Ottawa could also readily conceal the punitive character of such a move, given that Canada already has compelling interests to encourage Taiwanese trade. Taiwanese-Canadian trade has increased dramatically in recent years, making Taiwan Canada's eleventh largest trading partner. In February, Ottawa and Taipei began formal discussions for a bilateral trade agreement.There is no excuse for Canada to be complacent about China's contempt. Uplifting Taiwan through global trade politics is an effective approach to demonstrate this.This week commemorates the Hub's second anniversary of publishing. For our one-year anniversary, we shared ten lessons learnt over The Hub's first twelve months. Given this year's continuous period of high inflation, we've decided on eleven lessons for The Hub's Year Two.We discovered that sometimes you have to be lucky to be good. The historic indictment of former US President Donald Trump last week coincided with the day before our bi-weekly video and audio series with David Frum was set to be recorded. We could not have planned it better ourselves. It provided us with a unique opportunity to hear David's informed viewpoint on this extraordinary occurrence, which he described as "a very large political moment." The Hub community appeared to agree. As of this morning, the YouTube video of our talk got 14,167 views, our highest ever.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's last federal
budget provided us with a new concept of "fiscal restraint". Apparently, it is now characterized as limiting additional, incremental spending to a measly $40 billion. It makes us wonder how she defines budgetary profligacy. We probably cannot afford to find out.More severely, we learnt that the Chinese state's interlocutors interfered in the last two federal elections and others across the country. The initial reaction to this blockbuster report was rightly centered on the political implications for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government. But, as important as it is to uncover what and when the government knew about these charges and why it did nothing about them, this alone will not cure the basic problem. We desperately want a bipartisan agreement in support of protecting our elections from these types of foreign threats. Some issues must be bigger than partisanship.We discovered that the case for "getting back to the office," as articulated in The Hub's first and only unidentified editorial in September 2022, is far from universally accepted. We got unprecedented reaction and submissions in response to the editorial, which we continued to publish for several weeks afterwards. Reader reaction was likely to be in favor of continuing remote work and other flexible employment arrangements, however many seemed to distinguish between the public and private sectors. While we continue to believe that business executives and legislators are underestimating the costs and repercussions of what we refer to as "empty offices," we are glad for The Hub community's candid, insightful, and courteous discussion of the matter. We hope to provide additional reader feedback in Year Three.
We were surprised to hear that The Hub's
Friday Roundtable podcast has a sizable viewership. We launched the weekly podcast with minimal hopes in February 2022. But it really took shape during the last twelve months, and the reception has been quite favorable. Every week, the program attracts several thousand downloads. It must be Rudyard Griffiths' consistent rants that keep listeners coming back for more. Thank you to the Hub community for your continued support.We discovered that an incredible array of philosophers, writers, researchers, and even a few politicians are eager to accept our invitation to appear as guests on The Hub's twice-weekly podcast, Hub Dialogues. As host, the past year has been particularly exciting for me because I've had the opportunity to interview some of my favorite public intellectuals, including Russ Roberts, Ross Douthat, Emily Oster, and Reihan Salam. We already have some fantastic guests in store for Hub listeners throughout the coming year of Hub Dialogues. Stay tuned.In one of our most unique and engaging episodes of Hub Dialogues, we learnt about the tremendous global fall of insects over the last few decades from British entomologist Dave Goulson in October 2022. Even if I wasn't completely sold on his idea of giving insects "rights" (though it wouldn't surprise me if the Supreme Court of Canada discovered them in its most recent activist decision).
I was convinced that what he refers to as the
"insect apocalypse" is something we should be concerned about as individuals and as a society. Keep that in mind the next time you have the urge to step on a bugWe realized once again how fortunate we are to have such a great and diverse collection of contributors. Despite our smaller budget in comparison to major media sites, we believe that our material consistently outperforms what is available elsewhere. That's thanks in large part to Howard Anglin's brilliant mind, Trevor Tombe's first-rate economic analysis, Richard Shimooka's expert commentary on defense and national security, Joanna Baron's thoughtful legal analysis, and the dozens and dozens of other contributors who've helped to establish The Hub as a leading source of content on ideas, policy, and politics.We realized Malcolm Jolley was up to the task of turning his previously bi-weekly wine column into a weekly one after receiving significant reader reaction in Year One. I know numerous friends who seek Malcolm's unpretentious advise every week before going to the LCBO.
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