{"product_id":"canada-and-other-matters-of-opinion-isbn-9780385667272","title":"Canada and Other Matters of Opinion","description":"A cornucopia of comment from Canada’s most opinionated man — a man seen, read, and listened to by millions of Canadians each week.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCanada’s most distinctive commentator presents his fearless and thought-provoking views on a head-spinning range of subjects, from Dr. Johnson’s greatness to Bono’s gratingness, from doubts about Obama to utter belief in Don Cherry, from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s outstanding oeuvre to — well, Pamela Anderson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe topics are as eclectic and wide ranging as the intelligence that put them together. The perspective is thoroughly Canadian, and so are many of the recurring topics and themes: of our domestic politics and our military involvements abroad, of our national identity, of human rights and human decency. You’ll find assessments of the reputations of Paul Martin, Conrad Black, Adrienne Clarkson, and Tim Hortons; tough but affectionate views of Newfoundland — of course — but also from Rex Murphy’s constant travels across Canada.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut all the world is here, in all its glory and folly. The hard-hitting attacks on politicians, celebrities, those who would ban smoking, and anyone who uses the expression “global warming denial” will have you cheering or tearing your hair out, depending. You will be informed, infuriated perhaps, but always fascinated.Introduction: Inclusive Me Out\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEMINENT CANADIANS\u003cbr\u003eDon Cherry: The People's GG\u003cbr\u003eA Boswell's Life\u003cbr\u003eMichaëlle Shines by Default\u003cbr\u003eThe Complete Soldier\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCELEBRITY\u003cbr\u003eLet Us Excori8 Live 8\u003cbr\u003eA Saint Sorely Taxed\u003cbr\u003eEgo Warriors\u003cbr\u003eThere's Something About Cassandra\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCARTOON CRISIS\u003cbr\u003eUnder the Cover of Faith\u003cbr\u003eThe Case of Salman Rushdie Is Fresh Again\u003cbr\u003eComing to a Human Rights Commission Near You\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOBAMA RISING\u003cbr\u003ePower of Speech\u003cbr\u003eOnly Words\u003cbr\u003eCanada Could Learn from Obama\u003cbr\u003eShe Came to Praise Him\u003cbr\u003eA Dream Divided\u003cbr\u003eHe's Not God, But He Is America\u003cbr\u003eBarackwatch\u003cbr\u003eA Clichéd Dud\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBAD ENGLISH\u003cbr\u003eNothing Is Sacred\u003cbr\u003eSilly Bitching\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE EVIL THAT MEN DO\u003cbr\u003eSaudi Hospitality\u003cbr\u003eBecause They Were Jews\u003cbr\u003eCastro's Useful Idiots\u003cbr\u003eEichmann in Tehran\u003cbr\u003eA Ferocious Parable\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLITERATURE\u003cbr\u003eImage of a Poet\u003cbr\u003ePamela Anderson's Outstanding Oeuvre\u003cbr\u003eSanity Takes a Holiday\u003cbr\u003eClimb Every Mount Doom\u003cbr\u003eThis Is the Life\u003cbr\u003eDoggerel of War\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWAR ON TERROR\u003cbr\u003eThey Kill Because They Can\u003cbr\u003eFanatical Minds Defy Logic\u003cbr\u003eWhat We Are Fighting For\u003cbr\u003eThe Real Truth\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGREAT AND GOOD\u003cbr\u003ePower Based on Faith, Not Arms\u003cbr\u003eSolzhenitsyn's Stature\u003cbr\u003eOut of His Tree\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PLEASURES OF SMOKING\u003cbr\u003eMoney to Burn\u003cbr\u003eA Joint Is a Smoke\u003cbr\u003eGreat News out of Vancouver\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eREPUTATIONS\u003cbr\u003eThe Bush Paradox\u003cbr\u003eFrom Brian's Lips to Peter's Microphone\u003cbr\u003eAdrienne Clarkson Presents\u003cbr\u003ePaul Martin Fights On\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eART\u003cbr\u003eEros by Any Other Name\u003cbr\u003eMediocrity and Mischief\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE ENVIRONMENT\u003cbr\u003eA Caring Heart\u003cbr\u003eAl Gore, Recycled\u003cbr\u003eCars Are Smokers, Too\u003cbr\u003eNumbers Game\u003cbr\u003eDespicable Mask for a Weak Argument\u003cbr\u003eThe New Inquisition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCANADIAN IDENTITY\u003cbr\u003eWithout Hockey\u003cbr\u003eOne Nation\u003cbr\u003eI'm with the Brand\u003cbr\u003eHands Off Hortons\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSCANDAL\u003cbr\u003eCompletely Foxed\u003cbr\u003eBernier's Girlfriend\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCANADA AND THE U.S.\u003cbr\u003eHow We Flagged the American Bull\u003cbr\u003eHome Truths for Both Countries\u003cbr\u003eOur Camp Coffee\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHUMAN RIGHTS\u003cbr\u003eSaudi Justice\u003cbr\u003eFlagrantly Islamophobic\u003cbr\u003eReal Rights and Rights Commissions\u003cbr\u003eA Blot on Democracy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCATASTROPHE\u003cbr\u003eSpirit Behind the Giving\u003cbr\u003eOn Our Blindness to Disaster\u003cbr\u003eThe Bleakest Day\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEWFOUNDLAND\u003cbr\u003eLast Dice Game\u003cbr\u003eVictims of Stereotyping\u003cbr\u003eThe Peace of Twillingate\u003cbr\u003eMeteorological Madness\u003cbr\u003eOne Voice that Counts\u003cbr\u003eThe Elusive Flavour of Our Politics\u003cbr\u003eDanny Williams Has Gone Too Far\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFAITH\u003cbr\u003ePlay Mystic for Me\u003cbr\u003eTolerance Must Flow Two Ways\u003cbr\u003eThe James Cameron Code\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PATH TO POWER\u003cbr\u003eDion Buried Alive\u003cbr\u003eCoalition for a Day\u003cbr\u003eGrit Miracle\u003cbr\u003eCoalition of Unintended Consequences\u003cbr\u003eIt Might Have Been\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgements\"Wit, sarcasm, humour, verbal gymnastics . . . are here, together with some surprising post-scripts added with the benefit of hindsight. . . . Murphy begs — eloquently, of course — to be read.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e— The London Free Press\u003c\/i\u003eRex Murphy, who needs no introduction, left his outpost home in Newfoundland to attend university at the age of fifteen. Since that time, which includes a spell at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, he has been writing and talking. His skills in that area have made him one of Canada’s most-watched and best-read commentators, while his speeches have earned standing ovations from coast to coast. A frequent presence on CBC television and radio, including a regular commentary spot with “Point of View,” Rex writes a weekly column for \u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cb\u003eEMINENT CANADIANS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDON CHERRY, THE PEOPLE'S G G | May 8, 2004\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI had not realized how fervently Toronto is a hockey city. The air here was electric with hope for the beloved, hapless Leafs. The dismay following their elimination from the playoffs was palpable. Lord Stanley's cup will grace another city's parade.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut time is a great (actually, the only) grief counsellor. So I guess it's both safe and tactful, from my perch in this city of cruelly procrastinated dreams, to speak of Don Cherry, \u003ci\u003earbiter elegantiarum \u003c\/i\u003eof \u003ci\u003eHockey Night in Canada\u003c\/i\u003e, sage of Coach's Corner and straight man for Ron MacLean. He is much in the news; there is talk that his days as the iconic resident of Coach's Corner may be coming to an end. He is also, I gather, by some weird extension of the Canadian bilingualism statutes, under some sort of review. The Commissioner of Official Languages is offering her scrutiny to some of Mr. Cherry's \u003ci\u003eobiter dicta.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA strange thing, for a language commissioner to be analyzing the analyzer of Coach's Corner. I'm not sure what business the nation's bilingualism monitor has with the Plato of the playoffs. Whatever Don Cherry- or his faithful dog Blue, for that matter- may be doing, they are not unravelling the two- languages concept.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eParliament, even in its most liberated or unhinged deliberations, did not contemplate the commissioner's office evolving into a freelance inquisition for the furious beadles of political correctness. If this nation is in jeopardy of fracturing, look not to Coach's Corner. Try the sponsorship program.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut it is neither of these matters that has brought the familiar image of the natty, high- collared Homer of hockey onto the front pages and television screens of the country. It is, rather, an active courtship from the newly minted Conservative Party to enroll Mr. Cherry as one of its candidates. I would like to see him in Ottawa in a three- way faceoff against Richard Mahoney and the resuscitated Ed Broadbent. The inevitable candidates' debate would earn higher ratings than the Olympics, and certainly more drama.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut it cannot be. First, because Mr. Cherry has been reported as saying that he has been too long with hockey-I'm paraphrasing here- to dwindle into politics. I agree with him. From Coach's Corner to Question Period would be a subtraction of the great man's zest and energy, and a brutal contraction of his public influence.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNor, should the Conservatives win, does the thought of Don Cherry at the cabinet table, trying to refashion Stephen Harper into a reasonable facsimile of Ron MacLean, offer the mind any peace. In any case, politics is a tepid stew of compromise and euphemism, a nest of affectation and posturing- all genetic antimatter to His Outspokenness.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNo, I applaud the Conservatives for their nerve and originality, and Stephen Harper for being man enough to contemplate his own eclipse, which would have been inevitable should Mr. Cherry have yielded to the party's entreaty.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI think the time is ripe for a different thought, not original with me, though I have brought it up before.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe co-governor generalship of Their Excellencies Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul is moving to its flashy close. An eager and anxious nation awaits a worthy successor. These are large, well- heeled and splendidly itinerant shoes to fill.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWell, Don Cherry is the obvious, the blatant, choice. It was said of Diana, that most melancholy of Cinderella-celebrities, that she was the people's princess. I do not think of Mr. Cherry as a princess, but he is the people's governor general.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe Clarkson-Ralston Saul era has left its high- toned and circumpolar imprint. We have had a governor general ship of lofty (and, let us whisper it, bloodless) pretension, a harvest time for the canapé- and- string- quartet set. It has been a Chardonnay era at Rideau Hall. It's time for some beer.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBeing as he already is the impresario and master of ceremonies of the national ritual- hockey- Mr. Cherry already carries on his shoulders the mass fealty of this hockey-cherishing country. In every living room and den, in every pool hall and bar, at every checkout counter, in Tim Hortons and at Canadian Tire, Grapes- such is the affectionate diminutive of this man- is the toast of every Canadian heart.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI think he would bring to the office of governor general a kind of profile that has hitherto been only dreamed of, and a popularity not contingent on luring the country's better novelists and musicians to high tea or the annual garden party. Governor General Don Cherry. It has quite a ring to it. The Conservatives' loss will be the country's gain.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eShould this come to pass, I have only one wish: to be present when the Swedish ambassador presents his or her credentials.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI see now, more than four years after writing this homage (as the French foppishly put it- to borrow from an old comedy album), that my hopes of seeing Grapes as our G G are dim indeed. How dim? They have yet to so much as give Mr. Cherry an Order of Merit pin. A country that does not include Don Cherry on its roll of honour doesn't have a roll of honour.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Anchor Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304649445605,"sku":"NP9780385667272","price":19.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385667272.jpg?v=1767723330","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/canada-and-other-matters-of-opinion-isbn-9780385667272","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}