WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT CARING FROM YOUR MOM?
Mother’s Day 2021 got me wondering how we learn to be good caregivers – what lessons about caring did we learn from our own mothers? I asked friends and colleagues…
Generations
On Being a “Boomer”
Generations When I was growing up in the 1950s and onward there was not all this talk about generations that seems to have become a fascination of the last twenty…
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…
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…
‘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…
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…
Delaying Retirement: What Does it Mean for Younger Workers?
Since the announcement that his government was considering raising the eligibility age for Old Age Security (OAS), Stephen Harper has backed off slightly, assuring the public that such reforms are…