Author Archives: bhaggart

Mark Carney, Stephen Gordon and the Globe and Mail’s credibility problem

I’ve been following Stephen Gordon since he was the first to really publicize the Harper government’s unconscionable scrapping of the mandatory long-form census. His economic analyses in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s and Worthwhile Canadian Initiative have been for the … Continue reading →

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What a century-old political science theory can tell us about the future of online activism (spoiler: a heck of a lot)

One of my old Carleton professors, Glen Williams, always used to make time in his first-year political science intro course to teach about Robert Michel’s Iron Law of Oligarchy, which Michels came up with almost a century ago, in 1911. … Continue reading →

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Copyright shapes creation; it doesn’t drive it

I’m only now getting around to Peter Nowak’s provocative post (and its follow-up) about living in a world without copyright. One of the commentators wonders what this would do for creation: “Sure, people will create without IP law, but why … Continue reading →

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That Republican copyright critique isn’t conservative: It’s economic

Nice to see that that that Republican memo proposing that copyright be considerably rethought has been getting a lot of coverage. And I’m particularly interested to read an upcoming book that will apparently make the conservative case for copyright reform (h/t … Continue reading →

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Interested in balanced, user-friendly copyright law? Get ready to start voting Republican [updated below]

One of the most fascinating things about copyright is how it has largely been a non-partisan issue, particularly in the United States. Unlike pretty much every other public-policy issue in existence, you can’t predict how an American politician will vote … Continue reading →

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