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Is Carney a conservative?

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, Personality, Politics

Why would the Ontario NDP Deputy Leader join the federal Liberals?

Doug Anderson

Feb 15, 2026

The media has changed since I was the publisher of the local newspaper – that was in the 1990s before the internet and social media. It used to be that the vast majority of journalists worked for media outlets such a newspapers, radio and TV and while those enterprises may have had a point of view and may have put more emphasis on some stories than others, generally there were standards – truth was important and sources needed to be checked.

But that has changed- newspapers began to consolidate into conglomerates and their owners began to control the tone of their papers – some stories got emphasis, others were suppressed or even eliminated. Many are now exclusively on line where readers can select the stories they want and ignore the rest. In some cases … More

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The media, Transparency and Bias

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Media, Communications

The truth is out there!

Doug Anderson

Feb 08, 2026

I like old books and many years ago I acquired a rather banged-up copy of “The Story of Louis Riel” published in 1885 which happens to be the year of his second rebellion. It was written somewhat anonymously by a Toronto newspaper writer for the anglophone protestant market and it played into the narrative that they wanted to hear. Tensions were pretty hot in Canada at the time and this volume fanned the flames. The bulk of it was an entirely made up ‘romance’ narrative that Riel and Thomas Scott were both in love with the same girl and having Scott executed … well you get the picture – pure fiction. It went into a 2nd edition within the year.

If you look at media accounts of anything in that period you find blatant bias throughout. Bias is not a … More

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Imagine a World at peace – without the Security Council Veto

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, International Relations, Politics

It could happen – a brave contingent of UN members have launched an effort to implement Article 109

Doug Anderson

Dec 07, 2025

We live in precarious times … not unlike the early 1960s when the cold war was at its peak. The Cuban missile crisis was 1962; The Cold War was at its height and Viet Nam was brewing.

Not unlike today.

In the early 60s while I was in high school, I was president of the World Affairs Club at my school and like 60-70 other high schools in Toronto we were participating in a model United Nations. Each school represented a different country. We met every Sunday to discuss/debate the issues of the day. I still have my copy of the UN charter.

Back then the UN was only a decade and a half old, but already it was clear that the Security Council veto was … More

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The MOU

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, Media, Communications, Politics

The charade and the pipeline

Doug Anderson

Nov 29, 2025

Last week I wrote a piece that said the Carney would avoid saying “NO” to a pipeline – that he would leave the decision to the Major Projects process and that as a result of that review, no pipeline was likely to ever get built. Having read the MOU that Carney signed with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, I stand by that assessment although not too many people agree with me.

As I’ve said before, Carney is an introvert and play the long game. He wanted to get Alberta onside with a number of environmental objectives and this MOU achieves much of that including some specific emission goals and timelines.

The Federal government acknowledges “Alberta’s approach to regulating heavy electricity generation emitters through Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) program.” “The TIER system will ramp up to a minimum … More

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What to do about Canada Post

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy
Doug Anderson

Oct 26, 2025

In 1968, Pierre Trudeau appointed Eric Kierans as Postmaster General in his first cabinet (it was still a cabinet position back then). Judging by the Aislin cartoon from 1970 posted on Facebook recently by the cartoonist himself, nothing much has changed.

Well, yes, a lot has changed – postal rates have gone up dramatically, mail volumes have dropped dramatically as a result of email, parcel volumes have increased dramatically and numerous non-unionized competitors have taken much of that business from the post office.,

So, what’s left. Most importantly – but diminishing every year – the monopoly that Canada Post was given on letter mail. That was supposed to be the revenue generator that would keep them in the black. That’s not working out so well these days.

Kierans made a number of operational changes which included closing post offices and discontinuing mail delivery on Saturdays … More

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We need a Canadian Social Media platform

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Media, Communications

Our Digital Sovereignty is at stake

I got an email Friday from OpenMedia.org, a Canadian advocacy group that specializes in media and privacy issues. The 1st two paragraphs read:

Think about your digital life for a second. The social media apps we scroll through: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. The cloud services our businesses and even our governments depend on: Microsoft, Amazon, Google. The AI systems shaping what news we see and what content gets promoted. Not one of these is Canadian!

Every single one is controlled by foreign powers and corporations that profit off our data, manipulate our choices, and increasingly undermine our democracy. That’s what’s at stake: Canada’s digital sovereignty.

I agree. Preceding this email, a 14+ page open letter was sent to the Prime Minister signed by dozens of public organizations and 70-odd individuals including the likes of Margaret Atwood and former governor general, Adrienne … More

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Investments, Blind Trusts and Mark Carney

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Money, Politics

Why Potential Conflicts of Interests are a Red Herring

Doug Anderson

Jul 29, 2025

Mark Carney is apparently a fairly wealthy man. Wealthy people have to put their money somewhere and most of them are smart enough to realize that the bank is neither the best place nor the safest.

The disclosure of the assets that Carney put into a blind trust shows that he had investments in more than 560 companies through a third-party managed account, That 3rd party will be an investment company that is likely managing the wealth of numerous people and they have the expertise and the technology to pick stocks with good growth potential and below average volatility. They would have been operating under general guidelines set out by the portfolio owner. (e.g. no coal, no napalm, yes to clean energy, yes to innovation, etc.)

Beyond that, the owner would have little involvement and would … More

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Reforming the Canadian Federation

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Lateral Thinking, Paradigm Shift
Francophone and Indigenous Canadians and Cultural Sovereignty

Doug Anderson

Jun 02, 2025

When I wrote my submission to the Spicer Commission on Canada’s Future back in 1991, the main issue at the time was Quebec separatism. Indigenous issues were peaking over the horizon but were still a relatively low priority in spite of the Oka crisis having occurred only a year earlier. Oka was the first time that indigenous rights had become the focus of national attention and was well before the Truth and Reconciliation, Commission in 2008. The more recent tensions between the Wetʼsuwetʼen people in BC and the Coastal Gas Link pipeline shows that we really didn’t learn much from Oka which was over a small parcel of land that a private developer wanted for expansion of a golf course.

In researching this article, I was somewhat surprised to find references to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples … More

Remember Meech Lake?

ByDoug Anderson Canada
Let’s get on with the constitutional crisis so we (the people) can build a new constitution that serves citizens rather than politicians

Doug Anderson

May 22, 2025

So a bunch of Alberta right-wingers want to have a referendum to make Alberta a sovereign country. The core group likely wants it to become part of the USA but that’s clearly a non-starter so they’ll start with suggesting a sovereign country and if it runs into trouble they will beg the US to take them over. Maybe. They like Trump, but politics goes in cycles and Trumpism is very unlikely to survive beyond his current 4-year term. Then what would they want?

This is a new-old scenario as we’ve been through this a couple of times with Quebec. The last time was in the late 80s and early 90’s when Mulroney was still Prime Minister. He beat them in their sovereignty referendum … More

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Cutting Government Waste

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy

Where Bloat Butts up Against The Peter Principle

Prime Minister Carney laid out an ambitious program in his press conference a few days after winning the election. A lot of heavy spending predicated significantly on saving money by cutting government waste. All parties have made this promise for decades but the bloat continues. Governments just tend to be inefficient.

There was a thin little best seller book in the early 1970s entitled The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter. Its main thesis was that in any large hierarchical employment structure (like the civil service) people get promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. Incompetence is perhaps too blunt a term – it simply means that they can’t for whatever reason fulfill the responsibilities of their position to the degree expected. Be that as it may, we’ll stick to the term incompetent. People who have reached their “final placement” … More