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We need a Canadian Social Media platform
Our Digital Sovereignty is at stake I got an email Friday from OpenMedia.org, a Canadian advocacy group that specializes in media and privacy issues. The 1st two paragraphs read: Think about your digital life for a second. The social media apps we scroll through: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. The cloud services our businesses and even our governments depend on: Microsoft, Amazon, Google. The AI systems shaping what news we see and what content gets promoted. Not one of these is Canadian! Every single one is controlled by foreign powers and corporations that profit off our data, manipulate our choices, and increasingly undermine our democracy. That’s what’s at stake: Canada’s digital sovereignty. I agree. Preceding this email, a 14+ page open letter was sent to the Prime…
Quora
As a dentist, what is one thing you think all people should know about dental hygiene that they might not know already? 442.6K views, 1,394 upvotes, 21 shares I’m not a dentist but I am a bacteriologist and the main thing that few medical professionals recognize is that our microbiome (the bacteria in our bodies) evolved right along side with us. Most of our bacteria are either beneficial or innocuous – that includes our oral bacteria. A small number are harmful and these include the Strep mutans which cause cavities. However among the beneficial functions of the good bacteria is that they inhibit the bad. This happens throughout the body – in the gut (well established), on the skin (less understood) and the mouth and…
What to do about Canada Post
Doug Anderson Oct 26, 2025 In 1968, Pierre Trudeau appointed Eric Kierans as Postmaster General in his first cabinet (it was still a cabinet position back then). Judging by the Aislin cartoon from 1970 posted on Facebook recently by the cartoonist himself, nothing much has changed. Well, yes, a lot has changed – postal rates have gone up dramatically, mail volumes have dropped dramatically as a result of email, parcel volumes have increased dramatically and numerous non-unionized competitors have taken much of that business from the post office., So, what’s left. Most importantly – but diminishing every year – the monopoly that Canada Post was given on letter mail. That was supposed to be the revenue generator that would keep them in the black. That’s…
Carney vs Trudeau, Poilievre, & TRUMP
The almost universal narrative of the media is that Mark Carney is a political neophyte running against seasoned politicians. While it is true that he has never held any elected position, his record in his fist couple of weeks is that of a seasoned pro eating his opponents for lunch. His actions have been well-planned and executed with precision. I would conclude that Carney was always inclined towards politics and his sojourns into banking were mere sidebars to his preferred career. His banking years were probably somewhat frustrating as he tried to use the limited monetary tools at his disposal (interest rates) to keep the economies of Canada and England ticking along in spite of some of the reckless fiscal policies (Brexit) coming from…
The Tragedy of Kenneth Law
MAID up Kenneth Law will be sentenced in the coming weeks for his involvement in the suicides of 14 individuals in Ontario. The court has just finished with 74 ‘victim’ impact statements – that’s more than 5 per suicide. Counselling or assisting suicide is a criminal offence under Canadian law (and in most other countries). Yet we also have laws in Canada that allow assisted suicide under medical supervision Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Suicide is a reality. Approx 4500 people take their own lives in Canada every year. I worked for many years in the lab at the local hospital and suicide attempts were seen on a regular basis. Most were cries for help –…
Our obsession with clean
Why it’s making us less healthy Doug Anderson Jan 25, 2026 In the 70s and 80s I was a microbiologist and chief lab technologist in the local hospital Throughout eons of evolution, from the lowly earthworm to the present, we’ve had a close association with dirt – which is home to millions of bacteria, moulds, etc. (Earthworms are essential for turning that dirt into the soil that sustains the plants which feed us.) Up until a few centuries ago, we didn’t know any of this but those microorganisms were and are essential to our existence. As with all animals cleanliness was not something that concerned us. We didn’t have soap, we didn’t take showers … and we survived and multiplied. (Archaeological research indicates that some…
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