From the start of the American presidential primaries last year there has been considerable talk of “establishment” candidates vs “outsiders” or “anti-establishment” candidates, talk that increased with every “establishment” Republican that dropped out of the race leaving Donald Trump as…
Innovation in an Information Economy: An Open Letter to Navdeep Bains
To the Honourable Navdeep Singh Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development, Thank you for your commitment to serve Canadians by helping our economy to grow and develop. In accordance with your ministerial mandate, I’d like to offer you…
Brexit and the Resurrection of Nationalism
Yesterday marks the end of an era. In World War II the world came together, but in brutal opposition and violence. Since then, or for the last 70 or so years, we’ve been very deliberately coming together in peace and…
Vote No to a Referendum on Democratic Reform
Update: CBC’s The Current interviewed some experts on the subject of referendums in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. They cover all of the same territory. You can hear the episode here. There’s a certain logic to the idea that…
Talking About Climate Change in the Wake of Disaster
Canada is on fire. Fort McMurray is not the only place, but certainly the highest profile. The Manitoba-Ontario border is also burning, and there are hundreds of smaller fires across the country. My heart goes out to those who have…
On Energy Investments
Pipelines are once again front-page news in Canada, with the pressure to approve Energy East and the Kinder Morgan expansion growing amid questions of how the new government will change regulation procedures. Is another investment in the fossil fuel industry…
Terrorism and the Inadequacy of Just War
The election is over, but the Green Party Provencher Riding Association isn’t going away. We’ll be hosting an event every other month or so for the next four years, on topics that are relevant to the riding but are also…
The Aftermath
What an experience! The election is over, and I’m filled with pride, gratitude, and hope. Pride because I’m part of something bigger than myself, something incredible: Canada, and also the Green Party of Canada; and because the people of the…
The Challenge of Participatory Democracy
Last Friday was the final lecture in our six-part lecture series, and everyone who came was brilliant. I’m going to post my lecture here, but I want to highlight a few things first. I wrote this lecture to try to…
On Priorities
I’ve quickly discovered, running as a Green candidate, that the larger parties set the conversation topics around election time. So long as we’re talking about what they’re talking about, we’re part of the national conversation and get a decent amount…