By: Mischa Popoff, Policy Advisor for The Heartland Institute, Research Associate for The Frontier Centre for Public Policy Getting kicked off a flight for being inebriated must’ve been troubling for New Democrat MP Romeo Saganash. But it was even more troubling for me. Put aside for the moment the fact that Saganash is a...

I was cruising around Pinterest one day and found a quote that struck something deep inside me. It read, “I have an irrational fear of wasting a good outfit on an insignificant day.” (I know, deep, right?) Anyway,I gasped in excitement and thought, “Oh my gawsh, that’s totally me!” and quickly ‘pinned’ it before moving on to other sparkly […]

Americans are raised on a peculiar ideology about themselves, their country, and its history. It's called “exceptionalism.” It means they are exempt from learning from history, because nothing they do has ever been paralleled or precedented. They do everything for the first time ever in human history. No one and nothing, bears...

Not long after the Defend Our Coast rallies, a pollster phones, wanting to know who I plan to vote for in the provincial election.  The first party to unequivocally say NO to tar sands oil in pipelines and tankers through BC land and waters, I tell her. This causes a bit of confusion, as it clearly isn’t one of the options ...

I’m writing a column further to Christine’s column (http://castlegarsource.com/news/oped-looks-werent-deceiving-you-deceived-yourself-21868#.UJw81m80WSo), not because I disagree with her, but because I totally agree and don’t think she takes it far enough. Christine is a fundamentally nice person. I am not. The issue of stifling people’s self-expression through rigid social more is, to me, one requiring a less nice, […]

Personal appearance has become a common theme in my discussions over the past week, from online debates about teenage style to chats over coffee about what women do to feel beautiful, and it has made me realize how focused we are on self-expression/style/appearance. It all started when I asked my fellow Facebookers what their thoughts […]

Just out of Jericho, Bartimaeus sits by the road. Hearing Jesus and the crowd he cries, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. ”Many in the crowd tell him to shut up, but he raises his voice and Jesus, standing still, says: “Call him here.” Changing their tone, the voices in the crowd tell Bartimaeus to “Take heart; get up,...

There is a fair amount of debate today about Canada's role in the world and the role that our military continues to play.  Many feel that Canada should be returning to a peacekeeping role, while others feel that the current direction is more appropriate in today's world.  Regardless of how we feel about this issue, I firmly...

Every Remembrance Day for the past six years I have gone to the Nelson Cenotaph at city hall and stood with anti-war protest placards, and been the target of much anger and some abuse. Last year, a threat too came my way. I will go there again this year and upset many in attendance. But […]

There is a class of people and corporations in this country whose illicit financial practices have an enormous negative impact on the country and its citizens. Yet the law and order regime of Stephen Harper barely plays lip service to the issue of tax evasion through tax havens. While Harper cuts billions from government...