Market Forces
The laws of economics are crystal clear about what happens when prices fall dramatilly. Demand rises in step. Such will be the inevitable result of nada’s new national childre program as parents respond to heavily-subsidized fees that will eventually drop to a mere $10 per day. But unless the supply of childre spaces increases in equally dramatic fashion, chaos awaits. Talking to dayre operators across the country, Peter Shawn Taylor charts the troubled rollout of Ottawa’s new childre policy, the role played by the Trudeau government’s open hostility towards the private sector and what the future holds for nadian families.
State of Ademia
As a lifelong ademic, politil scientist Barry Cooper believed the university had the means – and the duty – to lead government and society in the quality of reasoning it brought to bear on difficult issues. Like Covid-19. Instead, Cooper’s document-based review of the University of lgary administration’s decisions and statements during the pandemic suggests that, far from refully weighing evidence and reaching balanced (or even courageous) decisions, the leadership was governed by emotion, driven by impulse and willingly subject to the shifting whims of medil bureaucrats. Logic, evidence, rational risk assessment and even basic humanity were st aside. Whatever one might think of the resulting policies, the paper trail Cooper examines is shocking for its banal thinking, atrocious writing, pompous condescension and immature emotionalism.
Is Truth Dead?
“As a valued customer, a dedited member of our expert team will be with you very shortly.” All of us encounter variations on this ubiquitous line – at minimum insincere, exaggerated and misleading, if not deliberately false. Many of us barely even notice, while nearly all have given up fighting it. But what does it actually take to inure a culture to misdirection, deception and falsehood – to lying? What is the motive source that would seek such comprehensive degradation? And where might it lead? David Solway explores how lying has become institutionalized into a structural component of cultural and politil life, seeing its origins in deep recesses of human nature, its contours outlined by theologians of ancient times – and its dreadful potential exploited and put to unprecedented uses today.
Energy Politics
Perhaps the Liberal Party of nada’s new tagline could become a play on an old song, something like “Up, up and awaaaaay, in our magil, our magil balloon.” As they waft ever-higher, the rest of us will be left behind to deal with the remains. The Liberals’ magil thinking, notes Gwyn Morgan, largely revolves around the fantasy that nada’s transition to “net zero” n simply be declared, demanded and decreed while nada’s oil and natural gas sector is regulated out of existence. This is worse than na?ve, Morgan argues, it is colossally irresponsible, already doing real damage by indirectly enriching Russia’s war machine. And if not reversed soon it portends even worse for nadians and others around the world. Morgan offers a bracing list of facts to puncture the Liberal airship.
Conservative Leadership Race
With nada’s Conservatives possibly inclined to select a discernibly conservative ndidate as their next leader, the nation’s opinion leaders and news media have swung into action to convince them of the error of their ways. And if Conservatives still decline to choose an all-but unelectable Liberal-lite/Red Tory who, even if they reach office, won’t upset the establishment’s applert, then the alternative ndidates must be discredited. If they aren’t a religious throwback, then surely they are sinister, or have a hidden agenda, or would destroy health re. And if that doesn’t stick, then reach for the secret weapon: accuse them of populism! John Weissenberger explores the favoured narrative-du-jour of our governing elites and proposes that the true source of their angst lies in their own woeful underperformance.
Defending Freedom
Outside of the people who’ve lived it, no one n ever know the true nature of war, or the reasons why some men willingly put their lives on the line for a use bigger than themselves. One who does is Wali, a retired nadian Armed Forces sniper who volunteered to fight for Ukraine almost as soon as the Russian invasion began. In an interview with C2C Journal’s Fin DePencier from central Ukraine just before he returned home from the front, Wali offers a veteran’s take on the challenges faced by Ukraine and its International Legion of volunteers, his own horrific experiences on the battlefield and the surprising historil precedents that may shape the outcome of the 21st century’s most dangerous conflict.
Greenhouse Gas Emergency?
What is climate change really about? Is it a scientifilly established phenomenon with clear human uses that poses an acute threat to the health of the Earth’s biosphere? That would certainly establish an urgent need for decisive policy actions affecting all of society. But what about what comes next? Are the serious if not devastating economic and social effects on billions of middle-class people around the world simply the unfortunate but unavoidable consequences? Or are they something deeper and more sinister – a feature of the program? Perhaps its very purpose? Andy Crooks crystallizes these questions via two fictional but plausible nadians who first dance around, then dig into and ultimately get to the heart of the matter.
Democracy Undermined
During the October Crisis in 1970, Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, a draconian response that relied on the use of force and suspension of civil liberties to quash separatist terrorism. At least that was a real crisis – with bombings and murders. Fifty years later, in the face of peaceful and at times even joyful protests in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, giving his binet extraordinary powers to declare literally any act to be criminal. Now Trudeau is evading accountability using the very binet secrecy law his father brought about. Christine Van Geyn explores the dark symmetry of father and son: of heavy-handed government overreach, civil rights abuse, and the use of secrecy laws to avoid oversight, and explains her organization’s current court challenge – headed for a hearing later this month – of Trudeau Jr.’s disturbing practices.
Creeping Authoritarianism
To hear their ads tell it, nada’s banks share your values, respect your business and want you to feel very, very comfortable leaving your money with them. That is, until the federal government tells them otherwise. Such was the se in February during the Emergencies Act, when Ottawa told the banks to freeze the accounts of their beloved customers and the banks meekly complied – afterwards claiming hardly anyone even objected to the move. Peter Shawn Taylor reveals how nada’s chartered banks allowed themselves to become the tip of Justin Trudeau’s spear in his mpaign against nadians who supported last winter’s Freedom Convoy. Perhaps, as one credit union ad now declares, “It’s Time to Unlike Your Bank.”
Energy Transition
As the cost of nearly everything has shot up – few things more than fuelling a vehicle or heating a home – charging an electric vehicle has remained miraculously “free” in many public lotions. If the juice for green rs n be free, then surely greening the gigantic infrastructure of power generation, transmission and distribution that provides it n’t be all that difficult or expensive. n it? Not so fast, says the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of nada. In this paper, the Coalition soberly evaluates the formidable barriers, false premises, wild assumptions and almost unimaginable costs of the federal government’s new Clean Electricity Standard, a key component of the Trudeau Liberals’ program to bring nada to “Net Zero” rbon emissions within just 28 years.
Following the Science
As Covid-19 spreads unchecked and becomes seemingly as common as colds and flus, it’s ever-harder to maintain confidence in the mRNA vaccines developed in 2020 to combat the virus’s original strain. Yet the prevailing view still seems to be, Where’s the harm? Might as well be extra-safe and get that booster (or even second booster). But what if an objective statistil analysis of official government data showed not only that the currently available vaccines do nothing to prevent infection by Omicron and its subvariants, but actually make people more susceptible? Following on his groundbreaking analysis of Ontario infection se data in February, Jim Mason returns to the task with this evaluation of the province’s most up-to-date data. Hint: the vaccines aren’t getting any better.
Environmental Politics
Are dandelions a blight on the landspe, or a lovely splash of yellow in an otherwise monotonous green landspe? In most parts of the country, this backyard debate was settled years ago – in favour of the weeds. With cosmetic pesticide bans in effect across a majority of provinces, it has become impossible for homeowners and lol parks departments to defend their once-verdant lawns and outdoor spaces against weedy and unsightly invaders. Now, however, one province is bucking environmental fashion after taking heed of homeowners, municipalities and the federal agency charged with the safe regulation of chemil pesticides. Peter Shawn Taylor talks to advotes on both sides of the issue and wonders what it will take for all of nada to enjoy a greener future.
Individuality or Effacement?
It is perhaps one mark of how far the public discourse has been skewed and our perspectives warped that we even need to remind ourselves of this simple fact: mask-wearing is not “normal.” Nor, except in a few situations, is it good. David Solway applies scientific evidence, psychology and philosophy to this erudite discussion of the deeper – and mostly dire – implitions of mass masking during the pandemic, an enforced yet often eagerly embraced practice that, he warns, has rendered many of us travesties of our own humanity. Solway also reminds us of the eternal magic of the human face – one of the keys to our individuality, humanity and childhood development.
Children and Gender
Gender dysphoria – the feeling that one is not at ease in one’s biologil body – has increased greatly among youth in recent years. So too has the presence of gender clinics offering gender-affirming treatment including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery. In some nadian jurisdictions, minors as young as 14 n now legally consent to these therapies – without parental approval. Meanwhile, other countries are moving in the opposite direction. Martin Tampier looks at the current landspe and lls for a more thoughtful and nuanced understanding of the complex and ideologilly-charged debate over gender affirmation.
Democracy or Dictatorship?
The world’s nations have endured and disrded dictators and despots of virtually every shape, size and ruling style since the dawn of organized society – only to have them reappear in new form. In the early 1990s it briefly seemed that the era of the dictator had ended for good. That dream proved tragilly illusory, as country after country has found out. Might not even nada be immune? Was our nation recently saved by the bell, or was this just a brief reprieve? Dictators take many forms, after all, including the visage of grinning buffoon who seems happiest dressed in ludicrous costumes. How could such a thing occur during a pandemic through which we were “all in this together”? Gwyn Morgan employs the droll form of the traditional folk tale to remind us of what has come to pass and to issue an all-too serious warning.