More and more of the Canadian economy is dominated by a handful of huge companies that control what we buy, how we work, and which other businesses can or can’t thrive. Beyond the obvious examples of airlines, telcos, grocery chains, and banks, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians shows how corporate concentration is growing across many industries, leading to higher prices for consumers, lower worker’s wages, more inequality, fewer startups, less innovation, and lower growth and productivity ..read more

A candidate for the People’s Party of Canada asked if I would join his podcast for a discussion of government functions. Having no interest in promoting or assisting that party, I declined. So, who are the people who support the People’s Party ..read more

According to Oxfam International, the richest 1 percent have amassed $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade, nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50 percent of the world’s population. Oxfam has calculated that for every $1 raised in tax in G20 countries, less than 8 cents comes from taxes on wealth ..read more

A knowledgeable friend believes that we have passed a threshold, beyond which our world will suffer irreversible changes in the climate system. He says Planet Earth now needs palliative care ..read more

After more than seven years of responsibility for the sector, Adrian Dix is blamed for healthcare inadequacies. Indeed, real challenges abound. Yet solutions to apparent problems can take much time and the four Liberal Health Ministers that served during Christy Clark's six years are not blameless ..read more

DeBriefed is a weekly newsletter from Carbon Brief, a UK based website that publishes the work of journalists and academics. The focus is on the effects of climate change and the science that ought to dictate energy policies. Each edition of DeBriefed provides information that ought to concern all of us, particularly since climate change deniers are soon to control the American and Canadian governments ..read more

In the early days of IN-SIGHTS, I was influenced by the late Rafe Mair and his Common Sense Canadian partner Damien Gillis. November 16, a film directed by Mr. Gillis is featured at the Rio Theatre as part of Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF ..read more

While BC voters moved to the right in October, the voting pattern was not substantially different than in earlier times. The same cannot be said for the USA. More than half of American voters supported a misogynist, racist, criminal for President. The simplest explanations for the November result are a disdain for democracy and a willingness to embrace totalitarianism. Canada is experiencing its own shift to the far-right ..read more

About poetry and essays from the November 2024 issue of Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. The publication is useful for people at all levels of learning. Occasionally, it can make us smile ..read more

A decade ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists published a paper "How Geothermal Energy Works." It reported that the heat within 10,000 meters of the Earth's surface offers 50,000 times more energy than all the world's oil and natural gas resources. The problem is making that energy available. There has been little commitment to geothermal energy but one Canadian company intends to change that ..read more