Barbara Kay columnist and writer focusing on political subjects

In praise of unilingualism (National Post, May 04, 2005)

May 4, 2005

Is multilingualism always an unalloyed blessing? May not absolute command of a single language be preferable to mere competence in two or more?Promotions for the new movie, The Interpreter, a thriller...

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A land with no leaders (National Post, May 11, 2005)

May 11, 2005

A federal election is imminent or in prospect. With two parties -- the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP -- mired in a state of permanent opposition, we are left to ponder a choice between Paul Martin and St...

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Don't talk to him (National Post, May 18, 2005)

May 18, 2005

Two years ago, David Ahenakew, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, was charged with promoting hatred in a 2002 rant against Jews. His unprovoked denunciations, captured by a report...

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Sexism, stood on its head (National Post, May 25, 2005)

May 25, 2005

'Blonde Bombshell"! "Whore"! "Dipstick"! "Barbie!" The media Belindatron has whirled for days with outrage over sexism against poor Ms. Stronach. Never mind Belinda's opportunistic betrayal of her par...

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Ten reasons not to fear separatism (National Post, June 01, 2005)

June 1, 2005

MONTREAL - The French have just voted non to the EU constitution. Current EU president Jean-Claude Juncker says countries voting No need a second referendum to obtain "the right answer." That ploy can...

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Welcome home, Mrs. Mortimer (National Post, June 08, 2005)

June 8, 2005

Summer reading lists are sprouting in the weekend newspapers. Everything sounds beguiling, so how does one choose? I'm sometimes lucky judging books by their cover. For example, my latest purchase, ir...

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A Father's Day I'd like to see (National Post, June 15, 2005)

June 15, 2005

Father's Day is meant to celebrate dads. This year, instead of buying them ties or barbecue tools, let's pledge to roll back the ideological campaign aimed at belittling their virtues and achievements...

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Befriend the sinner, banish the sin (National Post, June 22, 2005)

June 22, 2005

MONTREAL - Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,Yet with my nobler reason, 'gainst my furyDo I take part: the rarer action isIn virtue than in vengeance..." (The Tempest, Prospero to...

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Tales of a Bush league outfielder (National Post, June 29, 2005)

June 29, 2005

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine - As Canada Day approaches -- with American Independence Day close on its heels -- I feel distant from Prime Minister Paul Martin and very close to President George Bush. It isn't...

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The best reader a columnist could have (National Post, July 06, 2005)

July 6, 2005

This column, approximately my 100th, marks my second anniversary of weekly contribution to the National Post. Happy contemplation of this milestone was cut short, though, by distressing parallel news ...

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Circumcision: vindicated at last (National Post, July 13, 2005)

July 13, 2005

The International AIDS Society will meet in Rio de Janeiro later this month. There, senior researcher Bertran Auvert, representing the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, will an...

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The French media connection (National Post, July 20, 2005)

July 20, 2005

MONTREAL - I was startled -- not in a good way -- to learn from political scientist Jean-Sebastien Rioux in a Post op ed last week that a majority of (francophone) callers to a Radio-Canada talk show ...

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A Lance of my own (National Post, July 27, 2005)

July 27, 2005

International competitions like the Tour de France, or the World Aquatic Championships now in progress in Montreal, motivate kids to take up sport. That's good. But over-ambitious parents of talented ...

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The low-carb revolution meets its end (National Post, August 3, 2005)

August 3, 2005

Lo, how the mighty hath fallen. Can it really be true? I have just read that the Atkins Diet empire has crumbled. They've declared bankruptcy. I imagine all the sugar industry executives in America ar...

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Conrad's London, then as now (National Post, August 10, 2005)

August 10, 2005

At his recent trial, Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent, who last year ghoulishly assassinated film-maker Theo Van Gogh, coldly addressed the victim's tormented mother: "I don't...

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Enter the modern sleuth, fat, drunk and incompetent (National Post, September 7, 2005)

September 7, 2005

The older I get, the more I feel that whatever I read should educate, edify or elucidate. Only on vacation do I feel justified indulging myself in the "mere" entertainment of detective fiction.I looke...

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The misguided march of the 'quirkyalones' (National Post, September 14, 2005)

September 14, 2005

Have you seen March of the Penguins?The film chronicles Antarctica's Emperor penguins on their multiple annual 70-mile treks from feeding to breeding grounds. They suffer astonishing privations in ord...

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Jonas - a 'classic liberal' (National Post, September 21, 2005)

September 21, 2005

There's a convention in column-writing that makes us shrink from mentioning the accomplishments of our op-ed page confreres. None of us wants to come across as a groupie in print. Instead, we send eac...

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Three women, three eras (National Post, September 28, 2005)

September 28, 2005

To earn their keep, all I ever ask of royals or their Canadian surrogates is to make me feel honoured in their presence. I do not take a G-G's measure from the stirring kitsch of an installation speec...

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Make him buy the cow (National Post, October 5, 2005)

October 5, 2005

My husband enjoys telling people how he "proposed" marriage to me. Ronny was from Montreal but working in Toronto at the time. It was 1964. I was in my last undergrad year of university. After we'd da...

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