A hundred years ago, Cobalt, Ontario, was a spectacular, if serendipitous, success. Its rich silver deposits funded theatres, opera houses, countless saloons, an electric streetcar, a stock exchange and the national Silver Kings hockey team of the early NHL. As a world mecca for fortune seekers, the town secured the first detachment of Ontario’s Provincial…
Les Horswill
Les Horswill writes on politics and public policy. He has worked as an organizer, speechwriter and policy advisor. As assistant deputy minister, he advised various Ontario governments on national unity, energy and trade. Les blogs at <les-horswill.blogspot.ca>.
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Les Horswill
<p>In 1965, philosopher George Grant told us that Canada had already “ceased” to make sense but that the nation would not disappear as an independent country for some time. Union with the U.S. “empire,” he proffered, would require extraordinary decisions. Politicians, however, find it easier to be loyal innovators, within the status quo. He called this uncertainty about the details of his bleak prophecy the “kindest of all God’s…