Down to the Portside Pub in Gastown last night to attend a joint launch for a pair of books about one of my favourite subjects, Vancouver.

First up was Lani Russwurm, author of Vancouver Was Awesome (Arsenal Pulp Press), a self-described "pictorial history" of the city. He showed some slides and talked a bit about the career of George Paris, boxer/musician/sportsman, as an example of the unusual people and events he features in the book. I've long been a fan of Lani's (I don'...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was in Ottawa this past week visiting the School of Canadian Studies, chatting with students there and delivering a lecture.

The visit was a great success, from my perspective at least, and I think from the School's. My formal talk was recorded and can be listened to here.

On the occasion of Remembrance Day, a few of my favourite books relating to war.

1. Two wonderful volumes by the Ottawa military historian Tim Cook: At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914-16 and Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917-18. Cook recreates battles and explains tactics but his finest achievement is to take the reader into the trenches where the soldiers' lives were lived, and lost. And he has interesting things to...

I am going to be in Ottawa next week giving a lecture and talking to the students in the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University.

Forty years ago I attended what was then called the Institute of Canadian Studies at Carleton. At the time I was working as a newspaper reporter and the idea was that if I knew more about the country it might make me a better journalist. ...

Abolish the Canadian Senate? Sure, why not? But while we're at it, let's abolish the Olympics as well.

Yesterday the CBC reminded us that it is 100 days until the Sochi Games and in the weeks ahead the public broadcaster will air constant updates and features on "our" athletes. But personally I am disappointed that the Mother Corp is even involved.

The Olympics have become a wasteful scandal. By some estimates the Sochi Games will cost upwards of $50 billion. (That compares to...