Through the Eyes of a Pirate

Like our neighbours to the south, those of us in Canada stayed up late into the night eagerly watching the results of the 2012 American Election. Unlike many Americans however, Canadians generally have a better understanding of how the electoral congress chooses the President, and how that congress is chosen separately by the voters and are only required in some states to follow the popular vote...

The “Boomerang Generation” refers to young adults that are moving back in with their parents after having gone to college/university, or after having already spent some time as independent adults. Although the Boomerang Generation continues to act mostly independently, parents tend to cut them a break while they’re back home. The Harper Government’s recent decision to retu...

Yesterday, an Australian Court ruled against the Tobacco Industry’s attempt to thwart their new packaging legislation(1). The new packaging removes basically all customization, forcing the only unique elements of a cigarette package to be the brand name and the variant. The colours, images, fonts, etc will all be uniform across the entire selection. As a result of the court ruling, other cou...

Late Friday, Google turned its back on information and cultural freedom advocates and took a step toward supporting the MPAA, RIAA, SNEP and other industries with a grip on copyrighted information. In the past, Google had tried to live up to its “Do no evil” mantra through fighting censorship attempts in China, and fighting against the industry juggernauts in their attempt to shape int...

Between the $15.1 billion takeover bid for NEXEN from the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), and the BC Liberal government’s release of its conditions for approving the Northern Gateway Pipeline, yesterday was a busy day for Alberta’s oil energy sector. Both “deals” include huge hurdles for the federal government’s “export it to China” resource...

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...

After months of lobbying the American Government, Canada has been allowed to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks. In exchange, Harper has agreed to any chapters of the TPP that are already passed, given up any right to “veto”, and looks to be finding a way to shut out a lot of the way Canadians currently live their lives. The exact details of what trade right...

The ability to freely speak, and write, one’s mind is held as a human right in many countries across the world, including Canada. A general conversation with nearly any politician, whether right-wing or left-wing, in this country will see a round of approval and support for upholding that right. Over time, a great many laws have come into play that limit the right of free speech, and yet mos...

Europe is all abuzz with the latest successes of the Pirate Party in Germany, who are currently running with double-digit approval rating in polls, thereby making it the #3 party in Germany (1). The successes of Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the astounding success in Germany have moved the party forward throughout the eyes of Europeans. This past weekend’s Pirate Parties Inter...

The previous article on the 2012 Federal Budget trounced through the pre-budget hype created by the Opposition parties and the media by demonstrating that the contents of the budget weren’t unexpected, radical, or as bad as assumed.(1) With that out of the way, it’s time to begin to examine some of the real effects the varying cuts will have on different sectors. Transit and transporta...