Blog Archives

Justin Trudeau’s Dad and Me

Posted on October 22, 2015 by ronbase — 8 Comments

In Donald Brittain’s powerful 1978 television documentary The Champions, about the lifelong battle for Canada’s destiny between Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque, there is a shot of Trudeau being interviewed in the midst of the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. Days away from becoming…

Tagged with: Brockville Collegiate Institute, Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party, Oshawa Times, Ottawa, Pierre Trudeau, Progressive Conservative Party, René Lévesque, The Champions
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Standing In Dealey Plaza, Thinking . . .

Posted on November 20, 2013 by ronbase — 6 Comments

Arriving for the first time at Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, I stood transfixed, thinking, I could have shot President Kennedy. Without knowing much of anything about guns, that’s what immediately crossed my mind at the place where President John F.…

Tagged with: Ambassador Hotel, Bobby Kennedy, Brockville Collegiate Institute, Cocoanut Grove, Dallas, David Halberstam, Dealey Plaza, Grassy Knoll, Jack Ruby, Jackie Kennedy, JFK, John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Los Angeles, Oliver Stone, Sirhan Sirhan, Texas, Texas School Book Despository, The New York Times, Walter Cronkite, Woody Harrelson
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Back To School–Without My Turtleneck

Posted on May 28, 2013 by ronbase — 1 Comment

I hated high school. All the more ironic, then, to find myself, nearly fifty years after I had successfully made my escape, back inside the Gulag of my youth. The Brockville Collegiate Institute (BCI, as we called it) celebrated its one hundred and twenty-fifth…

Tagged with: Brockville, Brockville Collegiate Institute, high school, Ogdensburg, President Kennedy, reunion, St. Lawrence River, Steve McQueen, The Great Escape
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Taking Trudeau’s Picture

Posted on April 4, 2013 by ronbase — 2 Comments

In Donald Brittain’s powerful 1978 television documentary The Champions, about the lifelong battle between Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque for Canada’s destiny, there is a shot of Trudeau being interviewed in the midst of the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. Trudeau, days away…

Tagged with: Algonquin College, Barack Obama, Brockville Collegiate Institute, Chateau Laurier Hotel, Donald Brittain, Henry Miller, Ian and Sylvia, James Joyce, John Matheson, Justin Trudeau, Liberal leadership convention, Liberal Party of Canada, Merv Kelly, Oshawa Times, Ottawa, Peter Worthington, Peyton Place, Pierre Trudeau, Progressive Conservative Party, René Lévesque, Robert Stanfield, The Champions, The Tropic of Cancer, Toronto Sun, Trudeaumania, Ulysses
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The Brockville Boys

Posted on August 22, 2011 by ronbase — 13 Comments

The Brockville Boys, from left: Gord Johnston, Dave Cody, Ron Base, Calvin Prescott. The old home town is just not the same. The apartment where my brother and I lived above the Bank of Commerce at 98 King St.,…

Tagged with: Brockville, Brockville Collegiate Institute, friendship, Recorder and Times, Ron Base
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