When the referendum delivered an unwanted result, BC’s provincial government reshaped, polished and coordinated messages to the public. One particularly troublesome claim, made by Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the July 2009 HST announcement, […]
Carbon deal represents a massive transfer of public money from British Columbian schools, hospitals and taxpayers to an already profitable private gas company. …it is ludicrous to force the public sector, which is responsible for less than one per cent of greenhouse gases emitted in the province, to subsidize big polluters who pay no penalty for the majority of their greenhouse gas emissions.
Forty years ago, American (and, by logical extension, Canadian) business worried about future survival of free enterprise. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lewis Powell, later a Nixon appointed Supreme Court Judge, […]
Several years ago the Fraser Institute spearheaded a drive to deregulate Canadian banks so they could act more like U.S. banks. That potential disaster was in line with the Fraser Institute objective […]
Be afraid, British Columbians. Be very afraid. The big business lobby was the guiding hand behind Gordon Campbell’s introduction of HST. The aim: to relieve giant multinationals from paying tax in this […]
This article was posted a year ago but is worth repeating because the underlying situation has grown worse. British Columbia’s child poverty rate is the highest in Canada and the province has […]
With the Harper government finally holding a majority in Parliament, it’s worth re-looking at the radical milieu that gave early inspiration to Canada’s Prime Minister. Some years ago, writer Marci McDonald wrote The […]
Have you heard the Canadian Taxpayers Federation or the Fraser Institute economists complain of wasteful and non-market subsidies to the oil industry? No? Strange. Climate Action Network Canada
While the Fraser Institute and its clones plot to restore laissez-faire capitalism devoid of government regulation, let us consider the experiences of Christchurch and decide if deregulation is what we need. From […]
Danger to the environment of northeast British Columbia increases steadily as natural gas producers pump billions of gallons of water and billions of pounds more of sand and chemicals underground in what […]
SFU Prof Donald Gutstein is expert on the Fraser Institute. It recently published the annual schools report card and Gutstein carves it into little pieces. Read here. The schools report is an […]
Academic economists, those not doing Faustian deals with the likes of the Fraser Institute or Colin Hansen, determine that consumer taxes such as HST can be a worthwhile element of fair taxation. […]
When BC Liberals decided that HST was the single best reward they could offer big business, they relied on loyalists such as the Fraser Institute and the BC Business Council for ringing […]
Omnia causa fiunt – everything happens for a reason. When the captain who carefully plots his own course suddenly and radically alters direction, I ask why. What changed for Premier Gordon Campbell […]
I notice the Globe & Mail is hosting a Thursday morning live discussion to examine Gordon Campbell’s $100,000 speech to the province. Or, was that a $568 million speech? Columnist Gary Mason […]
Columnist Don Cayo is one of the Vancouver Sun’s advocates for big business. In the nineties, he ran the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a corporate-funded charity operating as a think-tank based […]
Act of Defiance I’d love to know the inside stories at the westcoast newspapers now owned by American vulture capitalists and their frontman Paul Godfrey. I’ll bet there has been smoking correspondence […]
I wondered when folks at the Fraser Institute would weigh in, aiming to convince people that HST is good to great for ordinary British Columbians. That predictable message arrived today. Strangely, a […]
Northern Insights / Perceptivity repeatedly directs readers to ProPublica, an American non-profit investigative news agency. I link to that site because it is one of the most useful sources of original news. […]
Update:People involved with a certain unnamed think tank have been making noises about articles in a certain unnamed blog. They are concerned about that which is politely called “publication of allegedly defamatory […]
Let's ask an expert.. Consider The House of EL’s analysis of “thought” as it functions among the AI and business…
If anything could keep sleep-deprived President Trump busy threatening new tariffs it is likely to be Europe’s decision to remove…
Hi Norm, I think you might find this book review, from the New York Review of Books, interesting. I think…
What’s so hilarious about twenty-first century geopolitics? The irrepressible analytical wit of Sarah Paine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwDGrLRJhQI
Thanks for this article Norm. The BC Greens are breaking new ground this election by promising to introduce a wealth…