I grew up in a farming area, where the labour of Mexican migrants was essential and taken for granted. It never occurred to me to wonder why so many skilled farmers had to leave their own country in order to make a living. It was many years before I understood the long history of...
When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davis, Switzerland, on January 27, 2012, the best ideas he could offer were major cuts to social problems and significant investments in economic growth. That’s old-style thinking: People last, money first. Endless economic growth at any cost. A growing...
Canada’s Conservative government figures building more prisons and slapping more people into them will reduce the crime rate. Since crime is at its lowest in over thirty years, that’s a pretty peculiar priority. On the other hand, Labrador’s Happy Valley-Goose Bay Correctional Centre has a more progressive idea. Inmates who have served two-thirds of...
A lot of the crazy things happening in politics these days make me teeter between despair and disbelief. So when a piece of good news comes along, I just have to share it. This one came to me from Julia Dinsmore. She is one of my inspirations, so when she sends me one of...
In June 2011 Mayor Janice Daniels of Troy, Michigan, posted a derogatory Facebook message: “I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.” At a City of Troy Council meeting, 75 people stood in line to respond. They were angry. They...
I just watched an October 2011 TED talk given by the great-grandson of Oscar Meyer. He wasn’t talking about wieners. He was making the case for estate taxes, something the Bush administration did away with. He told several stories, which you can see on the video below, but one really brought it home for...
Some days I hear the latest rantings of some Tea Party member and despair for the country of my birth. Then along comes a sign like this. I have no idea who created the sign. Americans Against the Tea Party posted it on their Facebook page, and it has gone viral. Someone also posted...
The idea is simple. Shift our focus to what we want instead of what we fear. Give center stage to peace rather than war. Julia Bacha calls on media to do just that. She wants them to put peace in the spotlight instead focusing nearly all of their attention on violence. In her talk for TED,...
When I watch the Liberals in my home province of British Columbia and the Conservatives at the federal level selling off our future, I am quite certain they learned their style of governance by reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The characters in Lewis Carroll’s classic would applaud their logic, as they slash social programs,...
For 96 people from 24 countries, a two-hour Canada Day celebration in Kelowna changed their lives. Today they became citizens, with all the privileges and responsibilities that entails. They swore their oath in a packed auditorium, with friends and families and ordinary folk like me bearing witness. The citizenship judge was Anne-Marie Kains from...
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