Editor’s Note: I broke this article into two pieces (see Part I here) to allow you an opportunity to rest between decades but now it’s time to face the ’80s and ’90s.   Canada’s mania for deficit reduction, although it reached its peak in the ’90s, started in the ’80s.Read More

Author’s Note: In this series of columns (see the first one here and the second here) I am using various works of science fiction and fantasy to consider some of the ethical issues generated by our current situation.   As I write this, the weather is warming and the pandemicRead More

Why are Canadian universities charging unconscionably high tuition fees for a virtual online education? It is bad enough that Canada, unlike the Western European Nations France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, does not offer free tuition to her beleaguered young citizens but Canadian universities (e.g. Dalhousie) areRead More

I recently had a strange dream. In it, I was moving through the crowded food court at my local mall. In my dream, I had visited my favorite haunts — the tea store and the bookshop — and was on my way out to the parking lot. Suddenly, the sleepingRead More

Stealing time Rubina Ahmed-Haq and I had an argument that devolved into shouting and foot-stamping on Monday morning, although the shouting and foot-stamping were all on my side and she has yet to realize we had a disagreement. Ahmed-Haq is the CBC radio workplace columnist who, according to her website,Read More

In a circumstance where the whole world economy is based on debt, has the COVID pandemic given us any cause to consider the eventual economic one? Anybody who has been paying attention should know that from the smallest consumer to the largest sovereign economies (US/China) and every government in between,Read More

Well, we’ve discovered at least two things since the COVID-19 cloud descended upon us, one being that we won’t be telling our grandchildren about the pandemic since they’re living through it with us and will have their own stories to tell. Secondly, a Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) is not onlyRead More

I tried to cover yesterday’s CBRM virtual council meeting but the technical difficulties were such that it proved impossible — and even had the sound been crystal clear, it ran into the 3:00 p.m. COVID-19 update with the premier and Dr. Robert Strang, which I also wanted to cover. TheRead More

Adding to the general feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end — and that that’s not necessarily a bad thing — the owners of the Donkin Mine announced on Tuesday they were ending production permanently and putting the mine on “care and maintenance” dueRead More

Diverse diversions This week, my random things will all be things that can distract, amuse or entertain you while you’re self-isolating. Many of these things are found on the internet, as is my publication, so will be of no use to people who do not have an internet connection —Read More