Parenting
OK, so I snorted pretty hard when I saw the headline on that story. Telling kids to go ahead and break an arm is not my idea of parenting, and I sure was not, am not and have no intention of ever resembling a helicopter mama. ‘Break an arm, we’
Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I talk about an idea whose time, finally, is coming: Giving legal personhood to natural phenomena worth protecting. Like the Magpie River in Quebec – the subject of a documentary that premieres Thursday on The Nature of Things by award-winning filmmaker and all-around awesome
Culture
English will follow and be different from the French because the older I get the more pleasure I take in writing in two languages. As usual I invite my bilingual readers to enjoy both versions. Moi, vous me connaissez, je n’aime pas faire les choses à moitié. Le mois
Culture
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I enthuse, loudly, about the new heritage building program at Algonquin College that combines building, construction and other craft stuff, including practical business skills and significant elements from the humanities. What wags whom, and for what? Fascinating story in The Atlantic (behind the
Culture
Holy bullshit, but is this (behind paywall) a whack of nonsense. It’s a business column in the Globe that warns slackers that having work ethic is back in fashion. Among the many nuggets of wisdom I have received about building a successful career is this: Be the one who
Politics
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I enlisted the help of BeePBot, my own personal imaginary AI writing assistant, to create a short sci-fi story about how cool Ottawa would be if we started making all the right decisions. No legal writing to share this week and if I
Politics
A follow-up piece on that recent video from Pierre Poilievre in which he discussed extraordinary Canadians like electricians who wield lightning, farmers who master all kinds of science and waitresses who, technically, should be dead from exhaustion. English will follow and be different than the French; as usual I encourage
Urbanism
My personal big news this week is my departure from Substack, for reasons I explained here. I had first heard about the moderation issues in early December and didn’t really want them to be true because damn, migrating from one platform to another is not the most fun in
Politics
The magic happens approximately two minutes into this video that Pierre Poilievre tweeted earlier today and man, the fun we’ve been having deconstructing that. Here's to the (extra)ordinary Canadians. pic.twitter.com/s9G56XMdE4 — Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 2, 2024 It’s an aggressively anti-elitist screed, and
Culture
On Saturday afternoon I invited one of my personal social justice warriors (aka Middle Child) to the Cineplex for a testosterone shower. I’d read somewhere that The Iron Claw was useful to debunk toxic masculinity, or something equally woke. We simply had to see for ourselves whether it was
Urbanism
In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I express gratitude for the privilege I have of engaging with readers in the paper, online, and on jogging and bike paths throughout the city. Columnizing is my absolute favourite thing to do, because a) it’s cheaper than therapy to get most
Politics
It’s difficult to be festive these days, what with so much nonsense happening everywhere and a dramatic rise in hate crimes right in this town. In my Ottawa Citizen column this week I express hope that with more talking to one another and better listening to each other that