Glenn Kubish

Historians and political observers have been of one voice since Premier Peter Lougheed died in Calgary last week. It's all been some riff on the theme of giant worship. With no disrespect pointed at what he saw around him when he took power, Lougheed nontheless transformed an agrarian-farming province into a modern Canadian political and economic and cultural entity. CBC News chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge said this in a tweet: Peter Mansbridge  ‏ @ petermansbridge Over the past 44 years I've covered them all, & interviewed most of them. On my landscape of first ministers, Peter Lougheed stood tallest. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi ended his statement on the premier's passing by invoking in a nimble way the legacy of the architect: "Remember the line from Christopher Wren's epitaph: 'If you seek his monument – look around you.'" If Lougheed carried the province, tonight the honour was returned, as his remains were carried up ...

Beneath the surface is where the cool stuff happens. The Latin preposition is infra, meaning below, under, and, by extension, out of view. The related word that comes first to mind is infrastructure , a noun whose currency has risen to the level of the title of government departments. The minister of infrastructure is, accordingly, in charge of the highways and sewers and the electricity lines, and all the rest of the technologica that supports the communication and commerce of modern life. Some of these thoughts bubbled up while watching CBC's coverage of the Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Today, there is a pageant of boats on the Thames and anchor Peter Mansbridge is, in this video, talking via smartphone to James Raffan, who is steering Canada One/Un, a canoe from the Canada Canoe Museum, down the famous river. (Jack the audio on your computer.) About 9 seconds in you see a briefly frustrated Mansbridge gesture and mouth the words "Just ...