Dumbing down Canadians
It started, perhaps, with the Economic Council of Canada. The Council, a Crown Corporation whose role was to conduct a wide range of economic and policy research for the federal…
Bill Longstaff
Will the Fraser Institute be audited?
Now that the federal government has allocated $8-million for the auditing of charitable groups ostensibly to ensure they stay within the Charities Act, one naturally wonders if this will include…
The Monroe Doctrine is dead
A new age has dawned in the Americas. The Monroe Doctrine, a policy established by the United States ostensibly to keep European imperialists out of the Western Hemisphere but which…
Albertans—more progressive than conservative
As Albertans face an election later this month and the Conservative Party is seriously challenged by an even more conservative party, the Wildrose Party, we might stop for a moment…
I know more about American political parties than 92 per cent of Americans
Don’t take my word for it. The Pew Research Center says so. All I did was take their quiz about the two major American political parties and answer all the…
The Mary Jane debt solution
The Spanish village of Rasquera is 1.3 million euros in debt, and with Spain’s battered economy, not much relief in sight. Until now. This week, Rasquera held a referendum and…
Baseball and that freedom of speech thing
Sports is a tribal business, and Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has upset his tribe. The outspoken Venezuelan had the audacity to express admiration for Fidel Castro in Time magazine.…
Marriage one man/one woman? Not in the Bible
Although gay marriage seems to have settled into acceptance in this country, it still meets with virulent opposition elsewhere, including in the United States. Certain of the candidates for the…
Americans increasingly support interracial marriage
At a time when Americans agonize over the shooting of Trayvan Martin in Florida, and racial tensions simmer, a Pew Research Center survey reveals at least one encouraging development. According…
My two cents on Calgary’s Peace Bridge
It’s finally done. Over budget and overdue, but it’s done. One of the most controversial pieces of infrastructure in Calgary’s history, the Peace Bridge, a pedestrian walkway over the Bow…
Co-op beats Spanish recession
As one of the PIGS, the four (or six) European countries whose dysfunctional economies are much in the news these days, Spain is perhaps not the place you would expect…
Alberta universities make illegal donations to Conservatives
Oh my, even the universities are doing it. According to the CBC, a number of Alberta’s post-secondary institutions, including Athabasca University and the University of Lethbridge, have been donating to…
Americans primed for Iran attack
According to recent surveys, Americans are in a dovish mood on Syria and Afghanistan, but that mood is tempered by a hawkish attitude toward Iran. Two-thirds say the United States…
The new capitalism—reward without risk
Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Peter Voser earned more than $15-million in pay and bonuses in 2011, more than double his remuneration for 2010. Last year also saw Shell increase…
The Alberta Advantage—for men only?
It seems the famous Alberta Advantage doesn’t apply to women. Alberta lags all other provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador in women’s wage parity with men. According to a report issued…
Peak oil? How about peak everything?
We are all familiar with the concept of peak oil. Oil is a non-renewable resource therefore at some point global production will reach its maximum capacity and then decline, creating…
Happy birthday, Douglas Adams
Today is Douglas Adams’ 60th birthday. Or it would be if he hadn’t been thoughtless enough to die in May of 2001, thereby depriving us of yet more of his…
Iran under siege … for 2,500 years
David Cameron hoisted himself onto the world stage once again, as he is wont to do, and declared Iran an international threat. This is rich coming from a British PM.…