TORONTO – Amsterdam, Rome, and Glasgow. These are the three stages of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to Europe, the first since this week’s swearing-in of his new government resulting from the elections on 20 September. The pandemic and the environment will be the two main topics on the agenda, especially at the G20 weekend in Rome – the first event of its kind organized in the Italian capital – and at the Scottish summit on 1 and 2 November that will take place in Scotland. →
TORONTO – Rule number one: it’s not my fault. In the chaos in which Ontario’s Education sector finds itself, characterized by accusations, invective, controversies, complaints, retaliation and divisions, we have witnessed the most classic blame game on the responsibilities in a situation that is becoming unsustainable, especially in the Toronto Catholic District School Board. To try to understand what is happening, we must necessarily start from a fact: starting from October 12 there has been a merger of dozens of classes in many schools of the Catholic Board, with the consequent increase in the number of students in the individual classrooms. →
TORONTO – A friend once commented on the price of a Big Mac, that if you eat it regularly, like once a week, you don’t notice the price increase because it’s in the cents. But, if you order it, say, once every six months, or in my case, in a gap of almost two years because of the pandemic, you feel the crunch, as I did when I ordered two Big Mac meals three weeks ago. I paid $23 and some cents! My friend then added, it’s good if you have the coupon because you pay just a little over half of the regular price. The question that begs answering is, how often does Big Mac come up with coupons. →
VIENNA – “13 talented musicians from around the world will get the chance of a lifetime to travel to Vienna, perform with a symphony orchestra in one of the most prestigious concert halls in the world, and be recorded live for international television including PBS SoCal”: the announcement is from Classicalia, organization founded by an international team with decades of experience in the classical music industry. The online classical music competition was launched in summer 2021 “to provide an opportunity for young instrumentalists and singers to learn from the feedback of expert judges, compete internationally, and for 13 winners, to step into an international spotlight”. →
TORONTO – The federal vote on September 20 is a gamble for Justin Trudeau. At the polls, the election will inevitably turn into a sort of referendum on how the outgoing prime minister managed the Covid-19 emergency and, in the future, on how the country can get out of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. According to the polls, the Liberal leader at the starting line is ahead of the other candidates for the leadership of Canada, although the goal of achieving a parliamentary majority – unlike the vote two years ago – still remains a long way off. →