The 20-Something Birth Rates #nlpoli
As we told you a couple of weeks ago, it doesn’t look like the provincial government’s policy of paying cash for live births produced any improvement in the birthrate in…
demographics
The Limits of Demography
Here is a piece I wrote for today’s Globe Economy Lab re the Department of Finance report on the costs of an aging society. The key point is that the…
The Republican Party: SS Titanic and the coming iceberg
SS Republican aka Titanic The Tea Party is winning the battle to be captain on board the good ship Republican, but just as they are about to grasp the wheel…
End of Summer Polls: Trends
Polling is a long haul game. Jitters of points inside margins of errors don’t showcase who has different levels of support or who is the newest front runner in the…
Alberta-bound #nlpoli
This graph will likely cause some people to scratch their chins or heads. The reason is simple: it isn’t the story they’ve been told, namely the one that holds that…
New column day
Here, on why we shouldn’t limit the range of possible contenders in the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership race – and the number of supporters an outside candidate might need to reach…
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.…
a tiny glimpse into the ways our government serves the corporate and financial world, not the people of Canada
Some Key Areas Where Neoliberal Policy Undermines both the Industrial Economy and Canadian Democracy Under the Harper Regime, the investor class is constantly being protected at the expense of the…
While You Were Sleeping: Fed Policies Make It Easier to Hire a Cheaper You
A shorter version of this article appeared today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab Have you noticed how common it has become to talk about replacing workers with even…
Quebec Students: “Faire Leur Juste Part”
Simon Tremblay-Pepin, an emerging social policy scholar, has recently blogged here (in French) about Quebec tuition fees. He points out that, when one adjusts for inflation, Quebec tuition fees are…
Stapleton on Harper’s Proposed OAS/GIS Changes
John Stapleton has an opinion piece out on Prime Minister Harper’s proposed changes to Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). I find the following quote from…
Diane Finley’s Demographics
On CTV yesterday, human resources minister Diane Finley said (45 seconds into this interview): “As we go forward, we’re going to have three times the expense in Old Age Security…
Yup, there are more than…
… few Grit and Dipper lips smacking at the prospect of running against Harper on the issue of raising the retirement age to 67. While some of Harper’s holy pronouncements…
Smart Polling from EKOS: No Sign of Ontario Shifting to Tories
HIGHLIGHTS Click to Enlarge 37.8% LPO 30.6% PC 22.7% NDP 7.3% Green 1.6% other Direction of province (Ontario):59% right direction 41% wrong direction Direction of provincial government (Ontario):53% right direction…
Greatly Exaggerated Rumours, Jack Layton Edition
by matttbastard Michael Valpy addresses the current conventional wisdom that without Jack Layton, the NDP — and Canada’s left — is now doomed, doomed, DOOMED! Ahem. Sorry ’bout that. Now,…
Labour crunch coming
Only the naive or the demented would portray the looming labour crunch in the province as a “tremendous opportunity”. A report released on Wednesday by the provincial human resources department…
Population drops in NL again
Recent population figures from Statistics Canada suggest the recession is over and things are getting back to normal. Population in Newfoundland and Labrador dropped in the last quarter primarily due…