Natalie MacLean’s Wine of the Week

 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant 2008 California, United States This wine is a blend of mostly syrah and grenache grapes, with some cinsault, mourvèdre and carignane grapes. I love the Bordeaux aroma I get first followed by cassis, blackcurrant and smoke, but most of all, fresh earth. Full-bodied and complex.

A ”Less Is More” Approach to Canadian Health Care: Reformulating the Canada Health Transfer

  Change has come to Canada’s health-care funding model. In December 2011, federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced that the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) – the legislative vehicle through which much of the funding (some $29 billion for the 2012-2013 period alone) for Canada’s provincial and territorial health-care systems is

Afghanistan and the Polls: Change the Question – Change the Numbers

 Quick media conclusions on polls released regarding Canadian participation in the Afghanistan mission are flawed. Part of the difficulty in interpreting the polls lies in the fact that the two principal polling firms involved with the longest databases use very different questions in their polls. Strategic Counsel, which is the

Giving Up On Government As An Agent For The Public Good…Is Not A Good Idea

 When I first got into the commercial polling business, about 70% of Canadians held a somewhat favourable impression of politicians. Today, more believe in the devil or that Elvis is alive than hold this particular point of view. Now, I know all of us smirk knowingly, from time to time,