Canadian Provinces

Are the Mounties getting too many men who don’t need to be got?

Mar 12th, 2009 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

Gordon Gibson had a column in the Vancouver Sun earlier this week, urging that British Columbia should stop re-negotiating its contract for provincial police services with the RCMP – and re-establish the old BC Provincial Police, disbanded back in 1950. (As matters stand, only Ontario and Quebec now have their own police forces. All eight […]



Two weeks at Pavilion Lake .. which may approximate ancient Mars?

Jun 18th, 2008 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

Pavilion Lake, BC is about 420 kilometers northeast of Vancouver – in Marble Canyon not far west of Kamloops, and “within the traditional territory of the Ts’kw’aylaxw people, and the Pavilion First Nations Indian Band.” Especially this time of year, the lake is “clear … and warm … surrounded by large old growth fir trees, […]



Ontario budget 2008 is better than anything Jim Flaherty has ever done?

Mar 25th, 2008 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

The budget Ontario Liberal finance minister Dwight Duncan finally tabled in the provincial legislature just after 4 PM ET on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 is, local financial experts seem to agree, by and large a cautious if also prudent document. While dabbling in many constructive directions, it does not do anything too exciting, because at […]



Could fate of BC’s Prince of Pot be sleeper issue for Conservative minority government in Ottawa?

Jan 14th, 2008 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

UPDATED JANUARY 21. TORONTO. Just as we are trying to figure out what the Liberals and New Democrats may or may not be doing to prepare for a possible Canadian federal election soon enough, more exotic news arrives from the Wet Coast. The lead item is a January 14 article by Ian Mulgrew in the Vancouver […]



Canada and its provinces .. did not really do anything at Harper’s first first ministers dinner?

Jan 11th, 2008 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

UPDATED JANUARY 12. The Harper Conservative minority government in Canada, some argue, believes that the provinces should do the lion’s share of the heavy lifting in the 21st century federation. A properly lean federal government just looks after defence, equalization payments, and arranging luncheons at the Parliament Pub in Ottawa. If this were true, you might […]



New age of McGuinty’s Ontario puts down roots

Oct 11th, 2007 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

The one seriously distressing result of Canada’s most populous province’s first fixed-date election on October 10, 2007 was that less than 53% of the eligible electorate finally cast ballots – a gloomy new low in Ontario politics since the start of the Canadian confederation in 1867. Beyond this, the McGuinty Liberals, as widely predicted, did win a […]



Waiting for the Ontario election .. old Canadian heartland not what it used to be?

Aug 6th, 2007 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

[UPDATED AUGUST 23]. The first fixed-date election in the history of Canada’s most populous province, on October 10, 2007, is now just over two months away. But by the traditional midsummer civic holiday it was still a bit too early for any great excitement among the people of Ontario. The big holiday event in the […]



News from Nunavut : what does the Mayer report tell us about Canada’s Arctic experiment?

Jun 17th, 2007 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

Whatever else, Canada does have a vast chunk of northern geography. And both climate change and new resource technologies seem to hold out fresh prospects for far northern economic development that more southerly business interests can applaud. The eastern Arctic is also now home to the innovative Nunavut Territory – whose creation in 1999 still […]



Ontario 2007 : forgotten but not gone

Apr 6th, 2007 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

Patches of snow on the ground in early April almost hint at a certain reluctance to get on with the new season of change in “Canada’s most populous province” (and don’t you forget it). Yet by the end of the first quarter of 2007 probably all but the most obtuse central Canadians have at last […]



Case of the Hells Angels’ border guard in BC .. and other tall tales from the new west

Apr 1st, 2007 | By | Category: Canadian Provinces

This past Tuesday, March 27, 2007 the Vancouver Sun reported that “Mindi Niedermeiser, the BC border guard who partied with the Hells Angels, had been previously fired by the Canada Border Services Agency for misconduct but was reinstated after an appeal.” Ms. Niedermeiser’s case starts more than a decade ago now. But it may help […]