Author archive

May the new Rabbit year beginning today bless all Chinese Canadians, and all Canadians, with happiness, good health and good fortune.  Gung hei fat choi!  Happy New Year!

更多的中文信息。

And best wishes for the Vietnamese Year of the Cat.  An khang thịnh vượng!

Our government’s focus on carbon capture as a way of reducing emissions was always expensive.  Now it looks like it might not even work at all.     Read more »

There is a lot of noise being made today about the Pembina Institute’s comparison of the Metrolinx and Mayor Rob Ford’s transit expansion plans.  The Toronto Star reported on it and the Toronto Environmental Alliance has been alerting its members to it as well.  Whether you prefer subways or light rail, you still have to conclude that Mayor Ford’s plan is inconsistent with his stand on reducing waste.  If you want subways to deliver anywhere close to the kind of service you can get from surface transit, you better be prepared for substantially higher taxes.

Meanwhile, George Monbiot in the United Kingdom is facing the identical nonsensical rhetoric of “ending the war against the car”, and writes as only he can:     Read more »

You can hear Tim Jackson and Peter Victor argue for a steady-state economy while Paul Ekins and Richard Lipsey promote green growth.

An audio recording of the debate is available online, and it will be rebroadcast on the CBC:

No Growth vs Green Growth debate
Tuesday, 2011 February 2, 9pm
Ideas on CBC Radio One

I want to thank a local supporter for alerting me to Tim Jackson’s presence in Canada.  Jackson is an economist working with Canadian economist Peter Victor on modeling an economy not built around constant growth.     Read more »

In visiting with people door-to-door, one of the most common grievances I hear is the worry from seniors about increasing difficulty just to make ends meet.  Often, seniors worry not only for themselves, but also about the burden they put on other family members.  Just before I left for Cancun and a month of worries about climate change followed by Christmas, Joe Friesen reported in the Globe and Mail that senior poverty in Canada had jumped 25% during the economic crisis.  The picture he paints is exactly in line with the experiences I hear about.  We need to address senior poverty.  Working towards the Green Party’s visions for valuing seniors and eliminating poverty would be a start.

UPDATE — While the number of seniors who slipped into poverty increased by 25%, it turns out CEOs were making more than ever – more in just a day’s worth of work than most Canadians make all year.