The Chinese have stockpiled huge reserves of low-priced oil, giving them significant geopolitical leverage over Russia and Saudi Arabia
With the major stakeholders – Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States – emerging badly bruised from the last round of the crude oil price war, a new world order is set to emerge. The cost of the battle has been immense to all three. In April, as the battle erupted, the value of Saudi…
Unless checked, Communist China’s economic muscle will continue to be used to acquire increasing influence around the world
Historians make lousy prophets. We find it hard enough to predict the past, much less what’s going to happen in the future. Nonetheless, I’m going to attempt to predict some imminent geopolitical strategy. As the People’s Republic of China makes threats against Canada for detaining an executive of a Chinese corporation, as it warns the…
Placing trust in the public has become an alien idea. Our governments have become too large and self-serving
If there is one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us – and it has taught us many things – it’s that partisan politics has completely taken hold of public discourse and, in effect, banned common sense. This truth was made most clear in early May when United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the…
Canada has the raw materials and the industry to ensure its health system is prepared for the next big pandemic
Canada has its priorities all wrong when it comes to personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing and distribution. Through a series of missteps, the government put its citizens in danger. Negligence and mismanagement resulted in Canada shipping away vital PPE supplies, allowing foreign entities to purchase existing stock, and later importing poor-quality replacements at a time…
We must be prepared to stand our ground and face whatever economic and political consequences that may follow
Diplomacy is a dirty business. When two countries are trying to build or repair a relationship, they often resort to tactics that are illegal, immoral, mendacious or just generally offensive to our sense of what’s right and wrong. Just ask the two Michaels. Diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been in prisons in…
As the COVID-19 crisis has shown, open borders mean diseases travel more rapidly and supply chains are endangered
Pope Francis recently praised attachment to one’s own culture and place. He criticized global capitalism with its “consumerist vision of human beings” for its “levelling effect on cultures, diminishing the immense variety which is the heritage of all humanity.” But in Canada, nationalism – the idea that one should have particular regard for one’s own…
It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out we’ve been had on this whole pandemic thing
A video goes viral, and the next thing you know it’s yanked off YouTube. It’s also pulled from Vimeo, and all the other popular platforms. In fact, it’s pretty hard to find. I’m talking about Plandemic, a 28-minute documentary that tells the truth about COVID-19. About the heroic Dr. Judy Mikovits, who had the courage…
Fear often trumps any proportionality or civil-liberties concern. After the virus passes, surveillance tools will remain
Crises are the perfect breeding ground for authoritarians and social engineers. The extreme measures governments have rolled out to contain the COVID-19 pandemic remind us that fear often trumps any proportionality or civil-liberties concern. Since it originated in Wuhan, the crisis has exposed the spread and depth of the Communist Party of China’s mass-surveillance apparatus.…
Our leaders should have ways to handle a public health disaster without throwing half the population into penury
Most of the nations in the developed world, including Canada, were unprepared for the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. So we need to examine what steps should be taken to forestall or substantially mitigate the next microbial conflagration. While the current main weapon – the medieval quarantine – might still be part of the future arsenal, more…
Decisions made at the national level have not been driven by science, but by politics and a deference to WHO and China
There are those who believe we shouldn’t criticize our political (and other) leaders during a crisis. The Canadian way is to get through it first, then hold inquiries and, many years and millions of dollars later, we will know who failed in their leadership tasks and who should be held accountable. Maybe. Alternatively, since the…