It seems to be becoming more accepted, that public politicians who are supposed to be representing their constituents and reporting to them can freely attend secretive meetings with foreign dignitaries on the public dime without revealing what was discussed. In 2010 it was Premier Campbell and now this year it is
Continue readingAuthor: Richard
Canadian Trends: Guest Post: And there will be jobs
This was submitted to me by a reliable source within the oil industry. I work for one of the many oil and gas companies in Alberta and lately there have been a lot of rumors going around that we would be seeing upwards of 300 temporary foreign workers (TFWs). In
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Splitting Economic Hairs
Well it looks like you can all relax. It would appear that I had it all wrong. Apparently Canada doesn’t have a debt problem: The agency said a 40 per cent drop in prices or rising interest rates would put pressure on Canadian households, but not have a large impact
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Repression is in the eye of the beholder
When is a person officially “repressed”? Everyone seems to have a different idea of when repression warrants retaliation and revolt. For some, it seems that nothing less of 20 years of dictatorship can do. Unless there are daily disappearances, secret police, and killings – there is no repression. Others see
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Ideas have a habit of spreading like wildfire
Well, it would appear the real battles have begun – this I was anticipating as the obvious response to Charest’s new law. What I didn’t anticipate was an international day of solidarity with them. Wow! That came as a pleasant surprise! Also nationally across Canada several cities joined in. Personally I don’t believe
Continue readingCanadian Trends: The G20 resolution: Another insult to Canadians for your brain to ponder
So, this is it? The great resolution? This is the result that it has taken two years to come up with? This is an insult, and for other reasons than the last one I just wrote about to boot! Just a side-note here, To government: I’m sort of finding it difficult to keep
Continue readingCanadian Trends: The inevitable result of increased complexity and profit
Chinese fake parts ‘used in U.S. military equipment’ As real profit margins sink and the full effect of peak oil kicks in, these are the sorts of stories there will be an increasing amount of. The only way to maintain the illusion of growth is constant “cost cutting”, and fake
Continue readingCanadian Trends: The monster in motion is one we’ve all created
In Quebec 300+ have been arrested, fascist laws passed, and the anger builds. At the NATO summit journalists are again being attacked as hundreds of thousands protest the “war on terror”. The anger builds, the violence erupts, and it’s all going to happen again, and again, and again. Today I saw
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Dutch Disease?
Canada certainly has some serious economic problems, but I don’t think dutch disease is one of them. Blaming the problems we’re experiencing on dutch disease is over-simplistic to a fault. Canada is regionally quite vast with many geographical and political challenges. Simply picking a small portion of a large problem out
Continue readingCanadian Trends: "This isn’t Canada right now": @TorontoPolice officer says
A new report has been released today slamming G20 police for “excessive force”. While damning, this report is a whitewash. It continues to play the “few bad apples” routine spewed after Bill Blair’s “vast criminal conspiracy” ended up being full of holes. This report however is still a whitewash. It
Continue readingCanadian Trends: U.N. Observer: Canada needs to drop its "self-righteous" attitude about how great a country it is
I couldn’t agree more. ‘UN food envoy decries ‘shocking’ conditions in Canada’ There it is, our self-righteous attitude, and we’re so self-righteous we can’t even see that is the case. We still tell ourselves that we champion ‘civil rights’ even as more reports come out saying otherwise. We tout our
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Historical ideologues in the new era
The other day I was asked a question on twitter which for the life of me I could not fit an answer in to 140 characters. The question was in relation to the current and coming unrest. Time waits for no one. But what will come first? True reform and
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Dear journalists: Why don’t you actually start reporting on the money wasters?
Saw this today, and it made me very very angry. From the article: The debate, however, has now moved well beyond a dispute over the price of education in Quebec. The larger question being posed is of what kind of society we want to be. While this existential problem is
Continue readingCanadian Trends: A quick primer: Inflation vs. Devaluation
Following a conversation I had tonight on twitter, I’d like to write a quick little guide on the difference between devaluation and inflation, as they do look quite similar. Let’s say you have an apple and I have an apple, and we’d like to buy a orange. Lets say an
Continue readingCanadian Trends: The Flip Side of Fear
Fear and confidence make the markets go ’round. Most economic reports are intended to drive one or the other. The power of intention can be much more powerful than that of literal action, but it can also be a dangerous game. Flip-flop too much and you lose credibility, make too
Continue readingCanadian Trends: The real generational time-bomb isn’t in pensions
There is a definite concern world-wide about whether the younger generations can shoulder existing pension fund obligations for retiring baby-boomers and then for themselves. Every other month there are articles on “how much you should save for retirement”, usually with under-estimated numbers has people often misjudge the ‘exponential’ in exponential
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Austerity or Growth? I thought it was Austerity and Growth?
Europe debate shifts to growth as austerity is failing. So what was the debate before? Well in September of 2011 it was ‘Developed nations struggle to restore growth‘, and here’s June 2011: ‘IMF: If UK Austerity Doesn’t Provide Growth, Cut Taxes‘. There’s obviously no shortage of “new ideas”. It’s generating
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Canada may be secretly preparing to decouple from the USD
Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a piece on my old blog about Canada’s economic situation. In it I concluded there were two possible outcomes in the medium term: So Canada, we have a big decision ahead of us. Do we decouple the CAD from the USD, effectively cutting
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Did Blackberry miss the ‘App Store’ boat?
With all the hype around the new Blackberry 10 O/S, I think a bigger and more important question isn’t being asked. How many Operating Systems can one developer support? As an independent developer I can tell you that it would be simply a waste of time for me to support 4
Continue readingCanadian Trends: Subserviant Syndrome
Do you know why I supported Occupy amongst all other protests? Because it was doing something different. Protests come and go but Occupy, well that had a real shot at a change deeper than I think really anyone could even imagine. Of course that change was promptly snuffed out, and
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