As the Conservative government lops thousands of jobs off the payroll, the cost of the average federal employee will continue to climb and could hit nearly $130,000 by 2015, says a report by Canada’s budget watchdog.
Year: 2012
Obama’s Walt Disney energy policies: Wishes upon stars won’t make energy dreams come true – but will bring nightmares
President Obama and the radical environmentalists who helped him win a second term seem to believe that, if only they wish hard enough, they can make the sun, wind, waves, algae and fields of corn replace fossil fuels as the world’s primary energy sources.
Man Made Global Warming Disproved
It takes only one experiment to disprove a theory. The climate models are predicting a global disaster, but the empirical evidence disagrees. The theory of catastrophic man-made global warming has been tested from many independent angles.
A second Trojan Horse in U.N. climate change negotiations boosted in Doha, Qatar
"The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy" by Domenico Tiepolo (1773), inspired by Virgil's Aeneid Despite lamentations from impatient climate campaigners, the United Nations Climate Change Conference just completed in Doha has significantly advanced the dangerously...
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Our Health Ministers Need to Take a Lesson from Hockey Coaches
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Zinchuk: Oilpatch Only Spending Half What It Spent in 2014
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
Higher Prices, Less Choices; Let’s Reject Cartels
Imagine you and your business partners tried to corner the Canadian market for light bulbs. You conspired to control production and divvy up the market to inflate prices. Cartels like this are illegal in Canada. And there are tough criminal penalties if you’re caught – fines of up to $25-million and 14 years in jail under the Competition Act.
Cigarette-smuggling: The urge to smurf
THE busy interstate highway that zips through Richmond, Virginia, and up to the crowded cities of the north-east has long been a conduit for handguns bought wholesale in Virginia and sold to drug-dealers in New York. Now I-95 is siphoning northwards another form of contraband: black-market cigarettes.
Child welfare should always come above politics
The Manitoba NDP government should be praised for its decision to appoint an interim administrator over the Southern First Nations Network of Care, an umbrella organization overseeing 10 aboriginal child and family service agencies.
Catalonian Calls for Independence Increase: Regional Politician in Spain Causes Headaches for Prime Minister Rajoy With Pledge to Seek Referendum After Elections
Sunday’s elections in Catalonia could put the wealthy northern region on a path toward independence, possibly triggering a constitutional crisis in austerity-weary Spain.
New York Times’ Krugman off-base on GOP’s climate stance
Paul Krugman tells us in his Nov 22 OpEd “Gand Old Planet” that the Republican Party denies science, or, in Krugman’s words, they use the approach:
“If evidence seems to contradict faith, suppress the evidence.”
But one of the primary examples he uses to bolster his stance is so childish as to be laughable. Indeed, it demonstrates that Krugman, a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, is totally out of his depth commenting about the state of modern climate science.
A “Pinko Commie” Former Toronto City Councilor Talking Sense On Taxes
Those of you who follow municipal politics may recall hearing of Adam Giambrone. Giambrone is a former chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, and former mayoral candidate. While his campaign was derailed by some relatively minor personal issues, he is still seen as a young, up and comer in Toronto’s political community. But Giambrone has penned a recent article that should remind us all that people who are derided as “pinko commies” sometimes have good ideas about economic policies.
Indian Act changes in omnibus bill deserve attention
Much alarm is being expressed about proposed changes to the Indian Act in the omnibus budget bill. Much of this rhetoric is overdone or just plain wrong, but there are concerns about the changes, even if the changes respond to legitimate problems approving projects on reserves.
Globe and Mail columnist misguided on climate and energy
Globe and Mail columnist Jeffery Simpson should not so easily accept official dogma on climate change and energy. He also needs to seriously investigate the popular though misguided belief that fossil fuel companies receive government subsidies.
Can Goldman Sachs help the homeless?
A few blocks from where I work, there’s a guy who lives on a sidewalk in the Financial District. That guy is incredibly expensive. For the amount we pay in social services to keep him alive, he could practically move into the Ritz. The yearly cost of caring for a homeless person with substance abuse and mental issues (that is, most of them) ranges from $55,000 up to $134,000, according to various research studies.