The most straightforward form of government is a “majority” government. Majorities occur when a single party receives more than 50% of the seats. Minority and Coalition governments occur when a natural majority was not achieved, but what is the difference? What is a Minority Government: A minority government is formed when the party that wins the most seats, but less than 50% of the total, informally agrees to work another party (or parties) on specific areas of agreement to archive…
What happens to oil pipelines in a post oil world? Many people think the massive expenditures in pipelines result in a permanent oil infrastructure. The fact is that pipelines originally constructed to move oil are both reversed and repurposed all the time. The graphic to the right is from 2014 and shows that oil pipeline reversals and repurposing are not new. Here are some real world examples about what happens to old oil/gas pipelines. PIPELINE REVERSALS: Enbridge ‘Line 9’ reversed the…
It has been noted that during the gold rush most miners did not get rich, but the people who sold them their pick axes and dynamite certainty did. In the same vein Google has said it is not those with the most powerful computers that will win in the future, it is those with the most data. Perhaps electric cars are the same. Tesla just released amazing new version 3 electric charging stations in Regina Saskatchewan Canada: “…The new stations…
At PartisanIssues.com we shy away from opinion and stick to facts. However, the recent impeachment process involving US President Donald Trumps potential abuse of power has us interested in what serious people in the Republican party have to say about the matter. We stumbled on a fascinating talk between Fareed Zakaria and former US secretary of states Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright at the New Albany ‘The Jefferson Series‘. In it both Albright and Powell make some excellent non-partisan points…
Proton Technologies of Calgary has taken existing technologies and combined them into a method or ‘process patent’ that gives them exclusive rights to produce hydrogen in the ground. This means that all of the CO2 and other greenhouse gases remain locked in the ground where they have been for millions of years. It also massively reduces the complexity and cost allowing Hydrogen to be produced 80% to 95% cheaper than the current process. At that rate, hydrogen will be several…
The nuclear energy industry has a bad rap. Accidents at Fukushima Japan and Chernobyl Russia, using 1950’s technology, scared citizens and politicians into thinking that nuclear energy is both dangerous and dead. Even with these massive events, the fact is that nuclear was always RELATIVELY safe. We say relatively because all systems have flaws and failures but nuclear is far superior to coal or even natural gas and wind power. However, in the 1970’s and 1980’s much research was done…
A few weeks ago, a small privately held Calgary startup named Proton Technologies announced they were successfully generating cheap hydrogen from old oil fields. Today we interviewed their CEO, Grant Strem, and learned that the company already had net positive cash flow with big plans for the near future. Producing Hydrogen with ZERO Emissions at 20% of the Cost? Keeping the process in the ground means there is no expensive carbon capture requirements. The process, shown to the right, produces…
For most of the last 50 years the United Front (aka the Central United Front Work Department, UF, UFW, UFWD and CUFWD) had five broad “bureau’s” each with large budgets and direct connections to the Chinese Government, Politburo and Communist Party. However, by 2019 President for life Xi Jinping had doubled the size this highly successful government agency to 12 “bureaus”, as shown on the right. If you just skim the list you will not be that impressed but if…
To get directly to the point the United Front is the official Chinese governments propaganda arm. The United Front is very powerful, in nearly all countries and intentionally opaque to non-Chinese government officials. The term ‘United Front’ can be confusing when it relates to China. 100+ years ago United Front referred to the alliance between China’s two ruling parties, the Kuomintang (KMT, now mostly in Taiwan) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, now ruler of all Chinese territory except Taiwan). …
A analysis by Statistics Canada of 2016 Canadian Provincial budgets shows that Alberta spends an average of 10% more on services than the Canadian average. Albertans spend a shocking 26% more than the Canadian average on Education. Government expense by function per capita, 2016 Alberta Canada Alberta Premium Health $4,944.00 $4,475.00 $ 469.00 Education $3,047.00 $2,455.00 $ 592.00 Economic affairs $2,112.00 $1,275.00 $ 837.00 Social protection $1,393.00 $1,770.00 $ (377.00) General public services $ 947.00 $1,658.00 $ (711.00) Public order…
In a word, yes. Average spending on health care is now over 40% of all Canadian Provincial expenses: “…health care spending as a share of program spending and health care spending as a share of the economy, shows clearly that the last 15 years (ie., between 2001 to 2016) saw provincial governments increase health care spending at an unsustainable pace. Indeed, during this period, health care spending grew by 116.4 percent, outpacing growth in other program spending (94.6 percent) and…
Lets start by explaining that yes, you can acquire Ontario high school credits while in China, mostly through schools that have paid to be be certified by the various Ministries of Education. On its face, that sounds like a good idea for two reasons: It brings in revenue to the school system in the form of certification fees It provides a Canadian ‘how to think’ curriculum in a part of the world where education frequently relates to ‘what to think’ So…
A Canadian company named Proton Technology has developed the worlds first large scale, cheap method of producing ultra-clean hydrogen from oil. “This technique can draw up huge quantities of hydrogen while leaving the carbon in the ground. When working at production level, we anticipate we will be able to use the existing infrastructure and distribution chains to produce H2 for between 10 and 50 cents per kilo. This means it potentially costs a fraction of gasoline for equivalent output” said…
The “Yield Curve” is nothing more than a line between the dots on a graph of interest rates. At the start of the graph (on the left) is very short term interest rates and at the end of the graph (on the right side) is longer term interest rates. When long term interest rates are lower than short term rates it means business is expected to DECREASE over time. When the graph trends down, it is called an “inverted yield…
One-China is an understanding that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the Communist Party of China (CPC) has complete legal and moral authority over both the Chinese mainland and break away island of Taiwan. How it came to be is a fascinating story but One China has been a diplomatic football ever since it was formulated in the early 1970’s by Chinese and Canadian diplomats. From 1971 through through the early 2000’s regional flair ups have lead many countries to…
‘One China’ is a policy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that requires other nations to accept that the CCP is rightfully in total control of both the Chinese mainland and the nearby island ‘nation’ of Taiwan. The history of how One China came to be is a fascinating one. Brief History of One China In the early 1900’s China was ruled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang or KMT) but a civil war began in 1946, after years…
Google built Android from scratch in about 3 years of serious work. With China’s: penchant for stealing intellectual property unlimited budgets massive talent pool how long do you think it is will take China to develop a solid mobile OS? Not to mention that the newest copy of anything is better than the first because the developers learn from mistakes in the original. As we explained in our recent article: US President Trump Just Killed Google Android, the US China…
When China began the ‘free-marketization’ of its economy in the 1980’s it was clear that China was going to be an economic powerhouse. They had an excellent blue print to follow in capitalist British Hong Kong and a singular drive to raise its citizens from the poverty of its communist past. However, few had predicted back then that China would look so completely inward for growth as they are today. It is clear that while foreign markets like the United…