Millie is a perpetual grad student, an internationally recognized curmudgeon, and an occasional hugger of trees. She also makes a mean batch of couscous.
The gender gap in science is the cause of much gnashing of teeth and the development of all sorts of programs and campaigns to reverse decades of insistent, persistent, and continuing “math and science = boy stuff = not girl stuff; stay away” messaging towards girls and women. Some of these efforts are great (like […]
It’s budget voting time! The breath-takingly sweeping omnibus budget is currently being voted on, and the opposition parties have put forward hundreds and hundreds of amendments that all need to be voted on before the budget itself can be passed. Considering that this budget has enormous ramifications for everything from Old Age Security to environmental […]
There’s been so much rage-flailing going on when I read the newspaper these days, I couldn’t pick just one topic to write about. And knowing my lack of conciseness, I need some enforced brevity. Haiku format to the rescue!
Private members’ bills are a bit of a mixed bag in Canadian Parliament. Most of them are sensible business from the opposition parties, like calling for a national transit strategy (which is sorely needed), but it’s also the airing ground for bills from the fringes of the governing party. Last Thursday, Conservative MP for Kitchener-Centre […]
I live in Eastern Canada, and I’ll admit that I read a lot more news about Eastern Canadian politics than Western Canadian politics. But Alberta is having a provincial election shortly, and with both the Progressive Conservative party and the Wildrose Party headed by women, Alberta is almost certainly going to elect a woman for […]
Okay, before I talk about the outcome of the NDP leadership race, I should say that the federal budget was released last week, and it’s predictably slashing funding left, right, and centre. Notable among the cuts are the CBC, Elections Canada, and the Chief Electoral Officer (the only officer of Parliament to have funding cut). […]
I’m possibly about to lose all street cred I have when I say I spent my Friday night at a show by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, aka, The Mythbusters, but I had so little to begin with the loss may be imperceptible.
For the past few months, Quebec university and CEGEP students have been protesting the Quebec government’s plan to increase university tuiton by $325 a year for the next five years. For the past few weeks, there’ve been protests almost daily in Montreal and Québec City. And this week, the protests will ramp up even more, […]
So things’ve taken an interesting turn in the land of Canadian politics: the Conservatives have been accused of all-out election fraud, in the form of misleading phone calls directing voters to incorrect or non-existent polling stations, impersonating Elections Canada officials, and posing as Liberal or NDP staff while making harassing, annoying, or otherwise unwanted phone […]
I hate writing politics posts about specific bills, because invariably with this government they boil down to “augh, this is terrible, ineffective, and profoundly uncanadian, and I’m embarrassed that these yahoos are running our government,” which while accurate, doesn’t make for much of a read. So, new tack this week: let’s talk about the (hilarious) […]
Having the progressive political views that I do, I am on the mailing list of Lead Now, a non-partisan Canadian organization dedicated to building a better, more progressive government and democracy. I (and presumably everyone else on their list) got an email last week titled, “Maybe the most important question we’ll ever ask you,” and […]
So the House hasn’t been sitting for quite a while now, and there’s not a lot of interesting hoopla going on in the vaunted halls of Parliament other than that bit about Gilles Duceppe paying a party manager out of House of Commons money, to which my sum reaction is, “Dude, that was astoundingly stupid, […]
Public broadcasting gets a bad rap in Canada. Shows produced by the CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for the non-Canadians) are often written off a boring dreck by the general viewing public. The CBC is generally acknowledged to do news, hockey, and some very specific stripes of comedy (ie, Rick Mercer) very well, but beyond […]
M’colleagues and I at Interrobangs Anonymous are big fans of Jian Ghomeshi, so it’s not at all meant as a snipe at him or his work in general when I say that I’m a bit disappointed in the debate he had on Q asking whether marriage is still a relevant institution. The debate was broadcast […]
I can empathize with Justin Trudeau. Sometimes government MPs say truly galling things, and sometimes all you can do is to let loose a cuss to let the steam out of your ears. Last week, Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Accord, to no-one’s great surprise but everyone’s collective shame. Megan Leslie, the NDP’s environment […]