There aren’t many things that can’t be bought for $21 billion. Australia’s Sydney Airport is one of those things. This week the board of directors of the privately-operated, stock exchange-listed airport turned down a AUS$22.8 billion buyout offer from a consortium of...
A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, the only thing keeping Air Canada alive is the federal-government bailouts. They are delaying the inevitable and sensible way out: cutting travel restrictions, encouraging tourism by ensuring effective containment and...
One of the most notable features of Nazi regime in Germany was its anti-intellectualism. While it claimed to be in the forefront of scientific and technical advances, its ideology and totalitarian rule made free enquiry and interchange between scientists and other...
It is not entirely clear whether the Canadian and the global economies are heading for a new inflationary era. It may turn out that inflation is not only elevated from recent negligible levels, but escalates, steadily at first, and then dramatically, as it did in the...
Modern democracy is the crucible in which conflicts, grievances, rights, privileges, and power have been melded to produce a period of unprecedented peace following World War II, a period that gave rise to capitalism, to globalization, and to the vision of a global...
Canadian universities had been shut down since March because of the COVID-19 virus. Yet, during the first week of classes in September, university professors went on a two-day “Scholar Strike” to protest against “anti-black violence.” One wonders why this strike...
Citing U.S. Department of Energy data, the New York Times recently reported that the solar industry employs far more Americans than wind or coal: 374,000 in solar versus 100,000 in wind and 160,000 in coal mining and coal-fired power generation. Only the natural gas...
Artists, inventors, and organizations of all stripes are joining hands on Wednesday April 26 to celebrate the contributions that Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) have made in driving limitless human innovation. According to the World Intellectual Property...
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority was established in the mid-1990s and it has grown into a massive, complex bureaucracy. Its budget is approaching $3 billion. Its many activities range from operating a central laundry to establishing standards while operating a...
Like post-secondary institutions in colonialized countries, the first Canadian universities had strong ties to religious institutions and to the alma maters of what their academics saw as their mother countries. By the late 1960s, secularity had become the norm, but...
We know our population is aging, and a recent study by the University of Manitoba shows the province could need up to 5,000 personal care home beds by 2030, or approximately 300 to 350 beds per year. If we are successful in solving some of the patient-flow problems...
It seems every time we watch the news these days, there is some item about ambulances being unable to unload patients at the emergency room, or about ER wait times increasing or failing to meet some arbitrary target. We all remember Gary Doer’s promise to end "hallway...
It often seems as though it is impossible to have a non-emotional discussion about health care because the issues are frequently distorted for political reasons. So what is the state of health-care delivery in Canada and Manitoba compared with other industrialized...
Attawapiskat First Nation — an isolated Northern Ontario reserve — played a prominent role in the Idle No More indigenous protest movement that erupted in 2012. Then Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence complained to the media about unacceptable housing conditions on her...
Hospitals in Canada consume about 30 per cent of health care spending, and are funded using a model known as block or global funding. This model results in a fixed or global amount of funding being distributed to the hospital. In return, the hospital is expected to...