busa, and found the number two sin for men was gluttony followed by sloth, anger, pride and envy. Women, on the other hand, were prone to committing sins of envy after pride, followed by anger. Sloth was also the least likely sin for women. The survey also found that 30 per cent of the Catholics surveyed no longer think confession is necessary. Last year the Vatican added seven new sins to the list including polluting, genetic modification, financial gluttony and taking or selling drugs.

Telegraph

Marks & Spencer unveils its new recession happy meal

By John Intini - Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Next week the venerable British retailer Marks & Spencer will begin offering “The Simply…Strawberry” jam sandwich, two slices of white bread with butter and jam for 75 pence ($1.35), the Telegraph reports. Nutritionists and the health-conscious will balk, but the chain is confident it’s a no-brainer in the current economic climate: “It really is the ultimate comfort food at an unbeatable price, plus it’s the only place on the high street where you can get a jam sandwich,” says a spokeswoman. “For those who haven’t eaten one for years, one bite takes you straight back to your childhood.”

Telegraph