Alberta Venture Magazine
August 2011: Will This Spark Fly?
I had a lot of fun with this story. Originally intended as a “Next Up” feature, it quickly morphed into a full-blown feature about a local green energy co-operative. Spark Energy is no mere altruistic gesture, though. In fact, as its founders argue, the co-operative structure is the only model that can operate effectively inside Alberta’s dysfunctional deregulated energy market.
On the heels of BHP Billiton’s aborted takeover of Saskatchewan’s Potash Corporation, I explored the possibility of one of Alberta’s bigger companies – Suncor, perhaps? – getting taken over, as well as the political and economic variables that such a deal would have to overcome.
December 2010: Don Lowry – Alberta’s Business Person of the Year
In the December edition of Alberta Venture magazine, I profiled Epcor CEO Don Lowry, Alberta’s Business Person of the Year for 2010. In it, I discuss his gutsy decision to re-imagine the city-owned utility as a “water and wires” operation, and the moves he had to make to see that change through.
October 2010: Mission Impossible
In the October edition of Alberta Venture magazine, I profiled MLA Doug Griffiths and his quixotic attempt to have a rational discussion about the possibility of a sales tax, an idea that evokes irrational reactions from all but the most reserved Albertans. On its merits alone, Griffiths argues, a sales tax deserves to be considered as part of the province’s range of available fiscal tools. Are Albertans ready to listen to reason?
In this piece, I weighed the arguments being made by the governments of Alberta and Quebec against the idea of a single national securities regulator against those presented by its supporters, a group that includes many of the provinces and the federal government. Canada is the only country in the G20 without a national securities regulator, and its advocates argue that it’s long past time to rectify that situation. But opponents, like Alberta’s Ted Morton, believe that a national regulator would represent an unnecessary and unwarranted – and, indeed, unconstitutional – intrusion on provincial jurisdiction. Is this just another tiresome case of inter-jurisdictional bickering, a fact of life in our federal system, or a conflict whose outcome will have a meaningful influence on the issue at hand?
August 2010: Native Opportunity
There are few economic challenges more vexing for businesses in Alberta than the persistent shortage of skilled and available labour, and while the recent recession has eased those pressures it won’t take much for them to return. At the same time, the province boasts a young aboriginal population, one that has largely missed out on the economic opportunities that have enriched so many others in the province over the last decade. Problem, meet your solution.
Corporate Knights Magazine
Issue 30 (2010) – Swifter, Higher, Stronger. Greener?
In CK’s Olympic issue I assessed claims the environmental claims being made by organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Did they deliver on the green games that they promised, or will its environmental legacy be a more problematic one?
This Magazine
September 2006 – Google Never Forgets
The internet’s a wonderful thing, a tool that provides us with access to more information than we could ever possibly put to use. But some of that information, depending upon who we are and how we live our lives, is about us, and that can cause trouble. This piece documents my own attempt to corral my Google shadow.
July 2006 – Much Ado About Nothing
There used to be a time when the VJs that mediated the media flow at Much Music were more than attract microphone stands. From Avi Lewis and JD Roberts to Daniel Richler and even the ubiquitous George Stroumboulopoulos, Much Music personalities actually had personalities, and ones that were informed by more than just the latest air-headed trends and pop culture fluff. This piece documents the decline of the VJ.
Newspapers
The Vancouver Sun, September 2008 – Real Estate Collapse? Bring it On!
For much of the first decade of the 21st century, residential real-estate was a viable get-rich quick scheme – people really did get rich, and quick. But with apologies to the creators of Avatar, the decade-long run-up had made real-estate the real unobtainium for young Vancouverites.
The Toronto Star, October 2007 – Taking the ‘Sir’ out of Surnames
We’ve moved past the point where women are automatically expected to adopt their husband’s last name, and that’s all for the better. But should we consider taking the next step? Is there a situation in which the husband should, could or would take his wife’s name? This Toronto Star piece from October of 2007 examines that proposition.
National Post, February 2008 – Blinded by Richard Florida’s Sunshine
I was pleasantly surprised when the National Post gave me a forum for my curmudgeonly disdain for Richard Florida, then Toronto’s intellectual superstar-du-jour. Florida, to his credit, took the hit pretty well, agreeing with many of my criticisms on his own blog at the time.
The Globe and Mail, February 2007 – The Sacred Cow of Low Tuition
Along with sexual experimentation and bad cafeteria food, tuition fee rallies are a shared experience for most young Canadians today. Rising tuition fees, they’re told by well-meaning student representatives and campus activists, are an affront to notions of justice and equality, and make post-secondary education an unfairly punitive financial experience. Like most forms of orthodoxy, though, the belief that low tuition fees are an indisputable virtue is a grotesque oversimplification. In this piece for the Globe and Mail I took a contrarian tack, arguing that students should be campaigning for higher fees rather than lower ones. As far as I’m concerned, the case I presented then still stands today.
