The minimum wage creates jobs—who knew?
With the election of conservative governments in Ontario and Alberta, progress on minimum wages in those provinces came to a screaming halt. In Ontario, the planned increase to $15 an…
Bill Longstaff
The Spirit of Democracy Shines in Hong Kong
The condition of democracy is much in debate these days as fascist-tinged populism manifests itself from the United States to South America to Eastern Europe. It is, therefor, encouraging to…
Let’s hope Andrew Scheer is right
The highly controversial (at least in Alberta and Saskatchewan) Bill C-69, which overhauls the federal environmental assessment process for major construction projects, has finally passed the Senate. The Conservatives are…
Kenny’s revealing prank
As a resident of Alberta, I am used to living under Conservative governments. Although I lean left, I can accept this with good grace. After all I am a democrat…
PR Isn’t Enough
Advocates of proportional representation (PR) make a powerful case. They claim that our current electoral system, first-past-the-post (FPTP), is not democratic. They are right. More often than not a political…
I’ll Trade You a Jason for a Greta
I am a democrat and therefor I must accept the election of Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party as government of my province. The UCP won convincingly, after all,…
The Senate—No Solution to Regional Alienation
Canada has always been a highly regionalized country—the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, B.C., all with varying interests and economies and, with Quebec at least, culture. One particular complaint is…
Global warming—the essential argument
The other day I had a conversation (argument) about global warming with my neighbour across the hall. He is adamant that we are not causing it. The science doesn’t impress…
Did the Chinese learn their trade antics from the U.S.?
The China/U.S. trade war heats up. The rest of us get dragged along willy-nilly. Nonetheless, there is a lot of sympathy for the American case. The Chinese have hardly walked…
Western Alienation? What Western Alienation?
It’s one of those times. Alberta is enduring an oil bust so “Western alienation” is back in the news. The word of interest here is “Western.” Although some Albertans may…
Tribalism and the global challenge
This, the 21st century, is a unique time in human history. It is unique in many ways, of course, but most importantly it is the first time in the history…
Open letter from an Albertan to his government
14 June 2019 The Honourable Sonya Savage, Minister of Energy Government of Alberta 324 Legislature Building 10800 – 97 Avenue NW Edmonton, AB Dear Minister: Recently I read in the…
Still here!
I must apologize to readers of this blog for allowing my posting to come to an abrupt end a couple of years ago without explanation. I got caught up in…
The Business Levy or Why I Support the Fraser Institute and You Do, Too
Two institutions hold the keys to the money vaults of the country. One is concerned about the welfare of society generally, the other about its own welfare only. One is…
Referendums or Citizens’ Assemblies?
Holding a referendum on whether to remain or leave the European Union was one of the dumber decisions in the long history of the British political class, as is becoming…
The Comprehensive Democrat
When we think about democracy we tend to focus on politics and government. These are rightly at the centre of democratic dialogue as they are our overarching social institutions, but…
The State of Democracy
There is, it seems, a war against democracy. I hesitate to use the word “war” as it tends to suffer from overuse these days—war on drugs, war on terrorism, etc—but…
World’s richest country and it can’t even do health care. Sad!
Watching the Americans thrash about trying to put together a decent health care system prompts much head-shaking and eyeball-rolling. The Republicans have bitched and moaned about Obamacare for seven years,…
You can’t educate Republicans on global warming
Many progressives believe that if the public were better informed about the science behind climate change, people would be more inclined to accept the reality of anthropogenic global warming. A…
Will Alberta revert to Social Credit?
In August, 1971, Alberta had its quiet revolution. For 36 years it had been governed by Social Credit, a largely rural-based, social-conservative party led for most of those years by…