The professional chasm between mathematicians and math education professors is an example. While many people assume that these two groups work closely together in designing provincial curricula and writing approved textbooks, the reality is quite different. Despite vigorous protests from mathematicians, math education professors regularly promote teaching methods that make it harder for students to acquire the math skills they need.
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In The News —
February 3, 2012
Weathering Global Warming in Agriculture
Provided it is not a consequence of governmental interference with market forces, cheap food creates far-reaching benefits. Indeed, declining food scarcity has helped drive overall economic progress for decades, even as the demand for edible goods has been increasing at a fast clip, say Douglas Southgate, a professor at Ohio State University, and Julian Morris, vice president of research at the Reason Foundation.
o Since the middle of the 20th century, when the population was slightly less than 2.5 billion, human numbers have shot up, surpassing 6 billion shortly before 2000 and currently approaching 7 billion.
o Yet food supplies have more than kept pace -- mainly thanks to technological advances during and since the Green Revolution that have caused global yields of cereals to rise by 150 percent since the early 1960s.
o The general tendency of food supplies to overwhelm food demand has registered in the marketplace.
Food prices can remain at current levels or even decline further in the years to come. But there are caveats. If governments continue to subsidize and mandate biofuel production, midcentury prices of crops could be 30 percent above current levels. Also, food could grow scarcer if global warming impairs agricultural
productivity. The question is: will global warming impair agricultural productivity?
Southgate and Morris investigate the potential consequences of climate change for global agricultural output and identify policies that would reduce any negative impacts. Some researchers have estimated that climate change resulting from manmade global warming could reduce agricultural output significantly (compared to baseline assumptions), especially in tropical countries. As a result, food prices would rise and malnutrition worsen. However, these estimates assume minimal or no adaptation to changes in the climate. In particular, they assume that farmers will fail to switch crops, modify their use of water and other inputs, and adopt new technology. This view is unrealistic: faced with changing conditions, farmers will adapt -- unless prohibited.
Source: Douglas Southgate and Julian Morris, "Weathering Global Warming in Agriculture,"
Reason Foundation, November 3, 2011.
See More "In the News"
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Are Prairie cities dangerous, or is the media over-reacting?
Maclean's magazine has published its annual list of Canada’s Most Dangerous Cities, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan are once again singled out. Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Regina finished in the top five for violent crime rates. But the reality is that Prairie cities are relatively safe. More on this week's Frontier Centre Commentary. (~2 min)
Join us weekly across the prairies for our hard hitting policy commentary broadcast across the Goldenwest Radio Network - Click here for a list of 14 stations and broadcast times.
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~17 min
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February 3, 2012 —
Forfeiture Laws Threaten Property Rights (CHQR)
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~11 min
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February 2, 2012 —
Forfeiture Laws Threaten Property Rights (CKNX)
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~57 min
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February 2, 2012 —
Alberta's Nuclear Power Saga (Duane Bratt)
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~1 min
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February 1, 2012 —
Review Needed to Inform Pipeline Hearings - Part 1 (660News)
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~1 min
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February 1, 2012 —
Review Needed to Inform Pipeline Hearings - Part 2 (660News)
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~10 min
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February 1, 2012 —
No Need to Worry About Global Warming (570News)
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~12 min
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January 31, 2012 —
Honourless 'Honour Killings'
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~18 min
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January 30, 2012 —
The Reason for High Housing Prices (CBC)
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~21 min
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January 27, 2012 —
Bogus Global Warming Concerns Interfering with Enbridge Northern Gateway Hearings (CFAX)
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~15 min
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January 27, 2012 —
What Should Happen to Canada’s Indian Act (CHQR)
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~10 min
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January 27, 2012 —
8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey (CJME)
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~31 min
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January 26, 2012 —
Canada - Population 100 Million (Irv Studin)
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Latest Publications
— February 3, 2012
At the University of Manitoba, there are a number of departments that duplicate courses and programs and these departments could be combined so that more professors would be teaching courses rather than administering departments.
— January 31, 2012
The federal government should organise scientific and economic hearings about crucial projects like the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in order properly to inform citizens and to dilute the impact of radical climate change environmentalists
— January 30, 2012
Feedback - Education Faculties Should Disappear.
— January 27, 2012
A global snapshot of housing affordability shows that local governments face a choice about land use regulations and housing affordability.
— January 27, 2012
Education faculties across the country should be merged with other university faculties.
— January 27, 2012
Ottawa is suppressing key parts of a politically explosive federal report that reveals Ontario is being shortchanged by Canada's national wealth-sharing scheme.
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RE: Education Faculties Should Disappear
— January 30, 2012
I’d like to make some comments pertaining to your current article on the value of Faculties of Education.
I agree entirely that the enterprise of education would benefit from the winding down of Faculties of Education, but I would present a slightly different emphasis. Bad methodology is indeed relevant (I taught my own children to read at age three using Dr. Seuss and they were reading newspapers by the time they started school.) but my emphasis is more on teacher’s knowledge of content. I note that the references that you provided showed that this was not a major contributor to teaching effectiveness, but I suspect that with regard the narrower area of the sciences at the high school level it is. Some observations.
Read entire Feedback
RE: Tackling the On-Reserve Housing Crisis
— December 17, 2011
Shameful that after 125 years our government has not resolved the problems involving our aboriginals in countless areas after setting them up on reserves including housing problems that have plagued them all these years and will continue doing so. Employment, amongst the housing problems that exist will continue for ever and a day.
The magic wand for the housing problem and other problems is there to be resolved, but our governances in the House of Commons just would not bite the bullet and resolve them. Just think of the countless immigrants that came to our country to find a better place to rear their children. Many first started out by taking advantage of occupying a quarter section of land in the wilderness, but before too many decades thereafter, many of their children became doctors, lawyers, engineers and yes even public service workers. Their parents moved into cities and towns, took advantage of employment opportunities, that are rare in many of the reserves, and there – few problems arising In comparison to those constantly taking place is so many reserves during the past 125 years.
When our government spends countless of hundreds of millions of dollars, and who knows maybe billions of dollars annually as the child births are greater in the reserves than in other parts of our Country – why not provide each family with their own home in the cities and towns, provide training for those employables and enough social assistance, as provided in many instances to immigrants, and our aboriginals and their children would truly enjoy Canadianism as have the countless Immigrants to this day.
The magic wand worked for immigrants and still does today and can do so for our aboriginals likewise with the example cited here in. Email from Stephen Marlowe, Edmonton
(parents immigrants dating back to the early 1920s with very little help from our government)
RE: New Voluntary Wheat Board May Struggle
— December 12, 2011
Notwithstanding one's political views about the wheat board, given that is very likely the federal govenrment will succeed in its efforts, the Board could consider converting itself into a mutual. As a back up strategy they probably should have been signing up all wheat board farmer members to something like this if they wanted to preserve their organizational status in light of the pending loss of its monopoly. E-mail from Winnipeg
RE: Aboriginals Need Roadmap For Success, Not Ideology
— July 12, 2011
Good morning; We haven’t been of any major help to aboriginals on reserves in many such situations, far away from any sources of employment. Our government has spent billions of tax dollars keeping them on reserves, and from the lack of success in our government’s efforts, it is time to bite the bullet and do the right thing for them. More on this feedback found HERE.
RE: Unravelling Child Poverty
— December 4, 2003
Kudos for taking on the poverty industry on this issue. Keep up the good work. - Email from Winnipeg
RE: The Costs of Caledonia
— August 22, 2011
Dear Mr Quesnel,
As a fellow Quebecer, I thoroughly enjoyed your point of view regarding the Caledonia incident this morning.
It is refreshing and, sadly, far too rare, to read a commentary from someone who is able to step back and present a balanced and informative view. Too much of our main stream media today are filled with supposition, innuendo, and sweeping generalisations.
You have added considerably to my understanding of the issues in the Caledonia matter, and I thank you for that. Your Métis heritage gives you a good understanding of the First Nations view point, but you are also able to see all sides of the issue, with the right and wrong activities of all the parties. Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Band in BC is another who is able to do that and he has set an example for other First Nations Chiefs to emulate in leading their bands to success in the modern world without blaming everyone else.
Let us hope that our various levels of government can shoulder their responsibilities and find a way to reach negotiated settlement with all of the parties involved. Thank you for your good ideas. Email from Ontario
RE: Indigenous Peoples from an International Perspective
— May 16, 2008
It seems to me that we in Canada may be looking at things the wrong way. Is it that there are problems on Indian Reserves, or is it that the whole archaic concept of Indian Reserves is the problem? The bottom line is, the Cook Islands are doing very well thank you; NO RESERVES HERE.
More - E-mail from Bob Foster, Winnipeg, MB
RE: Farmer Abuse
— March 28, 2005
I am acutely aware that current international trade rules are not working for western Canadian farmers. At the WTO, this is a critical year for negotiations. We need to be there, not only to press for meaningful concessions from other countries but to ensure a deal that doesn't tip the scales away from producers in Canada. - E-Mail from Ken Ritter, Canadian Wheat Board
Read more and our response . . .
RE: Opening Up Cottage Country
— July 19, 2002
This was a great article. I am looking forward to many more on this topic, hopefully soon. How do I find out more regarding this matter. I am very very interested. - Email from Winnipeg
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Effective Policing
This fixation on work rules is a common phenomenon in traditional public sector organizations. Without a focus on results administrative processes and procedures configure themselves over time to suit the needs of the professionals hired to deliver them, not the customers who are served by them. The police union's rigid two-person policy is an example. Many other major cities have managed a more flexible policy that saves money while maintaining service and protecting the safety of officers.
A Smarter, Less Duplicative Federal Government
This lack of spending discipline combined with the stimulus spending launched after the 2008 recession are responsible for the fiscal crunch we face today. The time is ripe to launch an era of intelligent austerity based on a two pronged plan to 1) modernize the operations of the federal civil service, and 2) reduce unnecessary duplication of functions and spending between the feds and the provinces, including a strong signal that the federal government intends to pursue a comprehensive plan to fix increasingly counterproductive transfer payment programs.
Your Land Is Not Your Land
Historically, a local government’s power to expropriate was limited to the needs of Public utilities -- roads, sewers, ditches and the like. However, changes made to the Municipal Act in 1997 opened the door to the seizure of property for “economic reasons.” Essentially, it is within a local government’s power to, for lack of a better term, -nationalize- an entire municipal economy. And it means the government can seize Mr. Fouillard’s property, property he has owned for more than fifty years.
What the Real-Wage Pessimists Are Missing
Start with the person's hourly wage rate. Many of the real-wage pessimists don't carefully estimate that but, instead, settle for looking at average weekly wages. But comparing average weekly wages over time will give a much more pessimistic view than is justified. Why? Part-time jobs as a percentage of total jobs have increased over time.
Speech by John Bruton, Former Prime Minister of Ireland
The early 1980's were a period of retrenchment. Public service members were frozen and the remaining taxes had to be increased. This stringency did, however, prevent Ireland falling into some of the costly political errors of continental Europe at that time, like taking on unrealistic pension commitments and creating overprotected labour markets.
Make Immigration Break Even
Since one side of the debate is primarily concerned with the economic benefit of immigration to existing Canadians, and the other side focuses on the benefit to immigrants themselves, the debate has been predictably polarized. A reasonable way to reconcile both concerns would be to charge an entrance fee to sponsored parents and grandparents through the family reunification program.
The Stockholm Healthcare Model In Manitoba
The model described above is known technically as the "purchaser/provider split" in service delivery. It is an easier sell for politicians, since funding remains public in this model. The critical success factor is that the monopoly disappears, replaced by a competitive, results-based model that gives patients choice.
Testing Public Patience
Soft, internal assessments not only shift costs and impose them on teachers, they produce unreliable results. “Standards tests are relatively objective tests that yield the same score for people who have the same performance,” says Rod Clifton, an education professor at the University of Manitoba. “Unstandardized tests . . . are more often than not scored differently by different people on different occasions. Consequently, unstandardized tests [like the CAP] are inherently unfair to some of the people who have been assessed.”
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