Amusements Rick McGinnis Thanks to laser-sharp marketing geniuses who regard the perfect moviegoer as a comics-reading teenager with no memory whatsoever of any film made before 2001, feature film production has slipped into only occasionally lucrative irrelevance. As if to compensate, the lowest end of the film production market – documentaries, made for little money with even less expectation of [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell I feel like a fool when someone says there are no absolutes. It’s not that I can’t bring myself to respond. I can and I do. It’s just that I feel foolish contradicting something that contradicts itself. To insist on no absolutes is to concede a least one. So it seems a foolish waste of [...]
Ontario Premier McGuinty has crawled into bed with Russian Prime Minister Valdimar Putin – both steadfastly refusing to give up power – Putin by naming his successor and then reneging on it and McGuinty by suddenly resigning as premier and on the way out the door proroguing the legislature indefinitely. This surprise announcement comes only hours after Progressive Conservative Leader of the [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman The proponents of traditional marriage in the United States suffered a major setback as voters backed the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in all four states that held referenda on the subject in the November elections. This brings to 10 the total number of states that have legalized same-sex “marriage” either by referendum, legislation or judicial fiat. [...]
Michael Coren Journalist for Life An episode of All in the Dysfunctional Family, as it were. Let me tell you a story. A woman journalist whom I know, a gay woman, has been living with her partner for some time now. Some years ago they wanted a child, a baby. So the brother of one of the women had sexual [...]
There is so much discussion about the attempt to take Christ out of Christmas. The expunging of the word and the spirit is regrettable of course. I wonder, however, if we’re missing the point. One doesn’t have to be a Christian to be a supporter of life, but it’s impossible to doubt that most in the pro-life community are indeed Christian, and [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman In a combative campaign speech last December, United States President Barack Obama derided his Republican opponents as unprincipled libertarians: “Their philosophy is simple,” he charged. “We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.” Certainly, there are some selfish conservatives who think that the wealthy and prosperous [...]
St. Clement lofts Toronto I’d like to take a break from the usual subjects of this column – movies, TV and books, mostly – to talk about something that might not seem at all related: real estate. I live in a city (Toronto) where real estate – buying and selling, house values, property taxes, neighbourhoods, amenities and development – are [...]
Journalist for Life Michael Coren Beware the chattering classes, the self-appointed intellectuals who insist on telling us what to do and how to behave, especially if they are on the left and confidently teach the world about life, sexuality and morality. Consider, for example, George Bernard Shaw, after whom we have named a theatre festival. He lied about what he [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell I don’t understand feminism. Really I don’t. Although I’ve had it explained to me a number of times, I still don’t get it. Oh, I’m making progress, but it’s slow. I was impressed when feminists said that women who serve in combat have to risk their lives for strangers. But I was puzzled when they [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell Sadly, a Québécois spring seems increasingly unlikely. I say sadly, because I can’t help feeling sorry for Francophones who want Quebec to leave Canada. For a mainly French province in a largely English country the frustration is never ending. Look what happens when unilingual Francophones go grocery shopping. They’re searching for haricots rouges, fromage râpé, [...]
Jack Layton Oh Good Lord, I suppose it just had to be. Yes, the time of waiting has come to an end, and like a child embracing the dawn on Christmas Day I feel my heart bursting with a fulfilled anticipation. Because, joy oh joy, as I write this column the filming on the Jack Layton biopic is almost complete. [...]
Tim Hudak, provincial leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservate Party, made a generally favourable impression at the press conference at Queen’s Park I attended recently. There’s a core there that feel that he’s an apple that needs some polishing. (But so did former Premier Mike Harris.) I found that Hudak was forceful, articulate, and exhibited strong leadership talents. Hudak reminded me of [...]
I’m writing this column at the end of what has to be one of the least interesting summers in movie history. To make matters worse – if you work for a Hollywood studio – it’s also been one of the least profitable, but that doesn’t mean that movies aren’t important. As the Middle East erupted into bloody riots that took the life [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman United States President Barack Obama is an astute political tactician. Unlike his secular advisors, he was quick to recognize that the deletion of any reference to God in the initial draft of the Democratic Party Platform was a political blunder. The great majority of Americans still regard themselves as Christians and expect their leaders to believe [...]