Parade was pleased to see Bathurst Regional Council acknowledge the businessman and developer’s many contributions to the city at its meeting on Wednesday night.

In addition to some very kind words from mayor Gary Rush, people in the chamber were asked to stand for a minute’s silence.

It was a brief, yet touching tribute to a very community-minded man.

PARADE met a Canadian this week and had a strange compulsion to ask him what Justin Trudeau was like.

That’s because Parade occasionally watches The Gruen Transfer on ABC television, and Canadian prime minister Trudeau is treated like a rock star by the panellists on that program.

Parade has to admit that, having seen a bit of footage of PM Trudeau, he does seem to have considerable charisma.

Asked, as a joke, at a media conference to explain quantum computing, the PM actually launched into a passable summary of that field that drew praise and impressed shock in equal measure.

(Parade has seen the footage, but can only remember bits of the explanation. Parade seems to remember that it involved ones and zeros in some form, but the rest of the information was a bit of a blur.)

But is Trudeau popular in his home country, where people see a lot more of him? Is the quantum computing thing just a party trick? Can he govern effectively?

These are the questions Parade longed to ask, but resisted doing so.

Never talk politics, they say. And to that instruction should be added: Definitely never talk politics to someone you have only just met.

THE Bathurst Eisteddfod has been run and won (in various sections, by various performers) and today the Western Advocate presents the results from the big event.

Readers will find the results – from music, dance, and speech and drama – on pages 10, 11, 12 and 13.