Martello tower in Kingston

Kingston is a Tasty Destination with a Dash of History

 Many years ago, I was driving from Ottawa to Toronto with my nine-year-old son when he asked about Fort Henry, the historic 19th-century British military fortress on the shore of the Cataraqui and St. Lawrence River in Kingston, Ontario. I fondly recall our impromptu stop and the wonderful time we spent exploring

Education, Information and Democracy

 Fretting about the health of democracy has recently moved from being an esoteric activity of academics to a widespread preoccupation across much of the developed world. We treasure the ideal of democracy for good reason. While there are many forms of democracy, some more direct than others, some more secular

A Conversation About Electoral Reform

 Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman “We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.” That was the Liberal Party’s 2015 campaign promise. Four years later we are finding ourselves heading towards the next federal election which will be done through, as one

Riverdale Welcomes Ottawa Native as First Bisexual Character

 Vanessa Morgan is about to make Canada very proud in her latest role on CW’s hit TV show Riverdale. Born and raised in Ottawa, Morgan graduated from Colonel By Secondary School before attending Queen's University, after which she continued to pursue singing and acting, eventually landing her biggest role yet

Canada Home to Nine of the World’s Top 200 Universities

 The thirteenth edition of the QS World University Rankings, compiled by global higher education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds, today confirms MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the world’s best university for the fifth consecutive year. McGill University is again ranked Canada’s top institution, but falls six places to 30TH position. While

Conversations with a Dead Man: The Legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott by Mark Abley (Douglas & McIntyre)

 Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947) died one of the most respected men in Canada – a well-known poet and short-story writer, a former president of the Royal Society of Canada, a founder of the Dominion Drama Festival, and a recipient of honorary doctorates from Queen’s University and the University of Toronto.

The CrossFit Experience

 Two years ago, I wrote a piece for this website extolling the virtues of CrossFit – an “internationally-renowned strength and conditioning phenomenon” launched in 1995, which saw its popularity surge throughout the following decade. That original bit of research, skimming the history, components and merits of the fitness program, was