by Geoffrey Stevens
What a difference a generation makes!
A generation ago, Pierre Trudeau, father of today’s dauphin, burst on the political scene, “like a stone through a stained glass window” (in the memorable simile of the late journalist Gordon Donaldson).
by Jody Dallaire
The Regroupement Féministe du Nouveau-Brunswick (RFNB – which is a New Brunswick based francophone feminist organization) recently launched a series of workshops called Feministe101, in Moncton (last week), Shippagan next week, and Edmundston in mid-October.
The Moncton event was well attended. Fifty young women came out to discuss how they can “clarify, demystify and reclaim the word feminism.”
When I think back, the number of books that have affected my life is incredible. The line of volumes snakes back through fifty-five years and touches on virtually everything. Sometimes I feel as though the doorway to a library was where I was always supposed to go.
by Geoffrey Stevens
Everyone knows that the pensions for members of Parliament are far too rich.
MPs can draw their pensions too soon (at age 55), after too few years of parliamentary service (just six), and they receive too much money (up to 75 per cent of salary, with more if they served as a cabinet minister or committee chair). And they contribute far too little to their pension fund. The C.D. Howe Institute reported last year that taxpayers contribute $6 for every $1 put in by MPs; this year, the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation put the disparity at $24 to $1.
by David Suzuki
One of the joys of being a grandparent is getting to see the world again through the eyes of a child. Recently, I found my three-year-old grandson picking at a scab on his arm. It brought a flood of memories because I used to do the same thing. It was amazing to watch the blood from an injury dry and, over days, form a scab. Before that scab was ready to fall off, I would pick at it to see what was underneath, and, wonder of wonders — it was fresh, pink skin!
Our bodies' ability to regenerate is truly amazing.
by Jody Dallaire
Many of us who care about social justice and women’s rights have learned in the last few years to look elsewhere than the United States for inspiration – even to look away from the US to avoid despair. Indeed, the only country that leads more quickly to despair on those issues may be Afghanistan. As someone asked recently, have the Taliban won the war and taken over the United States?
by Geoffrey Stevens
Robert Stanfield was often described as the best prime minister Canada never had. He was a great premier (Nova Scotia), became leader of the federal Progressive Conservative party, but had the ill fortune to appear on the national stage at the same time as Liberal Pierre Trudeau, to whom he lost three general elections in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
What about Peter Lougheed? Lougheed, who died last week at 84, was also a great Tory premier (Alberta). Earlier this year, a panel of eminent Canadians, assembled by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), a Montreal-based think tank, voted Lougheed Canada’s best premier of the past 40 years, ahead of Ontario’s Bill Davis and Saskatchewan’s Allan Blakeney, among others.
Fossil fuels will run out even if we accept increased extraction risks.
by David Suzuki
At least 38 earthquakes in Northeastern BC over the past few years were caused by hydraulic fracturing (commonly called fracking), according to a report by the BC Oil and Gas Commission. Studies have found quakes are common in many places where that natural gas extraction process is employed.
It’s not unexpected that shooting massive amounts of water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into the earth to shatter shale and release natural gas might shake things up. But earthquakes aren’t the worst problem with fracking.
by David Suzuki
Arctic sea ice has already melted to a record low this year, in thickness and extent. And summer’s not over yet. According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, record melt has occurred for the past six years. Both the NSIDC and the European Space Agency say ice is thinning at a rate 50 per cent faster than scientists predicted, mainly because of global warming, and that summer Arctic ice could soon disappear altogether.
by Jody Dallaire
This summer I went to Dieppe, France, to help commemorate the August 19 1942 Dieppe Raid, where thousands of (mostly Canadian) soldiers were killed, wounded or taken prisoner by the Germans.
