The Audit at Two Years
And what comes next?
A year ago in my post, “The Audit at One Year”, I wrote:
One year and 112 posts ago The Audit kicked and screamed its way into the world. Of course precious few of you would have heard the noise. This thing started with just three subscribers (of which I was one).
Well it’s been another 110 posts and here we are again. I won’t deny that identifying so many dark trends and stupid policy choices does sometimes feel just a wee bit disheartening. But spreadsheets are our friends. And your feedback and support is still the biggest thing that keeps my hand steady at the till. Who knows: perhaps this year we’ll actually make a difference.
In the context of those 110 posts, I can report an astounding statistical correlation between the “Likes” and “Shares” you bestow on my humble offerings. It seems that - with a stratospheric Pearson r score of 0.79 - posts that attract a lot of likes also tend to be more widely shared. Who knew?
Science marches on!
At any rate, in honour of the coming year-end, I thought I’d present you with the top ten greatest The Audit hits from 2025 (presented in ascending order):
Is Updating a Few Thousand Readers Worth a Half Million Taxpayer Dollars?
Plenty has been written about the many difficulties faced by legacy news media operations. You might even recall reading about the troubled CBC and the Liberal government’s ill-fated Online News Act in these very pages. Traditional subscription and broadcast models are drying up, and on-line ad-based revenues are in sharp decline.
Cannabis Legalization Is Starting to Look Like a Really Dumb Idea
Back in March 2024, I wrote about some early indications that Canada’s legalization of cannabis was, on balance, causing more harm than good. Well it looks like we’ve now moved past “early indications” and entered the “nervously searching for the exit” stage.
Is Canada’s $100B+ Climate Plan Based on Shaky Science?
The Climate Working Group at the U.S. Department of Energy recently published "A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate". Of note, that group includes University of Guelph’s very own Professor Ross McKitrick.
Tracking Federal Funding Through Layers (and Layers) of Non-Profits
This won’t be the first time I’ve written about how complicated things can get when you try to follow government funding through nested layers of NGOs, charities, and other governments. But every attempt to pull back the curtain helps add a bit more clarity.
Who Owns Canada's Public Debt?
During his recent election campaign, Mark Carney announced plans to add $225 billion (with a “b”) to federal debt over the next four years. That, to put it mildly, is a consequential number. I thought it would be useful to put it into context, both in terms of our existing debt, and of some social and political changes those plans could spark.
Solving the Housing Affordability Crisis With This One Cool Trick
The Audit has a growing library of posts addressing the housing crisis. I’m particularly proud of my Solving Canada’s Housing Crisis because of how it presents a broad range of practical approaches that have been proposed and attempted across many countries and economies. But the truth is that the
Do Indigenous Canadians Benefit From Government Support?
Aside from payments for pensions and benefits through Employment and Social Development Canada and for interest payments on our debt, Canada spends more on indigenous matters than anything else.
What Does Mark Carney Really Think?
Watching Mark Carney lead the Liberals through this election has been weird. I mean, the decades of very public academic and professional thinking that distinguished Carney’s brand seem to have disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The Hollow Emptiness of Canadian Electoral Representation
A couple of months back I wrote about how real-world political representation for Canadians can be deeply unequal. One vote does not have the same power in PEI as it does in BC. And, in any case, the individual MPs we elect are largely powerless to do anything meaningful on behalf of their constituents.
There's No Bias at CBC News, You Say? Well, OK...
It’s been nearly a year since I last wrote about the CBC. In the intervening months, the Prescott memo on bias at the BBC was released, whose stunning allegations of systemic journalistic malpractice “inspired” multiple senior officials to leave the corporation. Given how the institutional bias driving problems at the BBC is undoubtedly widely shared by…
I always enjoy a Greatest Hits album, David, and this one certainly delivers.
Merry Christmas, David.