And the first debate winner is… the American People

By Gil Troy, HNN, 9-28-08
Both presidential nominees and the American people failed to follow the typical script for the first presidential debate on Friday night — to all their credit. Usually, an hour-and-a-half of policy talk ends up being reduced to a four-word slam, a grimace, a gaffe, a gesture. This time, the debate about [...]

Read Full Post »

Gil Troy: The candidates’ cribs

The Financial Times, 9-26-08
….Professor Gil Troy, a historian specialising in US presidents at McGill University in Montreal, points to several modern presidencies in which geography played an important role, shaping the narrative of the administration “both symbolically and substantively”. Jimmy Carter’s portrayal of himself as a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, was, Troy says, “a [...]

Read Full Post »

The Debates: Sweat the Small Stuff, It Can Sway the Election

HNN, 9-24-08
I have often thought that the popular cliché describing war applies to presidential debates as well – long bouts of boredom punctuated by fleeting moments of great drama and sheer terror. Let’s face it. Most debates are dull, with candidates machine-gunning statistics and policy positions at each other at a rapid but mostly incomprehensible [...]

Read Full Post »

Gil Troy CTV Interview: A look at the U.S. presidential race

A look at the U.S. presidential race
On both sides of the border, there is an election going on. Like it or not, many Canadians are still more focused on the American one.
Some perspective from Gil Troy, our U.S. analyst. — Click to View Video

Read Full Post »

Gil Troy on “A winning formula?”

CANADA VOTES 2008

Toronto Star, TheStar.com, Sep 21, 2008| Federal Election | A winning formula?

RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR
Stéphane Dion visits candiddate Mark Holland’s riding of Ajax-Pickering on September 9, 2008.

The stratagems of the federal campaign often appear ‘as sentimental as they are strategic.’ Research, however, has quantified their impact. Find out how many votes a lawn [...]

Read Full Post »

McGill on the Move: Lecture with Gil Troy – SOLD OUT

McGill on the Move: Lecture with Gil Troy – SOLD OUT
(Alumni Education)

General information:

Description:

 

The McGill Alumni Association of Toronto extends a cordial invitation to graduates, family and friends to attend a lecture and reception with Gil Troy, Professor of History, McGill University.
“Understanding How They Run By Seeing How They Ran: A Historian’s Guide to the [...]

Read Full Post »

Gil Troy on “Campaign Buzz: ‘Herbert Hoover in a blue sweater’”

Canwest News Service
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
At a Halifax rally yesterday, Liberal MP Bob Rae referred to Stephen Harper as “Herbert Hoover in a blue sweater,” adding, “I think we can do better than that.”
Why that’s an insult: Within months of Mr. Hoover assuming the U.S. presidency in 1929, the stock market crashed and sparked the [...]

Read Full Post »

Does Hillary Clinton Hate Sarah Palin More than a Nuclear Iran?

HNN, 9-18-08
Senator Hillary Clinton’s refusal to attend the major rally called for Monday September 22 in New York against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s UN appearance is outrageous — as is the organizers’ subsequent decision to disinvite Sarah Palin. Back in August, Senator Clinton had agreed to attend. She abruptly pulled out this week because the Republican nominee [...]

Read Full Post »

Montreal Gazette: Leading from the Center Review

Muscular moderates; Gil Troy: Centrists make best Presidents
HUBERT BAUCH, The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, Sptember 13, 2008, WEEKEND: BOOKS; Pg. I6
It’s a pity that this book had to go to press before the tickets for this year’s U.S. presidential election shaped up. It is nevertheless timely, coming as it does at the start of the sprint [...]

Read Full Post »

The More Things Stay the Same

By Gil Troy, Washington Post, Opinion, Sunday, September 14, 2008; Page B02
The candidates of 2008 seem to agree about one thing — we need a change. Sen. Barack Obama is campaigning for “Change We Can Believe In,” having defeated John Edwards, who cried “Join the Campaign to Change America,” and Hillary Clinton, who insisted that [...]

Read Full Post »