Graft, Quebec & COVID

By |2020-05-06T12:18:08-04:00May 5th, 2020|Categories: Society|Tags: , , , , , , |

There is no shortage of COVID-19 coverage in the media these days; but I have seen very little analysis as to why Quebec is leading the country in COVID cases by a significant margin. I grew up in Quebec and have the greatest admiration for the culture and general joie-de-vivre to be found in Montreal where I spent my formative years -- I am often found comparing it favourably to the nose-to-the grindstone aspects of life in Toronto. There is however a dark side. Those of you who have never been immersed in the local politics of [...]

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Free & Fair Trade

By |2020-06-24T17:09:51-04:00May 1st, 2017|Categories: Society|Tags: , , |

Free trade and the global movement of goods and services have been under political attack from the left for quite a while.  Now these ‘socialists’ have been joined by America-Firsters and other ‘My Country, Everyone Else Be Damned’ groups on the Right.  These people, who agree on little else, sing from the same hymn book on free trade and the song they sing most often is the one about the flight of manufacturing jobs  from Frank in Toledo to Pedro in Mexico City or Pho Bang in Vietnam.  This refrain, conjuring up as it does an image [...]

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Healthcare Reform

By |2020-04-21T10:38:20-04:00June 30th, 2014|Categories: Society|Tags: , , , |

Some years ago, I did some work for a think tank called the “Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.” It was founded and run by a brilliant, somewhat mercurial economist named Brian Lee Crowley who has since moved onto other endeavours in Ottawa.  Health care reform was a policy focus at AIMS and I did a little work on this brief and was privileged to partake in a number of very enlightening dialogues with Dr. Crowley and others whose brows were more than a little furrowed by the formidable challenges faced by anyone or any group promoting change [...]

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