Thursday, July 10, 2025

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Thursday, July 10, 2025 | Latest Paper

How to turn a good idea into a big mess

It’s tax season. Suppose the Canada Revenue Agency owed you $2,000 but instead of giving you the money, it offered you 20 gift certificates that it chose without consulting you: $50 for chicken, $80 for books, $100 in bus tickets, and so on. Don’t need chicken? Too bad! The gift certificates are not transferable. That’s […]

Clean fuel standard will lead to a tug-of-war between economy and environment

In 2015, a fresh government came into office with the mindset that the environment and the economy go hand-in-hand—that one cannot thrive without the other. Just as Parliament entered its final stretch ahead of the 2019 federal election, the government’s federal carbon price came into effect as its preferred mechanism to reduce emissions. Existing provincial […]

That other election to watch: Newfoundland and Labrador

OTTAWA—This week the time has come for me to write on something other than the SNC-Lavalin Liberal mess. I just can’t muster the energy to swim any longer in that turd soup. So what is the best thing to do when you are feeling worn down by federal politics? Look east. Canada’s Far East: Newfoundland […]

The Kenney campaign con and the new meaning of narrative

The word “narrative” as a political term of art is by no means new. The concept has been around since long before the days when Hollywood production values migrated to the White House with Ronald Reagan. From “the boy from Baie-Comeau” defining Brian Mulroney’s rise from son of an electrician in a Quebec mill town, […]

Criminal charges raises spectre of SNC-Lavalin takeover, but feds’ $180-billion infrastructure plan can find other builders, experts say

If SNC-Lavalin is found guilty of corruption and fraud charges, it could mean a closing nail in the coffin for the Quebec-based company’s chances of preventing a takeover—something that could infuriate many in the province and provoke a government intervention, experts say. A competitive marketplace for federal construction contracts means the company’s potential exclusion from […]

Mark Eyking becomes fourth Nova Scotia Liberal MP not to seek re-election

After 18 years in Ottawa, well-liked Liberal MP Mark Eyking says he won’t run again and will return home to the Bluenoser province. The six-term federal lawmaker announced on Feb. 14 in a Facebook post that he was leaving public life. “I’ve come to the stage in my life that’s telling me I have had a […]

How regions become innovation hubs

With an eye toward the upcoming 2019 federal election, public sector officials are looking for new approaches to improve the economic vitality of their economies, the livelihood of their citizens and, not coincidentally, their electoral prospects. Public sector efforts in Canada and the United States include: federal investments in field crop research and innovation, the […]