The Globe and Mail - Leah McLaren Columns

God may the save the Queen, but what about the rest of us?

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00 EDT

lmclaren@globeandmail.comIt's Victoria Day weekend at last - time to fire up the barbecue, crack open a domestic microbrew and contemplate our glorious and historied relationship with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Does having children make us happy?

Sat, 9 May 2009 08:13 EDT

Children bring meaning and joy to our otherwise narrow, selfish, little lives, right? Too bad science doesn't back that up

Sorry, Mother, no rug rats this year

Sat, 9 May 2009 00:00 EDT

lmclaren@globeandmail.comThis year, my mother wants only one thing for Mother's Day: a baby.''Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own kids,'' she recently phoned me up to say. ''C'mon, kiddo, it'll be fun.''

Pedal power to the people - ride on!

Sat, 2 May 2009 07:44 EDT

Old-fashioned as it might seem, cycling is the way of the future

Pedal power to the people - ride on!

Sat, 2 May 2009 00:00 EDT

lmclaren@globeandmail.comThere's an urban transportation revolution afoot, but it's not the one you think.The British government recently launched a & 250-million strategy to introduce the electric car to mainstream London. The initiative, which includes citywide charging points, battery-swapping stations and hefty consumer incentives, is well-intentioned, but you won't see me signing up for an electromobile any time soon.

Get me Tolstoy. On my cell. Right now!

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00 EDT

lmclaren@globeandmail.comJust the other morning, I found myself with nothing to read, so what did I do? I picked up an old novel I had been meaning to get to for ages but hadn't yet managed to buy. The great thing was, I didn't even have to get out of bed. If only Jane Austen could see Mansfield Park as it appears on my iPhone.

Generation debt is in for a rough ride

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:42 EDT

Th anointed-for-greatness offspring of the first boomers, now in our late 20s and early 30s, have fared the worst in the current financial crisis

What David Foot didn't tell us

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00 EDT

lmclaren@globeandmail.comA few years ago, I interviewed University of Toronto demographer David Foot, author of the bestseller Boom, Bust and Echo. Over tea at a campus pub, he assured me that my generation - which included the youngest of what he dubbed the ''busters'' and the eldest of the ''echos'' - was in for a sweet ride. We were destined to be prosperous and ''in demand,'' he said, as a result of being born in the mid-to-late 1970s, when the birth rate was at an all-time low.

Sometimes a kid artist just needs to be a kid artist

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:00 EDT

When Mercy Faulkner was two years old, she drew a picture for her mother. It was a red circle with a stem poking out of it. She said it was a tomato. Her mother, being a mother, was impressed.