Events for February 18, 2025 • Ted Barris

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Thwarting Donald’s lust for land

Written by Ted Barris on March 25th, 2025March 25th, 2025. Leave a comment

Elizabeth May offers solution to 51st state issue.

The federal election is just days old, but suddenly our attention has shifted slightly from the impact of Trump’s tariffs to the Canadian electorate deciding which federal political party is the most able to deal with the U.S. president’s territorial aspirations to make Canada the 51st state.

She hasn’t repeated this since the election writ was issued on Sunday, but Elizabeth May delivered a creative countermeasure to Trump’s insult a few months ago.

“You think we want to be the 51st state? Nah,” she said in December, offering California, Oregon and Washington the chance to become Canada’s 11th province. “Have we got a deal for you,” she suggested to Americans. “Universal free health care … safer streets, strict gun laws and free abortions … and a chance to get rid of all these states that always vote Democrat.” (more…)

Steaming to meet the existential threat

Written by Ted Barris on March 18th, 2025March 19th, 2025. Leave a comment

Anson Northup, an American real estate broker who posed an existential threat to Canada.

Sometimes politicians in Canada and the U.S. have described the economic struggles between our two countries as trade wars. More recently, observers on both sides of the border have recognized international tariffs as a form of economic erosion.

But if you think current trade hostilities across the 49th parallel are new, nothing could be further from the truth. A newspaper published in St. Paul, Minn., once encouraged American mercantilists to invade Canada and they were offered money as an incentive to do it.

“The St. Paul Chamber of Commerce will award a cash prize to the first enterprise to establish commerce in the British Northwest Territory,” reported the newspaper. “One thousand dollars to the first to arrive.” (more…)

Skating their way to equity

Written by Ted Barris on March 12th, 2025March 10th, 2025. Leave a comment

The stands seemed more alive than I have ever experienced inside a hockey arena. The cheering was louder. The music was more boisterous (lots of ear-shattering choruses of Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel Like a Woman.) The applause and foot-stomping seemed more animated.

The energy in the Coca Cola Coliseum for a Toronto Sceptres game I attended last month felt powerful enough to lift the roof off the place. But amid all the hoopla, there was also video on the jumbotron featuring members of the team answering the question, “Who is a role model you look up to?”

“My grandma,” said Sceptre player Lauren Bernard in the video. “She came from East Germany when she was about 20. … She took me to all my hockey games growing up. She’s been the backbone of my journey.” (more…)

Tariffs and sentiment change

Written by Ted Barris on March 5th, 2025March 5th, 2025. Leave a comment

I think I first recognized how serious this Trump tariff stuff was when my sister called from the southern U.S. For the past couple of winters, she and her husband have driven south to escape the toughest part of winter.

But when the president of the United States first hinted at absorbing Canada as a 51st state, almost overnight my sister and brother-in-law responded.

“We don’t like where this is going,” she emailed. “We’re coming home.” And within a couple of days, they’d crossed the border and texted, “Home, sweet home.” (more…)

Repair over rhetoric

Written by Ted Barris on February 26th, 2025February 26th, 2025. Leave a comment

Water everywhere, but nowhere common sense.

One day about a week ago, I’d risen early to feed the dog. Next, I’d turned on the coffee machine to help kick-start my day. Then, I’d fetched the newspaper from the latest overnight snowfall on the driveway and I’d read the headline that Trump had called Polish President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator.”

“What the…?” And I was about to sit down to find out more over that cup of java when I noticed a wet spot on a carpet in our bedroom and reacted out loud. “Did I spill something here?”

Then, I felt a drop on my head, looked up and realized the ceiling light fixture was dripping water. And based on the length and breadth of the wet spot on the carpet, I concluded this had probably been going on all night. (more…)

Pay more attention to the man behind the curtain

Written by Ted Barris on February 20th, 2025February 20th, 2025. Leave a comment

Like Dorothy in *Wizard of Oz*, told to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” Ontario voters & media have little or no access to the leader of the Conservative party during this election.

It was Jan. 29, I believe, the very first day of the current provincial election campaign. The London Police Service hosted an appreciation and awards banquet. And wasn’t it convenient for the premier that he was invited to speak to what Mr. Ford considered his peeps.

I guess he decided to take the opportunity to slam federal lawmakers and judges for being soft on criminals such as home invaders. And according to the Toronto Star’s Queen’s Park Bureau, Ford went way off script.

“God forbid they kill an innocent person,” Ford mused in front of a thousand police personnel and guests at the banquet, adding that he’d prefer that judges simply send home invaders found guilty of murder to the electric chair. (more…)