writer
Cognitive biases are hot right now. Everyone’s talking about them. Even Elon Musk. I’ve seen people of all political stripes posting about them, advocating learning them, and so on. Presumably, folks think their political opponents could use a few lessons on critical thinking. As we become increasingly polarized, we seek out explanations for the peculiar…
I suppose by now you’ve all read the recent piece by Nancy MacDonald in the Globe and Mail on the topic of vaccine hesitancy in southern Manitoba. I’ve read a variety of reactions to the article, ranging from proclaiming it the best analysis of this problem they had ever read, to suggesting that by focusing…
In many aspects of life, especially politics, it’s seen as a sign of weakness to change one’s mind. While I certainly don’t discount the criticism laid upon politicians whose policy or opinions seem to shift with the wind, or those who pander to whatever group will get them elected, I do think we need to…
Satirists, or writers of any kind perhaps, have to see the world a little differently. Askew perhaps. Recently I turned 40, well 41 actually, and I guess I started thinking back on my life and I was trying to figure out how I became a satirist – how I became corrupted … in the best…
My first awareness of The Beatles was in Woodlawn School in Steinbach back in the mid-1980s. I don’t remember much, but the older students were doing some kind of dramatic performance in the gymnasium and, for a brief moment, “The Beatles” made an appearance. I remember asking my teacher who or what I had just…
I’m excited to announce that my new novel Once Removed (2020, Turnstone Press) is available now! Ask for it at your local independent bookseller! An affectionate pastiche of small-town Mennonite life, replete with duty, folly, irreverence, and joy. —David Bergen Hilarious as Schitt’s Creek, sinister as Hitchcock, Once Removed gives us Timothy Heppner, the quintessential non-resistant Mennonite, in a comic…
Last night, after a long semi-stressful day–one of the craziest that I can recall in recent memory–my wife and I decided we needed to wind down with a movie. Even though Erin, no doubt, would fall asleep within a few minutes, she rebuffed my suggestion of The Blob. Too scary. Night of the Living Dead was a…
I started the Daily Bonnet on a whim, really. Back in 2016, I wrote one article about Steinbach city council moving the entire community to the Mennonite Heritage Village and posted it on my website. After a few days I noticed that thousands of people had read it and I figured, “hey, people seem to…
In the spring of 1992, my father accepted a pastoral position in Calgary and our family moved from Manitoba to Alberta, heart of Reform Party country. I think I had an interest in politics before then, but it really ramped up when I arrived in Calgary at the height of Preston Manning mania. Ahh, yes,…
From about the age of twelve to fourteen, I filled Hillroy notebooks with poorly-drawn, occasionally funny, political cartoons. Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister at the time and it was fun to exaggerate the length of his chin while offering my Junior High critique of his tax plan. I can’t say this type of writing was…