Opinion: Here's how Alberta can make Ottawa feel the pain

It is clear that sometimes there are many Canadians in Ontario and Quebec who underestimate the level of frustration and growing anger in western Canada. 

And in response to the results of the federal elections, Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney announced that his government will create a panel to analyze ideas to reform Alberta’s role in Canada. He also notified the federal government that his government will give him two years to advance the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline and draft bills such as C-69, which created more impediments and uncertainty for large infrastructure projects, including pipelines.

It should be noted that Kenney did not indicate what the ramification of inaction would be and in fact, he was clearly expressing the frustration felt by many Albertans (and Saskatchewanians).

Justified Discomfort

The most futuristic developments we can expect in the next 10 years

A view of the fully automated section of the main building of the DHL hub in 2014, Leipzig, Germany.

As we know, the end of a decade is approaching, therefore it is suggested that it is time for us to set our sights on the next. In this way, one could say that the 2020s promise to be anything but boring. From the revolution of automation to the geohacking of the planet and the radical advances in biotechnology, these are the most futuristic developments that can be expected in the next 10 years.

The 2020s or abbreviated 20s will be the next decade of the 21st century. It will also be the third decade of the third millennium and the 21st century. It will begin on January 1, 2020, and end on December 31, 2029.

Certainly making predictions is easy; Now, get it right, if it’s hard. That said, some tangible trends are emerging that should allow us to make some informed assumptions about what the future will hold in the next 10 years.

Promising Decade

Government Stimulus Doesn’t Stimulate

It has been indicated that the government stimulus does not stimulate. And is that the United States government is spending money and accumulating debt at an unfathomable rate. US national debt increased by $ 814 billion in just two months. It should be noted that policymakers certainly do not care since they continue to increase spending and ask for even more.

On the other hand, it could be said that Democrats never cared about spending and Republicans swear that tax cuts will grow the economy and solve the debt problem.

Now it is clear that there is more evidence that the government stimulus does not stimulate. In fact, it has exactly the opposite effect, as can be seen in Europe’s spending binge.

Blunt evidence

People's Party of Canada Loses Federal Election, Bernier Aiming for Better Outcome in Next Election

Sputnik / Denis Bolotsky

The Canadian PPC will not obtain seats in the House of Commons as a result of Monday’s federal elections. However, as mentioned earlier, the leader of the party, Maxime Bernier, has stated that “it is only the beginning”, and aims to obtain better results in the next elections.

There is no doubt that it has been a difficult campaign for Maxime Bernier, a small group of party employees and more than 300 candidates across the country. It is appropriate to remember that Bernier, who is a former senior member of the conservative camp, formed the Popular Party of Canada in 2018 and says he has become the fastest-growing political force in Canada.

Security itself and your party

The World's Leading Financial Cities

First of all, it is necessary to indicate that a financial center refers to a city with a strategic location in addition to financial institutions, leaders, renowned stock exchanges, a dense concentration of public and private banks and commercial and insurance companies.

In addition, it is important to emphasize that these centers are equipped with first-class infrastructure, communications, and commercial systems, and there is a transparent and solid legal and regulatory regime backed by a stable political system. There is no doubt that these cities are favorable destinations for professionals due to the high standards of living they offer along with the immense opportunities for growth.

Likewise, cities that are concentrations of commerce, real estate, and banking tend to become global financial centers. Clearly, these important cities employ a large number of financial professionals and are home to the stock exchanges and corporate headquarters of investment banks.

Main financial cities of the world

Cohen: Canadian politics now offers a trio of mediocre leaders

Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh: This is the troika we chose, English Canada.

After the victory of Justin Trudeau, there are many opinions that have emerged and in reference to this, there is a word that is standing out considerably, mediocrity. In this way, it has been expressed that Canadian politics now offers a trio of mediocre leaders

It should be noted that in his victory speech, Trudeau only referred to the monumental elections: the triumph of the progressives in Canada, again, in four games. For their part, Scheer and Singh just tried to sound tough.

Thus, reference has been made that when frustrated historians of the future seek to interpret the first decades of the 21st century in Canada, they will resort to a three-panel surrealist portrait hung in the National Gallery. They will tell the story of the 2019 national elections and explain the stormy season that followed.

Rex Murphy: Western anger was hot before Monday's election. Now it's molten

Among the most ridiculous campaign launches, and there were so many to choose from, there was the madness of the last days that if you, the voter, wanted to save the planet, you had to vote for Liberal.

Thus, it is necessary to emphasize that the Canadian elections are not about the world. Since it is not ours to save or to destroy. The Canadian elections refer to Canada, that is, it must focus on how to improve it, strengthen it, make it healthier and safer for its citizens. They are or should be, exercises in which party leaders refresh a sense of Canada’s aspirations and ideals as a nation.

Likewise, there is no doubt that they should try to ensure that the agreement that the Canadians have with themselves, the Confederation, goes through an always necessary renewal, responds to contemporary challenges and continues to ensure the peaceful, prosperous and highly successful country that It is Canada.

A new level of mediocrity

The preachy, gauzy, meaningless aphorisms don't suffice, Justin Trudeau: Neil Macdonald

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau speaks to supporters at Liberal election headquarters in Montreal on Oct. 22, the day after the federal election. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

It has been indicated that the prime minister has become a teacher of the lack of response, and it hurt at the polls since there it was evidenced that this is true.

And it is that Trudeau had the powerful advantage of ownership, the recognition of the name, a strong economy, a low unemployment rate, and was fortunate to have had as his main opponent a character so unattractive and so awkwardly out of step with The multicultural reality of this country.

Even so, it is clear that the Prime Minister barely endured. Since much of the Canadians voted for other parties. More people, in fact, voted for Andrew Scheer than for Justin Trudeau.

Thus, it could be said that like Donald Trump, Trudeau occupies a high position due to how the system groups and assigns votes. No wonder the liberals broke their 2015 promise to reform the system and bring proportional representation.

Lack of incredible response

Kelly McParland: Now who's interfering in an election? And the Liberals don't seem at all concerned

There is certainly a well-founded belief that it is totally inappropriate for a prominent foreign political figure to meddle in the internal affairs of another country, especially in a democratic election in which power is at stake. However, there seems to be an exception, if it is Canada and you are Justin Trudeau. Once again, while voters reflect on how to mark their ballots in Monday’s elections, it has become clear that there is a set of rules for other people and another for Justin Trudeau.

Thus, it is necessary to remember that Obama and Trudeau developed a warm relationship during the brief period in which their mandates overlapped, and it is said that they kept in touch since then, so both parties could be inclined to suggest that this is only a politician who expresses his appreciation for another politician. If it turns out that he landed five days before the culmination of a campaign in which the politician of Canada fights for his survival, so what? Trudeau admitted Wednesday that he could go to defeat at the hands of the conservatives. So what could be better than a boost from a popular American politician?

Possible political momentum

GUNTER: The uselessness of Canada's current climate extremism

People take part in a climate change strike in Toronto, on Sept. 27, 2019.Carlos Osorio / Reuters

There is no doubt that there is a futility of current climate extremism in Canada. And it is that certainly with almost all the candidates in the current federal elections kneeling before the Altar of Climate Doom, it is important to understand how useless it would be even if we sacrificed the entire economy of Canada in an attempt to save the planet.

It is necessary to remember that global warming is the cause of climate change, that is, the increase in the temperature of the planet caused by emissions into the atmosphere of greenhouse gases derived from human activity. Likewise, climate change is a global challenge that has no borders and that, in order to combat it, requires coordinated work by all countries.

However, there is no practical way to reduce our carbon emissions by 30% below their levels in 2005 or reach “zero net” emissions by 2030 or even 2050.

Nonsense Commitments

Cammalleri on BioSteel and CBD: ‘It was a natural evolution for us’

Michael Anthony Cammalleri is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for five different teams. He was selected in the second round, 49th overall, by the Los Angeles Kings at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

Representing Canada internationally on four occasions, Cammalleri won bronze and silver medals at the 2001 and 2002 World Junior Championships respectively. He was named the tournament’s best forward in 2002. He won a gold medal at the 2007 Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships. An all-star in college and the American Hockey League, Cammalleri played in the “Cold War”, an outdoor game that set a then world attendance record in 2001. He has also been recognized for his involvement in charitable efforts supporting children and the military.

Cammalleri now expresses in BioSteel and CBD, ‘It was a natural evolution for us’

New Horizons

Conrad Black: The Trudeau Liberals' record: four years of nothing solid

Trudeau’s liberals have reached a record that is really no surprise, four years of nothing solid. Thus, it could be said that the government record has been pimping, posture, disgust, fashion and extravagance, and in fact, four more years are promised.

Certainly the key facts of this federal election campaign are that the government is not running on its registry, and it cannot and does not promise to do anything beyond maintaining a capricious attitude and professed altruism. And it is that as already mentioned, in the last four years hurriedly last week, the whole focus has focused on native, environmental and gender issues, as well as on the legalization of marijuana.

And it is that in native matters, the government has prostrated itself before the hundreds of tribes and separate bands, pretending to deal with each of them on a “nation to nation” basis, which, to the extent that it implies that it is analogous To deal with the governments of France or Japan or any sovereign country, it makes no sense. The jurisdiction of Canada is all that is within Canada and that includes all these native groups and organizations.

Retention of capricious attitudes and professed altruism

Scott Stinson: Hockey is still Canada's game. But will it last?

There is no doubt that hockey is still Canada’s game, however, there are questions that have no answer yet, a clear example of them is, will it last?

Sean Fitz-Gerald tells the story of his eight-year-old son, Brendan, when he met a boy his age who had moved to the neighborhood with his family from Vancouver. The new boy said he liked hockey; his favorite player was Brock Boeser, the young end of the Canucks. Brendan said that he was PK Subban. They immediately fell into a shared language, each fluently in hockey.

It should be noted that in his new book, Sean Fitz-Gerald discovered that hockey in this country has deep-rooted problems, however, no one sees an offer of easy solutions.

Hockey Challenges

The Plight of the Unicorn: The Bubble Bursts

The situation of the unicorn has been presented, in which an undoubted explosion of the bubble has occurred. Thus, it has been expressed that unicorns are dying.

Certainly, the markets seemed to really wake up to the difficult situation of the unicorn when WeWork aborted its long-awaited IPO, but the air began to emerge from the unicorn bubble long before the disappearance of the WeWork IPO.

It is important to clarify that, when talking about unicorns, reference is made to private companies valued at more than $ 1 billion. Some examples of these companies are Lyft, Chewie, Uber, and WeWork which were WallStreet’s favorites. Their IPOs were highly anticipated by investors. They are also the protagonists of the easy money-induced market mania, and their IPOs were crucial in maintaining the bubble.

End of the bubble

Politics Disguised as Science: When to Doubt a Scientific ‘Consensus’

Anyone who has studied the history of science knows that scientists are not immune to the non-rational dynamics of the pack. It should be noted that this week’s March for Science is strange. And it is that marches are usually carried out to defend something that is in danger.

There is no doubt that the mere fact that the March was scheduled for Earth Day denotes what the event is really about: politics. The organizers admitted it from the beginning, although they are now busy trying to cover the event with scientific camouflage.

If the past is a prologue, expect to hear a lot about the supposed “consensus” on the catastrophic climate change this week. The purpose of this statement is to silence skeptical non-scientists. And not everyone can study climate sciences. But since politics often disguises itself as science, we need a way to distinguish one from the other.

Politics Disguised

The Capital Gains Tax: It Should Be Reduced, Not Increased

It should be noted that the federal government has not yet clarified its intentions regarding the possibility of increasing the rate of inclusion of capital gains tax from 50% to 75%. Since this type of tax has detrimental effects, a policy change should go in the exact opposite direction, as other countries have done, and substantially reduce the capital gains tax or simply abolish it.

The capital gains tax is quite regressive. While some investors can easily avoid paying this tax by delaying the realization of their capital gains or investing in vehicles that do not generate capital gains, not everyone can easily do so.

Other groups, such as low and middle-income taxpayers, the elderly and less successful investors, generally have little financial flexibility and have much less discretion about when to earn capital gains.

Concern that is constantly increasing

Mental conditioning driving force behind Russell Wilson's success

Russell Carrington Wilson is a quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of Wisconsin during the 2011 season, in which he set the single-season FBS record for pass efficiency (191.8) and led the team to a Big Ten title and appearance in the 2012 Rose Bowl. Wilson initially played soccer and baseball for North Carolina State University from 2008 to 2010 before transferring to Wisconsin.

It should be noted that Wilson has been named for six Pro Bowls and has started in two Super Bowls, winning Super Bowl XLVIII. He holds the record for the most victories of an NFL quarterback for seven seasons (75) and is one of the two quarterbacks in NFL history with a career passer rating of over 100. On 15 April 2019, Wilson signed a four-year, $ 140 million contract extension with the Seahawks, making him the highest-paid player in the NFL.

Russell Wilson’s success

U.S. cleared to slap tariffs on $7.5 billion of EU exports in biggest ruling in WTO history

The World Trade Organization gave US President Donald Trump the approval to impose tariffs on exports worth up to 7.5 billion dollars annually in retaliation for illegal government assistance to Airbus SE.

Thus, it is understood that Wednesday’s ruling is a milestone in the longer-lasting WTO dispute that will further test transatlantic relations, which have deteriorated under Trump’s “America First” approach to ties International It is also an example that Trump obtained a favorable ruling from an organization from which he has threatened to retire.

In this way, one could say that the United States is already in a trade war with China, and any wider outbreak of eye-to-eye tariffs with Europe could threaten a fragile global economy. Thus, the WTO cut its trade growth forecast for this year to the weakest level in a decade on Tuesday, warning against a “destructive recrimination cycle.”

Products belonging to the initial list that will be affected by tariffs

Misunderstandings about capital gains taxes

Late last year we released a study showing how a province, specifically Alberta, could eliminate the provincial portion of the capital gains tax to lower the overall capital gains tax rate an entrepreneur, business owner or investor faces. The paper outlined the many benefits of a lower capital gains tax.

Two common criticisms of that study are worth responding to and clarifying. Both criticisms are rooted in the belief that a change in the capital gains tax overwhelmingly benefits high-income Canadians.

New Michael Moore-backed doc tackles alternative energy

FILE - This May 25, 2019 file photo shows Michael Moore at the awards ceremony of the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France. In "Planet of the Humans," which premiered Wednesday, July 31, at the Traverse City Film Festival, he and director Jeff Gibbs pull the curtain back on the false promises of alternative energy, from electric cars to windmills and biomass, and expose why they're not working. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — What if alternative energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? That’s the provocative question explored in the documentary “Planet of the Humans,” which is backed and promoted by filmmaker Michael Moore and directed by one of his longtime collaborators. It premiered last week at his Traverse City Film Festival.

The film, which does not yet have distribution, is a low-budget but piercing examination of what the filmmakers say are the false promises of the environmental movement and why we’re still “addicted” to fossil fuels. Director Jeff Gibbs takes on electric cars, solar panels, windmills, biomass, biofuel, leading environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club, and even figures from Al Gore and Van Jones, who served as Barack Obama’s special adviser for green jobs, to 350.org leader Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist and advocate for grassroots climate change movements.

Maxime Bernier: I will stop the CBC competing with private media, and the CBC will be better for it

CBC's downtown Toronto headquarters.

The CBC should stop doing three quarters of what it still does, which any private broadcaster can do, and concentrate on what only it can do

The following is adapted from an announcement Wednesday by federal Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier

When it was created 80 years ago, CBC/Radio-Canada was meant to give a voice to Canadians in the new world of radio broadcasting. It did the same later when television became a mass media.

At the time, there were only a few private channels. There was an obvious role for a public broadcaster trying to reach all Canadians in big cities or small and remote communities; to connect them to the rest of the country and the world; and to bring them together through a shared expression of ideas and culture. It worked very well for several decades and had a profound influence on how we see ourselves and the world.

Fast forward to 2016. The media landscape, with its hundreds of channels and its millions of sources of information and culture, is radically different. Yet, CBC/Radio-Canada seems frozen in time. It tries to occupy every niche, even though it doesn’t have and will never have the means to do so, with the result being lower-quality programming. The viewership for its English service in particular has reached new lows. To stay relevant, it reinterprets its mandate every few years, going from crisis to crisis.

The World Is Awash in Easy Money

The Federal Reserve isn’t the only central bank cutting interest rates. In fact, the world is awash in easy money.

The Fed met market expectations during the September FOMC meeting and lowered interest rates another 25 basis points. It was the second cut of the year and pushed the interest rate down to the range of 1.75–2%. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank took a decidedly dovish turn over the summer. It has even hinted at another round of “shock and awe” stimulus.

And it’s not just the big central banks slashing rates.

Eleven emerging market central banks cut rates in September. That follows on the heels of 14 rate cuts by emerging market central banks in August. September was the eighth straight month of net cuts by emerging market bankers. according to a Reuters report.

2019 BC CEO Awards: Randy Smallwood

Randy Smallwood, president and CEO of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.: “that $4.5 billion has come from cash flows. It’s allowed us to grow our company without significantly diluting our shareholders” | Submitted

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF WHEATON PRECIOUS METALS CORP. WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN THE CREATION OF A DISRUPTIVE NEW MINE FINANCING MODEL

Randy Smallwood is in a business that has a sizable carbon footprint — financing mines. He also travels a lot, which also produces a lot of emissions.

But when he’s home, his own personal footprint has been getting smaller and smaller. He now walks to work every day, and when he does drive, he drives an electric vehicle.

A family man with five children and six grandchildren, Smallwood raised his children in Tsawwassen. But a few years ago, after his kids began leaving home, he sold his home in Tsawwassen and bought a 124-year-old heritage house in downtown Vancouver — the Rand Family home, built in 1895. It’s just a short walk from the head office of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (TSX, NYSE:WPM).

“I liked the concept of walking to work,” said the 55-year-old CEO. “Once the kids were out of the house, I decided to get the commute out of the picture. The only time my vehicle moves is on weekends now.”

When he does drive, he produces no CO2.

Dollar’s Share of Global Currency Reserves at 6-Year Low; Yuan’s Share Biggest Ever

The percentage of US dollars held as currency reserves globally dropped to the lowest level in nearly six years in the second quarter of 2019 according to the latest IMF data. Meanwhile, Chinese yuan made up the biggest percentage of reserves ever.

The dollar’s shrinking share of global reserves comes as countries like Russia and China move toward de-dollarization in an effort to undermine the ability of the US to weaponize the dollar as a foreign policy tool. The global gold rush on the part of central banks is part of this movement.

Reserves held in dollars globally totaled $6.79 trillion in the second quarter. That represented 61.63% of allocated reserves. This compares with $6.74 trillion, or 61.86%, in the first quarter of the year. It was the lowest percentage of dollars held as a reserve currency since Q4 2013.

The share of Japanese yen, euros and Chinese yuan all increased in Q2.

Norway Unexpectedly Withdraws Cash From Massive Wealth Fund

Photographer: Mikhael Holter/Bloomberg

This being the case, it is understood that this surprise withdrawal follows the fall in the price of oil to a minimum of 7 months.

Certainly, Norway unexpectedly took almost $ 400 million from its sovereign wealth fund in August, marking the first withdrawal in more than a year, as the largest oil producer in Western Europe takes advantage of its huge piggy bank amid a decrease in the prices of Petroleum. The government made its first withdrawal in 2016, after a collapse in crude oil prices. The huge fiscal buffer represented by the fund has helped the central bank of Norway avoid some of the extreme monetary stimuli that their peers have had to resort to.

Thus, it is necessary to indicate that the aforementioned withdrawal occurs before the oil prices fell to a minimum of seven months at the beginning of August.

The balance between oil revenues

Chief UN Climate Scientist Calls the Climate Crisis Narrative “Religious Extremism”

CO2 Coalition publishes the first professional translation of a controversial article in the Finnish Business Journal.

The CO2 Coalition of more than 50 climate scientists and energy economists today released the first professional translation of a controversial article that appeared in a Finnish financial newspaper on September 6, 2019. The article contained a long interview with Dr. Petteri Taalas, who is the Secretary-General of the UN World Meteorological Organization. In this way, it is appropriate to indicate that this position makes Taalas the main climate scientist at UNIPCC, who advises governments on climate science and energy policy.

“IPCC reports are read like the Holy Book, where certain sentences are sought to justify their own extreme position. It has the features of religious extremism… .This world will not end…. We are at the best of man’s time in many ways ”.

The article that causes a stir

Margin of error around Liberal revenue estimates is enormous

All the tables and documents that come with the 85-page platform of the liberals, a keyword is missing: the deficit.

Finally, when the liberals get to measure the “fiscal projection of the platform”, it turns out that the deficit will almost double in rapid order, from $ 14 billion in the fiscal year 2018–19 to $ 27 billion next fiscal year. This despite some aggressive, and quite creative, tax measures that will target multinational corporations and Big Tech. Any ambition that liberals have ever had to reduce the deficit to zero has now completely disappeared, replaced instead by a Continuous diffuse commitment to reduce the debt burden over time and a rejuvenated zeal to hit the wealthy by income.

Of course, there are several questions that arise in this regard for voters, as well as Is it worth taking on that additional debt: $ 94 billion for four years once the planned and newly planned deficits are added up?

The margin of significant error

Rex Murphy: The Liberals' 2050 net-zero carbon vow is pure delusion

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg before a "climate strike" march in Montreal on Sept. 27, 2019. Andrej Ivanov/Reuters

In his fervor desperate to scare the images of Justin Trudeau in blackface, this week the liberal campaign took him out in a more familiar way, paddling in a sweet lake and returning to the only element of his brand fiercely “awakened”. PM Superman climate, not tattered.

It has been said that he may have given up costumes and cosmetics, but from this little parable in the film, it became clear that the campaign for the photoshoot is still in the liberal arsenal. It was the liberal campaign’s way of pointing out that there was still some gas (so to speak) in the credentials of Trudeau’s global warming. It did not seem to matter that the liberal commitments to reduce carbon emissions had not been fulfilled, as CO2 is now designated, since Jean Chrétien first made them in 1997, until now.

Nor did that broken record stop the campaign of another promise, an extravagant promise of zero net emissions by 2050, whose achievement is a fantasy or a fraud.

Irregular history

Terence Corcoran: Net-zero carbon is a big nothing — nobody has a clue how to achieve it

Climate change protesters in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 23, 2019. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

At least one element of the zero net carbon theory is to starve industries and create a capital flight.

It is important to mention that as the United Nations Climate Panic Summit Weekends with a large student climate party approved by the school board in Canada, the people of the world continue their lives unchanged, and the governments of the world will remain mostly with the status quo.

Certainly, not much happened. Likewise, the next UN climate event is in Chile in December, but Chile is simply a warming exaggeration for the 26th Congress of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow 2020. That’s when the climate bureaucrats, global politicians, and CEOs will join 30,000 attendees in an attempt to renew the great goal they set in Paris in 2015: net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Theme and mantra set

On climate change, humanity is not ‘evil’

Certainly many believe that humanity is “evil” since all it does is destroy, however, it is not so, at least in reference to climate change.

It is important to mention that in conversations at the United Nations, the 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said that if humanity really understands the science of climate change and still does not act, we are “evil”. This is because climate change means that “people are dying”. Thunberg also indicated what we must do to act correctly: in a little over eight years, we will have exhausted our remaining allocation of carbon emissions, so we must close everything that works with fossil fuels by 2028.

Even so, on the other hand, it has been confirmed that this statement is not uncommon since I have made it is fundamentally wrong. Yes, global warming is real and man-made, but its vision of climate change as the end of the world has no support.

A better life due to abundant energy

The "New Energy Economy": An Exercise in Magical Thinking

Energy economics is known as a subclass of the economy that focuses on its relations with energy as the basis of all other relationships. It is also established as a subclass of the ecological economy insofar as it assumes that the food chain in ecology has a direct analogy to the energy supply chain for human activities.

Now, the “new energy economy” is considered for some as an exercise in magical thinking.

Certainly, a movement has been growing for decades to replace hydrocarbons, which collectively supply 84% of the world’s energy. It started with the fear that we were running out of oil. That fear has since migrated to the belief that, due to climate change and other environmental concerns, society can no longer tolerate the burning of oil, natural gas, and coal, all of which has proved to be abundant.

So far, wind, solar and battery power, the preferred alternatives to hydrocarbons, provide about 2% of the world’s energy and 3% of the United States’ energy.

Claim that it has gained accelerated popularity

Bell: Maxime Bernier comes out swinging

The leader of the People's Party of Canada (PPC) Maxime Bernier during an interview with Postmedia reporter Alanna Smith at Calgary Airport Marriott on Thursday, September 26, 2019. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia Calgary

It has been said that Maxime Bernier sways. What is true is that Bernier is not a guy who came out of nowhere. In fact, he is a deputy and former cabinet minister and was about to be the conservative leader instead of Andrew Scheer. Therefore, it is understood that there are those who might like it.

In fact, it wonders if, is he putting into words what more than a few people are thinking? Thus, speaking of words, Bernier has some of them for the conservative leader. And he thinks that Scheer does not know what he believes, will say what he wants to hear and is ready to please anyone to be in government.

Thus, Bernier has expressed exactly, “It’s not me who is not conservative anymore. It’s Andrew Scheer who is not conservative. The Conservative Party of Canada is morally and intellectually corrupt. Now they are like the Liberals on a lot of subjects”.

No problem to say what you think

The high costs, and minimal benefits, of meeting the Paris Agreement climate targets

A man holds a painting titled "Our House Is On Fire (Our Children Will Burn)" by artist Julia Vanderbyl depicting Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, during the Fridays for Future climate change action protest in Paris, France, September 20, 2019. Charles Platiau/Reuters files

It is certainly requested that the significant reductions in living standards be accepted so that people in 2100 can be 2.2 times richer than us instead of just twice as rich. In addition to this, it is indicated that we have a maximum of 12 years to take drastic measures to avoid a climatic catastrophe.

Likewise, significant climate protests have been seen in the main cities of Canada and throughout the world have demanded that we all act immediately to stop burning fossil fuels.

Thus, on June 17, the House of Commons approved a motion stating that “Canada is in a national climate emergency which requires, as a response, that Canada commit to meeting its national emissions target under the Paris Agreement and to making deeper reductions in line with the Agreement’s objective of holding global warming below two degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius”.

Questions in the air

Andrew Coyne: Bad policy versus no policy — the real difference between Conservatives and Liberals

Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau. Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images; Cole Burston/Getty Images

Where the Tories seem intent on bribing voters, one absurdly microtargeted tax credit after another, the Grits prefer to swindle them

Two weeks into the campaign, the differences between the two major parties’ platforms are starting to emerge. In brief, the Conservatives’ promises are specific, costed and mostly stupid, while the Liberals’ are vague, uncosted and mostly meaningless.

Where the Tories seem intent on bribing voters, one absurdly microtargeted tax credit after another, the Grits prefer to swindle them, with policies so devoid of detail or any sense of how they could be practically achieved that they dissolve on contact.

To be sure, in the broad strokes the two parties’ offerings are effectively identical — not only with regard to that vast constellation of issues neither has any intention of touching, from tax reform to military procurement to equalization and beyond, but also on more contentious matters — deficits, refugees — where the parties took care to obscure their differences in the run-up to the campaign.

In a tight election, it’s not surprising to see this tendency continue. The Liberals, in particular, have been assiduously matching the Tories promise for promise. Where the Conservatives offer a tax credit on maternity benefits, the Grits respond by making them tax free. See your universal tax cut, raise you an increase in the basic personal amount. And so forth.

Everything happens for a reason - live it, learn from it. Someday, everything will make sense.

Philip had just been passed over for a promotion to the CEO role. I had known him for three decades — right from my school days — and he was one of my best friends. He invited me — and few of his close professional friends for dinner. Anticipating frustration, anger and self-pity, I went prepared to boost his confidence — armed with anecdotes from my business experience.

Upon reaching his house, I saw an unexpected picture. Contrary to what I had expected, Philip looked very cheerful and genuinely happy. There was almost no talk about the (loss of) promotion. I reasoned Philip might have wanted to behave maturely — especially since he was known to be a gentlemanly person.

After the other guests left, I broached the topic.

“It was disturbing. After all, who wants to lose a CEO title?”.

“Will you talk to the HR Head?” I asked.

“Yes” after a short pause, he added “to thank them.”

A but stunned, I asked him to explain himself.