Bob Rae’s exit from the Liberal leadership race has left his party united and poised to provide a real alternative government in this time of crisis. All of us on the green, centre and left of the political spectrum needed the Liberal party to finally get its act together. Thank you, Bob.

How quickly old boys douse the flames of party change

Just who is Michael Ignatieff and what does he stand for? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. We check out the fine print in a political career coloured by contradiction and controversy.

If government exists for anything, it’s to spend. That is its distinctive verb. Building, maintaining, growing are the acts of individuals. It’s when we wish to direct those acts toward greater results that we must pool resources. The best pool at the moment is government.

I realized two years ago that the military in various countries were starting to run climate change scenarios in-?house. So I started interviewing everybody I could get access to: not only senior military people, but scientists, diplomats and politicians. About 70 interviews, a dozen countries and 18 months later, I have reached four conclusions that I didn’t even suspect when I began.

The new economy can’t be prorogued for long. Case in point: Ontario’s new anti-poverty initiative released December 5.

I’m not a faithful listener, but I happened to catch Catholic Radio when the dial stayed at AM 530 after a morning show playing Bollywood music.

Gwynn Dyer spoke on Monday, December 8, at MacMillan Theatre at a University of Toronto Bookstore reading series, co-sponsored by NOW. Here are some excerpts of what he had to say.

The era of cynicism, skinny jeans, gold lamé onesies, Wayfarers, Williamsburg and writing words without vwls is over. 

Until recently, drummer Frankie Rose, the heartbeat of Brooklyn’s reverb-enriched garage crew Crystal Stilts, was better known as the founder of their sister group, the Vivian Girls. Yet despite coming up with the Vivian Girls’ Henry Darger-inspired handle and the whole “Shangri-Las meet the Shop Assistants in the Shaggs’ basement” sound concept, Rose found the offer to join Crystal Stilts as their full-time percussionist too enticing to pass up.

Despite impressive sales figures for Beyoncé’s latest double offering, the split-personality concept record is rarely advisable. Rachael Yamagata’s new Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart falls into that two-sided category, with Elephant a brooding piano-based collection of melancholia, the flipside of Teeth’s charging rock persona.

When you look at the long list of Canadian musicians who’ve made their name in Germany (Peaches, Jake Fairley, King Khan ), you have to wonder what they’re putting in the water over there. Their music scene can’t really be so much better than our own, can it?

Just as quickly as the gospel according to pedal steel players blew up following the release of Arhoolie's revelatory Sacred Steel collection of traditional African-American steel guitar music a decade ago, it seems the most exciting contemporary exponents of the form -- save Robert Randolph -- have vanished. 

In 2004, the D’Urbervilles left Oshawa for Guelph to make it big (or, at the very least, open for Cuff the Duke). The young post-rockers are now on to bigger things, including debut full-lengths (We Are The Hunters), cross-country touring and a partial move to Toronto. It’s all got singer/keyboardist John O’Regan feeling psyched. The band plays Rock ’Em Sock ’Em 1 & 2 at the Tiger Bar (414 College) on Friday (December 12) and Saturday (December 13).