Intellectual property: the most important issue no-one talks about. The Globe and Mail recently published a long op-ed by Jim Balsillie, in which he argues that Canada needs an American-style innovation lobby to push for public policies that adequately support the growth of Canadian tech companies and that help protect IP rights of Canadian companies…
In February, the Ontario government released their revised health and physical education curriculum and outlined the changes that had been made at every grade level. The most notable changes to content include: – the addition of ways to identify and respect the differences between people; – the addition of ways to use digital communications technology safely; –…
Links have a new look! Starting this week, we will be posting our links as separate posts in order to keep each one digestibly short and a bit less eclectic (this makes it easier to have focused discussions in the comments too). Ten ideas to save the economy. Robert Reich, UC Berkeley professor and former Secretary of…
From Matt: Eliminating homelessness saves money, an in-depth study found; and Medicine Hat has successfully tried it out. The study, published last year, followed over 2000 homeless people across five major cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Moncton) – providing homes to roughly half of them. They found that homelessness costs roughly $100K per year for each homeless person –…
We’re back after a week off to make room for last week’s debate on the federal budget. Just Matt this week. Ian and Niya will be back next week! From Matt: Is boycotting Israel a hate crime? The Harper government thinks so…maybe? This story began with a speech at the United Nations by Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney (responsible for…
This just in: the CBC projects an NDP victory in Alberta – Canada’s most small-c conservative province – home to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and governed provincially by the Progressive Conservatives (PC) for the last 44 years. And it’s an NDP majority (projected), not a minority. So what happened? Is this a sign that a new progressive Alberta…
On April 21, Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver tabled his Conservative government’s 2015 budget. This budget was highly anticipated because 2015 is an election year in Canada, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives had long promised that they would return to balance before the election. Despite the recent drop in oil prices, the government…
The Harper government released a pre-election budget on April 21 that was predictable in some places – a few well publicized political nods to seniors here, and an expected snub to the environment there. However, those who were expecting 500 pages of pure ideology aimed at destroying the Canada we know and love were likely disappointed to…
Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes to tell Canadians that his Conservatives are the only to party to be trusted with the economy. If you’ve watched Question Period, a speech by the PM or his finance Minister, Joe Oliver, or one of the ‘Economic Action Plan’ ads, you’re probably familiar with some of the talking points:…
An interesting, but not well publicized measure in the Conservative budget was an amendment to the Canada Business and Corporations Act that would require all companies listed on Canadian public stock exchanges to either put a policy to promote gender diversity in place or publicly explain why they do not have one. Ontario, under Kathleen…
The Tête-à-Tête 