Prime Minister Trudea’s landslide victory was artificially inflated by an outdated voting system. It’s time for Canada to ditch First Past the Post once and for all.
Americas
The 86th Casualty
The 1994 bombing of Buenos Aires has just claimed another casualty, raising disturbing questions about a decades-old coverup.
Cartels, Canada Style
For Americans, the word “cartel” normally conjures unpleasant images, such as OPEC ministers manipulating the price of petroleum, or drug lords executing rivals. The words “global strategic reserve” make us nervous, too, and the combination of “cartels” and “global strategic reserve” in the same paragraph is likely to send us running for cover. The alarming […]
Mass Graves in Iguala: Why Corruption is Mexico’s Biggest Problem
On September 26th, a group of idealistic students from the leftist Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College of Ayotzinapa, Mexico, traveled to Iguala to protest discriminatory hiring practices. The group had commandeered buses and blocked a road, so they expected a police reaction, possibly beatings or detention. They did not expect an all-out assault from […]
The Legacy of History: An Interview with Dr. Joseph Tulchin
In a world where technology has made travel much simpler, it is easy to live abroad and feel safe. Few Americans, however, have dared to reside in countries under military dictatorships. Fewer still have been in a state of siege even once, let alone five times. But Dr. Joseph Tulchin, a preeminent Latin Americanist, has: […]
The Nearing Cliff
Little American media attention was drawn to the recent October Brazilian presidential elections. The debate at hand was whether or not to continue with the left-leaning policies of the majority party, the Workers’ Party (PT), or support the slightly more business-oriented and conservative policies of the leading minority party, the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, a […]
Reining in the Beast: Mexico Cracks Down on Illegal Immigration
The freight train barrels north, the cars rattling on the track. At first glance, it appears the same as any of the other thousands of trains that pass through Mexico daily. But on closer inspection, one can see the masses of people clinging perilously to its roof as they hurtle towards the next obstacle on […]
Band-aid Solutions for Venezuela
Today in Venezuela, citizens are in the streets protesting what they see as a corrupt, mismanaged, misguided government. Broad discontent has been brewing in the country for years, beginning largely in the Chavez presidency and intensifying in fury since the 2013 election of Nicolás Maduro – a younger and taller, but ideologically identical version of […]
Is Chilean Education for Sale?
In the largest series of political demonstrations in Chile since the call for a return to democracy in 1990, the current student-led education reform movement has been dominating the Chilean political scene. Thousands of Chilean students have taken to the streets demanding large-scale systematic educational reforms, ranging from calls for free public education, increased state […]
Joga Bonito? The Struggles of Hosting a World Cup
The eyes of the world will be on Brazil starting June 12 as the 2014 FIFA World Cup commences in São Paolo. The mecca of soccer will be hosting its first World Cup since 1950 and is expected to field one of the strongest teams in the world. Led by one of the rising stars […]