It looks as if Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC, is facing just as bleak a future as the auto industry. It recently announced 800 layoffs following the disclosure by President Hubert Lacroix that the CBC faces a $171 million ad shortfall in its current budget. Still, the CBC gets $1.1 billion a year in public money. Why [...]
Filed under: Broadcasting | Tagged: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC cutbacks, Hubert Lacroix, PBS, public broadcasting, TV Ontario | Leave a Comment »
I see that the Obama Administration, apparently as paranoid as the Bushites about “security” is warning Canada it is going to get the same treatment as Mexico when it comes to crossing the border. It’s maddening to see our big neighbor behaving in a such an irrational way, which can only hurt trade and commerce [...]
Filed under: Culture, Politics | Tagged: U.S.-Canada border rules, Janet Napolitano, passports to enter U.S., circumcision study, Cross-border traffic | Leave a Comment »
Canada’s minister of science, Gary Goodyear, has opened up a healthy debate over religious belief and one’s ability to carry out the responsibilities of Minister of Science. He didn’t do it intentionally, of course. He blundered into it when he refused to answer a question about evolution during an interview with The Globe and Mail. His response: [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Gary Goodyear, Minister of Science, Religion in government, Republic War on Science | Leave a Comment »
For years, I’ve bored my friends with rants about what I call “the failure of the management class.” The root of most of our problems, I’ve argued, lies at the feet of a largely incompetent, ignorant and uncaring management class — the people who fill the executive offices with fradulent characters interested only in what and how [...]
Filed under: Economy | Tagged: American Insurance Group AIG, causes of economic crisis, Henry Mintzberg, Incompetence of management | 1 Comment »
For a long time, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has stood on guard as Canada’s proudest national symbol. The Mounties always get their man, as the old saying goes. How much of this legend is reality, and how much mere myth, has become a little clearer in the past few years. Despite the dedication of thousands [...]
Filed under: Law, Politics | Tagged: Commissioner Zaccardelli, Mounties, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski | 4 Comments »
I’m indebted to The Walrus and its Love Letters contest (a promotion for the book Four Letter Word, a collection of fictional love letters by famous authors) for the following winning entry: Dear Economy, 2008 was a bad year for us. A staggering understatement, I think you’ll agree. But honey, I’m through with the bull [...]
Filed under: Books, Politics | Tagged: Economy, Love Letters, The Walrus | Leave a Comment »
The news that Naomi Klein, the Canadian activist author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, has won the inaugural $90,000 Warwick Prize for Writing, is causing a lot of us to look more closely at her work. This is a new literary prize put up by the University of Warwick, England. Nominees are named by [...]
Filed under: Books, Politics | Tagged: End of Free Market, Global Depression, Milton Friedman, Naomi Klein, Shock Doctrine: Disaster C apitalism | 1 Comment »
What accounts for the tight relationship between Canada’s Harper government and the voice of the military, the Conference of Defence Associations? Why does the Harper government choose the CDA’s annual meeting to make important public policy announcements on this country’s foreign policy and defence strategy? And why is it that these announcements invariably [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Canada defence policy, Canada in Afghanistan, Conference of Defence Associations | Leave a Comment »
