Michael Atkins

I've been hiding from politics all summer as any sane person would. This is actually very easy to do. Watch no television. Turn off the RSS feeds, listen only to sports radio, and buy books. The difficulty is coming back. I don't want to come back.

Part of the annual migration to Nova Scotia is the mid-summer get-together at my cousin Bev's house, featuring parts of the family who are still living in the Maritimes and others from across the country who are in the habit of returning to the homel

If you have even a passing interest in the politics of Northern Ontario, and Sudbury in particular, you will take note of last week's refusal by FedNor to support the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) at Laurentian University and weep

A month or so ago, a special task force for the Greater City of Sudbury called the Advisory Panel on Municipal Mining Revenues presented their recommendations to the city.

For the last few years I’ve escaped to Cuba around this time of year to rest up for my next birthday, which is in May.

I was ten when I started developing my first pro forma apology. One of the flashpoints around my house was keeping my mother informed about where I was. My father had died when I was young and so my mother and I were on our own.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but capitalism in a crashing market is not as much fun as capitalism on the way up. It can be hard on manners, mood and general decorum as you watch those Pina Colada’s melt away with each new bar graph.

As I write this, CIBC is announcing a $300 million dollar write down in the third quarter on bad investments they have made into what is known as the sub prime market. They are not the first or the last bank to proffer such news.

Actually, there is a new deck of cards for the whole province. Ontario is on the cusp of a recession. Times are going to get extremely tough.

The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) had a special MEETING the other day IN TIMMINS to consider the state of the North.