Yesterday's resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is a loss to comedians everywhere. Which other world leader can possibly fill the void? It was easy to bid "avtio" to George Papandreou earlier this week. Aside from his comically large moustache, there was nothing very funny about the way he drove Greece into bankruptcy, while threatening to take the whole rest of the EU down with him. But give Berlusconi this: the guy steered his country to ruin with, well, not style exactly -- maybe chutzpah. It's one thing simply to overpay state workers -- quite another to host "Bunga Bunga" sex parties while your country burns.
Meanwhile, the Occupy movements are growing very old, very fast. Deaths, drug overdoses, squalid encampments and violent encounters with police -- is this the beautiful new civilization the Occupiers are asking us to embrace? How does Eve Ensler's giddy "Upsparkles" square with urine being tossed in an officer's face? -- as HuffPost contributor Daniel Alexandre Portoraro asked yesterday. Is it any wonder mayors across the country are saying "Enough is enough?" The movement no longer seems to be advocating quite the Disney Epcot ride to the future...
If Occupy protestors are wearing a lot of us down, the anti-Keystone activists scored a big victory this week, by persuading President Obama to punt the decision to build the controversial oil pipeline into next year. Our Maude Barlow was among 12,000 anti-Keystone protestors who marched on the White House last week; today, David Frum argues that however wonderful a pipeline-less world might be, it won't happen until we depend upon oil less.
I'm always moved by the outpouring of respect and gratitude shown to our veterans by Canadians across the country on Remembrance Day. This year was no less. As Canada winds down its commitment to Afghanistan, several HuffPost contributors reflected on wars past: Peter Worthington, who served in both WWII and Korea, and Brian McKenna, whose nephew did two tours of Afghanistan and who descends from generations of soldier McKennas dating back to 1812. David Menzies took time to discipline those who would protest "Remembrance Day" and its supposed "glorification of war."
I'm excited to announce the launch of two new series here, original to The Huffington Post Canada. First, divorce lawyer Brahm D. Siegel has launched an advice column in which readers are welcome to send in questions. Tomorrow stay tuned for the gifted and stylish HP contributor, Rana Florida, who will propose how we might make public spaces more attractive and humane. She will begin with that familiar eighth circle of hell, airports, with a slideshow of those that have managed to make the travelling experience more pleasant -- especially in the hellish travel weeks leading up to American Thanksgiving.