March 17, 2014

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International

Putin's war

IN THE END, and despite three months of defiance, struggle and bloodshed, Ukraine’s revolutionaries had only a few days to savour the victory they believed they had won before it all started spinning apart in a wave of counter-protests and a Russian invasion of their country. By Michael Petrou

This Week

LETTERS

A big thumbs-up to our Olympic athletes who did us so proud at Sochi, and to Russia for providing a well-run, safe Winter Olympics at incredible venues (“Class act,” Sochi, March 3). A big thumbs-down to our Prime Minister, who could not stop playing politics to attend the opening ceremony, which would have given our country and athletes a boost on the world stage.

Economy

OPEN SECRETS

Simard Westlink is a transportation and warehousing company in Richmond, B.C., with customers ranging from Rona to Dollarama. In early 2012, one of its customers emailed the firm saying he had seen a video on YouTube showing a client’s oversized promotional golf balls sitting in the company’s warehouse. By TAMSIN MCMAHON

National

THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND

The organizers of the Manning Networking Conference like to describe the annual gathering of several hundred Canadian conservatives as a sort of policy symposium crossed with a political strategy session. But it also has the unpredictable feel of a family reunion, with oldsters bumping up against the youth and the eccentric cousins in attendance. By JOHN GEDDES

Society

CHASING A KILLER

In 2007, Melanie York was living the fast-paced life of a Toronto television producer, a life filled with travel, work and friends. Then she began to notice a persistent weakness in her shoulders and arms— difficulty tossing a salad, pulling up a zipper, taking off a sweater. By KATE LUNAU

This Week

THE INTERVIEW

Before Brigid Schulte began writing her book, Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One has the Time, she was living it. The married mother of two and staff writer for the Washington Post even had a name for her frenzied reality and the panic, guilt and fatigue it provoked: the Overwhelm, “that everything-all-at-once feeling that you’re burning the candle from both ends and out the middle.” By CATHY GULLI

International

A too-soft touch

Sudden moves bring out deep-seated insecurities. Vladimir Putin’s adventure in Crimea was a Rorschach moment in international affairs: Everybody read into it what they wanted to see. In Canada, retired diplomats lined up to tell reporters that Stephen Harper’s response proved he’s a lousy diplomat. By PAUL WELLS

National

Red and blue all over, again

Traditionally, the Quebec electoral map is a duopoly of Liberal red and Parti Québécois blue, with elections won and lost in a tug of war over a handful of ridings. The emergence of the Action démocratique du Québec in 2007 blew this long-reliable model to smithereens. By MARTIN PATRIQUIN

March 102014