Consumer confidence and stock values might be dropping, but there’s one number that’s on the rise: Canada’s unemployment rate. As more Canadians start turning to Employment Insurance, we got to wondering about the specifics. EI schemes vary widely across the country, it turns out. Just how extreme are the differences? Well, here’s what we found: […] More »

In a country with supposedly universal coverage, some of the most vulnerable must pay cash for health care. It costs them their livelihoods — and sometimes their lives Dr. Paul Caulford will never forget what happened to Patricia. An 18-year-old girl from Grenada, she had an athletic build, black skin, and black hair cropped at […] More »

Tim Falconer, author of Drive: A Road Trip through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile proposes a 12-step program for breaking our addiction to cars As individuals and as a society, we love our automobiles — even as we hate how they screw up our planet, our cities, and our lives. Environics Research Group, a […] More »

We’re loving Fair Vote Canada… The brainchild of three concerned citizens, Fair Vote Canada is devoted to reforming Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system. Formed in 2000, it currently has members in every province from across the political spectrum, more than 2,000 dues-paying members and a contact list of 10,000 people. FVC’s ultimate goal, explains Larry Gordon, […] More »

Canada finally restores citizenship to thousands stripped of their status On April 17, thousands of “Lost Canadians” will finally have the opportunity to claim their longdenied Canadian citizenship, thanks to Bill C-37. Intended to restore citizenship to those stripped of their nationality without their consent or often even their knowledge, Bill C-37 will also rectify […] More »

They’re often unwitting carriers of HPV, so why no vaccinations? Last November, the findings of the first study on boys and Gardasil — the vaccine that protects girls from four types of human papillomavirus — were released by pharmaceutical giant Merck. The good news is it works, preventing 90 percent of male HPV cases. The […] More »

Around the world, cities are finding ways to drastically reduce, or even eliminate, car use. It could happen here too In cities around the globe, World Carfree Day is a nice little break from the everyday. Every year on September 22, dozens of large cities shut down some of their main streets to traffic, leaving […] More »

Baby boomers: drop the watercolours, back away slowly In last spring’s flimsy caper comedy Mad Money, an uneasy truth lingered beneath the slapstick thievery and rolling-in-greenbacks hijinks: the fabled baby boomers, now hitting their early 60s, have no idea how to deal with the diminishing returns of their impending senior citizenship. Pardon me if I […] More »

Marketers will slap the “green” label on just about anything. Don’t be fooled I have no qualms with calling myself a conscious consumer. If there’s a label, I read it. If there’s not, I ask. I like to know what’s in the products I buy, where they come from, and who made them. I care […] More »

He’s in the CAW driver’s seat — but where’s he going? When Ken Lewenza became president of the Canadian Auto Workers last September, he had no idea it would soon be begging for government loans — $14 billion in the U.S. and $3.4 billion in Canada — to stay afloat. Lewenza spoke with This in […] More »

The “people’s car” of the 21st century could spur international development — or wreck the climate. Perhaps both. A look at the tiny car that’s making big waves. In 1908, a car changed the world. The Ford Model T made personal car ownership a reality for millions of people in the United States, introduced mass […] More »