With so few small and medium enterprises in Canada, who can blame Canadian tech students from going to the U.S. in search of opportunity?
Considerable attention is being paid to the fact that much of Canada’s educated talent is moving to the U.S. to pursue employment, start companies, etc. While government can take steps to suppress brain drain, Canada must develop strategies to prevent other assets from also draining into the U.S. Experts suggest that jobs are best procured…
Increasing investment in science is fine, but rarely does the investment seem to lead to an improvement in the lives of Canadians
In the recently released 2018 budget, I was pleased to see that the Liberal government has chosen to invest heavily in discovery-based research. According to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, this is the single largest investment in investigator-led fundamental research in Canadian history. This move is welcomed by universities because science was starved by the previous…
The government thinks that if industry doesn’t see fit to use its own money to stimulate innovation, perhaps taxpayer money should be the fire starter
Can Canadian industry lead the Liberal government’s latest innovation idea? I have mixed feelings about the new Innovation Superclusters recently announced by the federal government. While I support more taxpayer money supporting research, I’m not convinced that Canadian industry has the innovation chops to lead Canada out of our doldrums. True to their innovation mandate,…
In a future ruled by titans, plebs lose opportunities to innovate. Advancement depends on idea generation in the hands of the many rather than the few
Last week’s announcement that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase are forming a new health-care company to cover their employees is an interesting case study in creating haves and have nots. It’s an intriguing concept because of how fractured the United States health-care system is. No doubt other companies will join suit and pool their…
Students should be encouraged to think beyond their own thesis research project and consider other options - such as entrepreneurship - for their career
I recently had the pleasure of being a judge for the University of Calgary’s first Innovation 4 Health hack-athon. This biomedical engineering (BME) graduate-student-led competition brought together multidisciplinary teams to design solutions for surgery and recovery problems posed by health-care professionals. Over four months of almost full-time work, a team of five BME graduate students envisioned…
To fight costs, Canadian patients are being denied coverage for biologics until all other (less expensive and less effective) measures are explored
As a stem cell biologist, I was very excited when Nobel laureate Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University developed cellular reprogramming, which enables us to generate patient-specific, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Being pluripotent, these cells have the potential to make any cell or tissue type in the body. Being patient specific, tissues derived from…
Power abuse comes in many shapes and sizes. We need to put systems in place to control it
When the new allegations of sexual abuse in Hollywood surfaced, I was surprised that so many women (and men) were piling on. I thought we’d taken care of this problem after Anita Hill courageously declared in 1991 that Clarence Thomas was unfit to stand for the U.S. Supreme Court because of sexual harassment. Certainly, universities…
Artificial intelligence is being tailored to tackle critical-thinking jobs. The next step for humans is to focus on tacit skills that machines don't yet have
If machines can think critically, where will university-educated students go? As an educator who is passionate about student professional development, I’m concerned about how artificial intelligence (AI) threatens to steal many of the remaining jobs available for university-educated students. I’ve written previously about job shortages in academia and medicine and how students must turn to…
China's economic, social, political and military growth mean the superpower dynamics are shifting dramatically
Does China control enough U.S. debt to influence American foreign policy? During the Second World War, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt told British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to get out of the colonialism business. By leveraging Britain’s war debt to the U.S., Roosevelt influenced English foreign policy, opening new markets for the U.S. and for globalization.…
If the NDP is going to lose the next election, the government should just fall on its sword and introduce a sales tax
As a baby boomer, I’m very concerned about my future dignity in Alberta. For the past two months, my 85-year-old mother-in-law, who suffers from dementia, has lived in Foothills Hospital because there are no long-term care facilities that can accept her. Her days (and nights) are spent locked in a chair because she wanders and…
Considerable attention is being paid to the fact that much of Canada’s educated talent is moving to the U.S. to pursue employment, start companies, etc. While government can take steps to suppress brain drain, Canada must develop strategies to prevent other assets from also draining into the U.S. Experts suggest that jobs are best procured…
