Nothing is sacred. In times of a world war or a Great Depression, balanced budgets at any cost would be undesirable. But the Conservative defense of deficits is, as of now, indefensible.
Year: 2008
Settling Old Debts
Despite the recent establishment of a tribunal for settling specific claims, Canada still requires an expedited process that moves towards a final filing deadline for all specific land claims.
Sun & Pacific Ocean: Elephants in the Room for Prairie Grain?
Describing the factors associated with drought on the Canadian Prairies and their impact.
Megacity, Schmegacity – It’s Time For The Microcity!
The megacity was supposed to be more efficient and less costly, with a new arrondisement system that promised suburban-style service for everyone. But even with the best intentions, it’s just created more layers of arrondo-bureaucracy, piled atop mega-bureaucracy, piled atop blue-collar-ocracy. It’s become obvious that bigger is not more efficient. It’s slower, more bureaucratic and less friendly.
Featured News
Promote Equity by Providing a Quality Education
Earlier this year, a group called Equity Matters asked the province to establish an education equity secretariat. They want this office to oversee equity officers working in Manitoba schools. Equity Matters wants to ensure that all Manitoba students are reflected in...
Why Frances Widdowson Matters
Frances Widdowson probably isn't someone most Canadians recognize. I'm here to tell you why they should. In terms of Canada's intellectual culture, Frances Widdowson matters because she is a classic and prolific academic. In a time when demagoguery easily flourishes,...
Affordable Housing No Accident In Houston
Houston’s great strength has been its ability to stop political and commercial elites from capturing control and denying Houstonians the ability to make their own decisions about how and where they wish to live and work. It is indeed “the people’s city.”
Province Rethinking Nitrogen Removal
The Doer government wants to take a second look at whether removing nitrogen from Winnipeg’s waste water is worth the huge cost. The move is an about-face for the province, which has steadfastly maintained nitrogen should be removed from waste water along with phosphorus and ammonia. The review comes as many in the scientific community say nitrogen removal is costly and will have little impact on reducing pollution in Lake Winnipeg, where Winnipeg’s waste-water pollution eventually ends up via the Red River.
ER Mismanagement Can Be Fatal
Lengthy waits, failure to adapt cause morbidity and mortality.
Medicare Takes A Back Seat
Canadians need to stop kidding themselves that they live in a country with one-tier medicare, where taxpayers foot the bill for each other and everyone gets looked after eventually, Walberg adds. The reality is more “murky, very murky” and has given rise in the last five years to a number of private clinics that bill provincial insurance plans for “medically necessary” care and bill patients for extras.
$2,280 in ‘Ralph bucks’ or $2 Billion Buried in the Ground?
The possible and practical uses for $2 billion are almost endless.
The Waiting Is The Hardest Part
“It would be reasonable to expect that health care would be a major campaign issue,” the CMA said in an article on its website last week, “yet the five political parties … have been remarkably silent.”
Literacy More Than Pen and Paper
Computers challenge old ideas.
The Smart Growth Bailout?
Yet the bottom line remains: Without smart growth’s land rationing policies, the severe escalation in home prices would never have reached such absurd levels. But the disaster in the highly regulated markets will be with us for years. The smart growth spike in housing prices turned what might have been a normal cyclical downturn into the most disastrous financial collapse since 1929. Now the taxpayers are being asked to bail out the mess that smart growth advocates, no doubt inadvertently, have created.
An Exclusive Interview with Czech President Vaclav Klaus
It is no surprise then that Klaus views global warming quotas and promises by politicians as a means of inflicting untested ideas “in the form of market controls” on the international economic engine. This, Klaus says, “gives new life to top down government and controls over people’s lives.”