The relief worldwide is palpable! No sooner did we ring off a celebratory call to American friends in Wisconsin than other friends emailed from Maine with the succinct observation, “Amen!” Though it is extraordinary to react with such universal liberation it is nonetheless an inarguable achievement to restore society to an elevated and less hostile agenda.  Getting rid of Trump, his grovelling family and the sycophants who have licked his boots for the past four years is like unplugging a blocked toilet. The stench will no doubt linger momentarily but eventually it will be exhausted and carried away like any other windblown contaminate.

Continue reading →

Whenever I see an equal split of opinion I am at first inclined to guess – as Donald J. Trump himself has said when defending White Nationalist protesters – that there are some very fine people on both sides.

President Trump defended the white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville on Tuesday, saying they included “some very fine people,” while expressing sympathy for their demonstration against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was a strikingly different message from the prepared statement he had delivered on Monday, and a reversion to his initial response over the weekend.

Speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower at what had been billed as a statement on infrastructure, a combative Trump defended his slowness to condemn white nationalists and neo-Nazis after the melee in central Virginia, which ended in the death of one woman and injuries to dozens of others, and compared the tearing down of Confederate monuments to the hypothetical removal of monuments to the Founding Fathers. He also said that counter-protesters deserve an equal amount of blame for the violence.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right?” Trump said. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?”

“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,” he said.

“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” Trump said. “The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”

Continue reading →

Last night for the second in a row we wearied ourselves until late in the evening hoping for an immediate determination of Joe Biden’s presidential bid. Again this morning as soon as I arose I pored over my iPhone in search of news from CNN, BBC, FOX NEWS, MSNBC and CBC. As might be expected there was nothing of material consequence anywhere to be found. Instead the networks have lapsed into the identical tarsome refrain as apparently has the rest of the world. The trenchant test of this otherwise paralytic state however is that my routine today unraveled pretty much as it always does – breakfast, cycling and a road drive. But when I launched myself onto the ribbon of highway which chronicles my circular route to Renfrew County and back, there was a decided wintry backdrop to the expansive barren fields.

Continue reading →

The US presidential election is not ending like a Christmas story! Nor by any measure is it ending as I would have hoped. From the moment I went to bed last night – after seeing the looming signs of a dog fight – I have been filled with despondency. My anxiety was instantly fuelled again this morning when I discovered the fearsome trend of the ballots. Never have I felt so thoroughly estranged from our American neighbours. The reputed inadequacies of Bell Canada (and every other telecommunications company for that matter) come nowhere near approaching the misfires and blunders of the citizens of the United States of America. My erstwhile alliance with and romance for USA is being incrementally battened down and deserted. Clearly neither I nor anyone else is capable of reading the democratic purpose, ambition or self-image of about half of American citizens.

Continue reading →

Can’t recall ever having been so thrilled about an election day as we – and (I’m guessing) the rest of the civilized world – were from the moment of awakening this morning. It is no accident the popular television channels are carrying films like “Air Force One” and “Dr. Strangelove” which highlight the possible horrible repercussions of a poor choice of leaders.

Continue reading →

It is not entirely unwittingly that I confess a decided partiality to the Town of Almonte. May I first say that my failure to have identified my beloved home as what is now part of the Town of Mississippi Mills is not meant to diminish the other members, namely the former Townships of Ramsay and Pakenham. The predominance of my bias has arisen over the past forty-four years as a resident whose social and professional activities were largely confined to the boundaries of the Town of Almonte. Beyond those limits I have been privileged (thanks to the suggestion many years ago of my law school crony James Allen MacEachern) to have read, re-read and relished each time E. F. Benson’s creations Mapp and Lucia.

Continue reading →

A vestige of snow encrusted the ground this morning. It was just enough to delay our constitutional bicycle ride, our expiation of all that has plagued us from our past, the white flakes crystallizing the future. The cold wind rattled the few remaining leaves on the already naked boughs of the solitary frigid trees.

What have I to contemplate while waiting for the past to go?

Continue reading →

Time is running out
The candidates fight, it’s still a bout
Battleground states, the keys to victory
But many polls are contradictory

Continue reading →

There is some traction to be gained from pure optimism, that inescapable encouragement from others – or maybe the instinctive project of oneself – to see the best side of things, to look at life as a challenge to be overcome, to arise above the nagging refrains which pull us down. Yet while these psychological and philosophic communications or intuitions may represent a worthy ambition, the result is more predictable and digestible (as it was today) when the bicycle ride was divine, the blueberry scone was utter perfection, the coffee was chilled, black and strong, the sky was blue, the air was dry and cold and generally speaking I was in a seemingly inexhaustible bumps-a-daisy mood!

Continue reading →

By coincidence I am listening to Ludovico Einaudi’s “Petricor” from his “Elements” album. I say it is fortuitous because its very pensive nature coincides delightfully with our afternoon drive into the country today. We once again abandoned our digs upon the scheduled visit of our housekeeper whom we’re quite certain can bear the deprivation of our presence while she attends to things. Normally we would have had some debate about where to go, in what direction to head and what to do. But COVID-19 has pretty much diluted that. And because the weather was inclement the landscape was universally grey and uninviting.

Continue reading →