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.
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Les Horswill
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 -dispensations.”
Nearly 50 years…
Halfway There
A commentary on Canada’s political discontents proves insufficiently bold September 2009
When many Canadians read about the crib death of the global economy that sprang to life after the Cold War, they are relieved that Barack Obama is president of the United States. They feel better about this country’s prospects, if only because of the important changes he is making next door. At home, we can’t even democratize the…