There is wisdom in the longstanding adage about offering unsolicited advice, which is independent of whether the advice given is good, bad or petty. This is because it’s difficult to offer unsolicited advice without actively joining or appearing to join, a busybody...
Danielle Smith interviews Dr. Marco Navarro-Génie and Dr. Barry Cooper, senior research fellows at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy about their new book The Politics of Pandemic Moral Panic. (16 minutes) Listen to the interview here
COVID-19 The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic explores the political and social responses that have been tributary to the medical responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is a moral panic? The term was introduced by Stanley Cohen in his 1972 book, Folk Devils...
COVID-19 The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic explores the political and social responses that have been tributary to the medical responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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...
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...
Grabbing money with both hands (and not letting go) is the image that sums up the essence of what the California mega project to build a high speed train from Sacramento to San Diego is all about. Currently guesstimated at $68 billion, of which only $12 billion appear...
Listening to Alberta Minister of Education Jeff Johnson, one would think that he was a modern visionary in education. His vision, however, as he has himself acknowledged, is half-baked: “There is a vision developing,” he's been quoted to say in the context of...
Calgary City Council may be close to adopting an idea that would make parking in Downtown Calgary somewhat easier, reduce parking prices, improve traffic, and reduce tail pipe emissions. Nearly two years ago, Frontier published a backgrounder entitled The price is...
I think Barry Cooper is correct in saying that Alberta's minister of advanced education is mostly clueless about the goal of universities. I myself am on record against the minister's desire to establish dominion over our universities in Alberta, but I am not...
Alberta’s Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk is correct in saying that universities need changing, but incorrect in wanting to be the one to direct such change. Such approach risks making universities weaker and more vulnerable to decay.
Love him or hate him, one has to admit that Ralph Klein was a remarkable politician.
In their dealings with teachers and doctors, the Alberta government of Alison Redford is showing preference to one group and derision to another. But before we get into the arguments, let me state two things right off the bat: I have nothing against paying people...
A summary of Tom Flanagan’s remarks at the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit convened by Alison Redford, the premier of Alberta, and held at Mount Royal University on February 9, 2013. Flanagan compared Alberta’s fiscal situation today with the situation Ralph Klein and Jim Dinning dealt with 20 years ago.
Last week’s Alberta Economic Summit was an interesting exercise. The panels of experts presented some sound economic ideas and generated some lively discussion. The interventions from state clients were less interesting because they had not much to say about how to resolve the current problems and because they were unabashedly self-serving. The public sector union reps and heads of public-funded charities predictably wanted more spending and more hiring. One of them, a woman representing the Boys and Girls Club, was shamefully unprepared, quoting wrong facts and making pronouncements without much of an idea of the historical record. Case in point, she claimed that the non-profit sector didn’t exist a century ago. You would think that someone high up in the non-profit sector would know a little of the history of voluntary organizations such as the Salvation Army or the Boys Scouts.
Alberta’s Premier Alison Redford addresses the audience at the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit on 9 February 2013 at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
As an exercise, in and of itself, the Summit was a good thing. As a political tool, it may have bought the premier the room that she needs to convey to Albertans the impression that she is doing something about the economy. Whether the Summit will have any practical benefit remains to be seen. Touted as the First Annual Alberta Economic Summit, it opens the probability that there may be more of them. And if so, their institutionalization can result in creating a specific place for discussing policy ideas that might result in tangible impact.
But the idea was culled in a hurry from political necessity, more than economic need or historical tradition. I say historical tradition because we should not forget that Social Credit wanted and tried to institute government by experts. The experts would create the policy and the politicians would put it into place. Parts of what took place last Saturday exhibited shades of that colourful Alberta past, the premier would be horrified to admit.
I must give credit to the premier for having sat through the proceedings all day, sometimes listening to ideas critical of her doings and undoings, and lack of doing in some instances. I thought that subjecting herself and her MLAs (perhaps most ministers) to the process showed an uncharacteristic amount of humility, for which the premier is not known. It was either humility or meeting a strategic demand in practical politics. Either way, Redford is deserving of credit for it. But it is difficult for me to imagine that the premier will agree to subject herself to the same thing each and every year.