Generation X gets shafted – again
A recent study by PwC Canada of the Canadian banking sector found that Generation X – roughly defined as people born between 1961 and 1981, after the Baby Boom – are being squeezed in the financial industry by Boomers who aren’t retiring and by Boomers’ “Generation Y” offspring, who...
Why Thomas Mulcair gets it when it comes to Israel
Not surprisingly, Thomas Mulcair won the NDP leadership last month, replacing Saint Jack Layton as the man social democrats hope can rally left-of-centre voters to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Here’s hoping he’s successful, but as I argued in an earlier post, it seems unlikely that...
Things that make me go arghhhh! Part 1
I figure that this wouldn’t be a true blog without random kvetching about nothing in particular. So in that spirit, I present semi-aimless carping about disconnected aspects of modern life, or, with apologies to Arsenio Hall, what I like to call “Things that make me go...
Even with a new leader, the NDP can’t defeat the Tories alone
I just can’t get excited about the NDP leadership race, which ends March 24 in Toronto, because irrespective of who wins, it’s hard to see it leading to a positive outcome for progressive politics in this country. Will Thomas Mulcair, the party outsider who reportedly flirted...
Adventures in parenting, Part 1: Care and feeding of Teen Wolf
It happens almost every time. (OK, not that often, but way too much.) A 14-year-old boy in a foul mood does something that drives his fortysomething dad bananas, and his fortysomething dad sleepwalks into the trap of allowing himself to be driven bananas. Before you pass...
Can Karen Stintz bring us new rapid transit? Let’s hope so
To anyone who has ever sat in Toronto gridlock at rush hour, ready to kill the driver in front of them or hurl themselves out the window of their overcrowded bus, it’s pretty obvious that we need more rapid transit as soon as possible in this...
Competitive basketball saved our son
I never thought I’d hear myself say this, or see myself write it, but team sports have truly saved my kid’s life. Really. Without team sports, he’d probably be an insecure, angry mess who might have been kicked out of his Jewish day school, a result...