Technology

Federal Clean Power Plan Risks Blackouts And Higher Bills

Apr 13, 2025 | Commentary, Economy, Energy, Technology, Policy in Five

AI-fuelled data centres are pushing Canada’s grid to the brink, warns Maureen McCall. Provinces scramble to keep up while Ottawa’s Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) pile on risk and trigger constitutional fights. Hydropower’s tapped out, renewables can’t close the gap. McCall demands urgent action: scrap the CER, slash red tape on transmission projects, and supercharge investment in new power infrastructure. Without it, Canada faces soaring costs, blackouts and a blow to its global competitiveness.

Vote Machines Don’t Deserve the Blind Trust we Give Them

Dec 4, 2024 | Commentary, Government, Public Sector, Technology

For generations, we allowed representatives of candidates to scrutinize electoral votes to avoid error or malice from an election official. Neither bribery, nor favouritism, nor incompetence would have any effect. Vote machines have the same vulnerabilities....

Provincial Cell Phone Ban Makes Sense

Aug 24, 2024 | Commentary, Education, Technology

The Manitoba government is banning cell phones in schools. Starting next month, K-8 students will not be allowed to use cell phones at all during school hours. High school students may use phones during breaks and lunch hour, but not during class time. This...

The Foundations of Internet Freedom

Aug 8, 2024 | Commentary, Free Speech, Technology

Twelve years ago, I wrote a book called “A Beautiful Anarchy,” which was a celebration of how the internet had evolved until that point in time. It largely operated in a decentralized manner, with businesses thriving within a spontaneous order. The web browser was...

Subscribe for More News

Canadian Property Rights Index 2023

Jul 17, 2023 | Featured, Latest News, Research Papers, Valuation, Property Rights

A Snapshot of Property Rights Protection in Canada After 10 years

Alberta Politics and Empty Promises of Health-care Solutions

May 5, 2023 | Featured, Commentary, Healthcare

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...

They Are Closing Up the Internet

Jul 18, 2024 | Commentary, Free Speech, Technology

Such confusing times, so much in dispute, so much to discover and know. Billions of people are right now lifting their phones to their faces and searching for answers. The results they see are dramatically different from what they were just a few years ago. You have...

The Freedom That Once Was the Internet

May 16, 2024 | Commentary, Free Speech, Regulation, Technology

It’s time to declare as regards the internet of old: Requiescat in Pace. It’s dead. We might as well face it. Nearly every large application and website in existence, meaning most of what people use on what we call the internet, constituting an estimated 95 percent of...

The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

Nov 1, 2023 | Essay, Culture Wars, Free Speech, Role of Government, Technology

“You live in a deranged age — more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” — Walker Percy “Our species is 300,000 years old. For the first 290,000 years, we were...

Etam: Panic at AI’s Looming Energy Appetite

Oct 24, 2023 | Commentary, Energy, Environment, Technology

There is an army of analysts out there, a quasi-industry, that attacks data streams like piranhas, ripping everything apart and, unlike piranhas, analyzing the living daylights out of them. There are people that spend days on end analyzing, for example, not just...

Etam: Power-Hungry AI Data Systems Will Follow Cheap, Reliable Energy

Sep 20, 2023 | Commentary, Economy, Energy, Technology

“Crypto mining has been described as running your car in neutral all day so it can solve crossword puzzles in exchange for an occasional coupon that’s mostly useful for buying heroin online.” – Vice

Unpredictable Futures and Missing Services

Jun 15, 2023 | Commentary, Utilities, Technology

Manitoba has a problem. Actually, it has a lot of problems but proper cell phone and internet service is a glaring one. Many years ago, as in about 150 years ago, Manitoba, as it is today, was a land of opportunity. Farming was starting to take hold, the fur...

Thank you for subscribing!