“The purpose of New Labour is to encourage personal prosperity and well-being, not just for a few but for all.” With that, Brit-PM Tony Blair launches his re-election bid and puts in the grave forever the idea that a party called Labour might have significant ideological differences from one called Conservative. The Guardian story about […] More »

Over at Slate, Malcolm Gladwell and James Surowieki are debating their respective books Blink and The Wisdom of Crowds. It is a great pairing, since the books are, in a sense, siblings. Wisdom of Crowds is about how, in a crowd, the partial information that each member contributes can often give a better answer to […] More »

So, it looks like Paul Martin is using an unusual source for floating his policy decisions these days… the White House, or at least its heavily fortified northern wing on Sussex Drive. US Ambassador to Canada, the ever-diplomatic and respectful Paul “shut up and do what we say” Celucci let Canadians know yesterday that our […] More »

Happy Birthday, Sir John A! Things are going along swimmingly here in your great Dominion. Newfoundland is going to separate (yes, we got them at last), Quebec is going to separate, Alberta is going to separate, and B.C. would separate except they’re too busy sea-kayaking in the morning and snowboarding in the afternoon to bother. […] More »

Boycott America! Jan 20th, 2005 Not One Damn Dime Day – Jan 20, 2005 National Movement Since most of our religious leaders do not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don’t have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is “Not One Damn Dime Day” […] More »

(Update: a more attentive reader pointed out that it was Rufus, not Hawksley, who backed out). Ok, so the CBC is ready to go through this again. Someone has to get the complaining started, so it might as well be me. Here are the panelists and the book they are promoting. Molly Johnson: Beautiful Losers […] More »

Battling over balance sheets is not constructive; it does not lead to progress. It should be avoided so as not to distract the provincial and federal governments from focusing on what really matters — ensuring that the federation works for its constituent parts. This entails working in partnership to address the economic and social challenges […] More »

Here’s an interesting story from the NYTimes today, documenting a small, yet culturally important freedom that will be soon lost in North America, all for the sake of “fighting terrorism.” NYC’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking at approving a new statute banning photography on or around the New York subway system. Chances are, I suppose, […] More »

Okay, here’s a bit of a lesson for the left. Sometimes calling an ass “an ass” actually has some sort of effect, even in today’s political environment of “say whatever you want and we’ll still do whatever we please.” The big news today from US media is the dumping of bow-tied Tucker Carlson from CNN’s […] More »

Over the holidays, I blazed through Blink, the new mega-seller from Malcolm Gladwell. I didn’t really like it, but who am I to criticise a dude who charges US$40 000 for a business lecture? But everyone knows what a bunch of suckers business people are for the Next! Hot! Idea!. Remember Dow 36000? Over at […] More »

The new blog by Gary Becker and Richard Posner is one of the smartest things on the net. Two guys with enormous brains writing mini-essays at each other on the major issues of the day. This week, it is catastrophic risk. The main question they adress: In the case of low-risk/high-loss disasters, is it better […] More »