Canada
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, announced, in the House of Commons, sanctions against Russia after its ‘renewed invasion’ of…
Trudeau’s tyranny
Early in the corona era the historian David Starkey gave some thoughts on Covid. ‘We’ve got a Chinese virus,’ he…
Keep on trucking
Canada’s Covid protestors have a point
Portrait of the week
Home Sue Gray, the second permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office, in a 12-page ‘update’ on her investigation into 16…
Canada should be proud of the truckers’ convoy
The first wave of truckers in the Freedom Convoy arrived in Ottawa on Friday, having travelled across Canada to protest…
No, America couldn’t have been Canada
What if William Howe, the dithering British commander, hadn’t let the American army escape in the Battle of Long Island…
Another stupid, redundant, dismal Canadian election
Canada has just surpassed even its own previous records for absurd and boring elections yielding predictable and dreary results. Almost…
Justin Trudeau’s election gamble is backfiring
In 1966, a year before Pierre Elliott Trudeau first blazed to power, the bard-poet Leonard Cohen published his second and final…
Justin Trudeau isn’t the progressive leader he thinks he is
It came as no surprise to me to see activists ‘celebrating’ Canada Day by setting fire to churches and toppling…
The COVID response shows the left is losing its way
Last month, British Columbia announced that those who don’t wear masks indoors can now be fined $230. ‘To me, it’s…
The unbearable niceness of Canadians is driving us to destruction
While Americans spent last week panicking about the state of their democracy, north of the border we were having a…
America’s allies don’t like Trump. So what?
So, the Pew Research Center polled more than a dozen allies and, guess what, the allies — from the UK…
Justin Trudeau’s prorogation memory loss
A prime minister better known for his charisma than his policy achievements proroguing parliament to ride out a political storm.…
The Canadian election is turning into a comedy of cringe
Next week my compatriots will cast their votes in what has arguably been the worst Canadian election ever. By ‘worst’…
Justin Trudeau is not a racist – but he is a fool
The election campaign was off to an unexciting start even by Canada’s standards. A well-known but fluffy incumbent, Liberal Justin…
How Canada failed to smash the cannabis black market
I had forgotten how much I disliked cannabis until I found myself under its influence, in the rain, trying and…
Donald Trump’s one-front trade war
At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, President Donald Trump went a long way toward defusing a potential war – not with…
Michael Palin follows the Erebus – an historic ‘adventure’ with a tragic outcome
In May 1845, HMS Erebus and her sister ship HMS Terror set sail for the Arctic, never to be seen…
I hate fishing — but was hooked by the story of the Yukon’s salmon
‘Help!’ I thought, when I read the Author’s Note. ‘It’s about salmon, and I hate fishing.’ But by the first…
Rockies horror show
Tin Star, the latest Sky Atlantic drama, has a comfortingly familiar premise: Jim Worth (Tim Roth), an ex-detective from London…
In praise of Netflix
All this week I have been trying, with considerable success, to avoid being bludgeoned by TV programmes telling me in…
Wise women in wikuoms
You can’t see the wood for the trees in Annie Proulx’s epic novel of logging and deforestation in North America, says Philip Hensher
Trudeau family values
Justin Trudeau has his mother’s good looks – and his father’s dodgy economics
Diary
The Prime Minister is pretty angry with Boris. But the idea that they’ve competed with each other since school is…
Flying doctors
A few months ago, paramedics were on the brink of industrial action. They had legitimate grievances. Ambulance services were being…
