How closely are you following the international climate change negotiations in Cancun?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 51 Comments

Over half of European adults are overweight or obese: report

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 11:13 AM - 4 Comments

In most of the European Union, the rate of obesity has more than doubled over the last 20 years, to the point that over half of all adults living in EU countries are now overweight or obese, the BBC reports. The UK has been the most affected, followed by Ireland and Malta, where one-quarter of the population is obese. One in seven EU children are now overweight or obese, and with only one in five EU kids exercising regularly, the number is expected to rise. These children are more likely to suffer from poor health later in life. The numbers come from the Health at a Glance Europe 2010 report, by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who say these children must be encouraged to adopt healthy habits. Meanwhile, one-third of African women and one-quarter of African men are overweight.

BBC News

British court denies bail to Julian Assange

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 11:12 AM - 44 Comments

Julian Assange was denied bail on Tuesday by a London court, though the WikiLeaks founder still plans to resist efforts to extradite him to Sweden where authorities want to question him over alleged sex offenses. Assange was ordered to remain in custody until his next court date on Dec. 14. Assange’s colleagues have said this doesn’t change plans to keep disclosing sensitive documents, as it has done with files relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the past nine days, WikiLeaks has published confidential diplomatic messages, infuriating the U.S. State Department and other officials. Assange was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard’s extradition unit when he reported to a central London police station.

New York Times

Burn the witch

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 10:56 AM - 44 Comments

A Conservative spokesman deftly reduces Peter Tinsley’s biography to 13 words.

“There’s no shock in seeing a Liberal appointee running for the Liberal Party,” said Fred DeLorey, spokesperson for the federal Conservative Party.

Mr. Tinsley was indeed appointed chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission by Paul Martin’s Liberal government in December 2005. Seven years earlier, after taking part in the prosecutions that followed the Somalia affair, Mr. Tinsley was appointed director of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit by the socialist government of Mike Harris—a radically left-wing administration that included known communists Jim Flaherty, John Baird and Tony Clement.

David Cameron: Revolution in blue

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 7 Comments

Sutton Motorsport Images

If insanity can be defined as doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and the Conservative Party that made him its leader, aren’t all that innovative—merely lucid. And yet, for most of a decade before Cameron was elected party leader in 2005, Conservative Party members pinned their hopes on a succession of men who campaigned on issues, such as crime and suspicion of the European Union, that resonated with the party’s base but failed to expand its reach. In 2002, party chair Theresa May said the Conservatives were perceived as the “nasty party.” The term stuck, probably because she was right. “We were in danger of becoming an elderly debating society,” one Tory city councillor told Maclean’s.

David Cameron knew Conservatives had to change to win. He convinced the rest of the party with a speech at the Tory leadership convention, promising to fight for a “modern, compassionate conservatism,” and beating out the presumed favourite, veteran MP David Davis. Cameron then set about trying to decontaminate the Conservative Party brand nationwide by focusing on issues like the environment and letting old Tory obsessions such as fox hunting fall away. Riding his bike to work—albeit trailing a limousine carrying his briefcase—was transparent and hokey, but didn’t hurt.

The Conservatives entered the May 2010 general election with 140 fewer seats than the governing Labour Party. They made significant gains, but still fell 20 seats short of the 326 needed for an overall majority. David Cameron was therefore forced to form a coalition government with the third-place, and left-leaning, Liberal Democrats.

He no doubt would have preferred to be governing with a majority, but Cameron has used his ostensibly weak position of forced co-operation to his advantage. The Liberal Democrats provide Cameron’s Conservatives with ideological cover. “It gives that sense that it’s a national government,” says Charlie Beckett, director of Polis, a think tank at the London School of Economics. The Tories need only point to their supposedly left-wing partners to demonstrate their own moderation.

The deal hasn’t worked out so well for the Liberal Democrats, and for Nick Clegg, the party’s leader and Britain’s deputy prime minister. Many who voted for the Liberal Democrats see its partnership with the Tories as a betrayal and are abandoning it. Support has plummeted since the election. “That’s kind of good news for Cameron,” says Beckett, “because it means Nick Clegg won’t cause too much trouble.”

He certainly hasn’t so far. Cameron has made a few compromises, such as agreeing to a referendum to change Britain’s voting system, but Cameron is clearly the dominant partner. He’s using that position to its fullest by making deep and broad cuts to government spending on everything from defence to welfare. Britain is in debt and its economy is wobbly. Cameron is therefore driven in part by a simple desire for fiscal restraint. But there’s more to it than that. Cameron believes in decentralizing power and wants citizens to take responsibility for jobs normally handled by the state—a goal he’s accomplishing by giving citizens greater influence over local schools and police, for example.

It’s part of what Cameron describes as a “Big Society,” in which power is shifted from “elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the streets.” “The Big Society,” he said, describing the idea in a speech in Liverpool this summer, “is about a huge culture change where people in their everyday lives, in their homes, their neighbourhoods, and their workplace don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face, but instead will feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.”

He can be persuasive. But critics who say Cameron is simply dressing up the knife he’s using to eviscerate Britain’s public sector have a point. Regardless of how they’re sold, the cuts will hurt. Cameron likes to say that he admires former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher but isn’t like her. He’s right in the sense that Thatcher was more openly partisan. Cameron, however, is pursuing an equally radical agenda.

What’s working in Cameron’s interest, at least for now, is the belief that the cuts are necessary. “He’s taking some bold steps that have to be made,” said Margaret Barnes, a bookstore owner in Cameron’s home riding of Witney. “We need someone to grab hold of the problems and get them sorted.”

Not everyone agrees, of course. Tens of thousands of students recently demonstrated in London to protest government plans to cut funding to universities, and to allow universities to almost triple tuition fees, from $5,400 to $14,750 a year. Some stormed a downtown building housing the Conservative Party headquarters, smashing its windows.

Still, many Britons are willing to give Cameron a chance and take the lumps that are coming in the hopes they might be worth it. Most polls show the Conservatives up slightly since the election—though also even with Labour, which has benefited from the Liberal Democrats’ collapse.

“We’ll go through, probably in the next two or three years, some tough times,” Mary Macleod, a newly elected Conservative MP told Maclean’s. “And then we’ll pull out of that. So it will be a rocky road and a difficult journey along the way. I think the change we deliver at the end of it will be as large as there’s ever been.”

The unexceedable budget

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 9:01 AM - 81 Comments

The most humorous aspect of this story is:

A) That the Finance Minister who once said “we cannot ask Canadians to tighten their belts during tougher times without looking in the mirror” overspent his own ministerial budget?

or

B) That the official explanation is he didn’t overspend his ministerial budget because his ministerial budget was expanded by an amount the government refuses to disclose?

Giving Large

By Cathy Gulli - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 2 Comments

Nova Scotia lottery winners | Daniel St.Louis

One Sunday morning in mid-July, while tucked inside their 147-year-old white farmhouse in Lower Truro, N.S., Allen Large asked his wife, Violet, “Did you check the tickets from last night?”

This exchange had become a ritual for the couple, who’ve been together for 46 years, and have played the lottery—twice a week, every week—for about as long. Violet hadn’t, so she dialled into the Lotto 6/49 hotline and listened. After a few seconds, she said out loud, “Well, we got $10,” because the first three numbers matched. After a few more seconds, the rest of the numbers matched too.

So Violet, 78, did the only thing she could think of next: she hung up. And she called back. Again and again. “Oh, I checked those numbers so many times,” Violet says. Then she called Allen from out of the kitchen, and handed him the phone receiver. Allen, 75, listened, he looked at his wife, and nodded: “Yeah, that’s the right numbers.”

Continue…

VANOC CEO John Furlong in conversation

By Ken MacQueen - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 4 Comments

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN HOWELL

THE CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is one of a rare few Olympic administrators to go the distance in a job that, for most Games in recent memory, has ended in burnout, dismissal or disgrace. Furlong has spent the past few months dismantling the organization he led, and reflecting on the experience. His book (with journalist Gary Mason), Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics That Changed a Country, is set for release on Feb. 12, the first anniversary of the Games.

Q: Cast your mind back to Canada’s first gold medal. Where were you when Alexandre Bilodeau made his run?
A: I was in BC Place stadium. It was the same night that [mogul racer] Jennifer Heil had her silver medal hung around her neck. We’d had a tough weekend. We hadn’t yet put Nodar Kumaritashvili on a plane home for Georgia [after he was killed during a training run on the luge track]. We hadn’t yet had our little [memorial] service. It was a very painful weekend, but I know Jennifer, and I wanted to go cheer for her. At almost the precise moment of walking into that theatre, I could hear the anticipation building in a space to my left, a lounge area with televisions. He was just literally about to come out of the gate and come down the mountain. Everybody was buzzing and noisy and suddenly it went chillingly silent. When he went into the air it was almost as if someone had turned the sound down. When he hit the ground, there was this almighty outburst of, “He’s nailed it!” To me it was a little bit like the laws of natural justice were taking over. We needed something. For that young fellow to be the first [to win Olympic gold at home], with his family and his background, just everything about him was so becoming.

Continue…

The Commons: 'This is about victims'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 6:58 PM - 105 Comments

The Scene. After members of each party had risen to note the 21st anniversary of the murders at l’École Polytechnique, the leader of the opposition stood to add his acknowledgment and to wonder, on the occasion, why the government had once more delayed the implementation of regulations that would make it easier to track the movement of firearms.

In the Prime Minister’s absence, John Baird stood to offer the government’s response. “Mr. Speaker, I think all of us, in all political parties, each and every member of Parliament takes today to remember the tragic loss of some young women who had promising futures,” he said, quite solemnly. “That is something that I would not want to be political on.”

There was a groan from the opposition side at this.

“What I can say,” Mr. Baird continued, “is that our government is committed to making our communities safer and we are committed to working with law enforcement on meaningful gun control that actually works and makes those communities safer.”

This was not quite an answer to the question at hand, so Mr. Ignatieff tried again. When, he wondered, would the government learn from the massacre of 21 years ago and give the police what they required?

Mr. Baird responded here with pitch-perfect passive aggression: not at all a direct answer, but a series of sentences that leave just enough to interpretation as to neither reject anything nor commit the government to anything going forward. Continue…

Assange to appear in a UK court Tuesday

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 5:50 PM - 18 Comments

Julian Assange, the elusive founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court tomorrow, The Guardian reports. The news comes after his lawyers announced he would meet police to discuss an extradition warrant from Sweden that relates to alleged sexual assaults. U.S. attorney general Eric Holder has said he’s authorized “a number of things to be done” to combat WikiLeaks, which has been publishing sensitive documents. Meanwhile, Assange will likely face a long court battle to avoid extradition. The precise time of his interview with police isn’t known, but he’s expected to have to post bail of up to £200,000 and would require up to six people offering surety. Once he turns himself over to police, he’ll have to appear before a magistrates court within 24 hours to seek release on bail. A full hearing of the extradition case would have to be heard within 28 days.

The Guardian

What it was all about

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 5:04 PM - 0 Comments

For those not yet tired of my writing on her tenure, here are 750 words, penned for our year-end Newsmakers issue, on Michaelle Jean’s five years at Rideau Hall.

RIP Mark Dailey, Great Voice of Toronto TV

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 4:34 PM - 21 Comments

I was very sorry to hear of the death of Mark Dailey, who died today of cancer at the age of 57. He was the host of CityTV newscasts, but I know him best from his dry, deep-voiced, sometimes mocking voice-over promos, combining a perfect announcer voice with a tongue-in-cheek tone and sometimes actual jokes at the expense of the shows we were about to see. As the channel shed much of its original branding, his voice was like a link to the quirky past, and I always loved hearing him. Some examples of his promo work:

And here he is doing a report on prostitution in 1986, riding with the Vice Squad and reporting back to the anchor while wearing an ostentatiously large earphone/mike combination.

Myanmar considered buying ManU during cyclone crisis

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 4:11 PM - 0 Comments

Than Shwe, the head of Myanmar’s military junta, considered bidding $1-billion for a controlling stake in the Manchester United football club in January 2009, just months after cyclone Nargis killed 140,000 people in the country, reports The Guardian. Shwe concluded in a cable obtained by WikiLeaks that such a bid “might look bad,” so he ordered the creation of a new multimillion dollar national soccer league instead. Another Burmese cable stated that the football league may be “a way to distract the populace from ongoing political and economic problems or to divert their attention from criticism of the upcoming 2010 elections.” In those elections, which the UN condemned as fraudulent, the military junta’s party won 76 per cent of the vote.

The Guardian

Carole James quits as leader of B.C. New Democrats

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 4:10 PM - 7 Comments

After 13 dissident MLAs called for a leadership convention to replace her, B.C.’s New Democrat Party leader Carole James has announced she’ll step down. That means both of the province’s dominant political parties will have new leaders some time in the new year. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell  announced in November that he will resign from his post in 2011, after his approval rating plummeted to 9 per cent. James’ move comes after Jenny Kwan announced that she and 13 other MLAs thought James was doing the party more harm than good. James shot back at those MLAs in her speech in Victoria this afternoon. “Fighting amongst ourselves was not what we were elected to do,” she said. “The NDP cannot present itself as a government in waiting with all of this infighting,” she added. After running B.C. for nearly a decade, the NDP was reduced to just 2 seats in 2001. Under James, it garnered 33 seats in 2005 and gained two more in the 2009 vote.

Vancouver Sun

Free Sakineh

By Erica Alini - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 3:20 PM - 0 Comments

Marco Merlini/La Presse/Zuma/Keystone Press Agency

“I am a sinner,” a woman wrapped in a black chador told TV-watchers in Iran in a public broadcast on Nov. 15. She said so in her native Azeri language, spoken in the country’s northwest region, but subtitles in Farsi, Iran’s language, made it clear to everyone: she was a sinner.

It was the second TV “confession” for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two who faces death by stoning for adultery and by hanging for complicity in her husband’s murder. Tragic as they may be, Ashtiani’s circumstances are not unique in Iran. According to press reports, since 2001 at least 27 female convicts have died the horrific death Iran’s sharia law prescribes to punish women’s infidelity, and another 12 await the same fate in prison. But it was the image of Ashtiani’s iconic pale face framed by the black chador that galvanized human rights activists across the world, from Laureen Harper to topless Ukrainian feminists. And it was the publicity around her case that caused Iran to lose its bid for a seat in the United Nations’ women’s rights body last month, while Saudi Arabia got in.

Continue…

British political aide arrested for spying

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 2:37 PM - 1 Comment

A British MP’s young assistant has been arrested as a suspected Russian spy and served with a deportation order on national security grounds. Katia Zatuliveter, who works for Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock, is the daughter of a well-connected Russian businessman. She has been under investigation by MI5, Britain’s domestic security agency, for six months. Former colleagues of the pro-Russian Hancock describe his fondness for “assistants” who all happen to be young, blond, beautiful, and usually Russian. Hancock said of Zatuliveter: “I have no reason to believe she did any thing but act honourably during the time she was working for me.”

The Telegraph

The Guardian

A friend request from the feds

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 2:22 PM - 0 Comments

Under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, the government of Canada has become notoriously tight with information. Routine requests for information from journalists, academics and others are often mired in layers of vetting and approval processes. Yet the government is now working on a plan to allow public servants more flexibility when it comes to using Facebook, Twitter and other social medial to connect with the public. Recruiting web-oriented young talent into the public service is another goal. Hurdles to clear in the new strategy include departments clinging to their control of data, and the practical problem of inconsistent policy on managing information across the government.

Postmedia News

Don't shrug off the WikiLeaks

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 2:22 PM - 7 Comments

There’s been a tendency as the WikiLeaks continue to flow to shrug many of them off. Sure, U.S. diplomats sometimes say harsh things about foreign governments in confidential cables. So what? Of course, when the lid is lifted, the world of diplomacy is not all that diplomatic. Big deal. But Der Spiegel reports that the impact of the flood of leaks is real and, for anyone concerned about America’s capability to influence world affairs, deeply worrying. The German magazine’s English website says leaks will do the most damage in the Middle East—already a fragile, volatile region. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, for example, are wounded by unflattering remarks in the leaked cables. “The documents show what Washington really thinks about us,” says one official in a Pakistani ministry. Former Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal says that American’s “credibility and honesty are the victim of these leaks” and that he assumes people “will no longer speak to American diplomats frankly.”

Der Spiegel

Afghans' confidence in U.S. mission sinks

By macleans.ca - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 2:08 PM - 1 Comment

A new poll conducted in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces by The Washington Post, ABC News, the BBC, and ARD television of Germany has found that Afghans are losing confidence in the U.S. ability to secure their country. Meantime, support for the Taliban has increased, with respondents saying they believe the Taliban is not as radical as it once was. Interestingly, residents of two of the key southern provinces—Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar—had generally positive views of the U.S. occupation, a rare piece of good news for troops dealing with persistent violence there. “We clearly have to continue to provide the message to the Afghan people about why we’re here and what it is that we want to do,” U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said of the poll results.

Washington Post

The perfect Harper Conservative

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 1:58 PM - 64 Comments

Behold, the quotable Julian Fantino. He is humble, but he claims the right road; he is tough, but he is a victim; he is unafraid, but he laments anyone who would question his moral authority. He is a folksy, tough-talking, passive-aggressive self-described underdog team player who refers to himself in the third person. And he offends Liberal sensibilities.

To wit. Continue…

Straight Outta Winnipeg: a primer

By Martin Patriquin - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 1:52 PM - 13 Comments

This week, Maclean’s looks at the huge hip hop scene in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

There is a great, thumping noise emanating out of Winnipeg these days, propelled by a crop of artists bent on telling tales of their rough, windswept city. The city famous for the “Winnipeg Sound” of Neil Young, the Guess Who and a more recent crop of well-regarded indie rock bands is becoming better known for its beats and rhymes than its drums and guitars. There’s another twist: almost all these artists are native.

What follows is a selection of videos from some of the city’s rappers and groups. It’s not exhaustive; anyone wanting to see more should spent a couple of hours on YouTube. This is stuff that I really like.

Hellnback, Keep It Movin’

A veteran of the scene, Hellnback was a founding member of Native hip hop group War Party and Team Rezofficial, with whom he did the following track. I straight up love this song.

Young Kidd, Hometown

This is a track from half-black, half-Native rapper Young Kidd. A tale about Winnipeg’s infamous ‘North Side’ Central neighbourhood, Hometown is produced by Boogey The Beat (see below). Kidd is considered by many to be Winnipeg’s breakout star, and Boogey’s track is heartbreaking. The video is directed by Wab Kinew (see below), another hip hop artist who daylights as a CBC reporter.

Winnipeg’s Most, What You In It For?

Winnipeg’s Most recently won the best artist and best CD honours at the APTN awards held in Winnipeg earlier this month. The band’s performance of All That I know has garnered nearly 465,000 YouTube hits. Loud, gruff and angry, Winnipeg’s Most best typify the city’s hardcore rap style.

Pip Skid, Pip’s Kid

I know I’m supposed to post something from Skid Row, Pip’s freaking amazing new album, but this video is just too great to miss. Pip is a (non-Native) native of Brandon, Man., and has about the coolest day job on the planet: he teaches rap to disadvantaged kids in Winnipeg.

Lorenzo, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

Originally a country singer, Lorenzo now raps about his life in Little Saskatchewan, a reserve north of Winnipeg. He had one of my favourite quotes from the trip. “On the reserves, I’ve had friends who were killed at parties. There’s a lot of violence. Maybe that’s what’s inspiring people to try to change, to send a positive message. That’s what I try to do. What’s me rapping about a gold chain going to do?”

Drezus, Never Be The Same

I like this track because Drezus, another heavy hitter on the scene, manage to sound both hurt and menacing as he raps about growing up without a father. “I hate your fucking guts/Call me stomach acid/You the only reason they always call me bastard.”

The Lytics, Big City Sound Girl

The members of this three-brothers-and-a-cousin band have Jamaican/Sierra Leone roots. Their music is catchy, poppy and relentlessly positive. Great stuff.

Wab Kinew, Last Word

Wab is a CBC reporter by day, hip hop artist by night. I love the chorus on this song, and dude can rap. “They ask me why I’m rapping/You really want the answer?/My mind is full of cancer/The relief is in the stanza/Advance the cause/For all the people who’ll never have the chance to pause.”

Magnum KI, No Way

Old school production, tasty scratching, addictive hook, killer track.

Boogey the Beat, The Making of a Beat

Not a song, strictly speaking, but this gives you an idea of how one of the city’s best producers operates.

Dear John, I love Jane

By Julia McKinnell - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 1:20 PM - 37 Comments

Photograph by Andrew Tolson

In a new collection of true stories about straight women turning lesbian, all of the women are, and were, married to extraordinarily kind, supportive husbands. Laura Andre, co-editor of Dear John, I Love Jane, points out that these women are “living proof that sexuality can change over time, often against our will. The women in this book didn’t set out to dismantle their marriages and relationships; the last thing they wanted was to hurt their husbands or boyfriends.”

One woman writes that her husband thought it was “cool” at first that she was attracted to women. “I wasn’t the jealous type so it never bothered me if my husband said another woman was sexy or beautiful. In fact, sometimes I would agree, and I spoke freely about different women I found attractive. He thought he had the coolest wife ever,” writes Crystal Hooper. “We always said that nothing and no one could ever come between us. Then along came Zoe.”

Continue…

The world's longest April Fool's joke

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 12:54 PM - 25 Comments

Despite not having done anything with the bill since April 1 and despite anonymous government sources saying the initiative was doomed, the government sent up Tom Lukiwski last week to affirm that there is a commitment to moving forward, at some unspecified date, with Bill C-12, an act to amend the constitution to add more seats to the House of Commons.

For the record, the Liberals (in the form of Ralph Goodale) professed on Friday a desire to see the bill advanced to committee hearings for due scrutiny and witness testimony, while the NDP (in the form of Joe Comartin) expressed a desire for a debate. Only the Bloc Quebecois (in the form of Pierre Paquette) stated outright opposition to the bill.

Goodbye to the "Terriers" Show

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, December 6, 2010 at 12:19 PM - 6 Comments

My choice as the best new show of the season, Terriers, has been canceled. This isn’t exactly a surprise, but when the ratings went up a little bit for the finale, I was hoping the network might use that as an excuse to bring it back for another season. No such luck, though; the improvement wasn’t enough. It’s sad, but the show will at least make a good single-season DVD boxed set, and I suggest buying it and watching it all the way through.

This is the poisonous icing on the cake of a disappointing television season; one of the few shows that actually seemed to know what it was doing — as I said in an earlier post, other new shows have potential, but this show was actually living up to it — flopped. While other shows that were almost nothing but potential (like The Walking Dead, a show that constantly alternates good moments with cringe-worthy ones) became big hits. It’s not a season where achievement and solid professionalism are rewarded, let’s say.

The mildly ironic thing about the failure of Terriers is that when it was picked up, it was announced as part of an FX network plan to do more accessible, commercial shows. And it certainly was an accessible show, in my opinion; that’s one of the reasons I liked it. But it just didn’t take off, proving once again that you can’t predict anything: a show that was conceived as a commercial, mainstream alternative to edgier programming became a cult flop, embraced by conoisseurs and avoided by the mainstream TV audience it was supposed to appeal to. FX and the producers can be proud of having made such a good show, but I doubt they thought they were making a niche product. There’s no telling how these things will go down.