The Lambda Fifth Columns: Part 2 (of 4), Winter 1972
This is the second part of a new series of Fifth Columns featuring my columns from 1971 to 1973 in the Laurentian University student newspaper Lambda, that inspired me to…
competition
The Election Issue That Dare Not Speak It’s Name
What election am I referring to – whatever one is next in whatever jurisdiction you are in. Yes I am talking about that which we dare not speak – the…
The Election Issue That Dare Not Speak It’s Name
What election am I referring to – whatever one is next in whatever jurisdiction you are in. Yes I am talking about that which we dare not speak – the…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Maxime Taquet, John Geddes, Masud Husain, Sierra Luciano and Paul Harrison study the broad and severe neurological impacts of the coronavirus. Pamela Downe…
Oil Industry Disses the Free Market
The free market, who needs it. Not the oil industry obviously. Not the industry nor the governments that depend on its largesse for royalties and taxes. We just had a…
Three Card Monte in LaLaLand
Corus Entertainment is buying Shaw Media in $2.65B deal Acquisition ‘redefines Corus and Canada’s media landscape,’ president/CEO says The Canadian Press Posted: Jan 13, 2016 7:20 AM ET Same…
A Competition and Journal Looking Into Philosophy and Games
Games are a very popular cultural medium with a reputation for not being very “deep”. Game Praxis is a new project I’ve co-founded to encourage game makers and players to…
Grocery Wars: Lessons from Canada’s Changing Retail Landscape
As Target Canada tumbled into bankruptcy, Loblaw announced that its fourth-quarter profits more than doubled. What can be learned from this tale of two retailers? The main reason for Loblaw’s…
Rental Housing in Yellowknife
Yesterday I blogged about rental housing in Yellowknife, over at the Northern Public Affairs web site. Specifically, I blogged about a recent announcement by the city’s largest for-profit landlord that…
More to Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations than meets the neoliberal eye
When we think of Adam Smith, the great Scottish philosopher and economist, and his seminal book The Wealth of Nations, we are inclined to think of free markets, individual self-interest,…
The NSA Scandal is all about Economics
Back in 1998, I wrote a lengthy investigative feature for The Financial Post about Canada’s signals intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), and its post-Cold War role. You can…
The Blackberry mess and what Canada needs
Another year, another dead Canadian tech giant. Blackberry was sold yesterday for scrap to the Toronto private equity firm Fairfax. The purchase price of $4.7 billion is essentially valued at…
Private Hospitals in Specialty Clinic Clothing
The provincial government’s mid-summer announcement that regulations under the Independent Health Facilities (IHF) Act will be drafted to permit “specialty clinics” raises some serious concerns. Changes in the LHINS enabling…
Glass-House Mortgages
A letter appears in today’s Globe and Mail in response to recent direction given by Minister Flaherty to private mortgage lenders over mortgage rates. The letter was written by Steve…
A Conservative Canada Is An Uncompetitive One
It’s odd that Conservatives advocate competition in the economy when under this Conservative government our economy has only become less competitive. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently lowered Canada’s…
Health Facility License Auction Health Cost Driver
It seems so obvious in hindsight: if you want to know what is going on in business-side of community medicine look where doctors look – the classified section of The…
Canada’s Economic Problem is NOT High Wages
Bill Curry reports in today’s Globe that, at last year’s economic policy retreat, business leaders urged Finance Minister Flaherty to reduce the pay of “overpriced” Canadian workers, including through anti…
Canada’s Self-Imposed Crisis in Post-Secondary Education
On June 7, I gave a keynote address to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Education Sector Conference. My PowerPoint presentation (with full references) can be found at this link.…
The Rise of the Casino Economy
I was on a road trip recently, driving through the American south, and ended up coming face to face with the economics of gambling. The friend I was travelling with…