A former judge from Manitoba who compared rights of status Indians to a gravy train in an opinion column for a Thunder Bay newspaper earlier this month says it was meant to be taken as satire. And Brian Giesbrecht is surprised no one saw it that way. “It was satire...
Michael Zwaagstra is interviewed by Peter Watt on Alberta Morning news about no-zero policies.
Why are we last? It's a question many people are asking after test results showing Manitoba students are getting the lowest grades in the country in math, science and reading. Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and policy researcher with the Frontier Centre...
Education researcher Michael Zwaagstra has a new handbook out from the Frontier Centre. Parents’ Guide to Common Sense Education in Saskatchewan covers issues ranging from standardized testing to report cards and teaching strategies. What issues are the most critical...
The Canadian Dream is increasingly being realized in smaller areas For decades, Canadians moved to the larger cities (census metropolitan areas, or CMAs) with their economic opportunities. The latest estimates indicate that CMAs have 72 per cent of the nation’s...
When the Premiers were first called to a sit-down lunch to talk about healthcare with Prime Minister Trudeau, there was plenty of talk about the potential for systemic change, innovation and accountability. It seemed that Canadians and their leaders were finally on...
Many school boards and bureaucrats have decided that it’s best to never give a ‘zero’ grade -regardless of whether kids even hands in assignments.
Queen’s University Prof. John Smol is right to say that it’s “discouraging how slowly the science seems to have been translated into public policy and public opinion.” If science was driving climate policy, then we would have no carbon dioxide regulations at all since the global warming scare is so weak scientifically.
An Ontario-based energy industry analyst is warning about similarities between the Muskrat Falls hydro plan and a Manitoba project whose costs have spiralled well above budget.
A little more than a year after New Brunswick brought in its distracted driving law, police say motorists are slipping back into their old habits of texting, talking and fiddling with electronic devices while on the road.
Enact a ban on distracting behaviours behind the wheel — cellphones, makeup, eating, etc. — and you’ll create a safe-driving utopia. Simple as that, right? Not so fast. While proponents would like to suggest that a law will simply change behaviours, the reality is far different.
A new study calls into question the efficacy of distracted driving laws that ban the use of cellphones while driving. The report, released Friday by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, provides further evidence that, not only are distracted driving laws ineffective, they might actually be doing more harm than good.
Vancouver may no longer be eligible for inclusion among the world’s top 10 best places to live. But it can claim one distinction: It has the worst traffic congestion in Canada — and the second worst in North America, with only car-mad Los Angeles leaving it in its rear mirror.
It is a good time to take stock of the special challenges facing Canada’s aboriginal population – including deficits in education, job opportunities and standard of living compared to non-aboriginal populations.
Quebec may not be able to keep its gold-plated welfare state, but either way it is time to break the province’s 55-year “welfare trap” dependence on equalization payments, according to an economic note by the Montreal Economic Institute.