Oct 12 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — One of the consequences of missing the mark on predicting the future is not only confusion, but disillusionment. It’s happening with democracy at this moment in time, leaving many feeling more isolated from the political process than ever. An example is what has occurred with the activities of mass media or social media. Futurists used […]
Oct 4 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — Our local food bank is in the midst of its 29th annual Thanksgiving Food Drive – three decades in which use has climbed repeatedly over the ensuing years. This year some 850,000 Canadians will visit food banks each month. One wonders why it is that successive Canadian governments have proved so ineffective at seriously dealing […]
Sep 26 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — Talking with some folks who were in the audience during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech to the UN General Assembly last week evoked some interesting observations. Ironically, the most common response was the least charged: “It was different.” Indeed it was. Trudeau’s clearly pointing out some of this country’s failures was surely unlike anything Canadians […]
Sep 19 2017 — Glen Pearson — Spark — We have heard the refrain repeatedly in the last few years: who don’t good people run for politics anymore? Mmmmmm. That’s a little bit tough to quantify, but there have been a number of qualified people in interviews in Canada, the U.S. and Britain whose reasons for not seeking election are remarkably similar – Wild […]
Sep 14 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — Yesterday’s story by Toronto Star’s Tonda McCharles on the possibility of Canada’s peacekeeping future being tied with the demilitarization of child soldiers could represent a clear departure for this country’s foreign agenda. Two key influencers have come together to move Canada in that direction. The first is the UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial forum to be […]
Sep 5 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — Social agencies throughout the country are encountering people who are recently without work or holding down one or two minimum wage jobs as they seek to make ends meet for their families. It’s an endlessly disillusioning process – one showing no sign of abating. Yet, with yesterday being Labour Day, the subject received little mention. […]
Aug 25 2017 — Glen Pearson — London Free Press — Hatred, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, racism and the KKK — these terms, and many like them, we had hoped were slowly disappearing from our public life and lexicon, yet they are everywhere these days. For those individuals and groups who have felt the sheer injustice of such things, they have been an ever-present reality. With the […]
Aug 16 2017 — Glen Pearson — Huffington Post — There is no way to adequately describe the Donald Trump phenomenon, regardless of the now countless attempts to get our collective heads around it. It’s gone from being a novelty and growing sense of unease to a place where millions are actually fearing for their democracy. That’s a good thing, and it just could be […]
Aug 10 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — With “hard” power clearly in a resurgent mode, it’s time to focus more on “soft” power and the advantages it holds in balancing off some of the more frightening aspects of human nature. Fortunately, there are lots of resources to assist us, chief of which is the recently released The Soft Power 30 – an […]
Aug 6 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — It’s one of the great ironies of our age – learning that millions are being lifted out of desperate poverty at the same time as millions more are falling into famine. Thanks to system change many of what are termed the “bottom billion” are finding their lives slightly improved. Yet it is also because of […]
Aug 2 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — There’s no soap opera like it, or even a reality TV show that can compete with the sheer breadth of what’s going on in the Donald Trump administration. And there’s no setting better than the White House, Capitol Hill, or rallies of thousands who largely support his rhetoric. Whether we are inclined to agree to […]
Jul 26 2017 — Glen Pearson — Huffington Post — “Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong,” wrote Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower during a particularly troubling occasion during his tenure in office. How would he feel today, if he witnessed that sage advice being spurned by his own party? The Republican Party in America appears to […]
Jul 18 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — As appointments go, the choice of Julie Payette as Canada’s new Governor General was figuratively out of this world. The former astronaut had completed two missions to the space station and spent seven years as the Canadian Space Agency’s chief astronaut. But her qualifications were far more wide ranging: speaking six languages, commercial pilot, a […]
Jun 30 2017 — Glen Pearson — London Free Press — “I suppose that a Canadian is someone who has a logical reason to think he is one,” wrote Canadian author Mavis Gallant in 1981, to which she added a personal note: “My logical reason is that I have never been anything else, nor has it occurred to me that I might be.” As we celebrate […]
Jun 27 2017 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — Numerous insights have been written in recent years regarding the eroding effect of partisanship on the political estate, most recently in America. That’s too bad because it’s a red herring and frequently masks what is the real underlying cause of political dysfunction. The fact that individuals hold opinions often at odds with others and support […]