Operational and funding costs are huge: $548M in 2019 (before COVID-19) and $597M in 2021
Investment managers and investors should often ask: If I didn’t already own this stock, would I buy it today? By any criteria, Via Rail, a federal Crown corporation, is not a good investment – even under unrealistically favourable assumptions. The federal government should rigorously examine this charitably-designated ‘enterprise,’ then aim it toward one of two…
This is a fun, lively car to drive. The shift mechanism, with its rifle-bolt precision, is a treat
The old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies in spades to the Mazda MX-5, or Miata as many of us still call it. Yes, it’s changed over the years – it’s a little bulkier and more upscale than it used to be. But, more than three decades after its introduction, it remains…
Without the right tools, we can’t build a house. Without the right people, things will get broken
“You are fired!” John yelled at me as I was lying on the ground after falling off the roof of the house. John was mad because his sawhorses had been broken in half because of my stupidity. I was stunned and just wondering if I had broken anything in my body as a result of…
There’s actually a striking amount of broad-based consensus around energy
A new artificial-intelligence-powered social media tool is showing that Canadians aren’t as polarized about energy policy and transition as we might imagine. Developed by University of Alberta engineering professor Lianne Lefsrud and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, Ai4Buzz uses targeted keywords to harvest, aggregate and examine Twitter conversations about energy and energy policies. Organized by category into a series…
Approving new fossil fuel projects is moral and economic madness
After approving the Bay du Nord offshore oil project off Newfoundland and Labrador in April, the Canadian government has decided to take our climate risk-taking to a whole new level by issuing a Call for Bids for oil exploration for an area one third larger than the size of New Brunswick. Bids to drill for…
There’s nothing more significant than living with meaning
There’s nothing more significant than living with meaning. This is the concept pondered by the Jewish psychiatrist Viktor Frankl as he struggled to remain alive for three years in Nazi concentration camps. Frankl established the groundwork for his psychological theory on the importance of finding meaning in life before he was sent to Auschwitz. He…
Supply management pushed up to 190,000 Canadians into poverty
By Krystle Wittevrongel and Gabriel Giguère New Zealand had never launched a dispute under a free trade agreement until two weeks ago, on May 12, when it launched a trade dispute against Canada under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), accusing our government of breaking its promises on dairy imports. This was also the first dispute launched…
Consumers used to love to hate these machines. But things have changed
Self-checkouts have long been an unloved tool in the world of retail. In the beginning, nothing worked as it should, especially at the grocery store where an order for 20 items brought a new form of despair. But even if the mere presence of self-checkouts bothered many consumers, Canadians have apparently befriended them in some…
An overview of the extensive training that cloud providers offer to help information professionals
As more and more organizations move applications from their on-premises computing environment to their favourite cloud service provider, information system (IS) professionals need to build their cloud skills. Here’s an overview of the extensive training that the major cloud service providers offer to help IS professionals. It isn’t easy to choose among these excellent, in-depth…
Edmonton Protocol team reports treatment is safe and reliable for people with hard-to-control diabetes
After 20 years of perfecting their technique, the team behind the largest islet transplant program in the world reports the procedure is a safe, reliable and life-changing treatment for people with hard-to-control diabetes. In results published recently in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, the researchers report on patient survival, graft survival, insulin independence and protection from life-threatening low…
His fictional story may have the best ideas anyone has had about assessing COVID impacts
A hallmark of Albert Einstein’s career was his use of thought experiments or “Gedankenexperiment” as a fundamental tool for understanding physical issues and elucidating his scientific concepts. These thought experiments employed his incredible imagination and took diverse forms. As a boy, Einstein mentally chased beams of light. For special relativity, he conceived moving trains and…
Today’s guest is Dave Collyer (see his bio below). Dave reviews the frustrations of the industry and its current challenges. He advances the importance of frank dialogue, collaboration, and Net-Zero as an economic challenge. He considers the diversity of potential solutions and the need to simultaneously sustain Canada’s economy while also pursuing Net-Zero. Finally, he…
Combat naturally leads to behaviours that would be deemed shocking in normal life
Antony Beevor is a prolific English military historian, most famous for the bestseller Stalingrad. First published in the late 1990s, the book’s narrative covers the period between the June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union and the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943. That battle is often described as the Second…
21,000 jobs, $890 million in taxes and about $2.5 billion in annual GDP
There’s been a big step forward for a major proposed Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that’s seen as an opportunity for economic reconciliation with Indigenous communities and help to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Partners in the Ksi Lisims LNG project, including the Nisga’a Nation, have applied for a 40-year LNG export licence and…
Trudeau consistently uses fear as a tactic to get his way
While our series is fictional, the principle objective is non-fictional – to explore the likelihood that sooner or later, Canadians will demand a full-scale investigation into the management of the COVID crisis by our federal government. Time and space do not permit a detailed description of the public hearings held by the COVID Commission across…
Investment managers and investors should often ask: If I didn’t already own this stock, would I buy it today? By any criteria, Via Rail, a federal Crown corporation, is not a good investment – even under unrealistically favourable assumptions. The federal government should rigorously examine this charitably-designated ‘enterprise,’ then aim it toward one of two…
