April 13th, 2018 | R. Rados

Just like you, I disagree with her tweet almost completely. It seems insensitive and tasteless to mention race and privilege as factors in how much money has been raised, but that doesn't necessarily make it wrong. More than a thousand people probably died in Canada that same day, but we aren't donating money to their families or wearing any specific kinds of clothes to commemorate them. That's just a fact. Whether you agree with Loreto's views about that fact doesn't change the fact that it's a fact. As a society, we've collectively decided that these lives should be treated differently than the various other lives that were lost that day. Our reasons for treating these lost lives differently might differ, but Nora Loreta stated what she thinks is the reason. Agree or not, Loreto strongly believes her own statement—just as McInnes and his followers believed his.

April 1st, 2018 | T. Carter

Statistically, the odds are stacked against American presidents. Of the 44 presidents before Donald Trump, more than half served less than two full terms—that includes the ones who resigned or lost their lives while serving. Of the past 43 presidents, only 16 have ever been elected to a second consecutive term. The number of presidents who won a second term becomes 17 if we include Grover Cleveland, who won a second, non-consecutive term and is counted as both the 22nd and 24th president. Historically, the odds of winning re-election are about 37%. This means that—after three consecutive two-term presidencies—America is overdue for another one-term president. The odds have been stacked against Donald Trump since before he beat Hillary Clinton and, with the Mueller investigation reaching its never-ending tentacles deeper into Trump's business, the odds of Donald Trump being our next one-term president are high. 

April 1st, 2018 | C. Wang

I remember taking trips down to Minot, North Dakota back in the 1980’s. Travelling from Regina to Minot took about five hours and it always led to fun weekends consisting of shopping, movies and hotel-pool swimming. Back then the United States felt more foreign than it does today. In the 70’s and early 80’s we had a federal government lead by Pierre Trudeau, a communist-loving Liberal. Saskatchewan was a communist-loving NDP province, full of brutalist architecture and crown corporations, and this only added to the Soviet flavour of pre-free trade Canada. Seeing the United States, mostly through romanticized, Hollywoodized mediums like television and film, offered a glimpse into a freer, more prosperous, more colourful reality. Visiting a small North Dakota city like Minot took on a magical vibe that I’m sure seems ridiculous today. There were loads of products on the shelves that we had seen in movies, but were unavailable in Canada.

April 1st, 2018 | C. Wang

It’s pretty clear by now that all the 2015 warnings that Conservatives were issuing about Justin Trudeau being “In Over His Head” and “Just Not Ready” have come to pass. It’s taken two and half years for Canadians to finally see what was clear to conservatives years ago. Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister has been a colossal mistake. 2018 marks the transition of Justin’s hijinks moving from delightful to embarrassing. The tipping point for Trudeau’s brand has now happened and the applause he got for every goofy thing he did in the past is now a liability. Combine this with the incompetence and corruption of the Liberal Party and a massive looming recession in the works and the recipe is set for a political trainwreck. Will Trudeau be happy leading a dysfunctional party in a hostile environment through a massive recession? Is this what he signed up for? His whole shtick as leader was basically a goodwill gimmick in which he expected people to love him and applaud every weird little thing he did.

April 1st, 2018 | R. Rados

Jordan Peterson is leading a revolution. Many want to call it a right-wing revolution, but Jordan Peterson himself would disagree. He'd disagree because he's our generation's Aristotle. He'd disagree because what he's preaching isn't an ideologically slanted load of garbage, it's an honest and logical assessment of our contemporary world. Peterson isn't throwing away everything he has ever known to be true for the sake of some idealized fantasy, he's doing the exact opposite. Jordan Peterson is attacking our idealized fantasies and replacing them with the cold hard truth. He's putting the pieces back together. It's been a long time since the French and American Revolutions. In that time, humans have accomplished more than they have in their entire history. Poverty is at an all-time low, democracy has made the world freer, capitalism has made us collectively wealthier and free speech has opened the flood gates of information. However, the pieces have been coming unglued.