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The Tragedy of Kenneth Law

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, Health, Uncategorized

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

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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 – “I’m suffering I’m in pain. Help me” (Statistics are hard to find but attempts appear to outnumber actual suicides by up to 2,000 for each … More

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Building the Canadian Car – Part 2

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Economics

Project Arrow – the timing is NOW

Doug Anderson

Aug 22, 2026

I wrote Part 1 of this almost exactly a year ago (Aug 30, 2025) when the initial 25% American tariffs (April 3, 2025) had been in place for a few months and initial efforts to have them lifted had failed.

The premise of that article was: “So with all the expertise we’ve acquired and all the parts plants we have, it makes sense that our response to Trump’s tariffs should be to start building a Canadian car.”

Well those tariffs just went up dramatically.

The Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers’ Association has been a leader in automotive technology, and some years ago they “launched the first, original, full-build, zero-emission concept vehicle named Project Arrow in 2023. An all-Canadian effort, it was designed, engineered and built through the joint efforts of our world-class automotive supply sector and post-secondary institutions.”

In … More

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Further Thoughts on Licensing AI

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Government Policy, Lateral Thinking
Doug Anderson

Aug 15, 2026

I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago that licensing AI projects would be far more effective than trying to regulate an industry that even its leading purveyors are unable to manage.

We license all kinds of potential dangers. Not only do you have to be over sixteen to drive but you have to pass a test and carry a piece of paper that says you’ve passed those tests. Older people like me have to pass additional tests in order to keep that license. If you’re caught breaking the rules of the road your license can be taken away.

We license doctors, electricians, gas fitters and just about every other profession where there are potential harms to the public. All of these are regulated by requiring their practitioners to be licensed.

So why would we treat … More

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Regulating AI may be impossible

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Government Policy, Lateral Thinking, Media, Communications, Paradigm Shift

Government licensing is the better idea

Public opinion is giving AI a pretty rough ride right now due to concerns about water, electricity and runaway machines. All of those concerns are legitimate.

The standard answer to these concerns is “we need to regulate it” but does anybody (excluding the companies that are designing it) know enough about it to figure out what regulating it would actually look like. Probably not! The problem is that it is developing so fast (including autonomously) that today’s regulations will almost certainly fail to control it even months down the road.

There is a better solution – government licensing. We already have a model here in Canada with the CRTC which licenses broadcasting outlets (radio & TV). Licensing was more or less essential there because there was limited bandwidth. However Canada could decide that the need for AI was limited by the “public good”. By … More

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Transparency vs The Long Game

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, Lateral Thinking, Personality, Politics

Will the real Mark Carney Please Stand up

In the current age of instant news and social media there is an expectation by the media, and by extension the general public, to know what is happening everywhere in real time. No secrets, no obfuscation, Now.

But in the complexities of the world today and the nuances of daily life, such transparency can be difficult and even misguided.

Circumstances can change on a dime. What would have seemed prudent yesterday may be ill advised today.

The media is quick to point out even minor changes in policy and will dissect them in detail.

To someone who by nature is introverted, the easiest path is to be vague … which is the antithesis of transparency. And instead of having the story about changing priorities that they were trying to uncover, the story changes to secrecy and a lack of transparency.

I’ve written … More

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My $7 Billion Pee & Poop Article

ByDoug Anderson Agriculture, Economics, Health, Lateral Thinking, Paradigm Shift

Nature’s Nutrient Plan – the Better Way

Doug Anderson

Apr 27, 2026

If you do any gardening … or even have a lawn, chances are you’ve bought more than a few bags of fertilizer in the past. But before there were garden centres, nature had a better way.

Animal (including humans) urine and feces are nature’s fertilizer.

Each person urinates annually about 4 kg of nitrogen, 0.4 kg of phosphorous, and nearly 1 kg of potassium; total excretion [including feces] is 4.5 kg of nitrogen, more than a half kg of phosphorous, and 1.2 kg of potassium. In an urban setting of 10 million people, this equates to 45 million kg of nitrogen, nearly 6 million kg of phosphorous, and more than 12 million kg of potassium.

That’s just the human component. The deer, bears, squirrels, birds, mice, fish, etc. contribute many times more

So for hundreds of thousands of … More

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Democracy is hard

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Government Policy, International Relations, Media, Communications

The line between Viktor Orban and Doug Ford

Doug Anderson

Apr 19, 2026

If you give people anywhere the choice of living in a free country or living in a dictatorship, they will always choose democracy in which they are consulted before decisions are made, where they elect their leaders, and where (in theory anyway) everybody has an equal voice. That’s what democracy is. The word comes from the ancient Greek words ‘demos’ (the people) and ‘kratos’ (to rule).

But, in practise, democracy is messy. Leaders want more simplicity, more certainty – less consultation, fewer meetings, streamlining. We see that right now here in Ontario where I live. Premier Doug Ford believes in democracy but his government is eliminating many school boards – because the provincial government thinks it has a better way to deliver education and “save money for the taxpayers”.

(He may have a point. School boards are … More

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The Lewis’s and the NDP

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Politics

And Me

Doug Anderson

April 5

Tommy Douglas at the founding convention of the New Democratic Party

I was in Grade 11 in 1960 when a new student arrived fresh off the boat from England. His father had been an organizer for the Labour Party in England and he was being imported to help build a ”New Party” here in Canada by an amalgamation of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) with the Canadian Labour Congress. His son was a good organizer too and Tim talked up the new party and enthused many of his classmates including myself. The next year I attended the founding convention of the Ontario NDP youth wing.

As the long time National Secretary of the CCF starting in 1936, and National Chairman and then President in the 1950s, David Lewis was instrumental in that process. David was born in Russia in 1909 and emigrated to Canada … More

Not Since King John and the Magna Carta

ByDoug Anderson Politics

“unprecedented Times”

Doug Anderson

Mar 28, 2026

“No Kings” demonstrations are taking place across the US today, Mar. 28. The United States was founded in 1776 in reaction to the arbitrary rule by George III, the British monarch at the time – rule that many in the US feel is being emulated by Donald Trump.

Up until the Middle Ages kings ruled by divine right or so the people were told. To this day divinity is a central theme of the coronation ceremony – it takes place in a cathedral, it is conducted by a bishop and the monarch is anointed with holy oil. Today that’s all just ritual.

But in the middle ages it was meant to be real. However, the people closest to the monarch knew otherwise and hence kings were frequently challenged and sometimes overthrown – on pain of certain death if they fail.

The divine right … More

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The Casinos on Wall St., Bay St., and other cities around the World

ByDoug Anderson Economics, Money, Politics

How the wealthy keep getting richer and the rest of us are drowning

Doug Anderson

Mar 15, 2026

Since Trump launched his war on Iran a few weeks ago the stock market has gyrated from highs to lows depending – not on the price of oil but rather on the posts that Trump was putting up on his Truth Social. The market fell dramatically within minutes of the first bombs but then eased its way up over the next several hours. The actual value of oil didn’t change. The shift came from speculators. Fundamental economics tells us that prices are determined by supply and demand but the supply of oil didn’t suddenly drop because Trump posted on his Truth Social.

The oil that gets made into the gasoline at your corner gas station came out of the ground perhaps months ago, maybe even longer. It then went by pipeline or … More