My earliest memory of the murky world of military procurement was back around 1991 when PM Brian Mulroney announced the purchase of 50 new EH101 helicopters to replace our ancient fleet of Sea Kings, knowing he would likely not be around to see the sale through. As expected, new PM Jean Chrétien cancelled the order…
The government of Canada is potentially wasting tens of billions of dollars and nobody is talking about it. Reports have been written about it, but politicians of all stripes ignore it, and it fails to capture any attention. “It” is the purchase of 15 new frigates for the Canadian navy, to replace our aging and…
Winnipeg City Council might be on the verge of condemning a vast area of central Winnipeg to being a concrete wasteland for decades to come. The area in question is the former site of the Winnipeg Stadium adjacent to the Polo Park mall. Two development companies have proposed an elaborate project, integrated with the Polo…
There was good news in last week’s Federal budget. The economy grew again and the government pulled in a projected $9 billion more than they expected, and a cool $21 billion more than the year before. The bean counters are expecting an additional $6.6 billion on top of that unexpected windfall next year. Not too…
I have never really understood why people align themselves with a political party unless they are in politics. When Citizen Joe defines himself as a Liberal/Conservative/Democrat/Republican, it seems to me that they are limiting themselves — closing their minds to the possibility that another party might be better prepared to lead, and blinding themselves to…
The referendum on opening Portage and Main to pedestrians seemed to dominate the conversation leading up to the 2018 Winnipeg Civic election. Many people, with good reason, argued that the focus ought to be on far more pressing problems like the growing meth crisis, crime, and our struggling transit service to name a few. Any…
Families are being torn apart, coworker is pitted against coworker, and my Twitter feed has turned into a war zone. It’s no surprise, really. If my 10 years of blogging and 5 years on Twitter have taught me anything, it’s that nothing riles up Winnipeggers like transportation issues, and opening up Portage and Main is…
Hans Island is a lump of barren rock in the middle of the Nares Strait between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Denmark’s Greenland. It is unremarkable in every respect except this: it is situated in the territorial waters of both Canada and Denmark and has been claimed by both countries. Being of no real importance, the…
It was a couple of days after a camping trip in the summer of 2014 when I noticed a suspicious bull’s eye shaped rash on my arm. Rashes like this are sometimes associated with Lyme disease transmitted by deer ticks, and given the lengthy list of potential complications of lyme disease ranging from hair loss…
Today, the downtown development committee of the City of Winnipeg voted in favour of approving a temporary surface parking lot to support the Friends of Upper Fort Garry. –fp– This was a bad decision. To understand, a quick remedial Upper Fort Garry lesson is required. In 2007 Crystal Developers signed a deal to build a…
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