Canada: back
By Paul Wells - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 23 Comments
Gordon Brown to address joint session of US Congress.
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Prime Minister TJ Hooker? Yes, Please!
By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 12:31 PM - 6 Comments
I know William Shatner was probably just joking when he told a fan that he wants to be Prime Minister of Canada (though it’s part of W.S.’s genius that you never really know if he’s joking or not), but he should watch out, because he’s going to create some grassroots demand here.
The 77-year-old star said: “My intention is to be Prime Minister of Canada, not Governor General, which is mainly a ceremonial position.”
Shatner revealed his lofty ambition in response to a letter from a fan who urged him to put himself forward for the Governor General of Canada.
Remember when the students of McGill University voted to change the name of the Student Union to the “William Shatner Building,” creating a weird situation where everybody referred to it as “The Shatner” even though the University refused to call it that officially? That proved that when Shatner tosses his captain’s hat into the ring, he gets votes. I know he doesn’t really want to be Prime Minister, but now that he’s broached the subject, it’s too late for him to take it back, because it’s on.
And can any of our major party leaders do this?
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Marois' a-flippy-to-a-floppy
By Martin Patriquin - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 12:17 PM - 4 Comments
We come not to bury Pauline Marois, but to praise her. Or to praise her and then bury her with her own contradictions.Let us explain. Marois is a smart woman who has mot only survived in a harsh political clime–Quebec–for more than 30 years, but has done so whilst ensconced in the harshest subset thereof, the Parti Québécois. The party likes to say it is a big tent, and it is, if you have a thing for portable abattoirs. This corner has interviewed her, and chronicled her travails and challenges before. All is to say that Marois gets a medal just for keeping her relatively back dagger-free for three whole decades.
As education minister she begat the province’s $5-a-day daycare system in 1996, a bold, ballsy and tremendously popular initiative that has directly resulted in a rare bump in Quebec’s forever-moribund birthrate. That she did so under the rightist auspices of Lucien Bouchard’s rightist government is even more impressive. Charest would never have had the mindset or the political gumption to enact anything like this. In fact, about all he could do was raise the fees to $7 a few years ago.
But sweet lord, the poor woman can’t seem to make up her mind.
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Dumont bows out
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments
The feisty leader of the ADQ leaves politics
Mario Dumont has officially resigned from both the ADQ leadership and Quebec’s National Assembly, effective March 6. Dumont had announced his intention to leave politics after his party was trounced in last December’s election, but had stayed on to temporarily guide the party through one of the roughest patches in its short history. In his resignation letter to party president Mario Charpentier, Dumont thanked ADQ members for “their devotion, the strength of their convictions, and their love of Quebec.” He is widely expected to take a job in the private sector in Montreal.
Le Blogue de Chantal Hébert (Resignation letter)
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Death of the "Alberta Advantage"
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments
Tories set to launch new PR campaign stressing can-do people rather than no debt, low taxes
The Alberta Advantage, a government slogan that for years touted the province as a bean counter’s paradise—low taxes, no debt—is to be retired, says Roxanna Benoit, a one-time Ottawa Conservative strategist who returned to Alberta in 2007 to become managing director of Alberta’s Public Affairs Bureau. Almost three year and $25-million later, the campaign Benoit spearheaded will focus on alternative, perhaps more reality-based credentials, now that the Alberta Tories are talking deficit and the specter of higher provincial taxes hovers over the proceedings. Benoit says focus groups and public opinion surveys show Albertans have a different story to tell than mere conservative politics and “dirty” oil. “The Alberta story is about the people,” she says. “They see this as an aspirational and dynamic place with a diversity of voices and openness and willingness to accept other ideas.”
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New-look court’s first separation of church and state case
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:15 AM - 0 Comments
Does a 2.5-metre-tall cross in California’s Mojave National Preserve violate the first amendment?
The new-look U.S. Supreme Court faces its first separation of church and state case since Sandra Day O’Connor retired. It was O’Connor who cast the fifth and deciding vote against the display of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse in 2005. She said such a public display of a religious message violated the 1st Amendment because it amounted to a government endorsement of religion. Now at issue is a cross first erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1934 to honour fallen comrades. Lower courts have ruled against it, but Bush administration lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court last fall, saying the “seriously misguided decision” would require the government “to tear down a cross that has stood without incident for 70 years.” Veterans groups argue the ruling, if allowed to stand, could trigger legal challenges to the display of crosses at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Recess crucial for children’s learning
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:10 AM - 0 Comments
Time for play may be as important as reading, science and math
Children who take breaks for exercise and play are better behaved, more focused and get better grades, new research suggests. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, followed 11,000 kids aged 8 and 9; it found that those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day were better behaved in class than those who had little or none. (Disadvantaged kids were more likely to be denied recess, but researchers controlled for variables including sex, ethnicity, class size, and public vs private schools.) Although the study seems to show how crucial recess can be, many kids still don’t get a break: in the same study, 30 percent were found to have little or no daily recess, and teachers often punish kids by taking it away. “Recess should be part of the curriculum,” lead researcher Dr. Romina M. Barros, a pediatrician and an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told the New York Times. “You don’t punish a kid by having them miss math class, so kids shouldn’t be punished by not getting recess.”
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Buying opportunities now runneth over
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:06 AM - 36 Comments
Stephen Harper, October 7. “I suspect that there’s probably some great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market as a consequence of all this panic.”
The Toronto Stock Exchange at close of business on October 7. 9829.55
The Dow Jones Industrial Average at close of business on October 7. 9447.11The Toronto Stock Exchange at close of business yesterday. 7647.67
The Dow Jones Industrial Average at close of business yesterday. 7114.78 -
Beijing’s Olympic building bubble bursts
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:05 AM - 0 Comments
Developers wildly overbuilt office towers and overpriced homes, many of which sit empty
In the years leading up to the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, the city went on a demolition rampage. Whole blocks seemed to vanish overnight to make way for striking new towers and venues for the games, architectural marvels befitting China’s superpower status. Now, with the athletes and spectators gone and China’s economy caught up in the economic crisis, the sheen has come off Beijing’s building boom exposing it for what it was—an overpriced, ego-fueled boondoggle. According to the L.A. Times the Chinese government spent $43 billion on the Games, yet many venues now sit empty. The National Stadium, better known as the Bird’s Nest, has just one event scheduled this year. A baseball stadium opened less than a year ago is already being demolished. Making matters worse, Beijing developers wildly overbuilt office towers and overpriced homes, many of which sit empty. Remind us again why commodity prices exploded in recent years and then crashed back down to earth once construction for the Beijing Olympics was complete.
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Why Sean Penn also deserves Best Quip Oscar
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments
Best Actor takes a swipe at Madonna
Best Actor winner Sean Penn couldn’t resist a sarcastic jibe after his ex-wife Madonna offered her congratulations at a post-Oscar bash Sunday night. “Thanks,” he said, gesturing to the 50-year-old singer’s current boy toy, the 22-year-old model Jesus Luz: “Another kid already?”
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Voodoo Science
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:59 AM - 0 Comments
Big fight over study calling neuroscience “voodoo”
For anyone who thinks science is boring, consider the recent drama that’s unfolded between neuroscientists, and a group of researchers calling the field of neuroscience a sham. It all started last December, when Ed Vul, a MIT grad student working with neuroscientist Nancy Kanwisher and psychologist Hal Pashler, posted their forthcoming study “Voodoo Correlations in Social Neuroscience” on his website. (It will appear in Perspectives in Psychological Science in May.) It questions the validity and methodologies of particular studies in major journals including Nature and Science. The study refers to the worst ones as “entirely spurious.” This immediately ignited a massive reaction: science bloggers and reporters ruminated, the accused scientists and their supporters defended their work, and Vul, naturally, rebutted the rebuttals. All this fantastic discourse happened “at breakneck pace,” explains Seed magazine, and “months before the findings were officially published.” Vul admits the language used in their study is provocative, but says this was necessary to draw attention to the problems with how research statistics are presented. If nothing else, that’s worked. In light of the controversy, the editor of Perspectives, Ed Diener—who says he’s never seen a pre-published paper garner such reaction—has decided to strike the word “voodoo” from the study title.
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Lab grows teeth
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments
Discovery could put an end to fillings and dentures
Some excellent news for the Dany Heatley’s of the world: researchers believe they have found a way to grow teeth in the laboratory. A team from Oregon State University have identified the gene responsible for the growth of enamel, the outer hard covering that cannot grow back naturally. The gene that produces the enamel cells, Ctip2, has several other functions involving immune responses and the development of skin and nerves. Since other scientists have already grown the inner part of the tooth in animals, the discovery could be used to grow the whole missing tooth. Alternatively, it could strengthen damaged enamel, cutting decay and eliminating the need for fillings or dentures.
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Reliving the '80s
By John Intini - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments
London Fashion Week honours a time “when shoulders were as icicle sharp as the frosty fiscal climate”
There seems to be something about economic chaos that inspires fashion designers to offset the harsh realities of the times with glitz and glamour. Amidst the recession of the 1980s designers sent bright colours, big hair and opulence down the runway. This week, amidst all the gloom and doom of a spiralling economy, London Fashion Week kicked off with a new crop of designers referencing the days ”when shoulders were as icicle sharp as the frosty fiscal climate.” But fear not! Richard Nicoll, Todd Lynn, Nathan Jenden and Nicole Farhi—a few of the designers who have presented shows at London Fashion Week thus far—are not rehashing ’80s fashion in all of its glory. Rather, they have infused their collections with the era’s brightest points, creating sharp, sleek, modern glamour and providing women (and men) with the motivation to get dressed up—which, after all, is one good way to “beat the freeze.”
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Don’t let the meth bugs bite
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments
Drug dealers are using motel rooms instead of their homes to mix their addictive brews
And you thought bed bugs were the only thing lurking in your hotel room. According to statistics released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, methamphetamine “cooks” are secretly converting hundreds of motel rooms into covert drug labs—leaving behind a toxic mess of dangerous contaminants for unsuspecting customers and housekeeping crews. It’s the perfect scheme, really. Drug pushers can check in like everyone else, mix their highly addictive chemicals in a matter of hours, and then slip out the next morning—and never have to worry about the cops raiding their homes. At last count, the DEA has found evidence of meth-making in 1,789 motel and hotel rooms over the past five years. And that’s just the ones that authorities know about. Sleep tight.
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"Pillar of Repression"
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments
Human Rights Watch releases a report on Syria’s Supreme State Security Court
The NGO Human Rights Watch today released a detailed report on Syria’s Supreme State Security Court, which was founded 40 years ago during a supposed state of emergency to prosecute those it considered a threat to state security. Human Rights Watch compiled information on the 237 cases known to have been decided by the court between January 2007 and June 2008. The report concludes, “[T]he SSSC’s role has been to prosecute those whom the Syrian authorities do not approve of in trials that lack basic due process guarantees. The SSSC consistently ignores claims by defendants that their confessions were extracted under torture and frequently convicts them on vague and overbroad offenses that essentially criminalize freedom of expression and association.”
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He's like the Kevin Page of elections! Liveblogging the Chief Electoral Officer at Procedure and House Affairs
By kadyomalley - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 27 Comments
ITQ has had this particular meeting circled on her calendar for weeks now – yes, in case y’all wondered, in red, surrounded by exclamation marks and little happy faces. Bring on the only-tangentially-related-to-the-official-order-of-business-yet-oddly-pointed questions!
10:51:48 AM
Eeee! It’s Marc Mayrand!Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I made it to committee just in time to miss out on the last seat at the media table – damn you, Colleague McGregor and your uncharacteristic punctuality – which is why I’m now sitting in the staffer section, but on the *government* side of the room for a change.
Along with Marc Mayrand, by the way, we have various other Elections Canada luminaries, including Rennie Molnar,Stephane Perrault and Belaineh Deguefe, and there is no way on earth I’m going to be able to spell that with any consistency once the meeting starts, so let’s call him BD, shall we?
The meeting is about to get underway – Yvon Godin is, adorably, greeting the witnesses – and most of the MPs are already at the table. I see that Kelly Block is stalking me — well, or I’m stalking her – as is Guy Lauzon, but as yet, we are short one pixie dancer. Where are you, Pierre?
10:58:36 AM
With an odd sort of vaguely nervous warning to his colleagues that “we’re in public today,” Chairman Joe hands the floor over to Marc Mayrand. -
Anger triggers irregular heart beat
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments
Some people more vulnerable than others
It’s no secret that emotional stress can send our hearts aflutter. But new research suggests that how the heart copes with anger could predict life-threatening irregular heartbeats in vulnerable patients. Yale cardiologist Rachel Lampert, gave EKGs to 62 patients with preexisting heart disease who had defibrillators implanted in their chests. Upon retelling a memory that made them angry, some experienced a spike. Compared to those whose hearts were unresponsive to anger, the study found that these people were 10 times more likely to have their defibrillators fire a lifesaving shock in the next three years.
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The David Beckham experiment: an epic failure
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:10 AM - 1 Comment
Soccer star seems headed back to Europe
Two years after a splashy North American entry, British soccer star David Beckham seems set to take his ball and move back to Europe, hoping to rejuvenate his career with AC Milan. But as this LA Times story points out, for all the hype and money surrounding “Becks” and his wife Victoria aka Posh Spice, they were hardly a success. Soccer remains a “second tier” sport in the US (kind of like hockey,) and it seems that only the L.A. paparazzi will be sad to see the couple go.
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ITQ Committee Lookahead—In and out? Listeriosis outbreak? Plaines d’Abraham? That’s more like it, guys.
By kadyomalley - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:04 AM - 2 Comments
Well, we got a hint of it during yesterday’s Ethics meeting, but a quick scan of upcoming committee meetings suggests that the era of parliamentary gentility, multipartisan cooperation and political restraint may be about to draw to a (not entirely unwelcome, in ITQ’s case) close –—and it’s likely no coincidence that it’s happening right as the budget bill is about to head off into the sunset – that is, if the Finance committee makes it through clause by clause without any unforeseen delays. (Was ITQ on that committee, we’d be keeping an eye out for NDP and Bloc members bearing extra-large coffee mugs and sleeping bags.)
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"People's designer" believes bad times will stoke better design
By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments
British design guru Sir Terence Conran predicts the current economic downturn will purge the…
British design guru Sir Terence Conran predicts the current economic downturn will purge the dross from the high end of the marketplace and offer a creative catalyst for good, affordable design, reports the Times of London. The demise of venerable Wedgwood didn’t surprise the design innovator and restaurateur, whose business continues to thrive. A few years ago he recalls he told the Wedgwood directors: “You’re making products that nobody uses . . .There’s nothing for people to break and replace.” He also expresses hope the recession “will stop all that ersatz Tudor-beathan ridiculous stuff,” noting that while mass house builders continue to reproduce bad design “in front of that house is a rather intelligently designed car and inside there is good audiovisual equipment, good kitchen equipment. It’s only the house that holds it all that is still so out of date.”
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Would Canada fly a pot flag?
By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 9:29 AM - 3 Comments
Heritage Minister James Moore presided over a special Flag Day celebration in Speaker Peter Milliken’s Hill reception room.
Jason Kenney built a stunning flag collection, including all of Canada’s historical flags (even ones before Canada was a country), when he was Minister of Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity.
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The problem with not having kids
By Mark Steyn - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 6:30 AM - 204 Comments
Saving the planet for the next generation by not having a next generation is a bad idea
Anything happen while I was gone?
Oh, yeah. The collapse of the global economy. Armageddon outta here. The ecopalypse is upon us. Down south, President Obama has abandoned the gaseous uplift of “the audacity of hope” and warns we’re on the brink of the abyss. In the old New Deal, FDR warned that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” For the new New Deal, President Hopeychangey says we have nothing but fear itself. Get used to it. In Russia, the nation’s wealthiest oligarchs have seen their net worth decline by two-thirds. They can’t steal it as fast as it depreciates. Even yard sales of Soviet nukes to chaps with Waziristani business cards won’t make it up.
The only thing booming is declinism. In Britain, the Baby Boomers are now “Baby Gloomers,” according to the Daily Telegraph’s Elizabeth Grice, who gives the impression she’s working it up into a book proposal for one of those slim volumes of contemporary manners one keeps in the guest “loo,” amusingly illustrated with line drawings of once prosperous middle-class couples reduced to trawling the supermarket shelves for bargain “wine boxes” and microwaveable “Italian-style” focaccia. In the U.S., Steven Kotler thinks this is no time to get hung up on details. The planet is going to hell. So what’s the big picture? The rooty-tootiest root cause of all?
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'Prime Minister Harper is very impressive'
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 1:39 AM - 38 Comments
The Glick Report endorses.
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Michaëlle Jean’s snowball fight
By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 12:30 AM - 12 Comments
Governor General Michaëlle Jean held a special ceremony on the grounds of Rideau Hall to unveil the Olympic torch to be used for the 2010 Vancouver Games.
There are three Olympic mascots. Miga, a young sea bear.
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Michael Ignatieff and “Dancing with the Tsars”
By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, February 23, 2009 at 10:39 PM - 13 Comments
Liberal leader Michael Igantieff was honorary chair of the Toronto Winter Palace Ball fundraiser for Ruskoka Camp, which helps underprivileged Russian Canadian youth. The evening was called “Dancing with the Tsars.”
Igantieff’s wife, Zsuzsanna Zsohar, headed straight to the silent auction. Zsohar took off one of her rings to test the authenticity of a hand-knit Orenburg shawl. She says it should be so fine and airy that you can pull it through a ring.
