I went into Toronto yesterday and had lunch with one of our Mac communications alumni, Elena Yunusov. Elena is a very dynamic professional communicator and social media enthusiast (she tweets a lot!) who now works for the Ontario Ombudsman. We had lunch at Mercato at Bay and Queen, and had a great conversation about communications, …
Category Archives: Politics
Preliminary comment on BBC’s coverage of the UK Election
I have to say – I love London. And it would be great to be in London on the night of a general election, in the thick of things. But the BBC is doing a great job of bringing us there and helping us share in the excitement. The infographics are great! They have a …
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Some thoughts on the three British televised Leaders’ Debates
I just finished watching the three televised British Leaders Debates on C-Span (the player at cpac.ca never booted up for me: wake up CPAC). This was the first time that the United Kingdom had a televised confrontation of the Leaders of the three major national parties: Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Labour, Nick Clegg of …
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A nice night on Hamilton Mountain
I spent a pleasant evening today on Hamilton Mountain at a political pub night at DiMaggio’s Italian Eatery on Upper Ottawa Street. The party was organized by my good friend, Hamilton family practice lawyer, Tyler Banham. I also met his mother. Some of my Ancaster and Dundas friends, such as Peter Greenberg and Dennis Newsome …
Movie Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Caution: Spoilers)
Last night I went to see the Swedish film adaptation of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the first novel in Stieg Larsson’s best-selling detective trilogy. The dialogue is in Swedish, with excellent, unobtrusive English subtitles. What a strange and haunting experience watching this film is. The plot is a pared-down version of the novel’s …
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Hamilton Civic League Meeting
I had a good night hanging out with people who are passionate about citizen engagement at the Hamilton Civic League town hall tonight. The Townhall meeting and panel discussion was held at Westdale High School. There was fantastic organic coffee from Red Hill Coffee Trade. The subject matter was the Aerotropolis – a proposed expansion …
What’s wrong with Canadian universities – part 2: How to reform them?
On April 15, I wrote a blog post about why I think Margaret Wente is wrong to say that universities are sitting ducks for reform because the system is overly focused on professors and research. She said that professors, because of a sense of entitlement and because of tenure, think that they are above the …
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What’s wrong with Canadian universities – part 1
The university system is limping, that’s for sure. But it’s because of short-sighted decisions by policy-makers, not because of rebellious professors, as Margaret Wente would have us believe. I have been a professor of communication studies and French at McMaster University since 2001. In July of that year, I joined McMaster as the first professor …
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The Hon. Paddy Torsney gives a guest lecture to CMST 3QQ3: Communications Campaigns and Elections
Today was an excellent day at Mac for me. Not only was it the last day of class and the end of a superb Level III seminar on Communications Campaigns for Not-for-Profits and Elections, but we had a distinguished visitor, my old friend, the Honourable Paddy Torsney. It was a real thrill for the students …
Guest lecture from Don Smith, Dir. of Operations, Public Affairs Branch, CRA
Yesterday and today were a lot of fun for me. My good friend and Master of Communication Management thesis student, Don Smith came to visit. He arrived rather late and I got home to see him wheeling in to my driveway. We went out to the Outback Steakhouse in Ancaster and had sirloin steaks. It …
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