Author: Sudbury Steve

The City of Greater Sudbury finds itself at a crossroads. The time is now ripe to tackle difficult, but important and interesting questions about the nature of our City, and what we want it to become in the future. With a number of trends underway locally and globally which will

The following letter to the editor was originally submitted to the Sudbury Star on May 8, 2012. At this time, it has not been published in either the print or on-line editions of the paper. As a result, I am now sharing this letter with you directly, through my blogsite

I read with interest today a number of news reports related to the announcement that  Cliffs Natural Resources will be investing approximately $3.3 billion in Ontario, to build a chromite mine in the Ring of Fire, and a ferrochrome processing facility in my city, the City of Greater Sudbury.  That

“Instead of cooperation and compromise, voters often see mindless solidarity, where political parties are always right and voters are always wrong. … And on climate change, parties are hopelessly locked to Cap and Trade or outright inaction, making compromise to achieve even piecemeal progress impossible.” -Bruce Hyer, Member of Parliament,

Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, the New Democratic Party, should they form Canada’s next government (and let’s be frank here: there’s a very good chance that they will do just that), if it follows through on its policy (always a big “if” for the NDP), will establish a Cap and Trade

Is it sensible that the Conservative Party, which has embraced cutting environmental regulations and environmental assessment processes in the name of economic growth, could ever be a threat to Canada’s resource sector? On first blush, it would seem highly improbable that would be the case, but keep in mind that

In my previous post, I wrote about the growing importance of the mining sector to Canada’s economy, and about why it’s important for our governments to enact the right carbon pricing policies. In this post, I’m going to talk about Canada’s historic commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in an

When people think about how Canada’s resource sector is driving economic growth, we tend to first think about the extraction of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas. Certainly, the stories about Canada’s growing fossil fuel sector are constantly found throughout the mainstream media, and tar sands petroleum companies have

I have been feeling this overwhelming sense of despair, frustration, and good old-fashioned anger these past couple of weeks, as I’ve watched the so-called Robo-Call Scandal unfold. My growing sense of hostility has been largely directed at Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, who may have broken the law on May 2nd,

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to what Thomas Mulcair’s recent ascension to the position of Leader of the New Democratic Party (and to Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition) might mean for the Green Party of Canada. What I’ve concluded after considerable thought is that there are too many

I’ve had the opportunity to consider New Democratic Party leadership contender Thomas Mulcair’s article, “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Country” published online in Policy Options Magazine. It’s an excellent article by Mulcair, who was Quebec’s Environment Minister prior to resigning from the provincial Liberal Party and

So, today was supposed to be the big day. I’ve had it circled on my calendar for some time now, so imagine my surprise when it all turned into a non-event. Of course I’m talking about today being the day when the European Union was to decide on whether or

The Greater Sudbury Taxpayers Association (GSTA) is at it again, practicing the politics of fear and division within our City. At first, the GSTA’s smear campaign against our locally-elected officials was, for me, an academic interest; something interesting to watch unfold, from an intellectual perspective. However, with the GSTA’s most

The following was posted in response to a comment made on the Sudbury Star’s website (post #2), itself in response to a letter to the editor from my friend Richard Paquette, published in the Monday, February 6 2012 edition of the Sudbury Star (“Changes would cause more urban sprawl”). I

I’ve been following with considerable interest the local print media’s reaction to the proposed by-law in the City of Greater Sudbury which would limit unnecessary vehicular idling to one minute. This by-law has been in the making now for over a year and a half. Earlier in January, the proposed

I’ve been observing with growing interest the emerging campaign to influence public opinion in Greater Sudbury. Mostly, this campaign is being waged through traditional and social media sources. While there has been a lot of focus on specific issues in our community, the goal of the campaign appears to be

Earlier today, Federal Natural Resources Ministers Joe Oliver released an open letter to Canadians through the Globe & Mail (“An open letter from Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver”, January 9, 2012) regarding the proposed Enbridge Northern Gate Pipeline. In his letter, Oliver directly equates those involved in environmental causes as

(continued from Part 1…) Candidate Appointments / Protections Liberals are also considering doing away with the Leader’s ability to appoint candidates to run in specific ridings, rather than leaving it to local members to nominate their own candidates (which is what usually happens). I once lived in a riding where

Next week, the Liberal Party of Canada will be hosting its biennial policy convention in Ottawa. At this convention, Liberals will be making a number of decisions regarding the Party’s future direction. Along with electing a new Party President (prediction: it’ll be Sheila Copps), Liberals will be voting on a

I caught last night’s edition of TVO’s “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”. The topic under discussion was the End of the World, and the panel was fantastic. Paikin kicked things off with references to the global hype around the Mayan calendar’s seemingly abrupt end on December 12, 2012. None of