In politics, compromise and cool-headedness are usually virtues, especially when facing a bitterly divided electorate. Occasionally though, a time or challenge calls for bold action that ruffles a few feathers in the short term, but pays big dividends in the long term and resounds in history. Examples of such bold action from the past century…
Fisheries science is known for having several high-profile controversies; and there is a new one these days: ‘balanced harvesting’. At issue is whether or not we should shift towards a fisheries management philosophy that tries to spread fishing pressure across all sizes and species of fish in an ecosystem – harvesting each size and species in proportion 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:…
–Matt Burgess- Carbon pricing debates have been picking up steam worldwide in recent months. The issue has made a particularly strong resurgence in Canada, after being politically taboo for several years. As a growing chorus of economists and politicians of all stripes has echoed the clear economic rationale for carbon pricing, the debate in Canada…
–Matt Burgess– Many would like to see a new binding international agreement to reduce carbon emissions at the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Paris. Though there appears to be some political will for such an agreement, early cracks in the negotiations in Lima in December call to mind the limited success of past climate agreements. The widely hailed Kyoto…
The idea of a national carbon tax has been near the front of many Canadian news cycles since the Liberals included it in their federal election platform in 2008. The Liberals, under Stéphane Dion, proposed a carbon price of 10$/tonne initially, rising to 40$/tonne in the fourth year, levied on electricity and fuel consumption, with the exception…
The Tête-à-Tête 