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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

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Crime and Punishment

ByDoug Anderson Crime & Punishment, Government Policy, Lateral Thinking, Paradigm Shift

A Paradigm Shift Approach to Recidivism

Doug Anderson

Apr 26, 2025

Link to same article on Substack

I’m a lateral thinker – an outside the box thinker. The box in this case is conventional or incremental thinking. True lateral thinkers are born that way and are fairly rare, but you can look through history and some stand out – Benjamin Franklin for sure and I would include Winston Churchill as well. The mobilization of a flotilla of small boats to evacuate troops from Dunkirk in the early part of World War II was an act of a lateral thinker while most people were wringing their hands and contemplating surrender.

Conventional thinkers look at the status quo and think about incremental changes whereas a lateral thinker looks at the current situation, looks at where he needs to go and figures out a path to get there. Lateral Thinking is both a … More

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ICYMI – Exposing Trump’s Tariff Fraud

ByDoug Anderson Economics, International Relations

The last week and a half have been dominated by Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. You may recall his charts that showed what they said other countries were charging the US and the lower figure (usually 1/2) that the US was going to charge them.

Except it was all a sham. After some pushback they came up with this equation.

Looks impressive doesn’t it with all those Greek letters. Except it doesn’t have anything to do with tariffs. The equation was cracked by financial journalist James Surowiecki within a few hours and later validated by several other analysts. The equation takes the the US total trade deficit with a given country (Xi – Mi) and divides it by the value of the goods said country exports to the US (Mi).  The other factors were set so they cancel out, and the delta Ti is the supposed tariff rate.… More

Carney vs Trudeau, Poilievre, & TRUMP

ByDoug Anderson Canada

The almost universal narrative of the media is that Mark Carney is a political neophyte running against seasoned politicians. While it is true that he has never held any elected position, his record in his fist couple of weeks is that of a seasoned pro eating his opponents for lunch. His actions have been well-planned and executed with precision.  

I would conclude that Carney was always inclined towards politics and his sojourns into banking were mere sidebars to his preferred career. His banking years were probably somewhat frustrating as he tried to use the limited monetary tools at his disposal (interest rates) to keep the economies of Canada and England ticking along in spite of some of the reckless fiscal policies (Brexit) coming from his political peers  but it also provided a cat bird seat to watch those politicians at work … and learn.

Even before Trudeau resigned Carney … More

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Bring These $$ Home

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Economics, International Relations, Money

Trump has poked the Canadian bear and has unleashed a level of patriotism that we haven’t seen before – perhaps ever.  So while the tariffs may eventually get  withdrawn and things may seem to go back to normal we can never again leave ourselves this vulnerable. We need to harden our economy.

Ironically this situation presents Canada with some incredible opportunities. This current wave of nationalism must be harnessed.

50 years ago the government of Justin’s father Pierre, created the Canada Development Corp in order to stem the tide of foreign ownership of Canadian companies and a similar idea is needed today but for different reasons. The Canada Development Corporation was created to invest in strategic industries in order to increase Canadian ownership. The CDC had some success but the Mulroney government shut it down when they took office in the mid 80s. The problem of foreign ownership is still … More

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Quora

ByDoug Anderson Health, Lateral Thinking, Paradigm Shift

As a dentist, what is one thing you think all people should know about dental hygiene that they might not know already?

Profile photo for Doug Anderson

442.6K views, 1,394 upvotes, 21 shares

I’m not a dentist but I am a bacteriologist and the main thing that few medical professionals recognize is that our microbiome (the bacteria in our bodies) evolved right along side with us. Most of our bacteria are either beneficial or innocuous – that includes our oral bacteria. A small number are harmful and these include the Strep mutans which cause cavities. However among the beneficial functions of the good bacteria is that they inhibit the bad. This happens throughout the body – in the gut (well established), on the skin (less understood) and the mouth and nasal cavities (understood by microbiologists but not by the dental profession).

Humans are the result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution alongside our … More

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Privatization of garbage collection at the householder level as a means of encouraging greater diversion of waste to recycling

ByDoug Anderson Lateral Thinking, Paradigm Shift

by Doug Anderson

published in the February 2001 issue of Municipal World

Over the last ten to fifteen years, we have watched as senior levels of government and regulatory agencies have dismantled the monopolies that used to dominate the phone, gas and electrical power industries, always in the name of less government, greater consumer choice and efficiency.

In roughly the same period, most large municipal governments have bounced back and forth from one garbage crisis to another.
I am surprised that nobody has made the connection that garbage collection could benefit from the same approach. Indeed, providing individual choice and charging accordingly would make the system work much better and achieve much higher diversions from conventional landfill.
Everybody accepts that recycling is the answer to our garbage problems; but diversion rates have been stagnant for several years in the 30 – 50 per cent range depending on how much the … More