Alberta and the plastics promise
In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” young Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), fresh out of college, is taken aside by a middle-aged neighbour at a cocktail party and offered…
Bill Longstaff
We still need the U.S.
Reading The Guardian last week, two articles captured my attention. Set side by side were “A ‘tyrant-clown’ has destroyed my love affair with America” by Robert McCrum and “‘Chairman Xi’…
Is Alberta “slipping into authoritarianism”?
Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), sees a disturbing trend in the province. He suggests that, under the rule of Jason Kenney and his UCP,…
Time to work less?
In times of economic crisis, an old but good idea to maintain employment is revived. COVID has brought just such a revival. With unemployment in the UK expected to rise…
I’m with Kenney on this one
Our premier and I come at politics from such different angles, it always comes as a surprise to me when I find myself agreeing with him. But sometimes I do.…
Most give their country a thumbs up on COVID
A recent Pew Research Center survey of 14 advanced countries indicated that most people (a median of 73 percent) believe their country has done a good job of dealing with…
Calling all democrats
Every Canadian concerned about the quality of democracy in this country frets about the inability of our electoral system to do the thing it exists for—create a government that represents…
Can Trump’s environmental mischief be undone?
Of all the damage that Donald Trump has managed to do in the last four years, the most serious is his assault on the environment. Aside from pulling his country…
Whoops! We overshot … again
According to the Global Footprint Network, August 22nd was Earth Overshoot Day. The day “marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds…
A hundred seconds to midnight
Seventy-five years ago yesterday, at 8:15 in the morning, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The fireball charred every human being within two kilometre…
The sun sets on Hong Kong
Once an enterprise Canadians went to war for, the British Empire is now in disgrace. And no wonder. It owns many sins. The Atlantic slave trade, the Kenyan gulag, the…
The truth about history
What is historical truth? To get at the truth of history, we must know it and we must understand it, and these are two very different things. We can know…
Everything isn’t racism
When RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki was asked if her force was systemically racist, she replied that she believed unconscious bias existed in the force but struggled with systemic racism. How…
An Optimist No More
I am a very lucky human being. I was born into the greatest period for a member of Homo sapiens to be alive, the peak of human civilization—the period following…
Glen and the Greens
I first took note of Glen Murray when he was mayor of Winnipeg. I was active in my community in inner city Calgary and Murray seemed to share my sense…
An Honourable Executive
Amazon is a corporation famous for a number of things: revolutionizing retail, making its founder and CEO the world’s richest man, and creating workplaces that resemble 19th century sweatshops. All…
Glen and the Greens
I first took note of Glen Murray when he was mayor of Winnipeg. I was active in my community in inner city Calgary and Murray seemed to share my sense…
An Optimist No More
I am a very lucky human being. I was born into the greatest period for a member of Homo sapiens to be alive, the peak of human civilization—the period following…
Imagine a World Without Us
Since a large slice of humanity went into hibernation to dodge the coronavirus, the world outside our habitats has changed. There is much less noise. Birdsong can be heard. The…
Conservatives Struggle with Science
When conservatives talk about “the elites,” and they talk about them a lot, it isn’t always clear who they are talking about. They certainly aren’t referring to the rich, who…