Dagenais illustrates why women avoid politics
“If you can’t stand the heat, etc.” … the usual justification when one politician objects to the boorish behaviour of another. And no doubt MP Charmaine Borg heard a lot…
Bill Longstaff
Americans opt to mind their own business
For the first time since it began measuring the statistic 50 years ago, the Pew Research Centre reports that a majority of Americans believe the U.S. should mind its own…
Should women run the world?
Scientists at at the University of Pennsylvania have once again confirmed what we have always known intuitively. Men’s and women’s brains are wired differently. Maps of neural circuitry from one…
Pembina praises Ontario’s new energy plan
The Pembina Institute, one of the country’s leading environmental advocacy organizations, has good things to say about Ontario’s new long-term energy plan. In a press release this week, the Institute…
Omar sues
Justice has to date miserably failed Omar Khadr. It simply has not been a match for the vindictiveness of Washington and the callousness of Ottawa. Consequently his life continues to…
Canada-Australia climate axis—greatest threat to global security?
Prime Minister Harper once announced that the greatest threat to global security was terrorism. That was nonsense of course—every year, malaria kills approximately 660,000 people, mostly children, and AIDS 1,700,000…
U.S. feeds Japanese militarism
China, with its paltry aid to the Philippines and its announcement of a new air-defense zone over the East China sea, has not been making friends in its region these…
If you’re a democrat, instruct your MP to support Chong’s Bill
An opportunity to strike a blow for parliamentary democracy has suddenly arisen and all democrats should take advantage of it. On Thursday, Michael Chong, MP for Wellington-Halton Hills, will introduce…
Thou shalt not have an economy of exclusion and inequality
I am no fan of the Roman Catholic Church, nor can I avoid cringing at some of Pope Francis’s views, particularly on women, but occasionally I do have to applaud…
Parliament needs a science watchdog
Science has never been more important to the human race than it is today. We are faced with the two greatest threats in our history: catastrophic climate change combined with…
Does Canada’s knee-jerk loyalty benefit Israel?
Right on cue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked the new nuclear deal with Iran hardly before the ink was dry, calling it a “historic mistake,” stating he was not…
The Conservatives and the Republican disease
Being an inveterate reader, I frequently encounter something that is such a nice piece of writing it demands a second or third reading and occasionally even creates a pang of…
Era of sense of entitlement reaches U of C
CEOs loading up on compensation and perks, even if their companies are floundering, has become a commonplace of our era. This sense of entitlement has similarly been observed among various…
Calgarians are happy campers
If you were looking for a living definition of the expression “happy campers,” you might cast an eye on Calgary. According to an Ipsos Reid poll, almost ninety per cent…
Harper outshames Ford
Embarrassing our country more than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would seem to be an impossible task. Yet our prime minister has done just that. On November 12th, the federal government…
The elites display their conscience
The World Economic Forum (an elite organization in itself) recently released a study, The Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014, based on a survey of 1,592 leaders from academia, business,…
The U.S. and Sweden—a tale of two incarceration rates
Having just watched the documentary The House I Live In about the U.S. drug war, or more precisely about the abject failure of the U.S. drug war, I was intrigued…
Sun News and sewer journalism
When Sun News hires the infamous Ford brothers to do a TV show, decent people cringe, but they shouldn’t be surprised. Aping Fox News, as Sun Media are inclined to…
I’m waiting for an apology, Toronto
I admit to chuckling when Toronto first elected Rob Ford. While we here in Calgary, a city often accused by the uninformed of being a tad rednecked, chose the bright,…
Good news and bad news about climate change from Stanford U
First the bad news, even if it’s old news. Stanford University scientists report that not only is the Earth undergoing one of the largest climate changes since the dinosaurs disappeared,…