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…
From Matt: ‘Shallow, selfish, and self-absorbed‘ (Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic): Despite its tongue-in-cheek-title, this article – drawing on a recent book by a similar name – provides an interesting take on why more and more people these days, women in particular, are choosing to not have kids. The article’s (and book’s) objective was to remove some of…
From Matt: ‘A triumph of tax madness’. The federal Conservatives are announcing an election-year budget containing a large number of bad economic policies, as well as balanced-budget legislation – rightly called ‘bonehead economics’ by The Globe and Mail Editorial Board. Jeffrey Simpson surveys the wreckage. Simpson draws parallels between Harper’s fiscal policy to that of George W. Bush – politically-targeted but expensive and economically-distortionary…
From Matt: What’s the deal with the oil spill off the coast of Vancouver? What began as a small bunker fuel spill last Wednesday in English Bay, near Vancouver, is quickly becoming a fiasco. The Mayor of Vancouver and the B.C. Provincial government both allege that the response from the Coast Guard was too slow, and that…
Links have moved to Mondays! From Matt: From bad to worse (Ivan Semeniuk, The Globe and Mail): With this year’s snowpack around 5% of what’s considered normal, California’s drought is about to get a lot worse. Already, this is estimated to be the worst drought in 1200 years. Statewide water restrictions have been introduced for the first…
From Matt: Coping with stasis: how the supposed ‘sick man of Asia’ might be a model for us all (Roland Kelts, The Long and Short): Since the early ’90s, the Japanese economy has been treated as a cautionary tale because of its sluggish growth. Kelts argues that perhaps we have been looking at it all wrong. He…
From Matt: Best Laid Plans: When career ambitions break up a marriage (Jessica Grose, Slate): Slate is running a very interesting interview series on how people make career decisions, and how life sometimes gets in the way. This particular article follows a young married couple, Caitlin and Stephen, who have recently separated. To very briefly summarize: Stephen is a teaching…
From Matt: Starting this week with something light: How big is the average penis? (David Shultz, Science): A new study published in the British Journal of Urology synthesized the results of 17 previous studies involving over 15,000 men from around the world to ask the age old question: How big is the average penis, and what does…
On September 20 last year, Emma Watson gave a widely acclaimed speech at the United Nations, launching the HeForShe campaign – one aimed at starting a broader conversation and building a broader coalition to promote global gender equity. Gender equity is important, but can be difficult to talk about in public forums. Having broad conversations about gender equity is…
–Karen B.K. Chan– Karen B.K. Chan is a sex educator and emotional literacy trainer in Toronto, Canada. This article is part of a Discussion addressing the question, ‘What changes can we make to our social, political and legal institutions to improve gender equity in Canada?’. In Canadian social policy and human service sectors, gender equity conventionally refers…
The Tête-à-Tête 