Despite all of the rhetoric about how this is an election of historic proportions with very high stakes and a polarized climate, the situation really could be a lot worse and a lot more polarized than it is. When compared to our neighbours to the south, all three of the major parties are running on…
This is probably the most important election in Canada in a generation. Stephen Harper is asking for a fourth consecutive mandate, and in return he is offering more of the same: more ideology over evidence to the detriment of the economy, more foreign policy that talks loudly and carries a twig – diminishing our global…
-The Expat- The Beginning I remember Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first day in office. It was almost a decade ago, in what seemed to be an entirely different country than the one we live in today. It was a country where foul play could literally bring down a government; Paul Martin’s Liberals had just succumbed to…
Safe to say it’s been an unusually interesting week in the news. Going to keep this post short, because the links mostly speak for themselves. Three things you must teach your kids if you care about the environment (Rebecca Boyles – Ensia): First off, if you’ve never heard of Ensia, you should check it out. It’s one…
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…
From Matt: Eight million tons of plastic dumped in ocean every year (Laura Parker, National Geographic): A new landmark study has estimated how much plastic we are dumping in the ocean each year, and it’s a lot. Most of it is coming from east and southeast Asia, but what’s interesting is that it’s not all coming…
This is the first of what will become weekly posts highlighting outside articles that made us think. If you came across articles that made you think this week, please post them in the comments! From Matt: What ISIS really wants (Graeme Wood, The Atlantic). What should we do to combat the Islamic State? Most agree that something…
–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 