Frontier Centre

On August 3, the government of Canada issued a statement of concern about the way that Saudi Arabia was treating a number of its citizens who had been agitating for further human rights inside the most Islamically conservative jurisdiction on the planet.

It's rare that a Canadian university prof ends up on talk shows around the world. But Jordan Peterson, who teaches psychology at the University of Toronto, got there because he refused to the obey the rule that says people who self-identify as 'trans gender' are entitled to 'non-binary pronouns'. From that starting point, Peterson has emerged as Canada's best known academic intellectual since Marshall McLuhan. He is vilified by some feminists as being a misogynist of the alt right, a charge that he strongly denies.

Two recent cases show a troubling trend on the part of the police in reacting to Canadians defending their property and families. When an armed gang roared on to the farm of Gerald Stanley, attempted to steal vehicles, and assaulted his wife, Stanley responded by shooting dead one of the home invaders. When Peter Khill found a man on his driveway trying to steal his truck and believed the thief was raising a gun, Khill shot and killed him.

Airbnb is one of our era’s most popular and successful services, providing travellers cheap short-term accommodation in unused suites and rooms, primarily in private homes. It serves millions of customers every day in 191 countries but it has recently faced opposition in Canadian cities.

Canada and the USA are now involved in a harmful trade war that threatens our prosperity. At the heart of the disagreement are the sky-high tariffs that Canada levies on dairy products to shelter our milk cartel. These import duties of up to 270% make our milk, cheese and yogurt far more expensive than they ought to be.

There is much anxiety about the impact of climate change and the dangers posed by global warming. Ottawa and a majority of the provinces have decided that a tax on carbon emissions is what's needed to help save the planet. However, scientific studies are now suggesting that Canadians don't have that much to fear.

As Canadian cities are plagued by ever-higher home prices, governments look for ways to provide affordable housing for their citizens. They should look to their own ill-advised “urban containment” policies. Urban containment severely restricts or bans development in urban fringe areas. Consistent with basic economics, this increases land values and house prices. The hope that higher housing densities will offset the land-price increases and keep housing affordable has not been borne out in practice. Cities with such policies like Vancouver and Toronto have seen house prices double or triple compared with household incomes. Speculators prosper while the middle class suffers.

The recent controversies over tearing down the statues of Canadian heroes because some of their actions have offended our modern sensibilities needs some historical context. No one, no matter how revered, ever lived without flaws. Louis Riel, lauded for the founding of Manitoba, ended his life as a false messiah who wanted to rename the North Star after his sister, and move the papacy to Montreal; a failed leader whose decisions brought ruin on the Métis of the Northwest. Yet we have erected statues of Riel and name a public holiday after him.

By now, we are used to attending public events that begin with an acknowledgement that we are on treaty land. This ritual grew out of a claim by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that such a statement was necessary to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians together. But that statement is historically wrong and meant to advance another cause altogether.

Interview: Michael Zwaagstra discusses changes to Ontario's sex-ed curriculum accompanied by scrapping discovery math model on The Roy Green Show. (~17 minutes)

It’s not easy being green. Attempts around the world to rely exclusively on renewable sources for energy are constantly being hampered by the unreliability of solar, wind or tidal power, by higher consumer costs, and by unexpected environmental hazards. Despite this, governments continue to insist on renewables and ignore cheap and clean fossil fuels, even while black-outs, brown-outs, and soaring heating bills plague us.

Among the silliest of current left-wing demands is that white people cease “cultural appropriation”, that is, the borrowing of styles, foods, dress, or art of other cultures. A Latina student in California insisted that hoop earrings were an invention of her people and should not be worn by those with paler skin. A white Canadian politician quoted Beyoncé and was denounced by Black Lives Matter; a white basketball player was assaulted for braiding his hair.

The former Kapyong Barracks site, located on 160 acres of prime Winnipeg real estate, has been vacant since 2004 when the military base closed down. The federal government has tried to sell the land but courts have required that they first negotiate with First Nations peoples.

The budget crisis in Alberta has led some to suggest cutting funding to private schools. This is a short-sighted and unfair idea. Private schools are only partly financed by the province which does not cover capital costs and provides a per-student grant less than half of what public schools receive. Transferring those students enrolled in the private institutions to the public system would cost Alberta $168 million extra plus the cost of constructing new classrooms or schools to accommodate the 29,000 pupils. Those worried about class sizes now should consider the impact of adding that many new students.

Don't Blink: The Politics of Successful Structural Reform by Frontier Centre

Here is a simple phrase: “Some good came from Residential Schools”. It’s an undeniably true statement and if you don’t believe it, listen to the words of native playwright Tomson Highway: “There are many very successful people today that went to those schools and have brilliant careers and are very functional people, very happy people like myself. I have a thriving international career, and it wouldn’t have happened without that school.”

Ian Madsen joins Geoff Currier to explain the common negative effects that are nearly inevitable, and more.

The Northern Gateway, Energy East, and Pacific Northwest LNG Pipeline proposals have been scrapped. Scotiabank estimates that the Canadian economy forfeits $15.6 billion per year as other pipeline proposals await approval. Has this happened because Canadians organically and collectively decided the environmental impact was too great? No. This actually happened because uber-rich American environmental foundations planned and paid for this very result.

First Nations populations and on-reserve businesses are growing faster than the Canadian average. This growth should be welcomed by the rest of the Canadian family, save for one problem: unjustified tax exemptions for on-reserve commerce and individuals.

How long is the career of a public figure when facing anonymous accusations of sexual misconduct? In the case of Ontario Conservative leader Patrick Brown it was measured in hours from the moment CTV released the news to his resignation.