Free Trade Can Be Good for Rustbelt
States
Free trade and the North America
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has moved to the centre of the American
presidential primaries with both remaining Democrat candidates blaming it for
many of the county’s economic woes, says Atlantic Institute for Market Studies
President Brian Lee Crowley. Crowley disputes this logic and points to
other factors at play. As well he articulates how free trade can still help even
those hit hardest by globalization. http://www.aims.ca/library/InternationalTrade.pdf
A Confident Time: Current Economic
Perceptions of Western Canadians
Western Canadians feel that their
national, provincial and local economies have improved over the past five years,
according to the second instalment of the
Canada West Foundation’s “Looking West 2008 Survey” released
this week. The publication, entitled A
Confident Time: Current Economic Perceptions of Western Canadians,
found that although only one-third of western Canadians expect the national
economy to improve over the next five years, the majority anticipates that they
will personally be better off financially in five years time. http://www.cwf.ca/V2/cnt/release_200804291215.php
Total Taxes for Average Canadian
Family has Increased Substantially Since 1961
Since 1961, the total tax bill of
the average Canadian family has increased by more than expenditures on food,
shelter, and clothing, according to a new book, Tax Facts 15, released today The Fraser Institute. The study also
found that Canadians’ total tax bill now accounts for more of the family budget
than food, clothing and shelter combined. http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/newsrelease.aspx?nID=5306
Corporate Vultures Lurk Behind the
World Food Crisis
UN agencies, as well as the heads of
International Financial Institutions including the World Bank and the World
Trade Organization are meeting in Bern to tackle the world food price
crisis. In a recent commentary, the Polaris Institute wonders if the
"battle plan" which emerges to deal with the food crisis will be a novel
solution or merely more of the same.
http://www.polarisinstitute.org/corporate_vultures_lurk_behind_the_world_food_crisis
Foreign
Affairs
No Canadian Guns, No Afghan
Reconstruction
After visiting
Afghanistan in March on a fact-finding tour,
David Bercuson, of the Canadian Defence
and Foreign Affairs Institute highlights critical need for the Canadian
military presence in Afghanistan, if the reconstruction mission is
to succeed. He argues that without the protection Canadian troops provide
against the Taliban, reconstruction efforts in many parts of the country would
be impossible. http://www.cdfai.org/PDF/Bercuson%20No%20Canadian%20guns%20no%20Afghan%20reconstruction.pdf
National Security Policy
Briefing
In three recent op-eds for the Hill Times, authors Craig Forcese, Kent
Roach and Reg Whitaker, all of the Institute for Research on Public
Policy, discuss Canadian national security in the context of recent
anti-terrorism laws.
Forcese on Canadian anti-terrorism
law-making compared to other Commonwealth nations: http://www.irpp.org/opeds/2008/forcese_hilltimes_apr08.pdf
Roach on Parliament and
anti-terrorism law: http://www.irpp.org/opeds/2008/roach_hilltimes_apr08.pdf
Whitaker on the case of Maher Arar:
http://www.irpp.org/opeds/2008/whitaker_hilltimes_apr08.pdf
Environment
Introducing the Climate Justice
Project
The Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives
British
Columbia
office has recently launched a new project, in collaboration with the School of Community and Regional Planning
at the University of British Columbia, to connect the two great
“inconvenient truths” of our time: climate change and rising inequality.
The Climate Justice
Project attempts to
reconcile the mounting challenges encountered in the fields of climate change
and economic inequality. The publication is a joint initiative which also
includes contributions from academics, environmental organizations, trade
unions, anti-poverty groups and other community partners.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/BC_Office_Pubs/bc_commentary/bccspring08.pdf
Energy
Food
and Energy Prices: Why the Bank of
Canada
Should Remain Focused on the CPI
A lengthy
upswing in energy prices, and now rising food prices, prompt questions about how
central banks should fight a new inflationary threat, writes David Laidler of
the C.D. Howe Institute. But
answers are easier when
all prices are rising at around the same rate, and more difficult when relative
prices are changing and different sectors of the economy send different signals.
As well, he notes, answers also differ across countries, depending on whether
they are net exporters or importers of agricultural and energy products, and on
their overall economic situations; therefore, answers for Canada will not match
the U.S.’ needs, let alone India’s or China’s. http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_57.pdf
Quantum Leap in
Solar Technology
Despite significant progress,
solar power still does not compete with fossil fuels or large electric grids in
meeting a significant portion of a nation's energy demands. That's because
today's conventional silicon-based photovoltaic cells are still too inefficient
and expensive to manufacture for large-scale electricity generation. But recent
advances in nanotechnology and photonics could change all that, according to Dr.
Simon Fafard, the former National
Research Council (NRC) scientist
who founded Cyrium Technologies. Thanks to support from NRC and the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre,
this young Canadian firm has developed an innovation that will significantly
improve the efficiency of solar power generation while reducing its cost.
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2008/0804solar_e.html
Health
Care
Frameworks of Integrated Care for
the Elderly: A Systematic Review
In a literature review prepared for
the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Margaret MacAdam of the Canadian Policy Research Networks
examines articles and papers that study comprehensive models of integrated or
coordinated care. She identifies some models of integrated health and
social care that can result in improved outcomes, client satisfaction and/or
cost savings or cost-effectiveness. Moreover, MacAdam discovers four
frameworks with common interventions that must be structured to support each
other and presents her findings in Frameworks of Integrated Care for the Elderly: A
Systematic Review.
http://www.cprn.org/documents/49813_EN.pdf
Demographics
A Quarter Century of Economic
Inequality in Canada
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives, the wealth gap between the highest and lowest earners in
Canada has rapidly expanded between 1980
and 2006. Meanwhile real wages for the bottom 10% have not made increases to
match those of other income brackets.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/National_Office_Pubs/2008/Quarter_Century_of_Inequality.pdf
Science
and Technology
Concordians
Validate 125 Year-Old Theory
For more
than a century, researchers have believed Nobel Prize winner J.J. Thomson’s
theory on the stability of vortex rings was mathematically sound, but nobody had
been able to produce it in the real world…. until now. 125 years after its
theoretical discovery, a team of researchers at
Concordia
University, led by
Dr. George Vatistas, has finally been able to physically validate it in a
laboratory environment. http://mediarelations.concordia.ca/pressreleases/archives/2008/04/concordians_validate_125_yearo.php
Heart Progenitor
Cells Developed from Embryonic Stem Cells;
New
Hope for Testing
Canadian scientist Gordon
Keller and his team of international researchers have successfully grown human
heart progenitor cells from embryonic stem cells. With this advancement, Keller,
director of Toronto's McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine at
the University Health Network, and his team, have taken a significant step
towards the creation of functioning heart tissue. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/23/c8670.html
Ten Countries
Co-ordinate Cancer Fight
Research groups from 10
countries are announcing an unprecedented global effort to combat cancer, one of
the world's leading killers. The collaborative project, dubbed the International Cancer Genome Consortium,
will hunt the genetic mutations that drive 50 different types of cancer – from
breast to bone. The consortium, in which
Canada will play a lead role, plans to
share results rapidly, widely and freely so scientists can quickly develop new
diagnostic tests and treatments to counter them. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080429
Education
International
Students Delighted by Work Permit Changes
Dalhousie
University reports
that recent changes by
federal Immigration Minister Diane Finley mean international students will now
be able to obtain a work permit under the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program,
with no restrictions on the type of employment and no requirement that they
first must have a job offer. http://dalnews.dal.ca/2008/05/01/workpermit.html
Moral Philosopher Questions Memory
Manipulation
Is medicated memory manipulation
ethically sound? And perhaps more importantly, who should be charged with the
decision to deliver such a treatment: patient or physician? Elisa Hurley, a
philosophy professor, is seeking answers to these questions in her research
currently underway at the University of
Western Ontario. http://communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/moral_philosopher_questions_memory_manipulation
