A press release by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy caught my eye this week. The respected western Canadian think-tank was offering its clients “the case for ending compulsory membership in student unions in Canada’s universities and colleges.”
Media Appearances
No to Mandatory Student Unions
A new study released today by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP), a think tank based in the Prairie provinces, criticizes student unions in general and especially the practice of “mandatory student unionism.”
How Do We Assess Kids Without Tests?
Alberta has the most comprehensive standardized testing in Canada. Our students also consistently outperform pupils in other provinces on international achievement tests. Yet Alberta Premier Alison Redford wants to ditch provincial achievement tests (PATs) for Grade 3 and 6 students.
Climate Change ‘Skeptic’ Concludes World is Warming: Global warming study partly funded by owner of Manitoba fertilizer plant
A physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and self-described global warming “skeptic” has just completed a major global temperature study, concluding that the world has been warming by 1 C since the mid-1950s.
Featured News
Military Conquest is Meaningless Without True Social Renewal
The hasty, defeatist and craven withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August has compelled the so-called “civilized” Western nations and their leaders to confront the failures and errors of the past 20 years, which resemble those of earlier conflicts....
What Life Looks Like Outside COVID-19 Hysteria
Travel and work over the past two years have brought me to many different jurisdictions. What continues to strike me is the way the responses to COVID-19 have been varied, arbitrary and often draconian. I look back at Canada and see raging debates over mask mandates,...
It’s No Longer Cheap to Live in Regina
Regina is no longer one of the most affordable places to live, according to a new survey. On Wednesday the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP) released the 5th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, which rated housing affordability in 34...
Metro Housing Costs Among The Highest In The World: Global City Survey
Protecting green spaces, either to conserve farm land or create parks, “is indeed a lofty and sensible goal,” Angel writes in the preface, but “the protection of open space is not without cost.”
Housing Affordability Falls
Housing affordability has eroded dramatically in Saskatchewan's two major cities during the last two years, says an international survey released by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Saskatoon is classified by the centre as seriously unaffordable, with a survey...
Book Targets Aboriginal Culture
The book challenges the use of government grants for aboriginal interests, on the grounds there really is no such thing as aboriginal culture.
Not So Affordable Anymore
RISING house prices have eroded Winnipeg’s international standing as an affordable place to buy a home, a new study has found.
Canada Needs to Rethink Equalization: MacKinnon
Canada’s 52-year-old equalization system is producing chronically dependent ‘have-not’ provinces and financially crippled ‘have’ provinces and should be scrapped, says a former policy adviser to the Nova Scotia and Ontario governments.
Polar Bear Summit Allows Media In, But Not Churchill
Environment Canada loosened restrictions Thursday on media access to a federal summit on polar bears in Winnipeg today, but the mayor of Canada’s polar bear capital said he’s disappointed he was not included. “I think they’re sending the wrong message by not including us… The biologists indicate the numbers are down, but we don’t see it, in all fairness,” he said. The summit will focus on the future of the iconic Canadian mammals, which some scientists say are in decline and some Inuit groups argue remain at healthy levels for harvesting.
Public Needs Say on Sewage Costs
In China, 2009 is the year of the ox. For those living in the capital region, the next 12 months might be the year of the elephant, and a rogue elephant at that. On the order of the provincial government, a new wastewater system must be chosen by year's end. The...
Per-Vote Subsidies Still Provoking Debate
However, Canadians are divided about whether they want to support political parties with their tax dollars. And they are particularly unclear about whether the per-vote subsidies, which were introduced by the Liberals in 2003 to offset a ban on corporate and union donations, are a good thing.