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Canada’s bold Arctic claims are too little too late
In 2008, Moscow threw down the gauntlet and made it clear it intends to control the Arctic and its immense resources. The incident embarrassed Canada, exposed its impotence and strategic vulnerability....
View ArticleHere’s why Canada’s economy may lag the U.S. in 2014
Consensus is forming that 2014 will be the economic turning point for the United States and that is traditionally good news for Canada. But is it? Most rosy is the forecast by UBS that U.S. GDP will...
View ArticleHow to fix Canada’s economy before it’s too late
Canada’s short-term economic prospects are improving, but the outlook, both medium and long-term, is another story. That’s because Canada’s biggest competitive disadvantage is its politicians. Of...
View ArticleA better world dawns at Davos — but a better world for whom?
DAVOS – This village was the setting for Thomas Mann’s classic “Magic Mountain” about a young German at a sanatorium who meets a cast of characters representing a microcosm of Europe. All are oblivious...
View ArticleWinter Olympics 2014 puts Russia’s corruption — and incompetence —on world stage
In 1787, Czarina Catherine II went to Ukraine and Crimea to inspect her new acquisitions. They had been devastated by war, but when she arrived, her trusted military leader Grigori Potemkin ordered the...
View ArticleIron fists needed to take on Ukrainian thugs
I’m just heartsick about what’s happening in Ukraine. The cause of this tragedy is the fact that Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych has always been a thug and he rigged an election in 2004 that led...
View ArticleWhy punishment toward Russia’s ‘Putin Doctrine’ has only just begun
Stock markets have punished the Ruble and Russian markets over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bullyboy tactics in Crimea. By week’s end, the smart money was betting against military escalation and...
View ArticleParti Québécois forced into damage control as ‘money’ hijacks election bid
This week, Jacques Parizeau, former leader of the Parti Québécois, turned out to right again, nearly 20 years after the 1995 Quebec referendum. In his concession speech back then, after he had narrowly...
View ArticleNevermind U.S. shale, Saudi Arabia’s oil power play targets Iran’s economy
All politics are local, except for oil politics. The Russians think these low oil prices are an American-Saudi conspiracy. American commentators believe that the Saudis have driven down prices to...
View ArticleParis terrorist attacks should trigger soul-searching about assimilation
The terrorist attacks against the media and police in France this week are deplorable and will be analyzed for years to come. They also illustrate significant underlying differences between the...
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Diane Francis: Canada must take matters into its own hands if it wants to...
The Keystone XL pipeline issue has dragged on for six years, a political clash between oil barons and the green movement against the oilsands. In the coming days U.S. President Barack Obama must veto...
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Digital danger lurks at every turn: How to keep your stuff safe from cyber...
Marc Goodman is a one-man Geek Squad who began his law enforcement career as a beat cop in Los Angeles and became the departmental computer expert. With a nose for wrongdoing and digital aptitude, Marc...
View ArticleUber and Airbnb: Make these Silicon Valley darlings accountable
Uber and Airbnb are the darlings of Silicon Valley whose founders describe themselves as technology companies and pioneers of the “sharing economy.” But I don’t buy it. The shared economy — multiple...
View ArticleNo nation is safe in the politics of oil — including Canada
The global community has more unsafe neighborhoods than gated ones and no nation is safe anymore, including Canada. This means that nation-state models are challenged and must recalibrate all the time....
View ArticleReality television at its best: The U.S. Presidential Primary Season — and...
My favorite reality television series — the U.S. Presidential Primary Season — is about to begin with this weekend’s expected announcement of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. This political extravaganza...
View ArticleA gallery of rogues: one trader, one nation and one husband
Stories about a rogue trader, rogue nation-state and rogue husband captured headlines this week and raised more questions than they answered. U.S. prosecutors this week would have the world believe...
View ArticleIn or out? U.K. ‘Shock Election’ served up two demanding separatist blocs
The next major trade deal Stephen Harper will negotiate – in 2016 after he deservedly wins re-election – might just be with the old Mother Country Britain, or what’s left of it. This week’s Shock...
View ArticleIs the sun about to set on the Age of Oil? Solar, battery developments...
In Silicon Valley jargon, disruption is the euphemism for destruction, and the consensus is that Canada as whole, along with big oil producers Saudi Arabia, Russia or Venezuela, will be “disrupted”...
View ArticleDiane Francis: Why the next big banks will actually be tech companies
The bank of the future will be in our pockets or on our wrists, not on street corners or housed in high-rise towers. Mobile banking is going viral and the first adopters are the “millennials” (those...
View ArticleWhy Canada Inc.’s popularity with China could mean long-term pain
The recent flap about an Ontario politician with ties to China is inconsequential unless serious charges are laid. Cozy relationships are commonplace in politics everywhere and China, like Exxon or...
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