Rethinking Lifestyle

Although it was only 8:30 p.m. , the temperature outside had slipped to minus 25 Celsius. John and Mary were enjoying a quiet evening in their home on First Street in Steinbach when the lights went out.

I have been thinking recently about how reliable our electrical power supply really is.

So President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Globalization is what we call the process of the world becoming a smaller place.

Last week I suggested that there is merit in walking because it takes the world on its terms.

What follows is the kind of congratulations-to-self that occasionally sits in my mind when I find myself walking while others drive.

Were I to choose a personal zodiac, 2011 would be the year of the Bicycle.

“We pick up thousands of [disposable] diapers on a daily basis,” states Eldon Wallman from the Steinbach landfill. This calculates to around half a million diapers being delivered to rot in our own small landfill every year.

Most taxes in Canada do not encourage the right activities. Behavior that should be encouraged is taxed, and behavior that should be discouraged has no tax.

Fundamentally, most tax structures in Canada are doing the very opposite of what they ought to be doing: they tax behavior that should be encouraged and don’t tax behavior that should be discouraged.