It's The Economy, Stupid

The New Brunswick Federation of Labour is meeting in Moncton to plan its strategies for the next year. On Friday, new figures published show that union membership in New Brunswick is way down. I am not sure that beyond negotiating…

Does anybody think that Environment and Local Government Minister Brenda Fowlie will actually step down for allegedly violating a Liberal MLA’s right to privacy? No matter how many times the Times & Transcript will run this story, I can guarantee…

I keep hearing about tax cuts and ‘reducing the burden’ on New Brunswick taxpayers. Yet, my electricity bills keep going up, my vehicle registration costs went up and now I hear we will all pay a buck or two per…

I’ve often said that most things in life can be boiled down to Seinfeld moments. There are many occassions when I stop and think that I am in one such moment. Recently, I was in a situation where the phrase…

I have discussed in previous blogs the growing resentment – mainly in Ontario – of the Equalization formula that takes money from rich provinces and gives it to poor ones. The largest straw on this camel’s back was the lump…

Now I finally understand. For years I have wondered why the Times & Transcript almost never writes a negative ‘economic’ story and when the topic is remotely negative, they always put a good spin on it. You can reread my…

I just finished reading the Times & Transcript report N.B. government faces financial ‘perfect storm’ published this weekend which outlined the massive increases in the cost of government payrolls in the next few years (so much for the government’s ‘hard…

Another dispatch from Phoenix. A couple of lessons can be learned here, I think. In the past 15 years something like one million people have moved here – Mexicans, Chinese, other Latin Americans, other Americans. There was no formal immigration…

Usually when I expound my theory to people that New Brunswick has to attract much more business investment from outside the province, the typical response is “Why would anyone want to invest in New Brunswick?” (I have also received this…

After my recent blog about the fast growth of Phoenix, some of you are probably saying: “Growth, who needs it. We are perfectly happy with things the way they are.” Don’t get me wrong. Growth is not the issue. There…