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Focuses on the provincial elections in Ontario which are scheduled for June 3, 1999. How results of the election will influence the debate over tax cuts; Views held by Premier Michael Harris' Tories; How the Liberal opposition candidate, Dalton McGuinty, would like to spend the budget surplus.

Discusses the revolt that Preston Manning faces in Canada by members of parliament (MP) who have worries over the United Alternative (UA) party. Complaints voiced by the MPs; Mailings that Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise, an anti-UA action group, has started; How Manning may have helped the opposition to emerge against a political union of convenience by building the kind of party he did.

Weighs the advantages and disadvantages of attending business school. M.B.A. programs that do not teach real world business; Managers who value an M.B.A. degree; Advantage of education in technology rather than business; Value of education in finance; Small business entrepreneurs who do not need an M.B.A.; Skills that are required that cannot be taught in business school.

Focuses on the power balance shift between inmates and guards following passage of the Correctional and Conditional Release Act of 1992 in Canada. The rehabilitative approach in the penal system; Correctional Service of Canada's Edmonton Institution in Alberta housing members of three Indian gangs, Indian Posse, Manitoba Warriors, and Native Syndicate; How the gangs shattered the `inmate code'; Severity of violence; Threats against guards; Refuge in the segregation unit.

Focuses on the efforts of Reform Minister of Parliament (MP) Eric Lowther to pass legislation in the Canadian House of Commons which would uphold the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. How the legislation could impact gay rights in Canada; Support in the House for the legislation; The possibility that the Canadian government will invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution in order to prevent judicial rulings favoring same-sex marriage.

Discusses organizational problems at the Lakeland Regional Health Authority (RHA) in Alberta. Number of people it serves; Why Health Minister Halvar Jonson fired the entire Lakeland board and appointed administrator Robert Cable to run the RHA temporarily; When Lakeland's organizational problems began; The growing public dissatisfaction with Lakeland and other RHAs. INSET: Less costly, yes; better outcomes, no.

Focuses on Canada's federal budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Paul Martin. The two issues of health spending and tax relief; Views of Michael Walker of Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia; Jim Saunders of Health Resources Group in Calgary, Alberta; Member of Parliament Monte Solberg of Medicine Hat, Alberta; How the socialized health care system is a single-tier system with no accountability; Canada's debt; Redistribution of equalization payments to the provinces; The tax cuts. INSET: Healthcare unions lick their chops.

Reports on Edmonton-based land surveyor and software developer Focus Corp. Inclusion of Focus Web Enforcer software in a homeland security package marketed by Autodesk Inc.; U.S. President George W. Bush's request that Autodesk chief executive Carol Bartz provide solutions to make America safer following the September 11 terrorist attacks; Use of Focus software by law enforcement officials to identify crime patterns and track the movements of criminals.

Focuses on the threat in Canada from white supremacy groups following the terrorist attacks of September 11. Mention of Don Andrews of the Nationalist Party of Canada, who believes that the attacks will allow his party to advance anti-immigration domestic agenda; View that some people feel it is acceptable to express bigotry following the attacks; Idea that the groups are trying to undermine multiculturalism; View that Canadian racists represent a real danger.

Focuses on the outcome of a September 12, 1999 Edmonton, Alberta conference to discuss democratic reforms for the federal government in Canada. Reasons that Federal Conservative leader Joe Clark might be forced to reconsider a union with the Reform party; Expectation that the United Alternative party will be promoted by a group of Ontario Tories.

Mentions the universal gun registry law in Canada. Speculation on why the Canadian Police Association voted to maintain their endorsement of the law at the August 1999 national convention; Estimated cost of the firearms law; Support for a constitutional court challenge against universal registration.

Reports on violence from Vietnamese gangs in Edmonton, Alberta fighting over the city's drug trade. Police Chief John Lindsay and Mayor Bill Smith's establishment of a task force to deal with gang violence; Police averaging 40 charges a month on Asian gangsters; Details of the murder of Hai Van Tran; Concern that the gangs are connected to the Vancouver, British Columbia triads.

Discusses three investigations into theft and fraud by tribal administrators at the Blood First Nation reserve in Alberta. Social and economic problems blamed on the chief, council, and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada; Issues of unemployment and welfare; Lawsuit filed by Floyd Many Fingers, former tribal band councilor, and others.

Focuses on Canada's two right-wing party leaders and the September 1999 policy conference in Edmonton, Alberta. Reform Party leader Preston Manning; Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark; Possibility that Manning and Clark will join under the United Alternative party; The ouster of Manitoba member of Parliament Jake Hoeppner from the Reform caucus. INSET: It's not a conspiracy.

Focuses on Canada's Health Minister Allan Rock, who has an interest in leading the Liberal Party. Rock's department leaking a proposal for universal daycare for toddlers; Rock's rival for party leadership, Finance Minister Paul Martin; Question of the leak being a test of public opinion; Prime Minister Jean Chretien's cabinet appointments signaling a government leaning toward the left; Effect of the change on the budget battle; The issue of tax law discriminating against stay-at-home parents.

Discusses Canada's tainted-blood scandal that has renewed public interest after a May 15, 1999 article in the `Ottawa Citizen.' Finance Minister Paul Martin's role in the disaster involving Connaught Laboratories, a firm drawing blood plasma from Arkansas prisoners; Destruction of documents on the prison blood program; Related break-in at the Canadian Hemophilia Society office; Denial of involvement by Martin, who asked the federal government's ethics counselor, Howard Wilson, to look into the propriety of his conduct.

States that Edmonton (Alberta) Police Service Chief John Lindsay filed an application on July 12, 1999 to stop a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into his department. The issue of the investigation being unauthorized because the Edmonton Police Commission did not review the allegations of corruption; Lindsay's resignation as president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

Focuses on Canadian politics as of summer 1999. Tory support for the United Alternative (UA) party; Tory success in provincial elections; Reform leadership review petitioned by the Edmonton, Alberta group, Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise (GUARD); How UA organizers are handling Reformers known to oppose the UA; Member of Parliament Dick Harris and Saskatchewan's Gary Breitkreuz appointed to committees to develop a UA platform, which will reflect the Reform Party's Blue Book principles.

Reports on gas prices in Canada as of summer 1999. The federal Competition Bureau to announce an investigation into price-fixing among gas retailers; National Transportation Table's (NTT) study on ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions; Impact of a proposed steep price jump in gasoline; Comments of NTT member Elly Meister, vice-president of public affairs and communications for the Canadian Automobile Association; Money generated from gas taxes in 1996-97.

Reports on public desire for tax relief in Canada. How taxpayers do not feel they are getting good value for their money; Proposal by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce detailing how the reduction of taxes with the federal budget surplus; View of Prime Minister Jean Chretien on tax cuts; Comment of Donald Savoie, a political scientist at the University of Moncton and former adviser to the prime minister; Statistics on a Canada study on the average after-tax family income; The 1997 campaign promise of tax cuts.

Focuses on the Liberal Party task force headed by John Harvard, a Winnipeg, Manitoba member of Parliament chosen by Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Question of why the Liberal Party does not do well in elections; Issue of the Liberal Party's misunderstanding of Western Canada; View of Barry Cooper, a political scientist at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Focuses on Alberta's rules for using prisoner testimony in prosecution cases. The example of the Jason Dix, who was charged with double homicide; How he is suing the Alberta government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police because of a forged letter; Justice Minister Jon Havelock's initiation of a review concerning the use of jailhouse snitches; Guidelines for the practice of using prisoner testimony.

States that the Reform Party will hold its biennial general assembly in tandem with the United Alternative (UA) party's founding convention in Toronto, Ontrario. The UA convention to discuss reports from eight committees; The Reform convention to review the UA party structure; Referendum campaign to offer Reformers three options on the UA; Uncertainty about the UA party's direction; View of Alberta Reform party member Fred Drury.

Focuses on a meeting between Canadian politicians Joe Clark of the Progressive Conservative Party and Reform Party's Preston Manning on May 30, 1999 in Ottawa, Ontario. Speculation of a political partnership between the men under the United Alternative (UA) party; Availability of a seat in the House of Commons; The anti-UA group GUARD, or Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise, circulating a recall petition to challenge Manning's leadership; Pressure on Clark from Tories.

Focuses on a report by the Canadian Department of National Defence that many militia regiments were nonviable according to a 1997 performance review. How the reserve units were rated; Concerns of former commanding officer of Alberta's Calgary Highlanders and member of lobbying group Reserves 2000, Paul Hughes; Budget spending for the regular army and reserves; Importance of reserve units to national security.

Focuses on the success of Indianapolis, Indiana mayor Steve Goldsmith who was elected in 1991. A delegation from the Edmonton, Alberta to examine his success with managed competition, which allows private companies and the city's public-sector union to bid on services; Report to the city council's executive committee on whether the process could be used in Edmonton.

Focuses on the passing of Bill C-49, also known as the First Nations Management Act, in Canada. What the bill consists of, including the allowance for native tribes to make land use decisions without seeking approval from the government; Objection of the legislation by the Reform Party; Comments about the Reform Party by Liberal Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart; Concerns of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) and the British Columbia Women's Society; Lawsuit filed by the NWAC.

Reports that the Reform Party in Canada voted in June of 1999 to continue the process of forming the United Alternative party, a political party that aims to unite the conservative and moderate voters in Canada. How Preston Manning, head of the Reform Party, reacted; Percentage of Reform members who voted to continue the process; Why Stockwell Day, a potential leader of the United Alternative party, felt that at least 60 percent approval from Reform members was necessary for the new party.

Comments on the practice of patronage on Canadian politics, or the awarding of government positions to friends and family. Allegations leveled by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney against current Prime Minister Jean Chretien regarding patronage; Examples of Chretien's patronage practices; How Chretien has extended patronage beyond simple government appointments to businesses in his home district.

States that Canada needs to lower taxes to remain competitive in the global economy. Widening tax differential between Canada and the United States; Government spending in Canada; Criticism of the validity of a report by economist Robert Fairholm, who supports the taxation policy. INSET: The public wakes up (Public view on taxes).

Presents a report by the Canadian Employment Insurance Commission that more claims for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits are being made in Quebec province. Federal government's attempts to scale back benefits; Statistics on the use of EI by provinces; Comments by Charles Nixon of Ottawa's Human Resources Development Department; Eastern Canadian culture of dependency on EI.

Discusses efforts by social conservatives to form a conservative provincial alternative after the splintering of the Alberta Social Credit Party. The committee that will explore a merger with the Alberta Party or reactivation of the dormant Reform Party of Alberta; The possibility that Randy Thorsteinson, who decided to step down as Socred leader, will become the future leader of whatever emerges; How the partisan landscape on the right is starting to look similar to the mid-1980s. INSET: Dances with separatists.

Reveals that Bob Lickacz, president of the National Firearms Association in Canada, has started a militia. How this gesture is part of an ongoing public relations battle between the federal Justice Department and Lickacz; The purpose of this militia; The status of the militia under Section 70 of the Criminal Code in Canada.

Looks at the response of politicians in Canada to the growing `tax rage' of taxpayers in the country. Increasing number of taxpayers cheating on their tax returns; Politicians' pledge of low taxes and tax cuts; Survey showing that increased healthcare spending and cutting the deficit were more of a priority to Canadians than tax cuts; Web site of the Canadian Tax-payers Federation.

Reports on the registration of guns in Canada. The statutory deadline of January 1, 2003; Civil disobedience and the Canadian Firearms Centre; Views of Reform Party member of Parliament Garry Breitkreuz; The gun registry bureaucracy, including the Canadian Police Information Centre database. INSET: Gun owners will intervene at the Supreme Court.