Who’s Driving? A Response to 4Front Atlantic’s GPS for Atlantic Canada
What we are all looking for…is the readymade, competent man ; the man whom some one else has trained. It is only when we fully realize that our duty, as…
elementalpresent
One benefit of getting older…
…is that you age your way out of the generational gaze. You know the one. The one that fixes on everything younger than 30 or 40, and can’t see anything…
How to Critique Wealth Inequality without Caring about Poor People
This video on wealth inequality in the United States is currently making the rounds on social media – in my universe anyway – and it got me thinking. It has…
‘Hipster’ is not a real job. Neither is not having a job.
Last week, the CCPA released a report (authored by yours truly) about youth un- and underemployment in Canada. It showed that, while youth unemployment in Canada is not insubstantial –…
The Pot and the Kettle
In several previous posts, I’ve made passing reference to the idea that every generation doubts or outright disparages the “work ethic” of the one following it into the workforce. Conducting…
Let’s not get carried away with Helicopter Parents
University and college classes start today for one of the most cash-strapped, debt-burdened, under-employed cohorts of post-secondary students this country has ever seen. But that’s not the story. Instead, on…
“Gotta Spend Money to Make Money”… or is it “Make Money to Save Money?”
“Young people want to retire early and spend, too”. That’s the main finding of a survey commissioned by the Bank of Montreal, released today in newspapers across the country. The…
How to Eliminate Tuition Fees (and do it right)
Quebec student group CLASSE has come forward with an offer of what it would take to end their almost four-month strike: the elimination of tuition fees by 2016. The plan…
The Real Culture of Dependency: In Defense of Atlantic Canada
This post is co-authored with Brian Foster “Is the EI system making it more attractive to not work?” That’s the (attempt at) thought-provoking (or fire-stoking) title of a recent National…
On Strike from Life as we Know it
The Quebec Government just announced a “special law” intended to bring an end to the 14-week student strike in that province. The law would postpone the rest of this semester…
Why work?
I was raised up believing I was somehow unique Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d…
Making Sense of Youth Voter Apathy OR Why Youth Voter Apathy Makes Sense
I’m 28, and I’ve voted in every federal election since I was old enough to do so. Yet I understand why the majority of people my age didn’t, and won’t,…
“Twelve Going on Thirty” OR “Is the Globe and Mail the Worst Newspaper Yet?”
What do I have in common with a 12-year-old? Other than being alive, right now, in the same world, I’d like to wager ‘not a whole lot.’ Yet psychologist Jean…
Now, to let the money start rolling in…
You’ve likely seen at least one list, published in a newspaper’s ‘business’ section, of tips for how to manage that unruly influx of “young punks” wreaking havoc on workplaces around…
What do Bruce Springsteen, KONY2012 and Occupy have to do with one another?
This is a guest blog, courtesy of Brian Foster. Now, no shells ripped the evening sky No cities burning down No army stormed the shores for which we’d die No…
The Feminization of Pinterest
Pinterest, I’ve discovered, is something you learn by doing. And by “doing”, I mean getting sucked in to the site, like Alice going down the rabbit hole, picture-by-picture, pin-by-pin, only…
Questioning “The Prophet Drummond”
In the Commission report that bears his name, and in all of his media appearances since its release, Banker Don Drummond has ably played the disinterested expert, taking no pleasure…
Waging or Resisting Unwinnable Wars: A Response to Donald Gutstein
Across Canada and every other place where austerity has become a household term, the idea of generational conflict has come out of retirement (pun intended). In Canada, intergenerational issues and…
And now, for something completely different: A Lesson in Spanish, Civility, Hypocrisy and General Douchebaggery with Ezra Levant and Sun News
A few weeks back, Ezra Levant dropped the F-bomb on television. Well, more or less. He did it in Spanish, in the phrase “Chinga tu Madre.” It means what you…
State of the Union: Part 1 of 2
Unions, in Canada and the world over, are facing perhaps their biggest battle of the last eighty-odd years. Not only are they fighting to protect workers against governments and employers…