It's The Economy, Stupid

Someone asked me to set our current economic and demographic situation in historical context.  As a belated Christmas present I will do so here. I’ll start with a few caveats.  First, I don’t particularly love ‘percentage change’ as an indicator. …

Every time I come down to the U.S. I invariably get into the ‘givers versus takers’ conversation.  Why should people that work hard, educate themselves, take risks, push hard and make something of their lives turn around and pay for…

Given the closure of the smelter in Belledune and Northern Pulp in Pictou County, I thought I  would provide a few thoughts on what should be done in these situations.  What is the right response from community and from government?…

Between meetings yesterday I had about an hour to fill.  I had just read about Northern Pulp and the provincial decision to ban how it handles effluent and the resulting closure of the mill.  I decided to search Twitter for…

There has been a lot of good media coverage about the  recent population growth spurt in New Brunswick.  This is good news, no doubt, but it also reveals the extent of our challenge. In the 1970s we actually didn’t need…

There is a great scene (parody version) in Casablanca where the police captain closes Rick’s club and when Rick protests, Captain Renault says something like he is shocked, shocked to find gambling going on in here – even as someone…

Before the age of air conditioning, those living in hot places like New York City with means would spend much of the summer in a cooler locations such as the Poconos or, yes, New Brunswick.  Many of the lovely old…

I appreciated the opportunity to be on a panel discussion with Terry Seguin for a full hour today along with the indefatigable Larry Shaw from Ignite Fredericton and Stephen Lund from ONB.  Because they are using the podcast format now…

A couple of folks have reached out already this morning about comments in a CBC article about SMR development.  If you read the article you will see that I fully agree with Ontario being part of a formal effort with…