Possible end-game on Buy American?

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 4:18 PM - 8 Comments

As mentioned in a previous post, Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, is wrapping up four days of meetings here in DC. His main goal was to the press the Obama administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill on the importance of reaching a resolution on Buy American provision in the US stimulus bill, and to nip it in the bud before similar provisions continue to spread to other government spending legislation.

His message was that the clock is ticking: an agreement on a clear exclusion for Canada must be reached before the February 17 deadline by which contracts under the stimulus will have been granted. “By mid-February, if the negotiations are prolonged, then there is not a great deal of value because most of the money will have been spent,” he said.

Myers said he was repeatedly told that Canada was never meant to be the target of the Buy American provisions, but that the issue is low on the administration’s priority list and is therefore moving slowly. So what is the likeliest resolution? Few people expect Congress to vote to amend the legislation. More likely, the process would be a bit more discreet:  It could involve the Obama administration (i.e. the US Trade Representative’s Office) issuing a “notification” to the relevant congressional committees of jurisdiction that negotiations with Canada have concluded in an agreement that Canada is excluded from the provision. This would be done after behind-the-scenes consultation with relevant members of Congress. The theory is that there are lawmakers who would not object to an exclusion for Canada, but do not want to be seen openly voting to water-down the law. At least that’s the theory.

Myers also said he’s learned a thing or two about talking to Americans: “One of the things I’ve learned is how important the terms of the discussion are here,” he said. Rather than talking about the importance of keeping “open trade”, he says he’s learned to say that an exclusion for Canada is ” important to creating jobs in the US by keeping business opportunities open between Canada and the US.” He adds, “trade is a bad word here.”

Why US cap-and-trade legislation could be good for Canadian business

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:53 PM - 4 Comments

…Or at least better than the alternative.

Right now the fate of cap-and-trade legislation is looking pretty dicey in Washington. When and if Congress passes health care reform, there may be little appetite left among Democrats for a big controversial bill ahead of the mid-term elections in November. Many observers expect that a general energy bill will pass while climate change legislation will be kicked down the road to an even more uncertain future.

Today, Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, wrapped up four days of meetings in here in Washington, DC with administration officials, congressional staffers, and business associations. He says he came away concerned about what might happen if climate change legislation does not pass. Namely, aggressive unilateral carbon regulation by Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, and a complex patchwork of regulations emanating from state governments, all of which could hit Canadian energy and energy-intensive manufactured exports.

What he heard was, “The EPA would take a more aggressive regulatory stance — but no one knows what that would mean.” Add to that various regulations or taxes coming from the states, and compliance costs to Canadian businesses would become more expensive and complicated, he feared.

“A federal approach to this is preferable for us,” said Myers, emphasizing the need for a coordinated US-Canada approach with a mutually recognized framework and principles.

The politics of disaster

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:43 PM - 84 Comments

The Winnipeg Free Press’ Mia Rabson isn’t much impressed with the government’s public relations.

Late last night we got a photo from the prime minister’s office of Stephen Harper on the telephone, presumably with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, discussing the situation in Haiti. Today Defence Minister Peter Mackay is posing in Halifax as the HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax leave for Haiti. At about the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, were staging a photo op making a donation to the Canadian Red Cross.

Enough already. Stop posing for photo ops and just get on with the business of helping Haiti.

Much like Jean Chrétien was heavily and rightly criticized for getting in the way in a photo op of him throwing a sand bag onto a dyke in the middle of the 1997 flood in Winnipeg, these kinds of photo ops smack of political opportunism and are out of place.

CBC’s Janyce McGregor is searching for signs of politics put aside. I would note only that Lawrence Cannon and Denis Coderre managed today to sit beside each other at a news conference in Montreal.

Serge Marcil found

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:42 PM - 3 Comments

CBC is reporting that the former Liberal MP is safe, accounted for and on his way to Miami. More from the Montreal Gazette.

Why the net keeps shrinking

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:30 PM - 6 Comments

It may be called the World Wide Web, but surfers in Canada can’t be blamed for wondering whether they’re always getting access to the best the Internet has to offer. Whether it’s websites that automatically redirect you to a Canadian subsidiary, or blank video viewers on websites like hulu.com that are supposed to contain U.S. network television content (but don’t because of territorial broadcasting rights), there’s mounting evidence that the Internet, for all its vaunted global-ness, can sometimes be an infuriatingly local experience.

Take Google, the world’s most popular search engine. Most browsers will automatically direct Canadians away from the original google.com site toward the .ca version (and its Canadian content) if it detects that your computer is located north of the border, even if you type in google.com. The same is true for associate sites such as Google News and Google Finance. Similarly, Canadian visitors to yahoo.com also get redirected to a Canadian version of the site. The efforts seem odd considering the Web is supposed to be borderless and all about individual choice. By contrast, msn.com shows first-time Canadian visitors a pop-up window with a large Canadian and U.S. flag and asks them where they want to go.

In Google’s case, the search giant says side-stepping the redirect feature is a simple as clicking the “Go to google.com” link on the main page once. But those who are in the business of figuring out secrets behind Google’s complicated search algorithms say it isn’t quite that simple, because Google still knows where your IP address is located and can make adjustments accordingly. “If you’re looking at google.com results while on a computer in Australia, you’ll probably get a 30 to 50 per cent different result set than someone searching the same query in the United States,” says Justin Cook, who runs a search optimization business in Toronto called Convurgency.

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A new way to trash ‘friends’

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:30 PM - 8 Comments

“What do you think about Jessica, Maureen, and Laura?” the online comment thread begins. “Jessica is mean and ugly,” someone replies. “Maureen is ugly and hyper,” writes another. After several more commenters—all of them anonymous—join in on bashing these three girls, someone who identifies herself as Maureen pipes up: “What did I ever do to you?”

Just like in a real high school, cyberbullies seek out the Internet’s most anonymous corners. One such space is Bathroom Stall, a Facebook application where people can write about their friends without identifying themselves. No topic, it seems, is off limits, from a girl’s bra size to the names of people a guy has “hooked up with.” (“Hottest boys at Barrie North?” one recent post inquired.) While some users give themselves nicknames, most are identified as “Anonymous,” and profile pictures aren’t used. Common Sense Media, which monitors kids and entertainment, recently called Bathroom Stall the number one anonymous application on Facebook (it has about 150,000 monthly active users). The U.S. non-profit also ranked it among 10 digital trends this decade that changed childhood—for the worse.

Why would today’s teens trash each other publicly? They have a “huge amount of trust in technology, and an inability to understand the damage that can be done,” says Sidney Eve Matrix, a digital trends expert at Queen’s University. They’re so comfortable “living in public,” she notes, that even schoolyard gossip—once whispered in dormitories or locker rooms—is now posted online. Cyberbullies might prefer to stay anonymous, but when it comes to naming others, they’re not so sheepish: on Bathroom Stall and similar sites, the victim’s full name is often provided. Comments can range from insulting to racist, homophobic and worse. A University of Toronto study, which polled 2,186 students in grades six, seven, 10 and 11, found that, in the past three months, one-half of all students were bullied online; being called names, or having rumours spread about them, were the most common forms. Forty-one per cent of those polled did not know how long information or pictures stay online. (Even if kids aren’t tech-savvy enough to realize the implications of what they’re posting, they do know how to trick the profanity filter, inserting a period or dash into offensive words so they’re not picked up and erased.)

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Comics CEO promises to credit artists

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:13 PM - 1 Comment

An exhibit at New York’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art turned into an occasion for controversy when comics fans pointed out that it neglected the artists: the “Art of Archie Comics” show included many examples of comic book art, but no clear indication of who drew any of them. The museum responded defensively to the fans’ objections, pointing out that they were simply using the material they were given by the company, and due to a “logistical snafu” the pieces were delivered without credit; they put the artists’ credits into a brochure. The new CEO of the company, Jon Goldwater (son of the original publisher, John Goldwater), had a different reaction: he told Publishers’ Weekly that he didn’t know, up to now, that classic comic books had a policy of almost never crediting the artists. He vowed that under his leadership, his company’s reprints will change their policy: “every writer, every artist, and every penciler, every inker—whatever the credit may be—in every digest will be credited. It’s absolutely insane that it wasn’t in the older digests.” Since his father, like many Golden Age comics publishers, openly refused to give credit, this could be viewed as a case of father-son rebellion.

Publishers Weekly

The shorter and shorter Parliament (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:08 PM - 8 Comments

With greater perspective than ours, professor Ned Franks reviews the state of Parliament’s sitting.

*From 1969-1973, Parliament sat an average of 163 days/year
*1974-1978, 156 days/year
*1980-1983, 139 days/year
*1984-1988, 163 days/year
*1989-1993, 115 days/year
*1994-1998, 124 days/year
*1999-2003, 115 days/year

Saving Colombia

By Kate Lunau - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 3:00 PM - 3 Comments

When Álvaro Uribe became president of Colombia in 2002, guerrillas were closing in on the major cities, and travel wasn’t safe. José Camilo Vásquez, a history teacher in Bogotá, recalls being unable to visit his farm, one hour outside the capital. Because of the threat of kidnapping or violence, “it was too complicated,” he says. Unlike his predecessors, the right-wing Uribe refused to negotiate with leftist rebels. Security forces pushed them back into the jungle, freeing up the roads. After the crackdown, says Vásquez, 28, “I could go back again.”

Better security has translated into economic gains, a tourism boom, and an enhanced international profile for the South American country. Weary of an internal conflict now over four decades old, citizens have welcomed Uribe’s hardline stance; he’s enjoyed approval ratings of over 70 per cent. Considered a good neighbour in a bad neighbourhood, Uribe has also benefitted from close ties with Washington. Under the anti-drug initiative Plan Colombia, the U.S. has funnelled over $6 billion into the country since 2000, allowing Uribe to put strong military pressure on the highest-profile rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Since 2002, several top commanders have been captured or killed, their numbers have been cut in half to about 10,000 today, and dozens of hostages have been freed.

As well, the Uribe administration negotiated the demobilization of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group—32,000 fighters surrendered “as a bloc,” says Markus Schultze-Kraft, the Bogotá-based director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program at the International Crisis Group (ICG). “Before Uribe’s election, the feeling was that the country was in chaos,” says Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, a Colombian-born anthropologist at the University of British Columbia. “Now, there’s a sense he has everything under control.”

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The people have spoken

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze and Yoni Goldstein - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 2:50 PM - 2 Comments

When China executed British national Akmal Shaikh on Dec. 29 for trying to smuggle four kilos of heroin into the country, there was a massive outcry from British officials. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was “appalled” that Beijing refused to heed a clemency request for Shaikh, who maintained he was manipulated as a drug mule. Shaikh’s family, who claim he suffered from a mental disorder (they suspect bipolar disorder), lashed out at the British government for not responding strongly enough: “Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision? This is an example of Britain’s powerlessness in the world.”

Or of China’s power to do as it pleases. On human rights issues, Beijing is famously unwilling to budge, no matter the objections from the West, or the threats to reduce or even cut off trade completely. The Shaikh case is only the latest example. The only ones who may be able to change China are the Chinese themselves—and there are signs the people are sick and tired of government corruption, and willing to turn to violence in order to bring the misconduct of their leaders to light.

Late last month, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the country’s top think tank, released its annual “Blue Book” outlining the state of Chinese society. Significantly, it noted growing civil unrest and a massive upsurge in crime—between January and October 2009 there were more than four million criminal cases, an increase of about 15 per cent from the previous year.

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Brangelina donates $1 million to Haiti relief

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 2:44 PM - 0 Comments

The foundation run by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is contributing US$1 million to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, the emergency medical operation whose three hospitals in Port-au-Prince were severely damaged in the earthquake that has devastated the nation. “It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades,” Jolie said in a statement. Pitt elaborated on the rationale for the gift: “We understand the first response is critical to serve the immediate needs of countless people who are now displaced from their homes, are suffering trauma, and most require urgent care.”

People

Sarkozy vows to ban Muslim veil

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 2:41 PM - 9 Comments

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for an “unambiguous” parliamentary resolution against the full face-covering Muslim veil, an item of clothing believed to be worn by some 2,000 women in France. “The full veil is not welcome in France because it runs contrary to our values and contrary to the idea we have of a woman’s dignity,” he said. Yet he cautioned against the total ban on the burka or niqab advocated by figures in his right-wing UMP party out of concern the extreme move would further alienate France’s Muslim population, believed to number six million. Lawmakers should wait for the results of a six-month parliamentary inquiry before acting further, he said, adding it was “essential that no one felt stigmatized.”

The Guardian

No way to treat a dog

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 2:40 PM - 11 Comments

When Carla Baker’s dog got sick a few years ago, she knew it was serious. Atuli, a 14-year-old husky, was suffering from bloat, a painful contusion of the gut, which, if left untreated, can cause the stomach to rupture. So Baker, who was living in Nunavut, where there are no veterinarians, called an animal hospital in Ottawa. But when the vet learned it would take days—not hours—for Atuli to reach an animal hospital, “her tone changed,” Baker recalls. “She told me that I had to put him down immediately.” Baker, now 29, became hysterical. “I didn’t want him to be shot,” she says. “But it had to be done.”

Baker is not alone. Despite the fact that Nunavut has a staggering concentration of dogs—a 2007 survey found that in Iqaluit, there were nearly half as many canines as the city’s 7,000 people—there is not a single veterinarian. The lack of access to sterilization has led to overpopulation, and euthanasia (by gun) is seen as a necessary evil to control numbers and disease. Common illnesses, easily preventable with vaccination, often run rampant. In Iqaluit, a recent outbreak of canine parvovirus, which leads to vomiting, diarrhea and possibly death, prompted council to pass an emergency measure: unclaimed strays could be destroyed by bylaw officers after 12 hours, rather than the standard 72. Says Janine Budgell, who runs the territory’s only humane society, in Iqaluit, “People don’t know how under-resourced we are, and how primitive the measures [that are used].”

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Justice undone

By Ken MacQueen - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 2:30 PM - 5 Comments

When it comes to closing cases and getting serious offenders into court, the statistics for police in British Columbia are the worst in the country. While there are many explanations for this, one significant cause, some police privately complain, is that they are handcuffed by a provincial law requiring Crown attorneys to lay criminal charges. (Police lay charges in most provinces, though Quebec and New Brunswick also require Crown charge approval.) As well, B.C. law sets a higher standard of evidence for laying charges than the Criminal Code requires. Police elsewhere lay charges if there’s a “reasonable” likelihood of conviction. B.C. requires a “substantial likelihood of conviction,” and a determination that prosecution is in the “public interest.”

Commit a crime in Victoria or Vancouver, in other words, and there are lower odds of ending up in court than in Ottawa, Toronto, Regina or Calgary. “Frankly, I view it as a corruption of the system,” Earl Moulton, a retired assistant commissioner of the RCMP, told Maclean’s. “There is no [federal] legal authority for the B.C. system,” says Moulton, a lawyer. “It’s just a usurpation of power.” Doug Stead, a Vancouver-area high-tech entrepreneur and a technical consultant to police on Internet crime, has spent 10 years campaigning against Crown charge approval. He calls the charge standard—“the highest threshold of any civilized government anywhere in the world”—a boon to criminals.

Clayton Pecknold, deputy chief of the Central Saanich Police Service and head of the B.C. Association of Police Chiefs, says past attempts to change the system went nowhere. He says the association continues to raise concerns about long delays before charge decisions are made, about decisions not to charge that may be “based on the capacity of the courts as opposed to the public interest,” and especially about the lack of transparency when the merits of a charge are weighed in private by Crown lawyers.

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Bomb plot ringleader: “I will change…” (UPDATED)

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 2:21 PM - 39 Comments

A confessed terrorist who plotted mass murder in the name of Islam says he is a reformed man, was “lucky” to be arrested before his bombs ravaged downtown Toronto, and will accept any sentence he receives for conspiring to kill fellow Canadians.

Speaking in open court for the first time since his 2006 arrest, Zakaria Amara—the admitted ringleader of the “Toronto 18”—told a judge that he now rejects the radical religious ideology that fueled his deadly plot, and is thankful that the RCMP was watching him so closely. “I spent days upon days trying to summon words appropriate, meaningful and deep enough to express my regret and seek forgiveness for my actions,” he told Justice Bruce Durno, who will hand down a sentence on Monday. “At the end, I realized that only promises and actions could suffice. I would like to promise you and my fellow Canadians that I will use my sentence to change myself from a man of destruction to a man of construction. I promise, no matter how long it takes and how much it costs, to produce actions that will hopefully outweigh the actions that I once took towards hurting others.”

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Montreal/Haiti fundraiser

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 1:45 PM - 0 Comments

For those of you in the 514 who a) like to drink; and b) have a gigantic, outsized heart beating in your chest can head on down to one, two, three or even four of Montreal’s choicest watering holes and get wet while supporting a good cause.  Both Blizzarts and Blue Dog are donating a big chunk of their sales tonight to Partners In Health, a grassroots health organization with a heavy presence in Haiti; Sparrow, meanwhile, will do the same with a percentage of its food sales (the burger will break that big heart of yours, let me tell you…) More info is available à la facebook here.

On Friday, meanwhile, the hirsute gents at Korova will give a percentage of drink sales and take up a volunteer collection at the door, with proceeds going to Oxfam Québec.

It’s a hell of a decent thing, so come one, come all.

The birth of Botox feminism

By Anne Kingston - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 2 Comments

When U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid proposed a five per cent levy on elective cosmetic surgeries and procedures to help fund the US$848-billion Senate health care bill last month, a Robin Hood-style logic appeared to be at work: let those who can afford Botox or facelifts subsidize low- to middle-income citizens currently without health care to the tune of US$6 billion over 10 years. What he didn’t foresee was that those very low- to middle-income Americans would take to the streets to protest the so-called “Bo-tax” as an infringement of a perceived enshrined right to smooth foreheads and surgically enhanced breasts.

“Washington leave our boobs alone” read a placard at a rally in New York’s Times Square organized by a Park Avenue cosmetic surgeon. “The tax directly affects me,” Irma Cadiz, a 33-year-old hairstylist saving for a US$7,000 tummy tuck, told the New York Daily News. “If I have a heart attack, will they tax that, too?” she asked, revealing how conflated elective cosmetic procedures have become with necessary medical intervention. Opposition to the Bo-tax from the American Medical Association further muddled the matter. As did its denunciation by the National Organization for Women (NOW), the largest feminist lobby in the U.S. NOW’s president Terry O’Neill argued the Bo-tax unfairly targeted women, who comprise 90 per cent of cosmetic surgery recipients—especially middle-aged women facing workplace discrimination who rely on sometimes risky cosmetic procedures to “freshen” their image.

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Listen up, class

By Cathy Gulli - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 1:20 PM - 2 Comments

After Keewatin-Patricia District School Board in northwestern Ontario had sound amplification systems put in its classrooms to help students hear their teachers better, Barb Kilberry asked primary children what they thought of the new equipment—which had been receiving rave reviews from staff. Some precocious pupils didn’t hold back. “They don’t like it,” reports Kilberry, a special assignment teacher who spearheaded the purchases. The reason for their disdain: “Because it makes them pay attention,” says Kilberry. “They’re not easily able to sit at the back of the room and daydream anymore!”

In fact, sound amplification systems have been so good at focusing students at Keewatin-Patricia’s 23 schools that now “we have them in the classrooms, gymnasiums, libraries, and anywhere kids are learning,” says Kilberry, who works with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Save for a few disgruntled students, there is fervent support for this equipment at a growing number of schools. While penetration rates for Canada are hard to come by, companies who sell these systems, such as Lightspeed Technologies and FrontRow, report that they are widely used in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and likely elsewhere. Kilberry says that a nearby northern school district is planning to get its own systems soon. Lawfield Public School in Hamilton, Ont., started using the devices last May. And River Valley Public School in Sundre, Alta., added a system to every classroom four years ago. “The experience sells itself,” says principal Rod MacLean. “People don’t go back to not using it.”

Unlike other classroom technology, this equipment is easy to use. A small microphone worn around the teacher’s neck picks up the frequency of his or her voice and transmits it to a receiver, which distributes the sound evenly throughout the classroom. “The point is not to make the teacher louder,” says Bruce Bebb, a former principal who now works at Lightspeed. This equipment makes a teacher’s words more crisp, and they’re heard at the same volume and with the same clarity at every spot in the room.

Hearing the teacher can be a tough task given the constant whir of computers, projectors, HVAC systems, and bad classroom acoustics. A student sitting 3.5 metres away from the instructor can miss half of the words being said. Studies show that often, ambient noise during class is equal to or slightly lower than the teacher’s voice. This is compounded by education models that emphasize group activities—or student chatter. “Classrooms are very dynamic places these days,” says Pam Millet, an audiologist and professor at York University’s faculty of education. “It’s good that kids are doing different activities, but the noise level is always going to go up.”

There are physiological reasons for sound amplification systems, too. Ear infections, which are common in 20 to 30 per cent of children, can lead to temporary hearing loss for up to six weeks at a time—which means students can miss 20 per cent of the information coming at them. What’s more, the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing aren’t fully developed until mid-adolescence. Students with normal hearing have trouble tuning out background noise and filling in the blanks when words aren’t heard.

But in classrooms where sound amplification systems are used, teachers report that students are behaving better, boosting their grades, and participating more. A 2006 study in New Brunswick also found that after using this equipment, teachers experienced less vocal fatigue because they didn’t have to keep repeating themselves or project as much. They spent more time talking to the whole class rather than individuals. Meanwhile, students were keenly focused on the teacher’s instructions, and “there was a more relaxed atmosphere” in the class, according to the report. Principal MacLean saw the same change: “Kids who had anxiety or attention issues were so much calmer.” And students who used to be shy doing presentations or answering questions are excited to use a handheld microphone, adds Kilberry.

Of course, just because the students can hear the teacher better doesn’t guarantee they’ll listen more, concedes Bebb. But “it certainly allows all kids to have the opportunity to hear the instruction and have everything they need to succeed,” he says. “No more ‘I didn’t hear you’ excuses.”

For Ondina Love, executive director of the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists, sound amplification systems are beneficial (though she warns that they may occasionally add noise by creating reverberation), but she’s got her eye on another solution. As part of the Concerned About Classrooms Coalition, Love wants Canada to adopt acoustic building standards like the ones in the U.S.

In the meantime, educators such as Karen Norton, principal of Jessie Duncan School in Penhold, Alta., are thrilled with the systems. “We can be heard above the hubbub of classroom noise!” she effused over email. “I should have had one in my home so I could be heard above my children and their toys!”

How Short Will the New ROCKFORD Theme Be?

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 1:19 PM - 5 Comments

David Shore’s remake of The Rockford Files, if it’s picked up, is likely to wind up filling one of the NBC prime-time slots vacated by Jay Leno. Wired offers a bunch of ideas for casting (Bruce Campbell would have been perfect in his prime, but I think he’s a bit old for the part), but I’m almost more interested in what they’ll do with the famous main title. The answering-machine gimmick doesn’t have a clear equivalent today — when people call Jim and leave a message, we’re not likely to hear it — and the show will not have a full minute for the theme song.

My own preference would be for them to find some equivalent for the messages, follow it with a few bars of the theme, and then play the full theme over the closing credits. Sure, the closing credits music isn’t often heard on the network itself, but it will be heard on the DVDs and even some stations (the A channel and City TV are two channels here that sometimes play the closing credits).

One of the reasons Rockford is difficult to replicate – Republic of Doyle is fun so far, but it’s still finding itself early in its run, and the USA shows are a somewhat different style — is that it was a show that was in large part a parody of other television show conventions, while at the same time being basically serious. That is, the stories and characters were supposed to be taken seriously, most of the time, but the character of Rockford and the way he acted was consciously built around doing the opposite of what Mannix or McGarrett would do in a similar situation. As creator Stephen J. Cannell explained, he created the character by asking himself what he would do if he were a detective: he would really care about getting paid, he would run away or try to win by cheating if he were faced with a stronger opponent, it would hurt his hand if he punched someone. He made this really explicit when he introduced Tom Selleck as Lance White, the ultimate parody of the perfect TV detective (his episodes even included parodies of the way TV cop shows were shot in the late ’60s, all extreme close-ups and stiff acting). And yet, Rockford is a heroic character who defeats the bad guys, and when he came too close to being a complete loser, the show didn’t work.

This element of the show is hard to repeat because the conventions of TV are different today. But they’re not impossible to repeat, because TV is full of mystery-solvers acting in certain ways. If Shore looks at the many popular TV mysteries, and has his Rockford acting like the opposite of the characters on those shows, then he could make the new show into a commentary on today’s television, just like the original was a comment on the TV of the late ’60s and early ’70s.

This clip from the original Rockford pilot unfortunately is missing the punchline, one of the great lines: “The trouble with Karate, Jerry, is that it’s based on the ridiculous assumption that the other guy will fight fair.” But at least it shows Rockford’s hand in pain after he sucker-punches a guy, and Rockford using cheap insults to goad a stronger man into making a fool of himself (which, like a number of things in the early episodes, is partly inspired by a scene in Garner’s 1969 movie Marlowe, where he did something similar to Bruce Lee).

Where all that money is going

By W.D. Smith - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 1:10 PM - 14 Comments

The annual tuition fee debate has begun. This is the war dance that takes place every winter, when senior university administrators announce that students yet again face substantial hikes. Those administrators roll out the rationale they use every year: the increases are necessary to protect educational quality, top faculty costs top dollar, and the only alternatives are declining quality and staff layoffs or increased government funding. Students get angry. They claim that university is becoming a place for only the wealthy, that quality has suffered enough, and that debt loads are becoming unmanageable. Boards of governors—the guardians of public interest when it comes to the operation of universities—wring their hands and voice genuine empathy. They hope for solutions but find none. And then, as they always do, they approve the increases proposed by senior administration.

Here’s the thing: the students have a point—at least according to a detailed analysis of the finances of Canada’s largest 25 universities. A study of 21 years of data compiled annually by StatsCan for the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) reveals some startling trends. In 1987-88, the top 25 universities spent $6 billion across all their activities; by 2007-08, that had increased by almost four times inflation, to $21 billion. That equates to about 13 per cent of Canada’s health care budget, or more than the entire defence budget. And that’s only the top 25 schools.

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Why no one likes Jim anymore

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 1:00 PM - 24 Comments

Poor Jim Halpert on The Office: with the exception of his wife, no one likes him anymore. On the U.S. adaptation of Ricky Gervais’s show, Jim (John Krasinski) once won the hearts of fans with his conspiratorial looks at the camera and his crush on Pam (Jenna Fischer); he was the romantic character in a comedy about workplace drudgery. Fans thought this season, in which Jim and Pam finally got married, would make him even more lovable. Instead, the writers have exposed Jim as, in his own words, “a big stupid goofball,” whose defining moment this season was in an episode where he spitefully allowed someone to fall into a koi pond. Fans are starting to notice: TV.com picked Jim and Pam as two of the most annoying characters on TV, while journalist Meghan Keane wrote a widely discussed article for theawl.com, arguing that Jim is a “mediocre man who has already realized his full potential.” He was a popular character, but now Keane tells Maclean’s that only a few of her readers are ready to “stand up for Jim.”

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Street level

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:58 PM - 21 Comments

Beware the wrath of the used-bookstore proprietor.

There’s nothing going on in the windows of Attic Books these days. Just like Parliament.

Marvin Post, long-time proprietor of one of Canada’s largest used bookstores, decided to empty his windows displays at 240 Dundas St. last weekend as a symbolic protest against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament until March 3.

A small sign explains the significance of the empty window to customers and passers-by. ”We are proroguing our window in honour of the Canadian government. Displays will return when our Parliament does,” the signs reads.

Jay Reatard dead at 29

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:58 PM - 0 Comments

Jay Reatard, the prolific garage rock wunderkind from Memphis, was found dead at his home early Wednesday. Foul play isn’t suspected, but police are still waiting for lab results to confirm the cause of death. After over a decade leading seminal underground bands like The Reatards and Lost Sounds, Reatard, whose real name was Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., was only beginning to reach a wider audience. His debut solo album, Blood Visions, released in 2006, earned him widespread acclaim in punk rock circles for its stripped-down hooks and nihilistic energy, while his latest album, 2009′s Watch Me Fall, appeared set to bring his music even further out of obscurity. Of course, the hard-living Reatard was almost as famous (or infamous) for his wild temper as he was for his music. In 2008, he stormed off a Toronto stage after punching an audience member in the face, and his final Twitter had him offering to pay fans to slash the tires on a rival band’s touring van. Reatard was 29.

Memphis Commercial-Appeal

Twitter

Rightward bound

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:55 PM - 0 Comments

It was so long in its arrival that little in Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach’s cabinet shuffle yesterday managed to surprise—least of all the amount of inspiration for his appointments that the premier took from the up-and-coming Wildrose Alliance Party. Former U of C political scientist Ted Morton, likely the smartest minister around the table currently, and certainly the smartest Minister of Sustainable Resource Development in Alberta history, moves to finance; a staunch conservative, Morton will be a difficult target for Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, a like-minded fiscal hard-noser. There were other moves of this kind yesterday: Calgary’s tough Ron Liepert moves from health to energy, where he will likely be as vocal a defender of his—and Alberta’s—methods, particularly around the oil sands. Will it all pay off for Stelmachites? It’s been a while since it’s ever made sense in Alberta to say, I can’t wait to find out.

Calgary Herald