One thing that distinguishes this Christmas is that it's the first one in almost a decade that "fighting" soldiers haven't spent it in Afghanistan. There's some apprehension among our military that Canada is in danger of reverting to the past, when peacekeeping was the prime role of our military. Will Canada get new, updated, replacement equipment? Unlikely.
12/23/2011 10:28 EST
Be they politicians, media, or just plain folks, most Canadians agree military personnel wounded in their country's name deserve not to be abandoned once fighting is over. I doubt many single soldiers expect payment if they are killed, while a married soldier is reassured to know that his country is concerned for his wife and progeny.
12/22/2011 10:53 EST
I get so tired of the cliché espoused by many journalists, usually male, that when they started female reporters were confined to social or trivia pages, not considered up to covering hard news.
12/20/2011 12:15 EST
Put bluntly, North Korea is a fruitcake regime. Without anything in the way of resources -- except soldiers and nutbar leaders who threaten and bluff -- North Korea has a first strike potential to do considerable damage to South Korea.
12/19/2011 12:27 EST
I received an email saying the Singlaubs were in London and had been robbed, lost their passports, and their hotel wouldn't help. I was surprised and concerned, until my son-in-law persuaded me this was likely a scam. On checking, his email identification had a letter reversed, so it was slightly different. A phony.
12/19/2011 01:09 EST
For what it's worth, I'm one who thinks Louis in his prime was arguably the greatest of all heavyweights. He fought every contender in the golden age of boxing winning 21 on his title matches by knockouts. Unmatched for power, hand speed, ring strategy, heart.
12/18/2011 06:35 EST
Big budget movies like <em>Titanic</em>, <em>Gladiator</em>, <em>The Godfather</em>, <em>My Fair Lady</em>, <em>Ben-Hur</em>, <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> had a ho-hum quality. While some were really good, they didn't have the creativity and imagination that have distinguished lower budget movies of recent winners.
12/16/2011 11:27 EST
I grew up despising bullies, perhaps because my father loathed them. When my sister Robin was being bullied, my pal Jim McConkie and I would trail her as she walked to school. When the bully harassed her, we were on him. It solved the problem.
12/15/2011 12:09 EST
For some who had doubts about Canada quitting the Kyoto agreement that it had ratified under the Chretien government, Elizabeth May's negative reaction confirms that Harper and Environment Minister Peter Kent have done the right thing. Doing opposite to May isn't a bad formula for doing what's right.
12/14/2011 12:06 EST
The fact that the top politician in Russia can be denounced in the streets with something resembling impunity, is reassuring and evidence of democracy. Russia is not the old Soviet Union where criticism was viewed as treason, and elections were won by 98 per cent of the vote going to the only candidate on the ballot.
12/12/2011 01:42 EST
Despite the media, social and political attention directed at bullying, nothing has emerged that gives any indication that it can be stopped. Because bullying is human nature. It's part of growing up. Most of us learn to deal with it.
12/09/2011 09:08 EST
Apart from being impressed with what seems a class act by Mitt Romney, I have fond memories of his father, George Romney. When he was still CEO of American Motors in Detroit, I wrote him a letter about a defective door panelling in my snappy new Metropolitan convertible. A couple of weeks later, I got a message to phone the car dealer.
12/08/2011 09:00 EST
Just as Canadians today feel no personal responsibility for the internment of Japanese-Canadians in WWII, so today's Japanese were not involved in the mistreatment of WWII prisoners -- Canadians, British, Australians. But misdeeds done in the country's name reflect on today's citizens. Just ask the Germans. Or Russians.
12/08/2011 04:59 EST
Chief Spence wants no outside interference -- just more money and no questions asked or controls demanded. If any non-Aboriginal community were run the way Attawapiskat was run, there'd be a revolt among residents -- and the feds would long ago have cut off funding.
12/07/2011 01:04 EST
Now our combat role in Afghanistan is finished, yet honour killings, death by stoning and imprisoning pregnant rape victims seem more the normal than aberrations. The question raised again is whether the mission has been worthwhile, considering the barbaric cultural mores of Afghanistan?
12/06/2011 09:06 EST
It was some years after the Korean war that, as a former soldier, I learned veterans benefits that I and others were entitled to, were difficult to get for Indians who had been soldiers. The present system does not serve Indians much better.
12/02/2011 09:03 EST
For the past 14 years, leftist elements in Canada have trumpeted Kyoto's virtues -- that we've been a leading exponent of it, at the forefront to save the planet from carbon emissions that are warming the planet to the eventual disaster of us all. But Canada never -- not once -- abided by the dictums of Kyoto.
11/30/2011 02:50 EST
To Nigel Farage, the "obsession" of EU members to create a European state means they are "happy to destroy democracy... who the hell do you think you people are? You are very, very dangerous people." Agree with Farage or not (I'm inclined to), he's refreshingly fearless and articulate.
11/29/2011 02:51 EST
It's not just foolish, but pathetic that elementary schools increasingly are banning sports or activities that can result in injuries. It won't be long before there are no swings in parks, no jungle gyms -- just a sandbox from which dogs are banned, for obvious reasons. More risk-free living.
11/25/2011 12:41 EST
Free speech is the right to be obnoxious; on occasion to be offensive; often to be wrong and to say rude or unkind things, but not necessarily untruthful things. Unlike human rights tribunals, those who go to court must prove they've been damaged by free speech.
11/23/2011 10:17 EST
