Competing priorities
March 7, 2012 | No Comments
Regular readers of this blog might have picked up on my penchant for writing about the importance of voting. It’s boring or irrelevant to most people, I know, but I continue to be convinced of the need to increase turnout at the polls. So naturally, the robocall scandal has captured my attention. Whether it is [...]
Robocalls robbing our right to vote?
March 5, 2012 | 2 Comments
Imagine that every morning, you buy a double double at Tim Hortons. You purchase it with a pre-loaded card so you can conduct the transaction with speed and without hassles. This has been the way for as long as you can remember. But lately, there’s a guy outside the door when you arrive. He heckles [...]
Votes and voices suppressed
February 26, 2012 | 3 Comments
At last year’s Canadian Association of Journalists’ Annual Conference, one of the panels was a post-mortem on the recently held federal election. The panelists (Chantal Hebert, Elly Alboim and Jeff Sallott and Paul Adams of the Globe and Mail) debated the question of whether it could be called “the Twitter election”. The panelists addressed this [...]
Abortion and the right way to kill our daughters
February 22, 2012 | 8 Comments
Recently, the Canadian Medical Association Journal made some waves with an editorial arguing in favour of regulations that would effectively ban sex-selective abortion. The desire to fight the misogyny associated with female feticide was quickly embraced by the population, as opinion polls showed that a clear majority of Canadians would support laws criminalizing sex-selective abortion. In [...]
Smears? Meaner political discourse in Ottawa?
February 20, 2012 | No Comments
When messages appeared on Twitter about details of the divorce of Canada’s minister of public safety, I thought nothing of it. Unlike most of my friends and acquaintances, I have not signed up. Then, thestar.com published this column and Calgary Herald published this column. I prefer the tenor of Kris Kotarski to Tim Harper. Politicians [...]
Ontario to rid itself of full-day kindergarten
February 10, 2012 | 4 Comments
This is (potentially) tremendously good news: Love it or hate it, the government’s costly new full-day kindergarten program is on the chopping block. Don Drummond will propose axing the all-day school program for tots in his much anticipated report on ways to control government spending, a senior Queen’s Park source says. Drummond, a former TD [...]
The human cost of manufacturing our iPhones
January 26, 2012 | 10 Comments
Canada has fared relatively well during the current economic crisis. There are many reasons why, as many as why the U.S. has suffered so much. One factor shielding Canada is also something that people lament: a lack of a substantial manufacturing base. This extends to an innovation or productivity gap. So while Canada has definitely [...]
So is dual citizenship really dangerous?
January 19, 2012 | 8 Comments
The more I think about it, the more the issue of citizenship seems to beg greater discussion than the rhetoric thrown around when political parties want to attack their competitors. (Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful comments on the previous post.) And the debate is unavoidable, since globalization continues to advance it. So Andrew Coyne [...]
More than one nationality is dangerous
January 17, 2012 | 5 Comments
The question of citizenship in political office has re-emerged. NDP MP Thomas Mulcair also holds French citizenship, which he secured through his wife, who was born in France. Perhaps this is just the Sun newspaper chain agitating the issue in a slow news period, as protest is minimal. Nevertheless, the question of dual citizenship pops [...]
How to make housing affordable
January 10, 2012 | 4 Comments
Give people money. The provincial and federal governments are giving the City of Ottawa (among other municipalities, I would imagine) millions of dollars to fund housing for the poor. City staff are suggesting, typically, that the best way to help the poor is by funneling such funds to corporations – either by aquiring or building [...]