Canadá (Continuación)

MundoAmérica,

In an anniversary-obsessed year – with the Titanic centenary, the bicentenary of Dickens's birth (and Shakespeare's 448th), and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee – one such opportunity is largely conspicuous by its absence. Yet not everyone gets to burn down the White House after eating a fleeing president's dinner. There is even a helpful clue in the title: the War of 1812. It followed the US Congress's indignant declaration of war on 24 June against – yes – imperial Britain, a country grappling with a mad King George III, a murdered PM (Spencer Perceval)and a 20-year struggle with France.

Strange that, apart from a couple of new histories, the 30-month conflict on land, sea and lake has had little attention in either country, thoughCanada pays more.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

On July 1, Canada Day, Canadians awoke to a startling, if pleasant, piece of news: For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American.

According to data from Environics Analytics WealthScapes published in the Globe and Mail, the net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202, while the average American household’s net worth was $319,970.

A few days later, Canada and the United States both released the latest job figures. Canada’s unemployment rate fell, again, to 7.2 percent, and America’s was a stagnant 8.2 percent. Canada continues to thrive while the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

June 18 marks the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the War of 1812, a conflict that may well be the last time most Americans thought seriously about Canada.

On this date President James Madison declared war against Great Britain and directed U.S. forces to attack British troops in Canada. The expectation, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, was that winning the war was "a mere matter of marching." The unfinished business of the Revolutionary War could be resolved with a few well-timed thrusts north of the border.

As it turned out, the thrusts were neither well-timed — word of the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional,

Tema: Informar adecuadamente a los ciudadanos sobre la amenaza es fundamental, según el gobierno canadiense, para construir resiliencia social ante fenómenos como el terrorismo yihadista.

Resumen: En la estrategia contra el terrorismo hecha pública por el gobierno de Canadá es central, como principio y como tema, construir una sociedad dotada de resiliencia ante dicho fenómeno. Incluso en la eventualidad de que se manifieste de un modo especialmente letal y hasta catastrófico dentro del propio territorio canadiense, como no cabe descartar cuando se trata del actual terrorismo internacional, cuya amenaza es considerada por las autoridades canadienses como la principal para los ciudadanos e intereses de su país.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

California's implementation of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, is meeting stiff resistance from greenhouse gas emitters and other opponents of climate change regulation. After one (unsuccessful) attempt to gut it at the ballot box, there remain roadblocks to enforcement and dire predictions of economic ruin if the state goes the whole distance. It might be an instructive moment to check in with the only other North American jurisdiction that's "been there, done that" with California on climate policy.

Five years ago this month, the Canadian province of British Columbia launched a quest to slash its carbon emissions that impressed even then-Gov.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía,

Dans le secteur de l'énergie, le Canada est sûrement la dernière chance de l'Europe même élargie à la Russie. Les approvisionnements énergétiques de l'Europe ne sont pas tant marqués par les limites physiques des ressources que par les carences des politiques publiques, nationales ou multilatérales.

Depuis que la Turquie a en décembre 2011 autorisé la Russie à faire passer son gazoduc South Stream par ses eaux de la Mer noire, la viabilité des gazoducs Nabucco et TransAnatolien n'est pas tant déterminé par la géoéconomie du golfe Persique que par une macro-géopolitique planétaire qui doit se combiner à la micro-géopolitique des ethnies, des religions et des cultures.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

In January this year, I was invited by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) to address the Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education to be held on 16 June 2011 in Toronto. The topic would be "The responsibility of academics to contribute to public debates in the media."

I told the organisers then that while I would love to attend, I had been denied entry into Canada twice in the past few years – once in Calgary, and later at Island Airport – and that while lawyers on both sides of the border were engaging the issue, we were being met again and again by bureaucratic gibberish and classic rule-by-no-one.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper won his third straight federal election since 2006 - and first majority-Conservative government. This means Canada-U.S. relations will remain strong for another four years.

Many Canadian conservatives rejoiced after Mr. Harper got his majority. In two straight minority Parliaments, the Tories have struggled to get meaningful legislation passed because of the political left: the opposition Liberals, socialist New Democrats and separatist/socialist Bloc Quebecois.

That's the way the political game is played, and all Canadian parliamentarians and pundits realized this. It didn't make the situation any less frustrating for the prime minister and his senior staff, of course.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

When people ask me, an American expat, what it’s like living in Canada, I tell them, “It’s kind of like living in the States, if the States were on lithium.”

This is the price of living in the land of “Peace, Order and Good Government.” With the notable exceptions of Arcade Fire fans and the Alberta tar sands developers, there’s just not a lot of mania to be found north of the border. But for a few weeks last February, all that changed: Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics, and Canada went off its meds.

From that heartbreaking opening bell sounded by the Republic of Georgia’s Nodar Kumaritashvili when he collided with an unpadded stanchion to become the first Olympic luge fatality in nearly 50 years, to Sidney Crosby’s epic tiebreaker in the men’s hockey final, Canadians rode out the lows along with the highs.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

La región canadiense de Quebec  ha sido principal suministradora de ideas a nuestro nacionalismo "casolano". ¡Cuántas historias habría que contar de la Universidad de Laval! Hubo un tiempo en el que se mandaron instructores lingüísticos y políticos. El calco quebecois del nacionalismo catalán posmoderno alcanza prácticamente toda la gama de lo que por aquí se consideran identidades únicas e intransferibles. Después de dos referéndum de separación fallidos, es raro encontrar en Quebec alguien capaz de insistir. La única persona que jalea a los quebecois a un tercer referéndum figura como representante de nuestra inefable Generalitat en Quebec, y en publicación tan insólita como la revista de viajes Altaïr.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

La primera vez que escuché la expresión estar en la isla fue hace muchos años. Procedía de la marginalidad y se exhibía como invención magistral del lenguaje popular. Estar en la isla era tanto como ensimismarse; nada que ver con la hermosa e intraducible expresión catalana, badar,digan lo que digan los diccionarios. Todos soñamos con una isla, menos los que viven en ella. Una isla con casitas bajas de tejas verdes y caminos arbolados que se bifurcan; unos hacia el bosque y otros hacia el mar. También una ensenada donde echan sus cañas los viejos y los niños. Y una iglesia de madera que tiene en la parte de atrás un pequeño parque sin vallar, salpicado de piedras con nombres grabados; el cementerio, un jardín ni siquiera melancólico, con el césped ralo y cuidado.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Las razones por las que amamos o detestamos las ciudades son inexplicables. Podemos dedicar muchas páginas a una gran metrópoli que nos ha seducido o a una villa provinciana, recoleta y tranquila, pero en el fondo es difícil escapar a los tópicos, que tratamos de llenar de fundamento. Incluso a menudo turisteamos convencidos de antemano de lo que vamos a encontrar. Luego está lo personal. Porque las ciudades no cambian tanto como nosotros. Por eso sorprende si alguien dice "¿te has fijado cómo ha cambiado Venecia, o Florencia, o París o Londres?". Y resulta que lo más irreconocible de Venecia, de Florencia, de París o de Londres, somos nosotros.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

On Monday, Ann Coulter half-jokingly told a boisterous crowd at the University of Western Ontario that she was a victim of a "hate crime" in Canada. Here's the funny thing: She's not completely wrong.

Miss Coulter is currently on a small speaking tour in Canada. The Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute is reportedly covering the balance of her appearances, and Canadian author Ezra Levant is introducing her at each stop.

One of the cities Miss Coulter was going to visit was Ottawa. But just before her arrival on Tuesday, she received an e-mail from Francois Houle, academic vice president and provost of the University of Ottawa.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

In a speech on Canadian television touting the health care system of our northern neighbor, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore said, "It's not that you need to become more like Americans, we need to become more Canadian-like." If America mimicked Canadian education policy, however, Mr. Moore might never recover from the shock.

Mr. Moore loves Canada's centralized, government-run health care system, but it turns out that a streak of Ronald Reagan runs through Canadian education. When he ran for president in 1980, Mr. Reagan advocated the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, created by President Carter. Mr. Reagan called the department a "boondoggle," an unwanted federal encroachment on local control of education policy.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

Canada, one of the largest contributors of troops to the war in Afghanistan, is embroiled in a controversy over the treatment of prisoners captured by its army. Its policy has been to turn detainees over to the Afghans, whose prisons are not exactly run according to Amnesty International standards. Now the chief of the Canadian defense staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, has set off a political firestorm by admitting that a detainee who had been beaten in 2006 had initially been in Canadian custody -- something he had previously denied. "You continue to transfer prisoners to torture in the name of Canada," one Liberal parliamentarian told the Conservative government.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

When George Monbiot wrote his searing judgment of Canada's recent descent into what he claimed is a "petro-state," he was talking about Canada's global reputation. But what he was actually addressing is a long history of domestic inter-governmental and inter-regional strife, currently embodied by Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister. Monbiot's article left many Canadian heads spinning: how did we get to this point?

Highway 22 in southern Alberta skirts along the barrier between flat prairie to the east and rolling foothills that quickly give way to the towering front range of the Rocky Mountains to the west. And on that highway, somewhere between Longview and Millarville, is a large white sign displaying a message in tall blue letters: "More Alberta, Less Ottawa."…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

George Monbiot wrote a real porcupine of a column this week, excoriating Canada on its failure to act on climate change. The headline read, "Canada's image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling."

Brilliant! Just what smug Canada needs, a real seeing-to by an environmental wise man. Monbiot, a hero of mine, had earlier written a toned-down piece for the leaden opinion page of Canada's dullest newspaper, the Globe and Mail. I wish he hadn't done that.

The headline was "Please, Canada, clean up your act." Canada was not now the "corrupt petro-state" of the Guardian piece.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, , ,

One man has Canada in an uproar. Former second-in-command at the Canadian embassy in Kabul, Richard Colvin, told a parliamentary committee in Ottawa that all detainees handed over to the Afghanistan government by Canadian soldiers were abused. The opposition parties have called for a public inquiry, but the Harper government has called Colvin's testimony into question. Now, Canada must yet again have a serious discussion about its role in Afghanistan.

Colvin sat before the parliamentary committee and flatly stated: "According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured. For interrogators in Kandahar, it was a standard operating procedure."…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaReflexionesTestimonios,

After 19-year-old singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell was killed this week by coyotes in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the world has suddenly noticed the wolf's smaller cousin. Mitchell, a Torontonian who had recently been nominated for a Canadian folk music award, was attacked by two coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, in Nova Scotia on Tuesday. She was airlifted to a hospital in Halifax, but died from her injuries.

Her death has made global headlines, but any assumption that an attack this vicious is a normal occurrence has been rightly downplayed. For most Canadians, coyotes are a familiar, even urban, predator, known to target other small animals, and sometimes dogs or children.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Down is the new up: Canadians suddenly like Stephen Harper, but for the wrong reasons.

Michael Ignatieff's announcement on Monday that his Liberal party will not "actively seek to defeat" the Conservatives "by proposing their own confidence motions," was an almost direct contradiction to his resounding cry in September that Harper's "time is up". The Liberal threat to dismantle the Tory government is now effectively dead, and many Canadians couldn't possibly care less. We like Harper now. Unfortunately, it will get us nowhere.

The biggest political story of October hasn't been Ignatieff's troubles or the widening poll gap between the Tories and Liberals, or even some Tory MPs slapping their names or their party logo on government (read: taxpayer) stimulus cheques.…  Seguir leyendo »