Senior Fellow Michael Zwaagstra supports the Ford government’s crackdown on school renaming, targeting boards like the TDSB for attempting to erase John A. Macdonald’s legacy. Yes, Macdonald was imperfect, but without him, there might not be a Canada. Renaming schools drains money and distracts from teaching, Zwaagstra argues. Honouring Macdonald preserves the country’s foundations, and Canadians owe him that.
Lee Harding reveals how sexually explicit books ended up in Canadian school libraries, why Alberta is taking action, and why other provinces must follow.
Senior Fellow Michael Zwaagstra warns that the NDP’s rollback of Tory-era school tax reforms has hammered Manitoba property owners. The government has reignited an unequal, outdated funding model by scrapping a 50% rebate in favour of a flat credit and letting school boards hike rates. The result? Soaring tax bills with no promise of relief. Zwaagstra says it’s time for full provincial funding.
Clear grades matter, and Michael Zwaagstra explains why. In Manitoba, traditional percentage marks help parents, students, and employers understand real academic performance. But a creeping trend—replacing grades with vague terms like “emerging” or “proficient”—is leaving parents baffled. Fortunately, Manitoba is pushing back against this confusing fad. Report cards should inform, not mystify.
A Snapshot of Property Rights Protection in Canada After 10 years
The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election - health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel...
As civic literacy collapses, Canadian patriotism is fading into hollow sentiment, warns John von Heyking. Too few Canadians understand their Constitution or political system, leaving national pride adrift in symbolism and outrage. Drawing on thinkers from Cicero to Tocqueville, von Heyking calls for a revival of “constitutional patriotism”—loyalty rooted in civic knowledge and democratic responsibility. If Canada is to survive as a distinct, self-governing country, it must first remember what made it one.
Canada’s reading crisis has a simple solution: phonics. Senior Fellow Michael Zwaagstra spotlights Manitoba’s Evergreen School Division, which ditched trendy but ineffective reading methods in favour of structured, phonics-based instruction—and it’s already paying off. Literacy rates are climbing, yet most provinces still ignore the science. Zwaagstra argues it’s time for education faculties and policymakers to catch up. If we want chisldren to succeed, teaching them to decode words, not guess them, is the first step. Read more.
Cultural anthropologists venture out into the world beyond the university, to study and try to understand people and their cultures often distant geographically and different in ideas and practices from their own. To do this they employ some simple procedures, that they dignify with the label “methodology,” to ensure or at least increase the probability of reining in their own assumptions and expectations, in order to grasp the reality of the world that they have entered.
Schools claim to protect students from ‘harmful’ literature – unless the content aligns with progressive ideology Some books are deemed too offensive for students—just not the ones you’d expect. In 2021, a Grade 6-7 teacher in Prince George, B.C., was...
Manitoba students’ math scores are falling fast, and the NDP’s lowered education standards are to blame The results are in, and they don’t look good. Manitoba students writing the Pre-Calculus 40S math exam scored an average of 62.4 per cent—a six-per...
Free trade is flawed, but protectionism is worse The United States has delayed its 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods for 30 days, giving Ottawa a brief window to assess its economic response. This pause should not be mistaken for a change in...
Would you let a doctor skip anatomy? Then why is Manitoba letting teachers skip subject expertise? Imagine that a young man we’ll call Jerry wants to become a high school physics teacher. So, Jerry applies to a Bachelor of Education program at a Manitoba...
“A teacher should be a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage.” This common saying is one of the most useless pieces of advice that teachers receive from their education professors. Many learning opportunities are, in fact, lost when teachers try to...
The sad legacy of masked children and school closures is still with us long after the pandemic is over. When you think of institutions that failed the public during the coronavirus pandemic, would teachers' unions come to mind? A recent report by the U.S. House...