Troy Media

Breaking News! The earth is warming! No wait, it’s cooling! No wait . . .

-Art Horn, Meteorologist and Michael J. Economides, Editor in Chief, Energy Tribune Warnings of global warming have been with us now for two decades, courtesy of the news media. And surely these respected and long-lived newspapers, magazines and television networks can be trusted to tell us what the current state of the climate is and what it will do?

The problem with imprisoning Canadian terrorists

By Alex Wilner Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Canadians are rightly shocked when police arrest fellow citizens on terrorism charges. How can it happen here, we ask? But thank goodness they’re in custody and headed for jail. At least then we’ll all be safer. Or maybe not.

Domestic violence has no gender

Dana Wilson, Columnist, Troy Media I remember being 12 years old when my stepfather scarred my face for the first time. He had graduated to his fists from his belt some time before, and while he usually confined himself to battering me between the waist and the shoulder blades, the non-visible portions of my anatomy, occasionally, he lost control.

Silver lining in clouds for Alberta?

- Todd Hirsch, Alberta Business Columnist, Troy Media Have you heard the old joke about economists? If you put all of us together and ran us head-to-toe around the Equator . . . we still wouldn’t be able to agree with each other.

Prosecute the “Wal-Mart of child sex trafficking” - Craigslist

By Benjamin Perrin, Professor of Law, University of British Columbia During the last three years, officers with the Calgary Police Service's vice unit have been working undercover to rescue children being sold for sex. The backdrop is not a street corner late at night - the new "kiddie stroll" is online and always open for business.

Nancy Pelosi’s two dilemmas

- Robert Taylor, Founding Partner, Energy Futures Network During her September visit to Canada to discuss the ongoing development of Canada’s oil sands, U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi reportedly said that she is "not keen on fossil fuels", which can only lead one to believe that America has a ready and preferable alternative.

Afghan women doomed if foreign troops leave

By Lauryn Oates, Projects Director, Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan This week, the now well-known ousted Afghan MP Malalai Joya will kick off her latest speaking tour of Canada. Joya's message is that Canada is part of a hostile occupying force in her country. As Joya and her antiwar sponsors disseminate that message, it will be important to seek out the views of other Afghan women who live in Afghanistan and fight for reforms there. As the "troops out" organization, Code Pink, learned last year when it met with women leaders in Kabul, most have no interest in seeing NATO's departure any time soon. These women want peace and they know a premature exit by international forces will not lead to the end of violence, but will swiftly usher in more repression, particularly for women.

The darker side of multiculturalism

Doug Firby, Managing Editor, Troy Media When the Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau made Canada the first country in the world to officially embrace multiculturalism in the early 1970s, it’s a safe bet those politicians did not foresee the security and gender equality problems western democracies are vexed with today.

Canada’s economic outlook for 2011

Dr. Roslyn Kunin, BC Business Columnist, Troy Media It’s that time of year again. As we move into the final quarter of 2010, crystal balls are being dusted off to give us an early glimpse of what 2011 will hold. Prognosticators have good reason to be apprehensive as they prepare their forecasts. If we look back to the beginning of the last recession, we find that most forecasts made then were off the mark, usually because they were far too pessimistic.

No ‘evidence’ gun registry works

- Herbert Grubel, Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute In 1994, when Liberal Justice Minister Allan Rock introduced legislation for the long gun registry, I sat a few feet from him in the House of Commons, serving as a member of the Reform Party caucus. Before Question Period one day, I asked him privately for information to assess the merit of the bill. He promised he would provide it to me but never did. Nor was it produced or considered in the public debates the preceded the vote in Parliament that enacted the gun registry.

Cuba moving toward economic freedom?

- Mark Milke, Director, Alberta Prosperity Project, Fraser Institute In Fidel Castro's recent interview with Atlantic magazine columnist Jeffrey Goldberg and in response to the question, "Is the Cuban economic model still worth exporting?", the retired dictator made this admission: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more."

BC lumber optimism grows because of new markets and products

Dr. Roslyn Kunin, BC Business Columnist, Troy Media It used to be so easy. All you had to do was look at housing start numbers for the US. That determined the health of the forest industry in British Columbia and, to a large extent, the state of the whole BC economy. This was when the woods sector had one dominant market, US home builders, and one prominent product, dimension lumber – of course in US dimensions. And it was the dominant player in BC’s economy.

Cable and cell phone companies are finding a new way to fund the news

Terry Field, Media Columnist, Troy Media The proposed purchase of CTVglobemedia by telecommunications giant BCE (Bell Canada Enterprises) is another signal that the media world as we have known it is passing away, and is being replaced by something more dynamic and diverse.

Time for oil industry to take a stand

Gwyn Morgan, Columnist, Troy Media What do the seal harvesters of Atlantic Canada have in common with workers in Alberta's oil sands? Both are targets of sustained attacks aimed at the demise of their livelihood. And in both cases, the main strategy of attackers is to eliminate the market.

Quebec turned its back on leading health care reform in Canada

By Mark Rovere, Associate Director, Health Policy Research Centre, Fraser Institute The Quebec government had the opportunity to be the first province to enact meaningful reform in health care, but instead it got cold feet.

Subsidizing arenas has zero benefit for economy

By Mark Milke Director – Alberta Prosperity Project, and Niels Veldhuis, Director – Fiscal Studies Fraser Institute CALGARY, AB, and VANCOUVER, BC, Given the federal government's past, present and projected future red ink, Canadians could be forgiven for thinking Ottawa might prefer to pinch pennies rather than dole out hundreds of millions more in corporate welfare, this time to the most undeserving recipients of all, pro-sport franchises, most owned by billionaires.

Global recovery hinges on U.S. fiscal restraint

WASHINGTON, D.C., Economists are concerned that fiscal policies in the United States producing an ever-growing debt atop high unemployment levels will make it impossible for Canadian and European economies to recover from the recession.

The OECD’s (mis)leading indicators

By Dr. Roslyn Kunin, BC Business Columnist, Troy Media Is the world economy headed into another downturn? Will Canada be dragged down with it? A quick glance at the composite leading indicators (CLI) released this month by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) might lead one to think so, but this would be wrong.

Economy is in angels’ hands: economists don’t have a clue

By Todd Hirsch, Alberta Business Columnist, Troy Media Back in the ‘90s, Canadian songstresses Jane Siberry and k.d. Lang sang a hauntingly beautiful duet about the beauty and pain of life, and all its unanswerable questions. “Calling all angels, walk me through this one, don’t leave me alone. Calling all angels: we’re trying, we’re hoping . . . but we’re not sure how this goes.”

Cut-rate tuition is a bad deal for taxpayers

Ben Eisen, Policy Analyst, Frontier Centre for Public Policy Not all university students are created equal. While all of them may share the same fear of final exams, they don’t all share the same fear of the tuition bills they are paying.