REALLY Made In Canada ™ Opinion Editorials
Op-Eds by Concerned Canadians!

The problems facing the world and our nation today demand the input and collective direction of individual Canadians from coast to coast to coast! Join us as we explore and discuss contemporary issues facing all Canadians from the shared national crisis caused by globalization to the unique challenges found in the many interesting corners of our land. As it has been from the beginning, and contrary to the rhetoric of our "elected" officials, ultimately, it will be the PEOPLE of Canada and other regions of the world who will make "the plan" and get the work done to set us on a more sustainable and sensible track!

Latest Opinion Editorials (Op-Eds) & Articles

• Harper’s “Taser Cowboys” Adopt US Government Style Secrecy! Op-Ed Article by REALLY Made In Canada ™ Editorial Team - As troubling video recordings of police brutality emerge and use of Tasers by RCMP resulting in death are shown across the country on mainstream media, our federal police force tightens the lid on public access to electroshock weapon use details! Is this the "transparency in government" Stephen Harper promised Canadians?
  
• Being Canadian Starts With the INDIVIDUAL! Op-Ed Article by REALLY Made In Canada ™ Editorial Team - Canadians don't seem to have a shortage of icons to draw on for their national identity, but as globalization quietly creeps into mainstream media, the homogenizing effect of cookie cutter culture demands a personal response!
  
• Bed & Breakfasts Are a Delightful Way to Support Local Economy! Op-Ed Article by REALLY Made In Canada ™ Editorial Team - Globalization has invited itself into virtually every sector of our culture and economy, but there are many individual solutions to helping fix the serious damages caused by this transnational economic bulldozing!
  
• Workplace Rights for Recent Immigrants Op-Ed Article by Habiba Zaman - Boom times in BC are reflected in low unemployment rates and robust economic growth. But missing from that picture is the fact that some people are having a harder time earning a decent living than others. Among those people are recent immigrants.
  
• Wanted: A federal New Year's resolution on global warming Op-Ed Article by Peter Prontzos - Prime Minister Harper is a very intelligent man, but there are some things that he just can't understand. Or, more accurately, won't understand.
  
• TILMA a Major Hurdle to BC Climate Action Plans Op-Ed Article by Marc Lee & Caelie Frampton - Premier Gordon Campbell has positioned BC as a global leader on climate change. From handshakes with Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger to an ambitious plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by one-third by 2020, his enthusiasm for fighting climate change is laudable.
  
• Government inaction on deepening coastal crisis demands independent forestry review Op-Ed Article by Ben Parfitt - Anyone who has paid attention knows that things are wrong, horribly wrong, with what was once the dominant industry on Vancouver Island and indeed coastal BC.
  
• Putting fairness back into Canada’s tax system Op-Ed Article by Marc Lee - Earlier this year, Warren Buffett, one of the richest people on the planet, remarked that his secretary, who makes a lot less money than her boss, actually pays a higher rate of tax. Buffett went so far as to call on the US Congress to stop giving major tax breaks to rich people like him.
  
• Taking the foot off the gas key to more stable climate and energy sector Op-Ed Article by Ben Parfitt - It took intense pressure and heat over millions of years to turn buried plant and animal life into the natural gas that energy companies now suck out of the ground with increasing speed in northeast BC.
  
• Completing Tommy's vision - Medicare's future Op-Ed Article by Bruce Campbell & Greg Marchildon - Medicare represents one of our crowning national achievements, a proud reflection of how we see ourselves as a just and caring society.
  
• Tax cuts: Are they really worth it? Op-Ed Article by Bruce Campbell - I am trying to imagine the conversation I may one day have with my grandchildren about how my generation squandered $60 billion in tax cuts within the space of a single federal budget without investing a cent of it in something that will last for future generations.
  
• Big oil’s big day - Stelmach takes it away; Flaherty gives it right back, and more Op-Ed Article by Hugh Mackenzie - These are pretty exciting times for Canada’s oil patch.
  
• When workers’ jobs are shifted from the public service to for-profit corporations, does anything change? Op-Ed Article by Penny Gurstein - The BC Government’s Alternative Service Delivery Plan in practice.
  
• Capital gains tax cut just a hand-out to the rich Op-Ed Article by Ellen Russell - With its eye on the next election, the Harper government is getting its ducks in a row. It is making nice with Nova Scotia and trying to get Afghanistan out of play. But damage limitation is not a very compelling terrain for fighting an election.
  
• The rich are getting richer – and we’re all helping Op-Ed Article by Hugh Mackenzie - New data from Statistics Canada gives us a glimpse at the extensive income gains the richest of Canadians have been experiencing over the past two decades.
  
• Empty Promises - The hard truth about getting rich Op-Ed Article by Armine Yalnizyan - Broken promises are something we normally associate with politicians at election time. But what about the broken promise of economic growth?
  
• Regulating BC's oil and gas industry as if the environment mattered Op-Ed Article by Ben Parfitt - For several years, BC has been hooked on revenues from the fossil fuel industry. Skyrocketing royalty payments to the province from companies pulling oil and natural gas out of BC's energy-rich northeast corner now outstrip income from forestry.
  
• Calls for Montebello inquiry justified Op-Ed Article by John Jacobs - What are we to make of the events at the recent summit in Montebello, Que.? The series of summits was initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush to promote his North American Security and Prosperity Partnership agenda to the Canadian prime minister and the president of Mexico. The meetings included closed-door sessions with corporate leaders.
  
• Is another Charter challenge on BC labour rights waiting in the wings? Op-Ed Article by David Fairey - While the BC government mulls over the Supreme Court's recent landmark decision that Bill 29 is unconstitutional (because it infringes on health care workers' right to collective bargaining), it should also consider the constitutionality of another piece of labour legislation passed in 2002.
  
• Why we should worry about the Montebello talks Op-Ed Article by Bruce Campbell - The term SPP is likely to draw blank stares from most Canadians, though hopefully that will begin to change after the upcoming summit of North American Leaders--George Bush, Felipe Calderon and Stephen Harper--in Montebello Quebec. The North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (that’s what SPP stands for) was launched by the three NAFTA countries in March 2005. This is their third meeting and the first held in Canada.
  
• The clock is ticking on homelessness and the Olympics Op-Ed Article by Marc Lee - At the Vancouver Art Gallery is the official countdown clock for the 2010 Olympics: there are now well less than one thousand days left until the opening ceremonies. That may seem like plenty of time, but for folks concerned about the crisis in affordable housing, there is a lot of work to be done to get the place in shape.
  
• Wages, markets and temporary workers Op-Ed Article by David A. Green - Last November, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced a scheme to speed up the processing of temporary workers for Alberta and British Columbia.
  
• A tree too far Op-Ed Article by Ben Parfitt - The total logging response to the pine beetle catastrophe means healthy trees are being felled with the dead ones. The policy needs rethinking.
  
• Addressing rural development issues in Nova Scotia Op-Ed Article by John Jacobs - Perhaps the most important thing that we’ve learned after years of grappling with the challenges of economic development is that there are no easy solutions.
  
• Atlantica proponents face PR challenge Op-Ed Article by John Jacobs - The Atlantica conference has drawn renewed attention to plans for a cross-border economic trading zone. Organizers say they want to tone down the rhetoric. Clearly, they want to distance themselves from the controversy surrounding their ideas for a transportation corridor to Buffalo, accelerating energy exports, and deregulation. This leaves the question of what exactly Atlantica stands for.
  

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