Tag Archives: American politics

Reflections on the Far Right, Intellectuals, and Hope in Toronto and Beyond

By Edward Dunsworth It’s been quite a month for the far right in Toronto. Two weeks ago, proto-fascist hype man Steve Bannon – unable just days prior to attract more than twenty-five people to an event in Kansas – drew a sold-out (and well-heeled) crowd to downtown Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall, where he squared off against former George W. Bush… Read more »

Hyperbole, Hot Takes, and Hillary’s Qualifications

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By Sean Graham Back in 2011, I wrote an article in the Ottawa Citizen arguing that hyperbole didn’t work in Canadian political life. In the midst of the Stop Harper movement, I felt that words like ‘dictator’ were counterproductive. If you want to challenge somebody’s politics, then do so in a rationale, reasonable way that focuses on the issues at… Read more »

History Slam Episode Eighty-Nine: Amiable Scoundrel

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Paul-Kahanx2.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham One of the things that I often joke about when talking about finding new historical material to study is that you can always revisit an old topic – after all, there’s a new book about the American Civil War published every hour. Of course that isn’t literally true, but there does… Read more »

Hurricane Sandy: A Teachable Moment

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By Dagomar Degroot As this is published, so-called “Frankenstorm” hurricane Sandy is flooding large swaths of the American east coast. The deaths of more than sixty people in the Caribbean will likely represent this historic storm’s most direct and poignant toll. However, as reports of devastation come in from across the most densely populated regions of the United States it… Read more »

The Race Is On in Canada and the United States: A Tale of Two Political Cultures

While watching the NDP and Republican leadership races unfold in Canada and the United States, I’ve been struck by the very different political cultures of these two countries. This can be partly attributed to the divergent political philosophies of the right-wing Republican Party and the centre-left NDP. But the roots of these political cultures also extend much deeper into the… Read more »