Through the Eyes of a Pirate

Post-secondary education has long been held as the gateway to higher income, at least in comparison to mere high-school graduates and drop-outs. It is widely believed that completing any university program will guarantee a higher-than-average income. Unfortunately, this is about as far from reality as possible. Many university and college graduates currently enjoy being told they’re under-qu...

Economics tells us that the markets are ruled by a careful balance of supply and demand. Additionally, it states that markets will self-correct, provided several conditions are adhered to: There are many suppliers and consumers The markets are allowed to play freely, without government mandated minimum or maximum prices or quantity of supply The value of currency remains relatively stable The un...

Yesterday evening, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty informed the Liberal caucus & assembled media that he was stepping down as Premier & leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario(1). Although stating that he will remain MPP for Ottawa-South, a riding owned by the McGuintys at both Federal and Provincial levels, the Premier has prorogued the government. Effectively, the now-former Liberal leade...

Dear Premier McGuinty, Yesterday you released notice to Public Sector Executive that you would be pushing the Ontario Parliament to approve a bill forcing pay freezes. At the same time as announcing pay freezes for the non-unionized portion of the public sector, your own Minister of Finance, Dwight Duncan, admitted that the move was largely symbolic(1). Somehow you determined that this would save...

The Ontario Legislature was recalled early this year to push through a piece of legislation forcing terms on Teachers & their unions. Despite repeated claims by the union that no strike in planned, the governing Liberals insist that it would happen without the legislation. The “Putting Students First Act”, as they’ve titled the law, not only puts a two-year ban on teacher str...

One of the first acts of the current government, following their 2011 election win, was to approve the increase in the number of federal ridings. Despite some fairly massive growth in Alberta & British Columbia, most of the new ridings, 15, will be in Ontario, with a whopping 11 in the Greater Toronto Area(1). Although not all provinces will be gaining new seats, none are untouched by boundary...

Canada is officially bilingual, with both French and English being recognized as the official languages of business and government. Federal Debates are held in both official languages, with any thought of not running a debate in either language enough to cause riots. On the provincial level however, a completely different standard applies. As evidenced by PQ leader Pauline Marois’ refusal to...

In an attempt to save money, the city of Toronto has decided to privatize a portion of it’s garbage pick-up. The move serves as another attempt to trim ballooning costs for services while trying to find more efficient ways to get work done. The movement for privatization of services formerly tied directly to the public purse has been growing, and the results have generally been mixed. Imag...

Late last week the government announced that Health Canada, in combination with Stats Canada, would be investigating the health effects of wind turbines. Both departments, having suffered large government cuts from the 2012 Budget, are pooling their resources to launch a $1.8 billion study into whether or not people are becoming depressed, having trouble sleeping, and feeling stressed because of w...

With the disastrous sovereign debt crisis in Europe fuelling austerity measures in governments across the globe indebted for more money than they make in annually, two methods are generally setup at odds with one another: austerity & monetary stimulous. The choices government leaders have are to cut back on everything in the hope that the economy will right itself as their debt shrinks, or to...