David Gratzer

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made big news on Wednesday with his proposed ban on large serving sweetened drinks. The New York Daily News labels the mayor "a big soda scrooge" while the New York Post sees a future with "no more supersized Cokes."
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Political debate in Ontario is now dominated by a simple question: Did Drummond recommend it or didn't he?

On February 15, rock-star economist Don Drummond turned in several hundred pages worth of recommendations to the government, providing advice on how to balance Ontario's budget.

Premier Dalton McGuinty...

It ended with a whimper, not a bang.

This past weekend, Sheila Copps fell just 26 votes shy of winning the Liberal Party presidency, against businessman Michael Crawley.

Sheila Copps has since suggested that she has run her last race and will focus on charity, in...

Today, the premiers are meeting in Victoria. Top of the agenda: health care.

It's a meeting that will be long on rhetoric but short on purpose. Historically, such meetings allow premiers to bemoan the lack of stable, long-term funding from Ottawa. And Victoria was meant to be a part...

This week we have asked Huffpost.ca contributors to tell us what they considered the biggest story of 2011.

In 1997, on the eve of another winning Liberal campaign by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, two Canadian conservatives wrote a dispirited essay on our politics.

Conservative governance was unlikely to...

Late last week, the federal and provincial ministers of health met to discuss future health spending, with an eye on replacing the current federal and provincial accord, which expires in 2014.

Demographics are often cited as a major future cost for our health care system. That makes sense: people in...

Canadian health care is wasteful, inefficient, and doomed to eat up an absurd portion of provincial budgets unless we do something big. Where to look for ideas? Consider the successes of some countries that rely more on private money and private insurance -- and, hey, still manage to cover all...

"Liberals have finally met their Armageddon. Get used to it." So writes veteran journalist Peter Newman in his forthcoming book on the Liberal Party of Canada.

When the Gods Changed is due out this week, but early press reports suggest that Newman sees the party as...

The world's population just grew to a new high, with some speculating that we will soon have too many people on too small a planet. Scientists warn of major climate change. A new flu, possibly borne of pigs, poses a threat to our safety and could lead to a 1918-like...

Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau once commented that members of Parliament were "nobodies" 50 yards from Parliament. In a recent interview, Prime Minister John Turner modernizes the observation by dropping the 50-yard qualifier: "Who wants to be a member of Parliament when the job isn't worth anything any...

Are we getting value for money with Canadian health care? And, if not, what do we do about it?

A paper mulling the federal financing of provincial programs doesn't seem particularly interesting. But Jason Clemens is no ordinary author -- he's bright and his thinking is clear. Clemens worked at...

We work longer. Our retirement is about as long as before.

So says a new StatsCan study that considers an older workforce. The study, released today, finds that a 50-year-old worker stayed in the labour force three and a half years longer in 2008 than in the mid-1990s.

Fifteen years ago, Winnipeggers gathered at a funeral. There were friends and dignitaries, tears and laughter, stories and musings. But the funeral lacked a casket and there was no body.

On May 6, 1996, Winnipeggers met to mourn the loss of the Jets. The professional hockey team was moving to...

In 2007, the line ran down the street, as people queued to get in on the action. Some apparently waited for days hoping to purchase a condo in a building to be built. With such demand, the developers kept upping the unit prices -- literally posting the ever-rising prices on...

The hot idea in the war on obesity? Taxes.

Denmark's fat tax took effect this weekend. Calculated on the amount of fat used to make a food (not the final food product), the tax rate is 16 Danish kroner per kilogram of saturated fat.

The tax adds...

Despite the federal government's efforts, Friday's decision by the Supreme Court of Canada means that Insite will remain open.

Here's the background: Insite opened in 2003, offering addicts clean needles, supervision of their drug use (but not actual drugs), and counseling. Located in Vancouver, it's the only centre of its...

In Rip Van Winkle, the protagonist falls asleep and wakes up many years later. He finds himself in a different world -- he doesn't recognize anyone and everything has changed.

This is my Rip Van Winkle moment. I've woken up -- but the health-care world seems pretty much the...

What's the NDP's big promise to Quebec?

Quick answer: there isn't one.

Brian Topp has the establishment and the big endorsement; Thomas Mulcair lines up key support in the Quebec caucus. As the NDP leadership kicks into high gear, this much is obvious: the party wishes...

Canadians like Tim Hortons -- but, alas, are we enjoying our Timbits and double doubles too much? Based on recent studies, the answer seems to be yes. When it comes to obesity, Canadians may be the next Americans.

Here's an irony of modern health care: while medicine has never been...

Tim Hortons is supersizing their coffee. And that's all you need to know about the Canadian economy.

As was widely reported last week, in two cities, Tim Hortons is upsizing their cups, leaving people with more coffee and bigger prices. A medium is the new small. And there will be...