There's room for everyone on the NDP bandwagon

By Philippe Gohier - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:31 AM - 25 Comments

Holy cow, Gilles Duceppe’s gonna be in a foul mood when he sees this: in an open letter sent to La Presse, two former Bloc Québécois operatives are calling on their fellow sovereigntists to vote NDP on Monday. Maxime Bellerose, a former riding association president, and Benoît Demuy, who worked as a staffer in former Bloc MP Réal Ménard’s office, write Quebecers would be foolish to not hop on the social democratic bandwagon Jack Layton hopes to lead all the way to Ottawa.

“For the first time in our political lives, social democracy is knocking on Parliament’s door! It would be a shame if Quebecers did not take advantage of this opportunity to send to Ottawa MPs who loudly and proudly share Quebec’s values of justice and cooperation,” argues the pair, who say they’re both still members of the Bloc Québécois.

“We are still and will remain profoundly convinced that sovereignty is the best way for Quebec and its people to continue its development,” they add. “But as is widely said, the sovereignty of Quebec will be achieved in Quebec and not in Ottawa. Until then, our fellow citizens must live under the Canadian federal regime, whether they like it or not… In the absence of a referendum victory, voting NDP is now the way to end the cycle of Conservative minority governments.”

The sad story of Nim

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:30 AM - 2 Comments

Harry Benson

The movies love mad scientists. All those demented doctors: Frankenstein, Jekyll, Moreau, Strangelove. But we expect them to remain safely confined to the laboratory of science fiction. It’s a shock to come across them in the real world, under the microscope of the documentary camera. Yet mad science seems to be running amok at Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, which unspools in Toronto April 28 to May 8.

After the Apocalypse takes us to a former Soviet nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, where residents were deliberately exposed to radiation as human guinea pigs, and the boss of a maternity clinic advocates “genetic passports” to prevent mothers from giving birth if their genes are suspect. Memoirs of a Plague, a film about locusts, shows a lab scientist dissecting one while it’s still alive, a tiny atrocity captured in a macro close-up that fills the screen. In Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, a crackpot visionary erects a house as a “healing machine” around his cancer-stricken wife. And on a more benign note, in El Bulli: Cooking in Progress, an insanely innovative chef concocts recipes in a Barcelona laboratory equipped with vacuum­izers, spherifiers and liquid nitrogen.

But of all the stranger-than-fiction films at Hot Docs, none may be more compelling than Project Nim, a biopic about an ape who is drafted into an epic experiment. By turns funny, astounding and disturbing, it comes from American director James Marsh, who made the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire (2008). Like that film—about a tightrope artist who walked between the Twin Towers—it’s an archival saga of the ’70s, evoking the naiveté of an era when all kinds of outrageous behaviour could be framed as a grand experiment.

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Jack Layton's amazing race

By John Geddes with Martin Patriquin, Kate Lunau, Aaron Wherry and Jason Kirby - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:20 AM - 154 Comments

Photograph by Jessica Darmanin

Everything about Jack Layton’s rally at Montreal’s Olympia Theatre, the biggest campaign event ever staged by the NDP in Quebec, had a sort of retro flair. There was the 1925 theatre itself, with its rococo red-and-gold plaster details. There was the lead-on band, the aptly named Quebec group Tracteur Jack, which played hopped-up swing. When Layton made his grand entrance, wading through a roaring crowd of more than 1,200, jauntily wielding the wooden cane he carries after hip surgery, he leapt to the podium like a barnstorming politician of old. Now that he’s 60, that signature moustache, which once recalled the disco era, looks more like a tribute to his social-democratic forebears. Some of his applause lines have a time-honoured left-wing ring, too. “A prime minister’s job,” he declares to cheers, “is to make sure the government works for those who have elected him, and not for big corporations.”

But Layton is no throwback, and his NDP campaign surge is a product of pure 21st-century election strategy. If nobody saw it coming, that doesn’t make the party’s bounce in the polls a fluke. On the contrary, Layton’s roll suggests that what might have previously sounded like wishful thinking from NDP strategists was rooted in facts. They’ve long insisted that in the eight years since Layton became leader, he’s overhauled the party’s organization and, more recently, sharpened its electoral focus. Layton likens all that work to laying the foundation for a house. “The first thing you do is dig a hole, and that’s not very interesting,” he told Maclean’s last week. “People kept saying to me, ‘Why aren’t you making any progress, Jack?’ ”

They aren’t asking that now. Instead, the questions are all about how great a leap forward is conceivable. All the polls this week showed substantial NDP gains, and some suggested a historic watershed—the NDP possibly vaulting over the Liberals to become the official opposition, a second-place finish for the first time ever. The Conservatives, meanwhile, seemed to hover somewhere shy of the roughly 40 per cent of the popular vote that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would need to secure a majority. But it’s Layton’s surprise that has changed the game, especially his threat to Bloc Québécois dominance in Quebec. Several polls showed the NDP leading in the province, an astonishing turn of events given he went into this campaign holding just one of the 75 Quebec seats, compared to the Bloc’s 47.

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The NDP surge, and what’s at stake in this election

By the editors - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:10 AM - 18 Comments

The real story in the last week of the federal election campaign may not be Jack Layton so much as it is the professionalization of his New Democratic party. So often Canadian voters have flirted with scrappy well-intentioned New Democratic underdogs; equally often, they have decided in the end that men like T.C. Douglas and Ed Broadbent were better fitted for the bridesmaid’s gown than the bride’s. From the polling evidence, however, it appears we are taking an unusually close look at the goods this time.

But please don’t say it’s because Jack Layton is a “fighter” or a “happy warrior.” NDP leaders have been peddling this sort of self-mythologizing since the ink was moist on the Regina Manifesto. None of it ever managed to get any of them inside the gates of the federal Opposition leader’s residence.

Layton has an outside chance of making it. And there are two interrelated reasons: he has been fortunate in the Liberals’ choice of leader, and his team is excellent at staging, advertising and using new technology to reach voters. Gone, mostly, is the patina of amateurishness that was once a trademark of NDP-made media. One senses that we are witnessing the consequence of a deep seismic shift; Liberal internal fractiousness seems to have driven off the best young political professionals, as it drove off potential Liberal prime ministers such as Frank McKenna and John Manley.

Despite these advantages, it is by no means certain that Layton will seal the deal. In the last week of campaigning, voters will have time to re-examine the New Democratic platform and decide whether they are really so keen on a dramatic increase in payroll taxes; on the expensive construction of an apparatus for cap and trade carbon credits without an advance guarantee of U.S. participation; on a corporate tax hike that gives nine-tenths of economists a migraine; and on just plain twerpish stuff like the reintroduction of the federal minimum wage and supports for locally grown and organic food. (It would be hard to find a better definition of stupidity than for a national party to have any position at all on “local” and “organic.”)

And then, of course, voters will have to take a careful look at what’s not in the platform. In front of eastern audiences, Layton is full of barbs and warnings directed at the “dirty” oil sands—a business in which, for better or worse, a whole nation of workers, taxpayers, shareholders and pensioners now has a stake. He no longers talks of a moratorium on new oil sands development; that part of his spiel has been bagged and shoved into the crawl space, along with the party’s traditional support for marijuana decriminalization.

The official NDP platform is also silent on the Constitution, yet it turns out that Mr. Layton has quite a lot to say about it. He said in Quebec on April 26 that “we have a quarter of our population who have never signed the Constitution,” calling this a “significant gap” that “has to be addressed someday”—and maybe soon, should there exist “some reasonable chance of success.” It must have been startling for long-time NDP supporters in English Canada to hear their leader espouse the Bloc Québécois view of the Constitution as unfinished business. Was it for this, rather than for social-democratic public policy, that New Democrats in Burnaby, B.C., and Kenora, Ont., and Baie-Verte, Nfld., have been toiling all along?

It won’t mean much unless someone can manage to suppress the Conservative vote share, which has remained fairly intractable throughout the campaign; Stephen Harper’s supporters won’t abandon him, by and large, but he’s failing to add to them in any discernible number. The Tories have adopted a strategy of “microtargeting,” going for a majority more or less by making their existing vote more efficient. Up to a point, Canada’s flirtation with Laytonmania makes this goal easier, dividing the “progressive” opposition as evenly as possible. Which is fine. The evidence for a Harper “hidden agenda” of social-conservative reaction is meagre; meanwhile, the shared Layton-Ignatieff agenda of old-school protectionism and corporate taxation squats in plain sight.

This difference is important, though increasingly neglected. Purists of the fiscal right like to make despairing criticisms of the Conservatives for their occasional sins against economic orthodoxy. But Canada is emerging in pretty good shape from a recession that has threatened the integrity of the European Union, left the British welfare state in a shambles, and cast ugly shadows on the solvency of the U.S.A. Harper has held the line laid by Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, preserving the relatively open and competitive nature of Canada’s economy. Despite some polite participation in the worldwide orgy of anti-recessionary “stimulus,” he has not come close to expanding government to its former size relative to GDP.

Much of the resistance to a Conservative majority is based on the perception that it’s something to be feared. But it would be foolish to let ephemeral, poorly founded fears stampede us into an embrace with positive risks to our prosperity.

Ultimate ticket

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:10 AM - 10 Comments

Rogerio Barbosa/AFP/Getty Images

Maybe it has something to do with the Maple Leafs missing the playoffs for six straight seasons, but Toronto the Good has a lot of pent-up blood lust. Enough to account for all 55,000 seats for the first-ever Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts staged in the city being snapped up in just 20 minutes. Enough to hand the Las Vegas-based promoters of the April 30 beat-downs a gate estimated at more than $10 million, the most lucrative single event in the history of the Rogers Centre, née SkyDome. So much that even the Bay Street suits have gotten in on the action, with more than 90 per cent of the stadium’s luxury suites sold to bankers, stockbrokers and head office honchos. “We’re not going mainstream,” says a satisfied Tom Wright, the UFC’s point man in Canada. “The mainstream is coming to us.”

Once feared, and infamously reviled by John McCain as “human cockfighting,” mixed martial arts (MMA) has gone from outlaw sideshow to big-time sport in just a decade. In 2001, only Nevada and New Jersey sanctioned the punishing bouts—kitchen-sink combinations of wrestling, boxing, jiu-jitsu, Thai kickboxing and pretty much every other type of weaponless combat ever devised. Today, it’s legal in 45 of the 48 U.S. states that permit prizefighting, as well as nine Canadian provinces. UFC, a privately held company and the sport’s biggest brand, is estimated to be worth more than US$2 billion. Propelled by stars like Montreal’s Georges St. Pierre—who will defend his welterweight title against American Jake Shield in Toronto’s main event—it attracts corporate sponsors like Anheuser-Busch, Bacardi, Burger King and Gatorade. Fights are now broadcast to 150 countries worldwide, and in 2010 UFC’s pay-per-view offerings drew more than nine million “buys” in North America alone, generating upwards of $400 million in revenue. (By comparison, WWE wrestling, which once dominated the sector, sold less than two million buys.)

But for all the global growth, the epicentre of MMA fandom is Canada in general, and Ontario in particular. “On a per-capita basis, this is by far our largest market in the world,” says Wright, a former commissioner of the Canadian Football League. The first card ever held in Vancouver last June drew more than 17,000 people. Two title fights with St. Pierre in Montreal both packed 23,000 into the Bell Centre. The Toronto event will be the biggest live show in the sport’s history. (UFC title fights in Vegas usually draw around 11,000.) Maybe Canada, like Australia, another MMA hotbed, simply has a culture that embraces any and all sport. Or perhaps decades of watching hockey goons duke it out has created a deep-seated appetite for pugilistic mayhem. “What happens at a hockey game when a fight breaks out? It’s 18,000 people on their feet,” says Wright. “We, as a people, just get the UFC.”

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Who will be king of Canada?

By John Fraser - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 6:00 AM - 9 Comments

Highnesses-in-Training greet Monarch of the North" © Charles Pachter 2011

Everything is in readiness for Prince William to receive Catherine Middleton on Friday, April 29, when she takes the long walk down Westminster Abbey’s storied nave and they pledge to each other “to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.”

The RAF trumpeters will be standing ready for their post-signing fanfare; the princess-to-be managed to get herself confirmed into the Church of England in the nick of time; Prince Harry will be planning some sort of practical joke in the manner of the better sort of best men; and the Middletons, père et mère, have probably worked out what on Earth they will say to the Prince of Wales and Camilla, duchess of Cornwall as they ride together during the carriage ride from the Abbey to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.

Most of the burning questions of the day will have been answered by the day’s end, from the name of the fashion designer who got to make the Dress of Dresses to whether or not the bride’s over-the-top millionaire uncle (his colourful-sounding residence on the Spanish island of Ibiza is called La Casa de Bang-Bang) behaved himself at the palace. The only real question that can’t be answered, despite all the royalist hoopla, is whether or not William will ever be king. That’s king as in King of Canada.

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The royal wedding in pictures

By macleans.ca - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 5:42 AM - 1 Comment

Photo gallery: Royal wedding kitsch

By macleans.ca - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 5:03 AM - 1 Comment

The royal wedding route

By macleans.ca - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 5:02 AM - 0 Comments

As is customary, the bride and groom will travel separately to the wedding service. First to arrive is William and his best man, brother Harry, who will leave Clarence House in a royal Bentley. Kate, who stayed overnight at the posh Goring Hotel, will travel to Westminster Abbey with her father in a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI.

Westminster Abbey
The royal nuptials took place in this 11th-century abbey—the coronation site since 1066—and the home of many modern royal weddings, including those of William’s grandparents and great-grandparents. On a sadder note, it was also the location for the funerals of William’s mother in 1997 and that of the Queen Mother in 2002.

Parliament Square
Across from the abbey, this is the first place the newlyweds passed in their carriage. The square is a familiar tourist draw: it’s just outside the Houses of Parliament, and it features imposing statues of important figures in British history, such as former PM Winston Churchill.

Whitehall
The road that runs from Parliament Square to the southern end of Trafalgar Square

Cenotaph
Britain’s national war memorial, the Cenotaph is also a familiar spot for royals: every Remembrance Sunday, the Queen and other members of the royal family gather to honour fallen servicemen.

Banqueting House
Next is the only surviving part of the old palace of Whitehall, which was largely destroyed by fire in 1698; it has a spectacular ceiling painted by Peter Paul Rubens. More grimly, King Charles I was executed on a scaffold located outside the Inigo Jones-designed building in 1649.

Horse Guards Building and Parade
This imposing building is guarded by mounted troopers of the Household Cavalry. Only members of the royal family, or those with special ivory passes, can pass beneath the building’s central arch, as William and Kate did on their big day. Each June, the large parade ground is the scene of the annual military parade and march known as Trooping the Colour that also marks the official birthday of the Queen.

Trafalgar Square
Royal wedding watchers caught the spectacle on big screens here. Named to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars, it’s now a popular draw for visitors to the city, particularly for the National Gallery, and, in December, the glowing Christmas tree and New Year’s celebrations.

The Mall
Pronounced “mal,” this was the longest road of the royal wedding procession. A red tarmac gives the illusion of a royal red carpet; it connects Buckingham Palace with Admiralty Arch. In the past, it’s been filled with crowds celebrating royal events such as Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.

St. James’s Palace
The official residence of kings and queens for three centuries, it also served as the gilded backdrop for William and Kate’s official engagement photos.

Clarence House
The London residence of Prince Charles and the duchess of Cornwall, as well as William and his best man, Prince Harry. It was previously the home of the Queen Mum.

Buckingham Palace
The newlyweds passed through the palace gates to enter the London residence and administrative HQ of the British monarchy. There, the Queen hosted a champagne reception for 650 guests. In the evening, some 300 friends gathered for a dinner and dance with the newlyweds.

Music For Royals To Get Married By

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 3:24 AM - 0 Comments

As we wait for the big moment or moments, I’m reading this list of the pieces of music selected for the royal wedding. Some of us were speculating that the couple might shake things up a bit by including some pop music, but I suppose they decided that such a tradition-bound event still demands traditional music at most points. The list hits most of the great English “classical” composers: Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Delius, Walton, and some composers who are popular in England but less so outside it, like Finzi and Parry, whose “I Was Glad” is the bride’s processional music, and has been used in many other events of this kind:

There’s not much in the way of new music. The Master of the Queen’s Music, Peter Maxwell Davies, was not asked for a new piece even though he Continue…

The Office: A Show With More Than Heart

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 12:50 AM - 5 Comments

Yeah, I got a little misty/teary/bleary at Steve Carell’s last episode of The Office as a regular. I have a respect for Greg Daniels that borders on the superstitious, but it usually pays off; I expected this episode to be good and, except for some of Will Ferrell’s scenes (we may know more about this once he’s written off the show, but it’s hard to know exactly what Ferrell’s been going for, and the tag was really not the kind of thing to convince us that the show can go on without Carell), my expectations were fulfilled. The tricky balance between Michael as he would be in real life vs. Michael the beloved sitcom character was well handled, leaning more to the escapist side of things – which is fine, since the show long ago became the story of people who find a certain refuge in the office, not people who are tormented by having to be there.

This episode also featured the best nods to the documentary conceit since the throwaway line in the third season opener (also written by Daniels) where Rashida Jones’s character made fun of Jim for his goofy looks at the camera. In addition to raising a question we ourselves had been asking since the first episode, Continue…

Probing the NDP surge: middle-class credibility and more

By John Geddes - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 6:35 PM - 72 Comments

At the outset of this election, the mythical middle-class voter was the main target of all three of the Conservative, Liberal and NDP campaign strategies.

Stephen Harper’s Tories looked best-positioned, after carefully courting the coveted demographic with niche tax breaks and the Harper’s own average-guy image. But the Liberals served notice they would be competing for that turf, and eventually took dead aim at middle-class voters with Michael Ignatieff’s so-called “Family Pack” platform.

And then there was the NDP—often lost in the discussion about going after the middle-class vote. Traditionally, after all, New Democrat support skews younger and less well-off. Still, Jack Layton talked up pocketbook pressures on the middle class in every speech, and offered policies tailored for them, like a home-renovation tax break and a caregiver tax benefit.

Check out the result. The Maclean’s Election Survey, conducted for Rogers Media by Innovative Research, asked online participants in the Canada 20/20 Panel which party would do a better job protecting the middle class.

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The royal wedding official programme

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 5:45 PM - 0 Comments

What Ben Bernanke's media rendez-vous really means

By Erica Alini - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 5:40 PM - 4 Comments

As Econowatch readers probably already know, yesterday marked a historic event in Federal Reserve annals: Ben Bernanke fielded questions from reporters in the first of what will now be regular meet-the-press events to be held four times a year.

The general consensus among the 60-something journalists the Fed managed to fit in the top-floor conference room of its Washington headquarters was that Big Ben managed an impressively unremarkable performance. There were no slips of the tongue, and absolutely no novelties.

Bernanke “mostly retraced familiar ground,” wrote the New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum. He “avoided saying anything yesterday at his first press conference that shocked or confused investors. In other words, economists said, his appearance was a success,” quipped Scott Lanman and Steve Matthews, reporting for Bloomberg. Continue…

Which of the party leaders made the best impression on you over the course of the campaign?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 5:38 PM - 89 Comments

Where the real wedding party's at

By Cathy Gulli - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 5:20 PM - 0 Comments

Patti Renihan and her best friends have always watched the British royal weddings together: when Prince Charles married Diana Spencer in 1981, and when Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in 1986, the women huddled around a tiny TV inside a screened porch at a family cottage in northern Ontario. They had a similar plan for when Prince William marries Kate Middleton. But when other friends heard about the early-morning gathering, they wanted to join them. “It’s ballooned to 14 people,” laughs Renihan, 65, who made gold invitations that match the official ones—“except instead of HRH we put my initials” and instead of “Westminster Abbey” they wrote “the abbey” at Renihan’s home address in Toronto. Upon arrival, each guest will be introduced by her new name: duchess or lady of the area where she lives. “This party has snowballed,” Renihan admits. “It gets grander by the day.”

The spectacle of a British royal wedding has inspired many Canadians, especially women, to host their own extravagant receptions. No detail will be overlooked: food, drink, flowers, party favours and attire have been planned in celebration of this rare event. And despite the time difference (Will and Kate exchange vows at 11 a.m. British time, and media coverage begins three hours earlier), or perhaps because of it, people like Renihan and Jane Francis of Mississauga will welcome guests to their houses in the middle of the night—starting at 3 a.m.

“I got a new big TV for my birthday, and I was going to watch the wedding regardless,” says Francis, 64, before her friend Marg Shaver, chimes in. “And we were going to be lonely in our basements,” Shaver explains, adding that she had British-flag bunting and serviettes that were crying out to be used for such an occasion. “So we decided to get some others in!” finishes Francis. Over the last few weeks, the self-described “mature, fun-loving women” have traded scores of emails and calls in preparation for the big day. The latest news: “The fine jewels from China have arrived,” exclaims Shaver, who turns 61 the day after the wedding. “Blue sapphire engagement ring replicas for everybody!”

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Policy alert

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 5:19 PM - 6 Comments

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has survey answers from three parties.

The FCM also surveys platform promises here.

How the royal wedding will go down

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 5:05 PM - 0 Comments

8:15 a.m. GMT (3:15 a.m. EDT): The general congregation arrives at the Great North Door of Westminster Abbey

10:10 a.m. GMT (5:10 a.m. EDT): Prince William and Prince Harry depart from Clarence House for Westminster Abbey

10:25 a.m. GMT (5:25 a.m. EDT): Members of the extended royal family leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey

10:40 a.m. GMT (5:45 a.m. EDT): The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh depart from Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey

10:48 a.m. GMT (5:48 a.m. EDT): The bridesmaids and pages leave the Goring Hotel

10:51 a.m. GMT (5:51 a.m. EDT): Kate Middleton, accompanied by her father, departs from the Goring Hotel

11:00 a.m. GMT (6 a.m. EDT): The marriage service begins

12:15 p.m. GMT (7:15 a.m. EDT): The bride and groom travel by carriage to Buckingham Palace

1:25 p.m. GMT (8:25 a.m. EDT): The Queen and the newlyweds, together with their families, appear on the balcony

Photo gallery: Royal wedding dresses

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 4:58 PM - 0 Comments

Camping in national parks with Sam Roberts, Melissa Auf der Maur, and Shad

By Claire Ward - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 4:03 PM - 2 Comments

Interviews by Claire Ward
Shot and edited by Tom Henheffer
Produced by Claire Ward

A greener future

By Kate Lunau and Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 4:00 PM - 1 Comment

Will Pryce; Atelier CMJN

Having an environmental edge goes a long way with employees. Surveys show that people expect their organizations to take the environment into account when making business decisions—and most don’t feel enough is being done. Top companies, however, are responding by going green in every way, from making their manufacturing processes more efficient to backing local and global sustainability projects. The following pages feature some of the ways the companies on Aon Hewitt’s 2011 Green 30 list have made the environment a big part of business. But first, here’s a look at some environmentally friendly ideas that could revolutionize the workplace in the not-so-distant future.

Skyscrapers made of wood?

The construction and management of buildings around the world accounts for more than 30 per cent of climate change, according to Michael Green, founding principal at McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design Inc. While some predict everyone will be working from home in the future, others say greater levels of urbanization will bring us closer to the workplace than ever. So it’s no wonder billions of dollars are being poured into making sustainable offices—and the greener, the better. Some of the concepts are outlandish: the winner of eVolo’s recent Skyscraper Competition, for example, looks like a giant Ferris wheel made from recycled cars, and filters air through a series of greenhouses as it spins. Green, who’s based in Vancouver, has a more practical idea. Instead of building skyscrapers from steel and concrete, he says, its time to start making them out of wood.

Continue…

You mean the Americans pay attention?

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM - 38 Comments

Glen McGregor has taken a break from embarrassing the heck out of Sun Media and is trolling through today’s Wikileaks dump of cables from US missions in Canada. He’s crowdsourcing the job and is collecting the best of them. My contribution is this cable from the US embassy in December 2009, reporting on the presentation of the sixth quarterly report to parliament on the mission in Afghanistan. From the cable’s summary (my emphases):

Signature development projects move forward, and border security dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan is expanding, with Canadian facilitation. The media and Parliament, however, remain more obsessed with allegations that the government ignored credible reports of abuse of Afghan detainees transferred by the Canadian Forces in 2006 to Afghan authorities (ref c), and largely ignored the mostly discouraging news in this latest report. End summary.

The concluding remarks are rather astute as well:

While the media covered the December 10 release by Minister Day, virtually all of the questioning related instead to the on-going controversy over the treatment of prisoners handed over to Afghan security forces by Canadian soldiers and what the government knew when…

The three opposition parties are united in seeking to embarrass the government over this issue and have vowed to call into session the Special Committee on Afghanistan even during the holiday recess (which began December 10), but have indicated no interest in debating the actual Canadian mission in Afghanistan and the successes – or failures – of Canada’s role as documented in the quarterly reports.

Who’s in and who’s way out

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 3:40 PM - 1 Comment

Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Joining the royal family involves more than marrying a prince. Kate Middleton has to figure out a complex web of relationships, including who’s in and who’s out (hint: Sarah Ferguson’s name is permanently on that list). While she’s comfortable with Prince William’s immediate family, the Waleses—she’s known them for years—she’s seen far less of the rest of William’s relations.

Luckily for Kate’s nerves, the Windsors aren’t into weekly Sunday dinners en famille. The reason is simple, author Penny Junor explains: “Each member of the royal family is a star in their own firmament and they have to be treated as such.” Like movies stars, Windsors and their egos don’t like being overshadowed—not even by other family members. “Everyone who works for the royal family is advised not to put them together,” says Junor. Still, there are enough Windsors to fill a very, very large table. In addition to the Queen’s immediate relations—husband, four kids and their three spouses, eight grandkids plus another spouse and a great-grandchild—there are another 40-odd Windsors who form the larger “descendants of George V” royal clan.

In many ways they are like any large family, complete with in-laws who barely tolerate each other, squabbling siblings and unexpectedly close friendships. Though “they are called the most dysfunctional family in the land, they do function quite well,” says royal expert Brian Hoey. Herewith, a primer:

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Week in Pictures: April 25th – May 1st 2011

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 3:24 PM - 0 Comments

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Week in Pictures: April 25th – May 1st 2011

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Haitian Voodoo followers show devotion to spirits

People swim in a sacred pool during a Voodoo ceremony in Souvenance, Haiti, on April 24, 2011. Hundreds of Voodoo followers travel to Souvenance over Easter weekend to show their devotion to the spirits. Voodoo was brought to Haiti by slaves from West Africa and is one of Haiti's three recognized religions. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

1 of 16 Photos

Next Spring showers

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