Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hurt Macron’s re-election bid
In the 2017 French presidential election’s second round of voting, Republic On The Move leader Emmanuel Macron defeated National Front leader Marine Le Pen by 66.1 to 33.9 per cent of the vote. Five years later, they face each other in another run-off. Portions of the French electorate are pulling for a Macron victory. While…
The deft hand of the master blender is critical to production
At first glance, cognac production seems straightforward. The local wine is distilled twice, aged in oak casks from a few years to decades and eventually bottled. In reality, it’s an exceedingly complex minuet where the subtle influences of terroir merge with the distiller’s art and ultimately flower under the deft hand of the master blender.…
The traditional cognac houses have had to overcome grape plagues, the rising popularity of Scotch whisky, counterfeiting and war
Augier, the first modern cognac house, was organized in 1643. Today the brand is owned by French spirits giant Pernod Ricard. It recently relaunched the brand with a line of cognacs said to reflect the early style of the product. Over the two centuries following 1643, many of the leading cognac houses, including the big…
What is the difference between cognac and other types of brandy?
Cognac is a type of brandy produced in the Charente region of France, centred around the towns of Cognac and Jarnac, and stretching from the Île de Ré to the Gironde Estuary on the Atlantic coast, to Angoulême and the foothills of the Mastiff Central. The Cognac Delimited Region, the exclusive area where cognac can…
Freedom of religious expression is a human right
According to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practise, worship…
He bitterly resented his exile to St. Helena, blaming it all on Wellington
A childhood history book included a reproduction of Jacques-Louis David’s famous portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps. It’s an idealized representation, not a realistic one. Mounted on a rearing Marengo – his grey Arabian stallion – the man who became emperor of the French and conqueror of Europe gives off an invincible vibe. Two recent…
Blocks entrepreneurship, economic growth and jobs
The introduction of a wealth tax in Canada is a recurring subject that has drawn new interest during the current COVID-19 crisis. It’s a temptation best ignored. In the 2020 throne speech, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “The government will also identify additional ways to tax extreme wealth inequality,” arguing that it will help the…
One hundred years ago, a flu pandemic swept across the world, killing tens of millions of people, particularly those in the prime of life
From the wet and windswept northwest of Ireland to rural southwestern Ontario, the flu pandemic of 1918 to 1920 was remorseless. My mother and my wife’s father lost siblings to an illness where death might come within 24 hours of first symptoms. And sometimes it was particularly brutal. Historian John Barry has described it this…
History shows plenty of radicals who pushed too hard. We have plenty on today’s world stage
In the summer and autumn of 1789, the French National Assembly overturned 1,000 years of law and custom to produce a modern constitutional democracy. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen spelled out all the new conditions of civil life: the abolition of feudalism and aristocratic titles, freedom from arbitrary arrest,…
Next year the Province of Manitoba will celebrate its 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province.
Next year, 2020, will be celebrated by the Province of Manitoba as the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Province. How will we, in Portage la Prairie, acknowledge this? Check the latest Statistics Canada census results (2016). Portage la Prairie had 12, 949 folks in the reporting boundary of the municipality. Of this total,…