Back in the day, leaders had handles that told you all you needed to now about them. Charles the Bold. Mad King Ludwig. Vlad the Impaler. Now that was branding.

It seems that a little truth in advertising might be in order for today’s political leaders. Take Justin Trudeau. It would seem that Canada’s current prime minister could benefit from a little self promotion as he makes his way through his first term. 

In WW I the French generals had a single answer to how to defeat the German. “Élan vital,” said General Joffre. Meaning, roughly, the fighting spirit and Christian character of his men marching slowly against German machine guns and cannons would win the day. This mystical cran, élan et la bayonette was assumed to be instilled within every Frenchman along with his mother’s milk.

First, let me acknowledge my confiict: I’ve known Steve Paikin since the 1980s. He and I hosted a show on The FAN 590. I know his kids and wife, and he knowns mine. We’ve attended sports events together, and he was at my son’s wedding. IOW We are lifelong friends.

It is an indelible image. A lone Toronto cop facing down a suspect after a horrific murder spree. A suspect who appears to be brandishing a weapon at Const. Ken Lam. The suspect taunts Lam, asking Lam to shoot him.

Two guards outside the private room of Josef Stalin hear a thump, as if a body has hit the floor inside. “Should we investigate?” one guard asks the other. “Should you shut the fuck up before you get us both killed?” replies his terrified compatriot. 

It is incumbent upon progressive virtue signalliers that their schemes have as many working parts as possible. That these fever dreams must contain a bulging roster of purported experts to tell you why resistance is futile. And a palace guard of heavies to intimidate anyone not impressed by the first two conditions.

It doesn’t take a lot to inspire the wrath the progressive left. Their hair-trigger tendency was most recently on display when they thrust forth high schoolers, fresh from a shooting tragedy, to advance their political agenda on guns. When FOX critic Laura Ingraham dared point out the manipulative nature of the exercise, her advertisers were threatened, and she was harassed into apologizing.

There is something touching with prime minister Justin Trudeau’s blithe assumptions about Canadian values. His SJW sanctimony allows him to wade into debates that sober men and women in politics would otherwise avoid. The results are anything but pristine.

t’s comforting to know that there are people in this age helping us luddites navigate history. A recent example of this thoughtful process are the Nurse Ratcheds (above) of B.C.’s  School District 74 (which covers many communities in B.C.'s Interior, including Ashcroft, Clinton, Lytton, Lillooet, Cache Creek and Seton Portage).

This must be how Phillip Nolan felt. Nolan was the protagonist in Edward Everett Hale’s The Man Without A Country. Nolan, an Army lieutenant, renounces his nation after a trial for treason. He’s sentenced to spend the rest of his life on a series of ships without a word about the United States, never allowed back in the homeland again. 

In Daniel Kahneman’s bestseller Thinking Fast And Slow, he describes a human brain governed by two systems. At the risk of over-simplifying professor Kahneman’s Nobel Prize winning work, the first system governs our everyday functions, quickly assessing and sorting information and stimuli to help guide us through myriad tasks both small and large. 

In a land far away and a time long ago, the NHL merged with the World Hockey Association, ending a protracted and costly struggle for supremacy. As part of the 1980 deal, the NHL would accept a certain number of the WHA teams. 

Empathy. 

It’s a hard word to find in today’s constant turmoil over gun violence, psychotic white 20-somethings and the parade of virtue signallers on both sides of the debate.

Apparently the prime minister of Canada is not sold on Canada’s system of trial by jury. He’s not alone. Members of his cabinet also seem to think there’s a better way to dispense justice.

Watching the film All The Presidents Men back in 1975 made me want to be a reporter. Seeing  Richard Nixon hoisted by his own petard— and a couple of unheralded reporters— was thrilling.

n politics it’s the coin of the realm, the currency that keeps the wheels of the state spinning. The lubricant that allows journalism to function smoothly.

It’s rare that a single story can capture the tortured vanity of the modern-day Canada ruling class. But “Who cut my hijab?” will do until something better comes along.

Our distraction du jour is the sudden revelation that Oprah Winfrey, the self-made billionaire conduit of moist feelings and product placement, may challenge Donald Trump, huckster suprème, for the presidency he won in 2016. Winfrey’s letter-perfect job application dropped last Sunday night at, appropriately, the Golden Globe Awards. 

Everyone has their goals for 2018. A cursory twirl around the internet will reveal any number of scribblers who’ve ventured a list calling for world peace and freedom to the oppressed masses.

My list is somewhat less ambitious. Here are simple requests that would make (my) world a better place in the next 12 months.