Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦

Retired; former manager of orchestras, theatres and an opera company, in Canada and the US. First visited Venice in 1971.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

OMG.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

Margaret Plant's Venice, Fragile City 1797 - 1997 is a superb book. Jonathan Keates' The Siege of Venice covers the often overlooked return of the Republic in 1848/49. And new to me: I've just ordered Alexander Lee's The First Ghetto, Venice and the Jews.

[Mark Venning @venning_mark]

Oh such choices! Off the top I'd add- Petr Kral, Loving Venice, English translation(2011) & Cees Nooteboom’s Venice: The Lion, the City and the Water, English translation (2020) and Drink & Think Venice by Robin Saikia (2024) My shelf is full.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

@robinsaikia @edwardlucas @EmilyPrescott30 @JANUSZCZAK Brilliant! Katia is unstoppable.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

I typed "Which Republicans?" and Google instantly told me that Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul had joined the Senate Democrats in voting to force Trump to end the war with Iran, or obtain Congressional approval to continue. It's front of mind these days.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

Who do I really miss right now, as SCOTUS guts the Voting Rights Act?
LBJ.
Do the Dems have someone who can work the aisle?
Not that I can see.
The smartest, most articulate and reasonable by far is Pete Buttigieg.
We know where that's going.
Nowhere.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

I follow an Englishman on Bluesky who lives in Messina, Sicily and who among many other virtues has a great sense of humour:

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

@walteredicola Capisco, grazie. Ma MOSE non si sta esaurendo?

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

In 2014 John Polanyi wrote that the US had spent more than $200B on a missile defence shield that "does not work and opposes armaments with still more armaments. Canadian national priorities lie elsewhere ..... If we don't remain true to our beliefs, why have a country?"

[Stephen Marche @StephenMarche]

For @nytimes I wrote about the globalization of Canadian rage. https://t.co/EJo3TsICzm

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

Whereas in Italy, Salvini's deputy has just left the Lega party to form a new one, even further to the right.

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

Fascinating to see what is going on in Canada… Liberal PM Carney, surging in polls, pays tribute to his Conservative predecessor… who in turn calls for the main political parties to “come together… in perilous times… against external forces that threaten our independence”…

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

So according to Ben Bergman of Business Insider, Trump spoke for over an hour, going off script quite a bit. The room was packed when he began, but people left throughout the speech. Of those who remained at the end, about a third sycophantically gave him a standing ovation.

[Stephano🍁Barberis @HelloStephano]

Only three people have received a standing ovation in the history of the WEF:

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Volodymyr Zelenskyy
3. Mark Carney

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

If this is true, then tomorrow will be a test of global sycophancy.

[Stephano🍁Barberis @HelloStephano]

Only three people have received a standing ovation in the history of the WEF:

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Volodymyr Zelenskyy
3. Mark Carney

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

Americans are starved for good speeches right now, but he's right. It was a great speech and I've never been prouder to be a Canadian.

[Chris Hayes @chrislhayes]

The Mark Carney speech today at Davos is one of the best I've seen any politician deliver in a very long time.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

I've also seen that he wrote the speech himself and delivered it without a teleprompter, but l really want to see that in writing from the PMO and not on an internet post by someone I don't know.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

And let's not forget he flew to China on the 13th and from there to Qatar on the 17th/18th. These visits were for important, high level negotiations. Then he flew on to Davos for more meetings. Most of us would be clutching the podium with exhaustion by this point in the journey.

[Michael Healey 🇨🇦 @healeytypes]

Carney’s Davos speech is a generational call to action. He invokes Haval, describes a new paradigm to defend against hegemones, and the audience gives him a standing ovation. Incredible.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

This is distinctly Canadian wisdom. I don't watch hockey but I do know Wayne Gretzky said don't skate to where the puck is, but where it's going to be.

[Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇬🇪🇲🇩 @acoyne]

Always remember: as insane as Trump is behaving right now -- and he has never behaved more insanely -- it is only going to get worse. Don't just think how to respond to what he is doing now. Think about how to respond to what he will do next.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

@SteveKills @venning_mark @valdefurrentes @JillKerby @RowanGallery @FloraeOlga @nielskoschoreck @robymessi65 @ApmNeill @bensondiane11 @caichka @GrandTouristUK Stephen, I'm so sorry. I do hope your wife's health challenges are minor and can be resolved quickly. How wonderful that you got to Venice so recently! Here's to a better 2026 and do keep in touch with your online friends.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

@donwinslow @CBSNews And what a terrible precedent.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

@SteveKills I know. I could hardly believe what I was reading. Talk about a single-minded approach to a complex problem with what is surely an over-riding priority, the health of the lagoon.

[Elaine Calder 🇨🇦💔🇺🇦 @caldervenice]

@walteredicola Spero che ci sia un ingresso speciale per i residenti