The Vancouver School Board (VSB) strives for excellence in educating students. At least that’s what its vision statement says. However, the VSB’s recent decision to cancel all of its math and science honours programs calls this commitment into question. Instead of...
Commentary
Pallister Passports
The Pallister government has recently announced a new tactic in its campaign to persuade more people to become vaccinated - immunization passports. Those carrying passports will not have to isolate for two weeks when returning to Manitoba. Proof of both doses of an...
Bishop Grandin Boulevard
There is a concerted effort in Winnipeg to rename Bishop Grandin Boulevard. The Mayor is in support. The Bishop has been convicted of a crime he didn’t know existed when he was alive a century or so ago - thinking like a man of his time. But Grandin would be doubly...
Raising Income Taxes, Instituting Wealth Taxes on the Affluent Will Hurt Growth, Prosperity and Jobs
Lately, calls by self-identified ‘progressives’ and others who purport to champion ‘equity’ and compelling everyone to pay their ‘fair share’ have grown louder; even more shrill and strident. It seems that ‘social justice warriors’ have rediscovered their previously...
Featured News
Recovidery – How to Make Canada Prosperous and Grow Again, Without Grandiose Statism
So far, all the federal government schemes and programs to ameliorate the devastation wrought by the ill-considered shutdown of the Canadian economy for nearly three months have focused on compensating individuals and businesses for being unemployed or shutting down....
The Past is a Foreign Country
Someone named Laila El Mugammar thinks about racism every time she stands up for the Canadian national anthem. This is because the composer of the song’s tune, the nineteenth-century Québeçois musician Calixa Lavallée, once founded a blackface minstrel group which...
The Future of Public Transportation Has Arrived – and It’s in Cleveland
Support for public transportation has grown significantly over the past decade in North America. Major transit expansions were key issues in the recent Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg elections, and ambitious plans were green lighted by voters in each of those...
Now is the Time to Harmonize Manitoba’s Provincial Sales Tax
Premier Sellinger’s decision to increase the provincial sales tax to 8 percent has hovered over provincial politics like a dark cloud for more than a year. The issue won’t go away. Sellinger himself admitted that the lingering unpopularity of the tax increase...
When Emissions Disappear, So Do Jobs
Following Barack Obama's recent visit to China, the White House issued a joint US-China climate announcement that says "China intends to achieve the peaking of C02 emissions around 2030." But that isn't news. A report published three-and-a-half-years ago and funded by...
First Nations Water Systems are Actually Improving
Deplorable water and sewage systems on many First Nations reserves are a real concern. This situation is exceptionally tragic when one considers that more than 90 percent of First Nations communities are located near or directly beside bodies of water. But what is...
Labour Laws Are Hampering Young People
Labour laws are meant to protect workers from exploitation and to ensure their safety, but closer examination shows that when it comes to teenagers, the laws are not always doing people a favour. Age restrictions for workers vary from province to province. In 2008,...
Another Climate Change Ransom Note
On November 2, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sent humanity a ransom note. In the words of the UK-based cartoonist known as Josh, its message was: "Give us trillions or you will fry!! There will be storms floods droughts winds and...
Time to Audit Elizabeth May
This month, Canada’s Green Party leader Elizabeth May published “Who We Are, Reflections on My Life and Canada”. It is an important book, because May is an energetic power broker in Ottawa, the provinces and abroad. Responsible for many powerful...
What We Can Learn from the City That Lost A Million Pounds
There are two types of people in Canadian cities: people who hate cars, and people who hate cyclists. Or so the perception goes. While it is true that many cities have seen bitter electoral feuds over bike lanes and urban sprawl, they are driven more by perception...
City Councillors Should Spend Their Office Budgets
Now that municipal election season is over in Manitoba and Ontario, city councillors are transitioning into the ordinary business of governing. One of the first tasks will be hiring office staff. Some councillors will be tempted to hire as little staff as possible to...