War on Drugs
It’s hard to run a country with everyone squawking in your ear about how you have to be just like them, even if they are failures. The war on drugs…
Canada
A Senate page is fired for saying what most Canadians are saying
Senate page fired for anti-Harper protest - Politics - CBC News Brigette DePape, a Senate page, stood on the Senate floor during the Governor General's reading of the speech from…
Throne speech – “Stop Harper”
Updated: Presser from Brigitte Marcelle: “Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” Brigette Marcelle says. “We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets,…
The Social Determinants of Health
(Note: This post contains a portion of the talk that I gave last month at the 16th International Conference of the Association of Psychology and Psychiatry for Adults and Children…
UK Opposed to Europe’s Tar Sands Import Ban
tar sands.jpg While most European countries are working on a proposal that would effectively ban the use of Canadian tar sands in the European Union, the United Kingdom has made…
Apache Corp Pulls Out Of New Brunswick Gas Fracking Project
Fisk_Hallow_Fracking1-300x199.jpg Halifax’s Corridor Resources Ltd. has announced that Apache Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Houston’s Apache Corporation, is giving up on unconventional...
On the Quebec question: (4) Devolution
So far, I've argued that there are good reasons to favour Quebec's right to determine, on its own, whether to separate from Canada. One option that has come up under…
Canada supports 1967 borders after all despite blocking this position at G8
Faced with significant pressure, Harper's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has affirmed that Canada does, in fact, support Obama's position of using the 1967 borders with land swaps as a…
On the Quebec question: (3) Nationhood
Is Quebec a nation? Is Canada a nation? Can there be a nation within another nation? These are difficult points, but some committment on these issues seems to underlie both…
Once upon a time on the bald prairie
In 1935 a group of farmers in Regina, Saskatchewan pooled their savings, re-mortgaged their farms and build the Consumer Co-operative Refinery Limited (CCRL). CCRL is the oldest and largest co-operative…
Gas Prices Are Too Low
Everyone loves to talk about gas prices, but few can agree what to do about them. Pointless boycotts of local stations have no real impact on the price of gasoline…
On the Quebec question: (2) Self-determination
Yesterday, I suggested that objections to the definition of a "clear majority" in favour of separation as 50%+1 were insincere, and really masked forms of other objections. The first I…
On the Quebec question: (1) Clarity
(After this, I may just go ahead and write that Israel thing I've had kicking around in my head for a few years. While I'm stepping on landmines, I might…
Lather, Rinse; Repeat, as needed!
Apparently, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it… at least, 39.62% of the Canadians who took the time to vote believe it — all of it.
Who will Harper Appoint as Auditor General?
With Sheila Fraser’s 10 year term ending, Harper would have to appoint a new auditor general. For lack of a better system, the government is the one who appoints the…
Canada dutifully fulfills the US’s role towards Israel
Canadian policy and rhetoric has been staunchly pro-Israel for a long a time. It is a stance which, especially with Harper at the helm, arguably resulted in Canada's inability to…
Radio Without Boundaries: Tapping into the treasures of fictional ‘truths’ – An interview with Jonathan Goldstein
Jonathan Goldstein's work on CBC's Wiretap is something of an under-appreciated gem of Canadian public broadcasting.
Reconfiguring Democracy
Even when I was a kid (and, yes, they had indoor plumbing back then) I understood that democracy, as we embraced it, was something of a work in progress. It…
Five Feet of Fabulous!
Your colon, of course. What else? A funny, retro animation produced by the Canadian Cancer Society to start a colonversation on colon health. Also features a few fart gags and…
The left needs to reconsider public funding of parties
With Harper's recent majority it was inevitable that his party would start pushing through policies that were not politically possible when they only had a minority. The first major example…