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Bob Ramsay

Born in Edmonton. Educated at Princeton and Harvard. Speechwriter. Book editor. Copywriter. Communications strategist. Presentation trainer. Marathoner. Explorer of the world's distant places. Travel writer. Op-ed page writer. Fund-raiser. Board member. Speaker series host. Arts addict. And of course, relentless enthusiast.

TRUE PATRIOT LUST.

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The opportunity for one of the most patriotism-shy nations on earth to gorge on that very thing begins the week of May 12. That’s when we learn which of Mark Carney’s Liberal MPs will be sworn in to what Cabinet posts.

The split second the Cabinet is announced, dozens of organizations who have been preparing their “Elbows Up” wish lists for federal funding will push “send” and shoot their proposals into the offices of the Ministers of Canadian Culture, of Sport, Innovation, Indigenous Relations, Foreign Affairs and more.

Read on…

TRUE PATRIOT LUST. Read More »

A MASTERCLASS GETS SOME MISTRESSES.

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Until a few years ago, the chances of seeing a woman on the podium conducting an orchestra were approximately zero.

Today, they’re popping up everywhere. Keri-Lynn Wilson, a Canadian-American, guest-conducts all over the world, Barbara Hannigan, also a Canadian, guest-conducts and singsthe world over too. And the American, Marin Alsop, is the leading woman conductor on any podium.

But a Canadian woman conducting a Canadian orchestra on more than a drive-by basis?Fuhgeddaboudit.

But that too is changing.

Read on…

A MASTERCLASS GETS SOME MISTRESSES. Read More »

WAR BY OTHER MEANS.

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Last weekend an ad appeared in The Globe and Mail announcing a campaign to raise $30 million “to bring the best scientific minds to Canada’s #1 hospital.”

The University Health Network, which runs Toronto General, Toronto Western, and Princess Margaret Hospitals, is not only Canada’s best hospital, Toronto General is ranked #3 in the world (next to the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in the US) and the #1 public hospital in the world.

So UHN is already on the podium and now sees a chance to own it.

Read on…

WAR BY OTHER MEANS. Read More »

ONCE YOU MAKE CONCESSIONS ONCE, IT’S HARD NOT TO MAKE THEM AGAIN.

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Last week, the Gairdner Foundation announced its 2025 awards to some of the world’s best biomedical scientists. The Gairdners are Canada’s top international prize, and one in four awardees goes on to win the Nobel Prize. This year, in addition to the first Gairdner in its 68 years going to a nurse practitioner, there was talk by the eight awardees and Gairdner head Dr. Janet Rossant about the threats to science by the Trump administration.

Make no mistake, those threats are existential; they threaten science’s very existence.

Read on…

ONCE YOU MAKE CONCESSIONS ONCE, IT’S HARD NOT TO MAKE THEM AGAIN. Read More »

HOW NOT TO DISINVITE SOMEONE TO YOUR PARTY.

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But what if they turn up anyway? 

This happens a lot these days as speakers are cancelled, invitations revoked, and passports seized.

Mexican conductor Enrique Bátiz died last week at the age of 82. His family posted a notice about his funeral, prohibiting 13 musicians from attending it. Why?  “Owing to circumstances known to everyone, his family and friends respectfully request that the following persons abstain from attending the funeral and the burial…”

Read on…

HOW NOT TO DISINVITE SOMEONE TO YOUR PARTY. Read More »

“TOO OFTEN WE ENJOY THE COMFORT OF OPINION WITHOUT THE DISCOMFORT OF THOUGHT.”

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John F. Kennedy said that 55 years ago and its relevance today is…well, what doesn’t it apply to?

Elections. Motivations. Medications. Vaccinations. Resignations.

Everything.

But I want you to consider JFK’s idea in terms of…Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Read on…

“TOO OFTEN WE ENJOY THE COMFORT OF OPINION WITHOUT THE DISCOMFORT OF THOUGHT.” Read More »

GOING OUT AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME.

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Last year, the world’s authority on decision-making ended his life in a clinic in Zurich.

How Daniel Kahneman decided to do that is instructive. True, the Nobel Prize winner and author of Thinking Fast and Slow was 90, but he wasn’t actively dying. He didn’t have cancer, or heart disease or Alzheimer’s. But as he wrote in an email to his close friends: “I have believed since I was a teenager that the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous, and I am acting on that belief. Most people hate changing their minds, but I like to change my mind. It means I’ve learned something.”

Read on…

GOING OUT AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME. Read More »

HIS KARMA RAN OVER HIS DOGMA.

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The biggest business collapse in history happened in 2008 when Wall Street banker Lehman Bros., which had $691 billion in assets, filed for bankruptcy. Lehman’s fall sparked the 2008 global financial crisis and proved that no bank, and no company, is too big to fail.

In this vein, what happens if Tesla goes broke?

It’s lost $777 billion of value since December and a tide of analysts is claiming it’s been wildly overvalued from Day One.

Read on…

HIS KARMA RAN OVER HIS DOGMA. Read More »

YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART.

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On September 24, 1988, the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson placed first in the 100-metre dash, setting a new world record at the Seoul Olympics. Thirty million Canadians went wild for the born-in-Jamaica runner who was one of ours.

We’re #1!

Seventy-two hours later Johnson was disqualified for using the banned steroid stanozolol. Thirty million Canadians were crushed. This born-in-Jamaica runner was one of theirs. We’re #171!

A Grade 3 student could tell you why we were bereft:

Cheating is bad. A drug that gives you an unfair advantage corrupts the whole competition. Cheating on an exam cheats everyone. If people know the bid is rigged, they won’t enter. Just this week, Norwegian ski jumpers were caught manipulating their ski suits. Norway!

Read on…

YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART. Read More »

ARE THE ANTI-TRUMP AMERICANS THE JEWS OF THE 1930s?

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No one knows; it’s just too early to tell.

But the fact that it’s even possible to ask the question speaks to how fast and fully Donald Trump has grabbed and bent the levers of American executive, legislative, judicial and military power to his will. Not to mention how he’s already exercised his unquenchable revenge on his enemies.

So did Hitler, but he was slower.

Read on…

ARE THE ANTI-TRUMP AMERICANS THE JEWS OF THE 1930s? Read More »

PEOPLE FORGET.

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Last week Louise Penny pulled the plug on her appearance at The Kennedy Center to launch her new mystery, The Grey Wolf.

Said Penny: “I’m in DC, but in the wake of Trump taking over, I have pulled out. It was, of course, going to be a career highlight. But there are things far more important than that.”

“Trump taking over” means his self-elevation to the Chair of the previously bipartisan leadership of Washington’s leading concert hall, which he engineered earlier this month. Trump promised to “make the center GREAT AGAIN,” adding “The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation.”

Since then, Trump has fired the board and its CEO, Deborah Rutter, and appointed a new board who then appointed him Chair – and ticket sales have dropped by 50%.

Read on…

PEOPLE FORGET. Read More »

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