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Category: Politics

Manitoba Manifesto Analysis 2023

Ok folks, you know the drill.  An election means a manifesto analysis, and with the Manitoba election only 24 hours away, I’m overdue on this one. Manitoba is a 2-and-a-half party system.  Since 1969, the NDP and Progressive Conservatives have each had three periods in power (NDP for 30 years, Tories for 24), so these are the two platforms to watch. The Liberals have held seats in the legislature for all but 4 of those years, but only once managed

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October 2, 2023 No Comments

Caps on Student Visas

Over the past few weeks, a weird idea has been emanating from Ottawa: a hard cap on student visa numbers.  This is a pretty foolish idea, as even a cursory examination of the issue will show.  It’s not entirely impossible – there is a narrow way to make it work – but I absolutely do not trust the present federal government to pull it off. First, let’s start with why people think a cap on student visas is necessary.  As

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September 12, 2023 2 Comments

The Far Future

Occasionally, I get asked about why higher education will look like in forty or fifty years.  I usually beg off this kind of thing because predictions over that length of time aren’t very meaningful.  I mean, will AI have an effect?  Of course it will.  Can I predict what it is?  Of course not.  Don’t be ridiculous. And yet.  There are a couple of important things that we can say, with little fear of contradiction, about the future environment in

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June 7, 2023 4 Comments

The Alberta Problem

Last week, the good folks of Alberta elected a United Conservative Party government for the next four years.  What does that mean for post-secondary education?  First, I think it’s a pretty good bet that – on the university side at least – we will continue to see more episodes of culture war nonsense along the lines of what we saw in Lethbridge last year.  Universities are kind of the epitome of the “effete lefty” culture that UCP likes to believe

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June 6, 2023 4 Comments

Alberta Election Manifestos 2023

Alberta goes to the polls next Monday, so it’s time for another edition of “check out those election promises”.  I’ll restrict my comments to the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the United Conservative Party (UCP) since those are the only parties likely to win seats or crack 3% of the vote (yes, yes, the Alberta Party – colour me unconvinced). You can see the New Democratic Party Platform here.  It’s not quite a platform in the traditional sense of having

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May 23, 2023 1 Comment

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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