I was in a meeting this week where a university leader lamented that fact that many of the best and brightest minds leave the New Brunswick university system to pursue graduate degrees and research opportunities because there are just not…
Continue ReadingBenefits of the bus: Thoughts on partisans
Someone asked me this week what I thought about some of the government’s high profile appointments (and rumoured appointments). I realize that Premier Alward said he would be ‘doing things differently’ just as former Premier Graham talked about ‘bringing in top…
Continue ReadingMoneySense city’s list: GoodSense or BadSense?
I have been watching these rankings come out since the early 1990s and the response is always the same. If a city, province, university, whatever ranks well – it gets wide citation and makes numerous Powerpoint slidedecks. if not, the…
Continue ReadingLearning from Robbie Burns
Malcolm Gladwell stirred up controversy last fall when he asserted “the revolution won’t be tweeted” postulating that the weak and limited commital networks of social media (confirming ‘I Like’ something for example) are not enough to bring real social change. …
Continue ReadingIs it time to put Ontario first?
I listen to The Agenda quite a bit on TVO – I find it an interesting window on the ideas swirling around in Canada’s most influential province. Like clockwork, there is a show on how Ontario is aggrieved by the…
Continue ReadingThinking through education
I heard an interesting podcast as i was shovelling snow this morning on the relationship between post-secondary education and income potential. The authors, a couple of economists, are convinced that the way to reignite the American economy is by driving…
Continue ReadingOld and redundant blogger shares views on labour force survey
Well, folks the day has arrived. After almost eight years of blogging about the monthly labour force survey and being one of the few to analyze the data in a slightly more than superficial way, I have been unseated by…
Continue ReadingGetting industry associations/professional groups more involved
As with most ideas that seem a little far fetched, there are 10 naysayers to one keener – I met a keener yesterday talking about my column on legal outsourcing. He is a non-practicing lawyer but said he has been…
Continue ReadingGo forth, multiply and fill the provinces: Reynolds
Neil Renyolds has an interesting commentary in the G&M today where he rebuts the idea that women who decide not to have children are doing their part to save the planet. He cites a biological anthropologist who calls having more…
Continue ReadingDunce cap or thinking cap?
I’m back from a few days in the nation’s capital. On the way back I got trapped in a 4×4 foot elevator with six other people for over 30 minutes. No air conditioning and no indication from the outside when…
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