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So many good charities, so many demands: can’t choose?

United Way can help. The United Way is not a charity. It raises money for charities and decides which ones should get the money. It’s a formula that really works. I am a reluctant convert: like many people I thought the United Way was a huge impersonal organisation which probably had way too much overhead. It has been really gratifying for me to work with the United Way for several years now, and I want to tell you why. Thousands of worthy causes vie for our attention. It is impossible to give to them all. Most of us probably give to our neighbours’ pet causes, at least if they knock on our door. Small amounts. We perhaps have a key charity we give to, a disease that has affected ou

Canada’s Historic Aversion to Risk: Why Aggressive Tax Policy is the Best Solution

Canada’s DNA is more risk averse than in the U.S., and the challenge of encouraging people who have the ability to strike out on their own is bigger here. I think there are good reasons for this. In my first full time job, like many others of my generation, I worked for an American company. I remember going down to the US for training, with a group of Canadians, to a facility where a huge cohort of Americans was also being trained. We spent three weeks there, total immersion, in close proximity with each other. I came away with the strong impression that my Canadian colleagues were generally better educated and smarter than the Americans being employed at the same level. Eventually I th

For there to be executives, there must first be entrepreneurs--the reverse does not apply: Why Gover

Economies today have the opportunity and challenge of rapid change. Change occurs on a technological level at an astonishing rate, but it also occurs because of regulation needed to address new knowledge about the environment, and because of global geo-political change such as globalisation and the backlash against it. The large publicly traded company lacks the flexibility to adapt successfully to such changes. In the modern environment, we need bold people to guess where things will go and bet their lives on it. Canada’s DNA is still risk averse, though much less so than before, and government needs to facilitate starting enterprises: though many will fail, or have only short periods o

Time for a Single Public Education System

Remember True Blue and Orange Homes, the Orange Parade? An Ontario where Catholics and Protestants lived in different neighbourhoods and never the twain shall meet? Every Ontario Town had a street that divided the Catholics from the Protestants? In Lindsay, Ontario, where I lived for a time, it was Kent St. As recently as 1971, my father was told by his lawyer that the house he had chosen was in a part of town that “we” don’t live in. In Oakville, the divider was Kerr, or perhaps the Sixteen Mile Creek. I am told there was a time if you wanted a job in the Toronto Fire Department or the Police you had to be Irish or Scots Protestant. Today, describe this to anyone under 40, and they do

These articles are my humble attempts to clarify complex issues without oversimplifying them.

I have wide-ranging interests. Look around for topics that confuse you, or that you find hard to take a position on: perhaps my thoughts can help.

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The Impasse over Public Education

Climate Guilt is not obligatory: How to stop being paralyzed by fear, guilt and blame and take acti

Collective Wisdom of the Canadian Electorate

So many good charities, so many demands: can’t choose?

Canada’s Historic Aversion to Risk: Why Aggressive Tax Policy is the Best Solution

For there to be executives, there must first be entrepreneurs--the reverse does not apply: Why Gover

Time for a Single Public Education System

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