Author: Offroad Artist

There has been a flurry of reports over the past two days concerning the CHL Players Association and the mystery surrounding the identities of some of the people purportedly connected with the group. One of the better accounts is by Sunaya Sapurji at Yahoo Sports. According to this and other

NHL enforcer, Green Party of Canada Deputy Leader, animal rights activist, vegan entrepreneur, and now Executive Director of the new Canadian Hockey League Players Association, Georges Laraque has never been afraid to tread where the treading gets toug…

NHL enforcer, Green Party of Canada Deputy Leader, animal rights activist, vegan entrepreneur, and now Executive Director of the new Canadian Hockey League Players Association, Georges Laraque has never been afraid to tread where the treading gets tough. Two days ago, someone loosened the lug nuts on his hybrid vehicle,

At the end of a U.S. election campaign that has ignored climate change and global warming, Mother Nature has weighed in with a persuasive argument.Sandy’s wake-up call couldn’t have been any more loud or clear. (note – the link to the Huffington Post a…

At the end of a U.S. election campaign that has ignored climate change and global warming, Mother Nature has weighed in with a persuasive argument. Sandy’s wake-up call couldn’t have been any more loud or clear. (note – the link to the Huffington Post article is not working at time

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Sacha Trudeau is “stepping up” to act as senior advisor to his brother Justin’s campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.Unlike the story in the WFP, I would never stretch this so far as to mentio…

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Sacha Trudeau is “stepping up” to act as senior advisor to his brother Justin’s campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Unlike the story in the WFP, I would never stretch this so far as to mention “Jack and Bobby” in

For anyone tempted to speculate that the Liberals under Justin Trudeau would be “same old same old”, there was one new face in the crowd last night whose influence may yet become powerful, even if not necessarily front and centre.

Trudeau’s younger brother, Sacha, was on hand with his young family, too, but politely rebuffed reporters’ questions. “It’s not my show tonight,” he said.

The operative word being, “tonight”(?)

For anyone tempted to speculate that the Liberals under Justin Trudeau would be “same old same old”, there was one new face in the crowd last night whose influence may yet become powerful, even if not necessarily front and centre. Trudeau’s younger brother, Sacha, was on hand with his young

Canadian business innovation has dropped from 11th to 22nd place in the world over the past year. Earlier this month, and for the second consecutive year, Canada dropped two places overall in the annual ranking of global economic competitiveness by the World Economic Forum. Canada’s economic competitiveness has now gone

Canadian business innovation has dropped from 11th to 22nd place in the world over the past year.

Earlier this month, and for the second consecutive year, Canada dropped two places overall in the annual ranking of global economic competitiveness by the World Economic Forum. Canada’s economic competitiveness has now gone from 9th to 14th since 2009. This is just a small part of the story though.

The real story came out a couple of days ago in a report issued by the Conference Board of Canada, entitled Who Dimmed the Lights? Canada’s Declining Global Competitiveness Ranking.

In this report, it is revealed that Canada’s innovation and business sophistication dropped 6 places, from 15th to 21st over the past year. Even worse, the report says that Canada’s innovation performance dropped from 11th to 22nd.

The innovation performance indicator measures factors such as such as “university–industry collaboration in R&D, quality of scientific research institutions, capacity for innovation, company spending on R&D, and government procurement of advanced technology products”.

Don’t tell me – sending raw materials to Asia and buying stuff churned out over there in sweatshops no longer qualifies as “thinking outside the box”. Combine this with the Conservative government’s war on science and it is easy to see how Canada has dropped so quickly.

I don’t even know how this all meshes with what’s going on on the street. For example, at least four pharmaceutical multinationals closing major research labs in the Montreal area alone this year. The latest of these, Boehringer Ingelheim, will result in 170 high tech job losses.

On the link above, there is a table which further breaks down the indicators into sub categories. Canada is worst in Nature of Competitive Advantage (81st), Value Chain Breadth (53rd), Government Procurement of Advanced Technology Products (47th) and Quantity of Local Suppliers (33rd).

Solving the problem won’t be a matter of simply ramping up university graduate numbers though – Canada is already 6th in availability of scientists and engineers.

Exactly how we’re going to turn this around, I don’t know. One thing for sure is that current Harper government policies have us headed in the wrong direction with a bullet.

“In 2011 the five largest oil companies made $137 billion”

“In 2011 the five largest oil companies made $137 billion”