Hockey fights: the 5.5555555…% solution
By Colby Cosh - Friday, September 30, 2011 - 11 Comments
I’m someone who has been fairly tolerant of the status quo when it comes to hockey fighting, so it might surprise you to hear I have a quik-‘n’-EZ answer to eliminating it. Hockey great/political not-so-great Ken Dryden appears in ESPN piffle-factory Grantland.com today with some intelligent, if stale, reflections on the relationship between head injuries and the game we adore. Dryden goes into nostalgia mode, as the camera dissolves to a shot of the Habs battling the Flyers in the old Forum, and he writes:
Once, hockey players did their own fighting. An elbow to the nose or a slash on the arm, and — big or small, good fighter or not — a player had to right his own wrong. Most players were bad fighters. On their skates, they wrestled, slipped, and flung themselves around. It was vaudeville. Now most fights are between designated fighters. Each such fighter knows what he’s doing, and though usually well-matched enough to be able to protect themselves, these fighters are also skilled enough to hurt each other.
This description is verifiably accurate; it’s not romantic nonsense. What Dryden is describing is specialization. The burden of fighting has almost entirely been taken away from otherwise talented players and loaded onto big SOBs who can’t do anything else well. Which, frankly, takes a lot of the fun out of it, and makes the fighting seem more like a distracting artificial appurtenance.
What change in the game might have accommodated this increasing specialization? The very obvious candidate that almost nobody mentions (though it’s a favourite of Roy MacGregor and of hockey bloggers Tom Benjamin and Tyler Dellow) is increasing roster size. If Dryden had ransacked his memory, he might have recalled that hockey teams weren’t allowed to dress 20 people when he played. In the 1960s, as he was stopping pucks for the Junior B Etobicoke Indians and the Cornell Big Red, the figure was 16 skaters and two goalies. It wasn’t increased to 17+2 until he was already a Canadien, or to 18+2 until he was a lawyer.
Many or most of the true goons in the league are frequently healthy-scratched from games and left to rot in the press box, as things already stand. It’s clear enough that if an 18th player were cut from NHL rosters, the loser would, in many cases, be the “designated fighter”. We know this may be so because, as Dryden hints, the DF didn’t appear in the game until around the time the 18th player was added. The goon’s degree of specialization has, over time, become extreme, like that of a punter in football—and it’s worth noting that we do see football teams doing without punters sometimes, in order to open up a roster spot for some other less esoteric specialist.
The DF is in the game because there is just enough room on rosters for a player with a talent that is radically uncorrelated to the skills the game is designed to express. And without a certain critical mass of DFs, there is no use having one around; they no longer, like Dave Semenko, skate on the same lines as young players who need protection. Their confrontations are staged separate from the real hockey—a tacit admission of their irrelevance to game outcomes (if the substantial absence of fighting from the playoffs weren’t proof enough).
I once imagined we might have seen the advent of the shootout specialist in that 18th roster slot by now. Shootout ability, in contrast with the ability to fight, could not possibly have higher leverage in determining game outcomes. But the shootout—contrary to the complaints of its detractors—turns out to, by and large, reward offensive skills germane to the game’s essence; the guys who are good on the SO are mostly the guys who are pretty decent at scoring anyway.
But even if the shootout were likely to pull particular players into the league who cannot otherwise compete, what players would those be?—ones with devastatingly accurate shots, beautiful decoy moves, creativity, and flair? How loudly could a fan reasonably complain about that? As it is, we’re instead dragging players into the NHL who excel at violence, and it’s not even the graceful violence of a well-executed hip check.
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No border fence: top US border official
By Luiza Ch. Savage - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:43 PM - 8 Comments
The mention of fencing in a recent environmental impact statement from the US Customs and Border Protection agency sparked concerns in Canada that the US government is planning a fence along the Canadian border.
Today I spoke with David V. Aguilar, deputy commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, and he told me unequivocally:
“There are no plans at all for a fence along the northern border.”
He added that any fencing under consideration would be for protecting infrastructure or buildings at individual “ports of entry” (border crossings):
“Any fence that is being considered at the northern border is specific to a port of entry footprint or complex. There is no intent at the current time to build a fence between the ports of entry,” said Aguilar.
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Twitter/luizachsavage
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‘The data will almost certainly be biased’
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:32 PM - 23 Comments
New figures show a 69% response rate for the National Household Survey—higher than Statistics Canada expected, but still not sufficient to replace the long-form census.
“You simply can’t get reliable data from a voluntary survey,” said John Brewster, who teaches statistics at the University of Manitoba and is president of the Statistical Society of Canada. ”I mean, this is something we teach in every course in statistics, for example. The data will almost certainly be biased. And we don’t really know at this time the magnitude or direction of that bias.”
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Will hockey movies ever grow up?
By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:20 PM - 1 Comment
Two nervy contenders still don’t dignify the genre. Give us a ‘Moneyball’!
Photo Illustration by Taylor Shute
In his rhapsodic Massey Lecture, excerpted last week in Maclean’s, Adam Gopnik proclaimed hockey the smartest of all sports. But anyone judging the game by how it’s portrayed onscreen would come to the opposite conclusion. Blame it on Slap Shot, usually cited as the “classic” hockey movie. With Paul Newman punching below his intellectual weight as a brawling bozo, this profane 1977 comedy set the template by portraying hockey as a boneheaded spectacle of fists on ice. It was pure burlesque—literally, with its finale of a player stripping down to his jockstrap. Decades later not much has changed. Movies still treat hockey as a farcical blood sport, or a fantastic fairy tale in the Disney mould of The Mighty Ducks. The Americans didn’t just steal our game; they created its mythology.
Now, as Moneyball shows just how smart, witty and authentic a sports movie can be, the Great Canadian Hockey Movie remains elusive. There have been some good ones—namely Perfectly Normal (1991), a quirky mix of pucks and Puccini, and The Rocket (2005), a gothic biopic of Maurice Richard. And last year saw a colossally ambitious dud, Score: A Hockey Musical. Now two new contenders, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, show a whole lot of nerve but still don’t dignify the genre—Goon, a gonzo R-rated comedy, and Breakaway, a Bollywood North fable that could be dubbed The Mighty Sikhs. TIFF also launched The Last Gladiators, a U.S. documentary about legendary enforcer Chris Nilan, who fought his way from Boston’s mean streets to the Montreal Canadiens, then fell from Habs heaven to rehab hell. A sentimental portrait, it reinforces the image of the hockey thug as noble savage.
Goon makes a romantic hero of the enforcer without fussing over the collateral damage. Directed by Michael Dowse (Fubar), it’s a viciously funny, and just plain vicious, gross-out comedy about a goon with a heart of gold. Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) is a sweet, impeccably polite bouncer who’s hired as a minor-league enforcer though he can barely skate. With Jay Baruchel as his foul-mouthed friend, and Alison Pill as the goon groupie of his dreams, the action caroms between grisly violence and giddy slapstick.
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Ottawa to pay Quebec $2.2 billion for HST
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:10 PM - 1 Comment
Agreement compensates province for two-decade old tax harmonization
The federal government has agreed to hand over $2.2 billion to Quebec as compensation for having harmonized its provincial sales tax with the federal GST more than 20 years ago. Quebec will receive the money in two lump sums: $733 million in 2013 and $1.4 billion in 2014. The Conservatives had promised the funds to Quebec during the last election campaign, pledging to get a deal in place by September 15. Quebec Premier Jean Charest says he will use the money to reduce the province’s deficit.
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Clifford Olson dies in Quebec hospital
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:06 PM - 6 Comments
B.C. serial killer was serving 11 life sentences
Clifford Olson, the notorious serial killer convicted of killing 11 children in British Columbia, died of cancer on Friday in a Quebec hospital, CTV reports. Olson, 71, known as “the Beast of B.C.,” was serving 11 consecutive life sentences for the 1981 murders of eight girls and three boys. The case sparked controversy after a deal was reached that had Olson reveal the location of his victims’ remains to police in exchange for $100,000.
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Wanted: a Republican saviour
By John Parisella - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 4:25 PM - 4 Comments
If there is one consistent take regarding the Republican nomination race, it is that the field fails to generate much enthusiasm with the base and with independent voters. Rick Perry initially sparked some enthusiasm with social conservatives and the Tea Party, but his recent debate performances have curbed much of the fervour about him.Mitt Romney continues to show more aplomb and skill as a candidate and a debater than in 2008. He did not panic when Perry jumped ahead in the polls. Now, they are nearly dead even, with Romney displaying more presidential poise. Yet, Romney does not excite the base. So far, neither Perry nor Romney has conveyed to the Republican voter that they are the candidate who can beat a now-vulnerable President Obama in November 2012. Why is this? Continue…
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And I was “irresponsible” and “misinformed” how?
By Jason Kirby - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 4:24 PM - 10 Comments
In attacking my recent story What’s the Use of Saving Money? as “irresponsible” and “misinformed,” I’m not entirely sure Peter Aceto, the CEO of ING Direct Canada, read beyond the headline. If he did, he’d know it wasn’t a piece that “discourages Canadians from using savings accounts.” Quite the opposite. While bemoaning and exploring the demise of the saving culture in this country, our story argued that around the world people are being discouraged from putting away their pennies by ultra-low interest rates and government programs that promote spending (Cash for clunkers, home reno rebates etc).
I won’t go over the content of the original story. I’m confident readers understood it simply aimed to give a voice to the frugal few and their frustration that low rates subsidize borrowers while hurting savers.
The main thrust of Mr. Aceto’s indignant letter is that Canadians who don’t want to buy a house or invest in the stock market have a choice—they can open an ING Direct savings account. It’s true that until ING came along, there were few options for Canadians to earn decent guaranteed rate on their deposits. ING popularized at least the idea of saving with that Dutch bloke and his accented “Save your money” catchphrase. ING pays 1.5 per cent with its standard high-interest savings account. Ally Financial, which in a past life was the financing arm of General Motors until a bailout came and washed away all its problems, offers 2 percent to its clients. (You can earn more with both if you put the money into longer-term GICs.—five-year GICs pay 2.5 per cent at ING and 2.75 per cent at Ally.)
That’s great, but in the year since ING raised its savings rate from 1.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent, there have been seven months where year-over-year increases in the Bank of Canada’s core consumer price index exceeded that rate. The core rate also excludes eight of the most volatile components (fruit, fruit preparations and nuts; vegetables and vegetable preparations; mortgage interest cost; natural gas; fuel oil and other fuels; gasoline; inter-city transportation; and tobacco products and smokers’ supplies). Excluding those items helps the Bank better determine the long term trend of inflation, but they’re still products Canadians buy and must pay more for. Much more in some cases. According to Statistics Canada, in August food prices were up 4.4 per cent.
Contrary to what Mr. Aceto claims, I didn’t say Canadians should be investing rather than saving. I made no suggestions whatsoever for what Canadians should do with their money, because there is no easy answer. The housing market looks like it’s in a bubble, the stock market is terrifyingly volatile, and savings accounts are not keeping pace with inflation. That’s just the sad reality for savers today. And it’s why many more savers are likely to throw up their hands and ask “What’s the point?” For the record, and for Mr. Aceto, I believe that’s a bad thing.
Here are some more thoughts on the topic from south of the border. Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, is retiring tomorrow and takes a parting shot at ultra-low interest rates:
“What you do when you artificially hold rates down is ask the savers to subsidize the debtors. In an emergency and a crisis that is justifiable, perhaps,” he said.
But to do it repeatedly and indefinitely risks distortions in the market and creating unintended consequences and eventually inflation, he warns.
“It would be better if we were not as accommodative so the market could function and send out proper signals,” Hoenig said. “I think interest rates would be low. I just don’t know how low.”
Before I finish I want to also take an opportunity to thank Garth Turner, the former MP and financial commentator for his help rustling up folks for us to talk to for our original story. After I asked Garth if he knew anyone who felt like a chump for being prudent in the face of all the incentives to borrow and spend, he put out the call on his popular www.greaterfool.ca site and sent me dozens of emails from people who responded to his message. The request clearly hit a nerve.
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‘Replace Stephen Harper and his politics’
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 4:01 PM - 1 Comment
Nathan Cullen launches his bid for the NDP leadership.
That’s why I want to lead the NDP. Not to beat Stephen Harper for the sake of it. But to beat him with purpose and vision, send his kind of politics to the dustbin of history where it belongs, and get a progressive government that this country’s progressive majority deserves.
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Bold and cautious? Dissecting the Supreme Court’s Insite ruling
By Emmett Macfarlane - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 2:37 PM - 6 Comments
Those who favour the reform of Canada’s drug laws should be pleased
Brian Howell/Maclean's
“Insite saves lives. Its benefits have been proven.” With that blunt statement, the Supreme Court of Canada cuts to the heart of the matter: by denying Vancouver’s safe-injection facility, Insite, a further exemption from laws prohibiting drug possession, the federal government acts contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The ruling stands as a razor-sharp rebuke of the federal government’s rather fragile position, at least as in terms of the insurmountable evidence that Insite averts deaths from overdose, helps prevent the spread of disease, and facilitates treatment and recovery. The Court’s decision also stands as a potential landmark in Canadian constitutional law, having considerable implications for the obligations the Charter increasingly imposes on government.
Before delving into these two important elements of the decision, it is worth noting what the Court does not do. Continue…
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‘Abortions by another name’
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 2:35 PM - 19 Comments
Following Brad Trost, Conservative backbencher Maurice Vellacott laments the government’s decision to partner with Planned Parenthood.
“Even in those countries where abortion is technically illegal, it’s naïve to think that Canadian tax dollars are not being used to promote abortion. One of IPPF’s main publicly stated goals is to aggressively dismantle abortion laws in each country around the globe and have abortion recognized as a universal human right.
“Under the guise of ‘education’ Canadian taxpayer dollars will be used to advance IPPF’s unfounded claims that abortion is necessary to prevent maternal deaths, when in fact abortion does great harm to women.”
Conservative MP Leon Benoit has tabled a private member’s bill that pursues Planned Parenthood from a different angle.
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Hundreds of police guns unaccounted for
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 2:06 PM - 11 Comments
Documents show a “double standard” on long-gun registry, NFA says
Hundreds of guns have been lost or stolen from the hands of Canada’s police agencies, according to documents obtained by a group opposed to the federal long-gun registry. The National Firearms Association found that 428 guns have been lost or stolen. Association President Sheldon Clare said this represents a “double standard,” since the police justify the existence of the long gun registry largely on the assumption that firearms can be stolen or lost by civilian gun owners. According to the documents, which were obtained by the NFA through an Access to Information request, the RCMP has lost 32 guns while other police forces have lost 316. The rest were lost by other public agencies, not including the Canadian military.
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Greek PM courts EU leaders in effort to prevent default
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 2:03 PM - 0 Comments
Reassures Eurozone that Greece will continue dept payments, austerity measures
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was courting support for his country’s ailing economy Friday, meeting with EU leaders in Warsaw before flying to France for a scheduled talk with President Nicolas Sarkozy. Papandreou is hoping to reassure eurozone leaders that the Greek government is committed to meeting the obligations handed down by the European Council and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for bailout loans. Greece needs another 8 billion euros by mid-October to avoid a sovereign debt default; something many analysts fear would precipitate an economic recession in Europe. Papendreou’s tour comes a day after the German legislature approved expanding the eurozone’s bailout fund as a measure that will help contain the debt crisis threatening to spread to larger economies like Italy and Spain. All 17 eurozone members must approve the expansion of the fund, something the head of the group’s finance ministers says should be finalized by mid-October. Meanwhile, anti-austerity demonstrations continued apace in the Greek cities of Thessaloniki and Athens. Many Greeks feel the austerity measures are deepening the economic crisis and subverting the country’s sovereignty.
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Canadian border to stay fence-free, for now
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 2:01 PM - 2 Comments
U.S. backs off report that suggested ‘selective fencing’
Rumours of a fence along the the U.S.’s northern border may have been premature. The U.S. Government is now distancing itself from a report that suggested fencing off some portions of what has long been billed as the longest undefended border in the world. A draft report of a study by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency dated Aug. 31 suggested some “selective fencing” along the border. The agency now says such a measure “is not being considered at this time.”
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John Baird’s gold card causes a stir
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 1:57 PM - 24 Comments
Minister demanded special, gold-embossed, business cards when he took over new portfolio
John Baird demanded special gold-embossed business cards when he became foreign affairs minister earlier this year. Baird’s highly specific, slightly bizarre requests included dropping the Canadian logo from the cards and erasing reference to the Lester B. Pearson building, where he works. Department bureaucrats initially fought back against the minister’s demands, pointing out that they violate treasury board policy. Baird eventually got his way.
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NHL to review fighting, Shanahan says
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 1:54 PM - 3 Comments
Head-shot crackdown may expand
Hockey’s top disciplinarian says the NHL will look at fighting as part of a larger review of head injuries in the game. In an interview with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, former player Brendan Shanahan said no decisions have been made “but there’s no way we would ever deny that it’s not something we’re looking at closely.” Despite the double negative, it appears clear that Shanahan is serious about cracking down on blows to the head and other dangerous hits. Under his guidance, the NHL has already handed down seven suspensions for dangerous play this preseason.
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Insite: the Harper government’s sweeping, narrow defeat
By Paul Wells - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 1:31 PM - 79 Comments
Brian Howell/Maclean's
This morning’s unanimous Supreme Court decision on Vancouver’s Insite safe injection site is categorical, urgent and beyond appeal: the Court ordered Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq to issue an exemption “forthwith” permitting the clinic to keep operating. It took the minister barely two hours to announce she’ll comply. The defeat, for a government that has fought Insite at every turn, is clear.
It’s also pretty narrow. While dealing Stephen Harper a personal and unequivocal defeat on a file his government clearly took seriously, it reaffirms federal powers in ways that will probably come in handy down the road; it seeks to contain this decision to the single, existing facility; and (probably inadvertently, but all the same) it offers a strong political argument in favour of the Conservatives among voters who share Harper’s aversion to Insite. Continue…
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And then this happened
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 1:19 PM - 68 Comments
John Baird is apparently very particular about his business cards. This matter was, perhaps predictably, a subject of some discussion during Question Period this morning. With his first intervention, for instance, Liberal Scott Brison suggested Mr. Baird was giving taxpayers the “golden finger.” After the Foreign Affairs Minister had laughed this off, Mr. Brison asked a supplementary question, which I reprint here, in its entirety, without comment.
Mr. Speaker, there seems to be quite the quid pro quo going on over there. The foreign minister gives the President of the Treasury Board a $50 million slush fund for his riding. Then the Treasury Board minister lets the foreign minister break the rules to get his golden business cards. This is a very expensive game of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. When Canadians are struggling just to get by, why are Conservative ministers showering each other with gold? Why the golden showers?
Video here.
After QP, Mr. Brison was asked by reporters about his phrasing. He responded as follows. Continue…
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You’re about to become a copyright criminal
By Jesse Brown - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 1:19 PM - 45 Comments
The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
If you’re a student, or if you consume a lot of music, movies and TV, or if you do fun stuff on the Internet, there’s a rather good chance the Conservatives’ Copyright Reform Bill will make you a criminal.
How? In plenty of ways. Here are a few:
- Your professor assigns you a digital course pack. It contains excerpts of copyrighted material, but because you’re using it for education, you get a pass. At least, that is, as long as you delete those files within 30 days of the end of class. If you keep them around to use for reference in your honours thesis, or if a stray copy makes its way onto your phone and you forget to erase it, then you’ve broken the law.
- You transfer your CD collection to your iPod. Two years later, you get a new iPod, and give the old one to your little sister. If you neglect to destroy your CD collection first, you’ve become a criminal.
- Just for giggles, you mash up some Thomas the Tank engine video clips with a Biggie Smalls song. You post the mashup to your blog, it goes mini-viral, and you make ten bucks and a few cents from Google AdWords hits. You’re now a commercial copyright infringer.
And that’s just for starters. There are many other harmless things millions of Canadians do in the privacy of their homes that will soon constitute copyright infringement. I’ll be back soon with a few more.
For now, here’s the bill. Have a read, and see if you can add one or two potential criminal scenarios of your own in the comments.
Jesse Brown is the host of TVO.org’s Search Engine podcast. He is on Twitter @jessebrown
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Closing Insite would violate Charter: Supreme Court
By Ken MacQueen - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 12:46 PM - 5 Comments
Montreal, Toronto and Victoria could establish similar services
Brian Howell/Maclean's
A crowd gathered on the gritty streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside burst into cheers Friday morning at news the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that Insite, the supervised injection site for drug addicts can remain open. The ruling is a stinging defeat for Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which claimed the site fostered addictions, encouraged crime and violated the federal criminal code by facilitating the use of illegal drugs.
The court ordered the federal health minister to immediately issue an exemption at the site from laws prohibiting drug possession and trafficking to allow the facility to operate. The ruling almost certainly assures that similar sites will open across Canada. Montreal, Toronto and Victoria are among the communities that have expressed interest in establishing similar services. Continue…
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Meanwhile, at the Federal Court
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 12:27 PM - 5 Comments
A government appeal to limit the scope of an investigation by the Military Police Complaints Commission has been rejected.
A Federal Court has dismissed an application that would, among other things, strike the testimony of diplomat-whistleblower Richard Colvin and block thousands of pages of documents from being used by the Military Police Complaints Commission…
Justice Department lawyers argued the commission had no authority to call witnesses who were not members of the military, such as Colvin, who said he repeatedly warned both Foreign Affairs and the Defence Department about possible prison abuse … The government also claimed that the watchdog, created in the aftermath of the Somalia scandal to monitor the conduct of military police, exceeded its mandate by issuing summonses for documents.
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U.S.-born al-Qaeda cleric in Yemen killed, officials say
By macleans.ca - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 12:21 PM - 0 Comments
Anwar al-Awlaki linked to “underwear bomber” and Fort Hood shooting
U.S. army missile-firing drones killed a prominent al-Qaeda leader in Yemen on Friday, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials. Anwar al-Awlaki is an American-born Islamic radical who moved to the Arabian Peninsula in 2007. If confirmed, his death marks the first time an American citizen has been killed by the unmanned drones that have become President Barack Obama’s preferred method of attacking militant leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. After Osama bin Laden was assassinated by U.S. Navy Seals in May, Awlaki became the country’s top target. He has been blamed for orchestrating the failed attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight by the “underwear bomber” on Christmas Day 2009, and has been connected with a failed car bombing in New York’s Time Square. He’s also blamed for inspiring the shooting rampage at an army base in Fort Hood. Awlaki, 39, was born in New Mexico and grew up in Virginia. Another American, Samir Khan, who produced an English-language al-Qaeda website, was reportedly killed in the drone strike.
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/yemen-says-it-has-killed-al-qaeda-cleric-awlaki/article2185967/
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Everybody wants to be NDP leader
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 11:15 AM - 9 Comments
While Brian Topp picks up the endorsement of Libby Davies, Nathan Cullen will be announcing his candidacy later today.
“We have a chance to reach beyond those who are already onside,” he said in an exclusive interview. ”I think there is a much broader progressive movement that is more open to us than in our entire history because of Jack’s legacy, because of some things that have happened to the other parties, the door has opened in Quebec and right across the country.”
Topp, Cullen and Romeo Saganash will be joined by Paul Dewar and Nova Scotia businessman Martin Singh on Sunday. Some or all of Peter Julian, Peggy Nash, Robert Chisholm and Niki Ashton may yet join the race as well. Allowing for the possibility of another candidate or two to emerge and the field could easily total ten contenders.
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Bestsellers – Week of September 26th, 2011
By Brian Bethune - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 10:36 AM - 0 Comments
Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles
Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles
Fiction
1 THE CAT’S TABLE
by Michael Ondaatje1 (5) 2 THE NIGHT CIRCUS
by Erin Morgenstern2 (2) 3 A GOOD MAN
by Guy Vanderhaeghe6 (2) 4 I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
by William Deverell(1) 5 A TRICK OF THE LIGHT
by Louise Penny7 (4) 6 ON CANAAN’S SIDE
by Sebastian Barry(1) 7 A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
by George R.R. Martin4 (11) 8 THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
by Julian Barnes3 (8) 9 THE EMPEROR OF LIES
by Steve Sem-Sandberg(1) 10 THE PARIS WIFE
by Paula McLain9 (12) Non-fiction
1 A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE
by Conrad Black2 (2) 2 ARGUABLY
by Christopher Hitchens1 (3) 3 COCKTAIL HOUR UNDER THE TREE OF FORGETFULNESS
by Alexandra Fuller6 (2) 4 DRIVING HOME
by Jonathan Raban(1) 5 AFTER AMERICA
by Mark Steyn4 (6) 6 BOSSYPANTS
by Tina Fey10 (25) 7 IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS
by Erik Larson3 (16) 8 1493
by Charles C. Mann7 (7) 9 ABSOLUTE MONARCHS
by John Julius Norwich8 (9) 10 PRIME TIME
by Jane Fonda5 (6) LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)
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Meanwhile, in enlightened Calgary…
By Martin Patriquin - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 10:28 AM - 71 Comments
…courtesy today’s Calgary Sun:
Yes, by all means, put her in her place. Stay…
…courtesy today’s Calgary Sun:
Yes, by all means, put her in her place. Stay classy, Aspire Condo Living.
