August 1, 1976

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HEROES OF THE XXI OLYMPIAD

The Americans landed on Mars and an earthquake flattened Tangshan. There were riots in South Africa, murders in Northern Ireland, carnage in Lebanon. Pitcher Randy Jones won his eighteenth game and Jerry Pate captured the Canadian Open. By Michael Posner18 min

Business

Making money in Moscow

Only traces of an accent betrayed the fact that the businessman, now in his early fifties, was born in Eastern Europe, which he left at the outbreak of the Second World War. He is as fiercely dedicated to the profit motive and capitalism as any man you might meet, but he has made his career flying back and forth over the Iron Curtain, representing British, Canadian, Italian and American companies. By Daniel Yergin18 min

Interview With Senator Walter Mondale

Jimmy Carter's first decision after receiving the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Presidency was to name Senator Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota as his vice-presidential running mate. Of Scandinavian background and a devout advocate of the Protestant Ethic, Mondale’s politics represent the small-town attitude of reform through incremental compromises rather than any solitary championing of ill-fated great causes.

Canada

The morning after the night before

The army security officer sat at a vantage point high in Montreal’s Centre Maisonneuve, scanning the crowd below with his binoculars. After protests from a Soviet official, the hunt was on for a person brandishing a sign during Olympic wrestling competitions which, translated from the cyrillic, read: By ROBERT LEWIS, RALPH NOSEWORTHY7 min

Cities

Why are fewer people goin’ down the road? Behold the new Halifax!

For years, when they thought about the place at all, Canadians (other than Nova Scotians) tended to regard Halifax as a dowdy garrison town that only came to life in wartime. Hugh MacLennan’s Barometer Rising and Thomas H. Raddall’s Halifax: By IRENE PARIKHAL6 min

Canada

Doing it up royally

They had been standing there in the sun for a couple of hours, the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire, Moncton chapter. They had trooped over to Chatham in northern New Brunswick because the Queen was to sign the town guest book and walk in the park among what the protocol people call “Patriotic Groups.” By MICHAEL ENRIGHT6 min

Science

Journey to the stars, part two: The Martian Chronicles

Seven years after the first Apollo landing (“. . . a giant leap for mankind”) and Star Trek (“. . . to boldly go where no man has gone before”) went into reruns, earthlings had become a trifle jaded about space. After all, Alan Shepard had already played golf on the moon and Captain Kirk had trekked through the galaxy, fighting Klingons and necking with spacebunnies. By TERENCE DICKINSON5 min

The last of the red-hot liberals: Bryce Mackasey tilts with the corporate giants

When it comes to singing his own praises, Bryce Mackasey exhibits a furor loquendi that some of his colleagues find irritating. In an average day, on his own voluble testimony, Mackasey can move the mail and salvage the Olympic coin program as Postmaster General, and as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs protect the little people. By Robert Lewis5 min

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