Posts Tagged ‘Articles’
The Solution to Inequality is Spelled: V-A-T
Early in the Canadian Occupy protests in October, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney described the movement as “constructive” – the understandable product of worsening income inequality. He was partly right. He should have said the protests were potentially constructive, but only if parties on both sides of the barricades open their minds about taxes,…
Read MoreChaos and Planning
This article ran first in Vancouver Review. Sadly, I have to report that the Red Gate did finally lose its battle with the city and has been evicted. CHAOS AND PLANNING: A tour of Vancouver’s public art ONE: THE RED GATE By the time you read this article, an interesting but little-known Vancouver public-art institution will either have…
Read MoreMan Standing
This profile of Inuit film-making legend Zacharias Kunuk was originally published in Canadian Art Edited by Richard Rhodes *** Final descent into Igloolik and I’m feeling the cold already. It’s seeping into the plane, into the soles of my feet, stiffening my knuckles and knees. It seems to be reaching out toward me, and I…
Read MoreAre student loans the next financial bubble?
My regular Big Ideas column for the Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine is this month about a looming potential problem that everybody seems to know about already. It was interesting to learn, researching this piece, just how widely the problem is already being discussed while nothing is really happening at higher levels to forestall a disaster. You have…
Read MoreSave the Red Gate
I’m mid-way through a piece for Vancouver Review on the topic of public art. As a result, I wouldn’t normally write and post anything on the topic because it might end up stealing from work to-be-published. But, with apologies to my kind and forbearing editors at VR, I’m going to make an exception here because…
Read MoreIgloolik Dubai
My third novel The Blue Light Project was published in March/April and book business, touring etc, consumed most of those two months. In May I had to get back to work. That means magazine work. And that means travel. I still very much enjoy this aspect of my freelance life. This time around in particular, I had…
Read MoreToo Big to Fail?
Originally published in The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine: Newt Gingrich is back and doing what he’s done so often: igniting controversy. The architect of the Republican congressional revolution of the 1990s has created a firestorm by proposing a U.S. federal law that would allow states to go bankrupt. At present, only cities…
Read MoreHiring: Gut Feel or Hard Numbers?
Originally published in The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine: Mike Brydon and Peter Tingling are decision theory specialists at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Business, and they have a question they like to ask when giving presentations to senior management groups, especially to human resources managers. “How many here have taken golf lessons…
Read More“…the name Rene Girard may ring a bell…”
I’m outed as an admirer of Girard by Humber College Professor of Political Philosophy Kent Enns. He’s writing about my new novel The Blue Light Project. If you’re interested in Girard and the urgency of his ideas, you might enjoy the novel. About a three day hostage crisis at the studio of a controversial reality television show,…
Read MoreDon Delillo
I’m hugely flattered by some recent and heavy praise for The Blue Light Project, a “thriller that makes you think” about a hostage crisis in a television studio. In each of these reviews, I’ve been compared to Don Delillo, who is a serious hero of mine. That comparison leaves me speechless (almost) but grateful. The…
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