Given the improbability of even a Province of Toronto, I gave myself some leeway to dream. :)

I would rather see Toronto become a Special Administrtative Region comparable to Hong Kong. The Basic Law adopts the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as its mini constitution separate from that of the People's Republic of China. Should Toronto have its own Basic Law, perhaps...

We have it here too, in equal doses to boot.

This is very problematic. Government certified translation in Ontario translates proper names into English according to the official standard (i.e. Pinyin, which reflects the official pronunciation). My wife's Hong Kong passport presented her name according to the Cantonese standard. When we'd...

For example, if I say I speak English, unless otherwise specified, we're not talking Tok Pisin, but a official standard variety is intended. Even Hongkongese who speak Mandarin poorly refer to it as Guoyü (national language) and to Cantonese as Yüeyü (Guangdong language, or language of the...

Unless specified, Chinese refers to what many mainlanders refer to as Putonghua (the common language) and everyone else refers to as Guoyü (the national language): Modern Standard Chinese, Mandarin, the official language of government administration in the mainland and in Taiwan and that...

Now this is somewhat off-topic, but not entirely. I'll explain the relationship to this thread in the last paragraph. We'll soon be moving to Scarborough. As a Franco-Ontarian, I reserve a Constitutional right to register my child at a French language school. If you read the Canadian Charter of...

One thing that bothers me more is the narrow bilingual requirement of the major parties. Knowing French and English myself, I would meet the linguistic requirement for Prime Minister, but someone who is bilingual in English (or French) and Ojibwa, American Sign Language, or Chinese is out of...

I was actually appalled by Harper's slandering of Ignatieff. I'm Canadian born. My mother traces her roots to New France. My father immigrated from the UK. I've lived abroad myself. But how can we promote free trade and open borders and then suggest that Canadians who engage in free trade become...