Les Edition de L'Homme is the publishing house owned by Quebecor Inc., which also owns the television network TVA where Couillard first spilled the beans about her relationship with Maxime Bernier. No word on when, but presumably we'll see it in time for the fall publishing season and, possibly, just in time for a fall federal election: MONTREAL, June 20 /CNW/ - The autobiography of Julie Couillard will be published this fall by Canada's largest independent English-language publishing house, McClelland & Stewart, and the largest publishing house in Quebec, Les Editions de l'Homme.... From her childhood experiences to her meeting with the President of the United States at the side of Canada's chief diplomat, and the tragic death of her companion in the infamous biker gang wars in the mid 1990s, Julie Couillard will reveal the details of a life marked by both tragedy and exhilaration.   more »

OTTAWA -- For all the partisan bickering and political posturing, there was one shining moment in the Ottawa political season that just ended: The residential school apology. But beyond that, the last eight months of this minority parliament is notable mostly for its longevity. Few politicians or pundits thought that when Stephen Harper was elected prime minister in mid-winter of 2006 his government would make it halfway through 2008 let alone have a decent shot of getting all the way to its legislated end, a fixed election date in the fall of 2009. But it has done that and, by the end of the month, will have become the country's longest-serving minority government.    more »

Harvard smart-guy and a Facebook friend Jonathan Zittrain gets a guest slot on The Colbert Report to plug his new book, The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It [you can download the book, for free with certain conditions, right here], and, among other things, uses the metaphor of a mosh pit to explain how "a guy named Jon, a guy named Vint [another Facebook friend, I might add...], and a guy named Steve" (Jonathan probably also meant to mention Len and he certainly wouldn't have wanted to leave out Bob but he definitely wouldn't have mentioned Al) invented a way to move data from this side of the network to that side of the network.... Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, [Zittrain's] book shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, participate in solutions, and become true “netizens.”

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HUNTSVILLE, Ont. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper squashed rumours Thursday that he is about to do a major overhaul of his cabinet though he is expected to soon name a permanent replacement for Maxime Bernier, who resigned as Foreign Affairs minister late last month. I would concede there is still a need to fill the hole created by the departure of the former minister of Foreign Affairs and that will be dealt with in due course." That need, according to a source close to Harper, may be filled by Quebecer Christian Paradis (left),...   more »

Also: When Harper is doing press conferences within Canada but outside of Ottawa, his handlers tend to let everyone get a question in. When it's just the Parliamentary Press Gallery -- in Ottawa or on a foreign trip -- things are a little more tightly controlled and not everyone who wants to ask him something is going to get that chance.... In any event, knowing that Harper is well-briefed and tough to surprise, a smart question, in my view, is one that forces him to think on the spot a bit, to move away from the prepared lines and, if you're successful, to get him to open up a bit more about a given issue.... Harper had the last laugh, of course, when the campaign ended but I go back to that as a good example of a question that elicits an answer that gets beyond the spin and the highly scripted performances because it showed, in a pretty demonstrative way, that Harper was still having a tough time with the "retail" side of politics, the regular guy stuff that helps a politician connect with voters.

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American visitors to Paris, Rome, Prague, or Barcelona, comparing what they see with what is familiar from their own continent, will recognize how careless their countrymen often have been in their attempts to create cities. But the American who leaves the routes prescribed by the Ministries of Tourism will quickly see that Paris is miraculous in no small measure because modern architects have not been able to get their hands on it. Elsewhere, European cities are going the way of cities in America: high-rise offices in the center, surrounded first by a ring of lawless dereliction, and then by the suburbs, to which those who work in the city flee at the end of the day.   more »

Liberal MP Wayne Easter says, "the media that are around here pay no attention to agriculture and rural issues. It’s a problem in the news centres in Toronto and other places that those major resource industries are not paid enough attention to in terms of their problems and solutions by the national media itself. So I think it spreads right through this town, not just with the political parties but also with the bureaucracy and the media." Case in point: Just 2 of the 300 or so Hill-based reporters showed up for a presser on rural poverty ...

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The survey of 2,251 Americans also finds that the number going online for political news and information has doubled in this election cycle compared to the 2004 race, from 8 per cent to 17 per cent. Not surprisingly, the poll found that use of new digital technologies to campaign and to learn about campaigns tends to be greatest among younger voters.... The poll found that 39 per cent of online Americans are using the Internet to get access to original campaign documents or video of speeches and announcements.

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The Supreme Court has begun hearing oral arguments in the matter of BCE Inc et al vs lots of bondholders.
Lawyer Guy Du Pont is leading off for Bell. He is getting quizzed by justices about the concept of "reasonable expectations" and whether the transaction as proposed puts unreasonable risk ...   more »