The study decline in value of the university degree is a quiet Failure  of the Liberal government at Queens Park. However government mismanagement is not the only cause of a decline in  esteem of the average university education. The rise of private for profit online universities like the University of Phoenix compound an already bad situation and turn it into a downward spiral.

Source Queen’s Journal

Yet this may just be the beginning. The next phase of the Reaching Higher plan has a target of providing 70 per cent of the Ontario population with a university degree.


Much of the population is employed in industry, retail or services; why is it an advantage for many of these people to have degrees? Why is the government continuing to emphasize quantity of education over quality?


In many ways, Ontario has been giving education the “Field of Dreams” approach: if you build an educated population, industry and commerce will come.


The problem is that we have been building bigger, not better.

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Here is my original defense of capitalism and critique of the themes in Wall Street money never sleeps. Capitalism has improved more lives and created more wealth than any other economic model that has been adopted in world history. And yes I will see the film eventually.

Wall Street Journal online

Hollywood wants its heroes to be virtuous, but it defines virtue in a way that excludes any action that is self-interested. If virtue means putting others ahead of self, then it’s clear that most people, let alone most capitalists, aren’t very virtuous. As a result, the one Hollywood defense of capitalism that everyone knows is Gordon Gekko’s speech from “Wall Street”: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” But even if Gekko’s defense has an element of truth, it’s uninspiring, which is why Gekko remains the villain of “Wall Street,” and not the hero.


A better defense of capitalism is to focus on capitalist virtues. In “The Pursuit of Happyness,” for example, Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman played by Will Smith, confronts adversity with hard work, creativity, ambition and intelligence. “The Pursuit of Happyness” is syrupy at times, but the story of Gardner’s rise from homelessness to a successful job as a stockbroker is full of drama and uplift, which makes it all the more surprising that more films don’t use the business world as the setting for great cinema.

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Source Free Thinking Film Festival Ottawa2010


Hypocrites come in all shapes and sizes. And when it comes to politics, hypocrisy is just part of the game. But the press only tends to cover half the story. For decades, the American people have benefited from the media’s meticulous investigation of hypocrisy among conservative leaders. Meanwhile, liberal hypocrisy gets a free pass.


But not anymore.


In a film that will forever change how we see America and its leaders, filmmakers Nicholas Tucker and Lucas Abel take us on an unforgettable journey through a political landscape filled with hypocrites and humbugs. Along the way, they reveal a disturbing national truth: that the two-faced mantra “do as I say, not as I do” has become the unwritten golden rule of some of our most prominent liberal leaders. 

Maxine Bernier is a light  for  liberty and freedom that shines throughout Canada.

Source John Ivison

So far, the popular storm that has given birth to the Tea Party in the United States has only produced provincial squalls in Canada. Yet, Mr. Bernier is one of the few links between the disparate movements that are united by their discontent at big, interventionist government.


He has emerged as a champion of zero budget growth and has spoken out against the Harper government’s habit of buying votes through baubles such as the proposed new hockey stadium in Quebec City.


Mr. Bernier himself downplays the prospect he could form a Canadian Tea Party, or move provincially. “I’m a Conservative. And these [less government, more freedom] are Conservative ideas,” he said.