How the tune has changed! Not so long ago, the federal government’s defence critics were decrying its unjustified hawkishness in a demonstrably ever more peaceful world. Now the criticism is…
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Back from my summer break my first column of the season for the Ottawa Citizen asks whether Western politicians aren’t whistling past the graveyard when they so blithely assert that…
The news that the Senate is about to follow the Commons in allowing television (a mere 37 years later — that’s sober second thought for you!) brought back memories of…
The Parliamentary Budget Officer recently released a paper explaining why it doesn’t actually cost the government anything when civil servants take sick leave. His conclusion was, IMHO, so bizarre that…
In my weekly screed, this time for the Ottawa Citizen and other Postmedia papers, I think about some of the potential of Big Data to transform our economic and social…
Eat butter. No. don’t! Stay out of the sun! Make more natural vitamin D! Oat bran’s a wonder food. No it’s worthless. Don’t smoke! Smoking helps stave off Alzheimer’s. Salt…
In the latest of my seemingly endless screeds for the Ottawa Citizen and other PostMedia newspapers today I mine the D-Day invasion and the West’s success in the Cold War…
Recent events in both South Africa (successful elections) and Northern Ireland (arrest and release of Gerry Adams) provide the backdrop for this week’s column in the Ottawa Citizen and other…
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled out almost all of Ottawa’s attempt at Senate reform that would skirt the need for a constitutional amendment. So be it (even though…
Something quite close to the heart today: my reflections on the character and achievements of a man I greatly admired, Jim Flaherty. His death yesterday of a heart attack brought…