In our habitual government-bashing, we sometimes overlook the splendid contributions made to our society by our civil servants. Such a contribution, manifesting integrity and commitment to public service at its…
Finally, a victory for that cheerful harbinger of spring, the common dandelion. The Alberta government has removed the little yellow fellow from the list of noxious weeds in the province's…
The search for a better measure of standard of living just got a big boost with the launch of Your Better Life Index by the OECD. The need for an…
Recognizing that the Earth's biological resources are essential to humanity's economic and social welfare, yet species and ecosystems are threatened as never before, the United Nations established The Convention on…
At the end of the Second World War, the Americans and their allies captured a pack of Nazis, an assortment of the most evil men on Earth. They could have…
Consider two events and the responses to these events by two different governments. The events are remarkably similar. A party is elected to government at a time when the economy…
The NDP scored a number of firsts for itself in the 2011 election: the first time with seats in the triple digits, the first time as Official Opposition, the first…
Stephen Harper has long had two goals, a short-term goal of winning a majority government and a long-term goal of destroying the Liberal Party. Last night he achieved the first…
It wouldn't surprise anyone if they were told that the rich have more influence on government than the rest of us. Some scholars in the U.S. have gone further than…
As politicians of all sorts battle another election down to the wire, I'd like to pay my respects to one of the best. Allan Blakeney died April 16th leaving behind…
If you were to suggest that the most powerful man in British political politics today was Prime Minister David Cameron, I would respectfully disagree. I would suggest it is Britain's…
Two items in the news recently underlined the old difficulty of agreeing on who is a terrorist. Last week a court in The Hague found Ante Gotovina, a Croatian commander…
For a capsule look at the various parties' environmental platforms from the perspective of an environmental research group focusing on energy, the Pembina Institute offers the following: Bloc Québécois: The…
According to a poll by ABC News, 76 per cent of Americans oppose their Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to grant corporations the same rights as individuals when it comes to…
According to ancient Andean spirituality, the fertility goddess Pachamama is at the centre of all life. Pachamama has inspired the Bolivian government to pass legislation, entitled the Law of Mother…
What kind of creature are we, we Homo sapiens? According to a recent study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, we may be among the half dozen most…
Whether you think Bradley Manning is a good guy or a bad guy will depend to a large extent on your political persuasion, those on the left opting for the…
With revolution all the rage, so to speak, in the Middle East, pundits have been pondering the prospects of similar passions being sparked elsewhere. Inevitably China, the blossoming superpower on…
If anyone still believes we are going to save ourselves from environmental catastrophe, the U.S. Congress is doing its best to disabuse us of our optimism. It has mounted a…
If George W. Bush did anything worthwhile as president, it was extending daylight saving time (DST) for an extra few weeks. Now the Russians have gone him one better—much better.…
