Chris Wattie / Reuters

Getting a first-time mortgage from a Canadian bank is like getting security clearance to work at NORAD. Income, credit history, source of down payment funds... are all key measurements to qualifying. These rules, of course, only apply to Canadians. Foreign buyers, some have speculated this week, may be receiving preferential treatment.

Mark Blinch / Reuters

Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper apparently isn't satisfied with having destroyed a lot of wonderful and important things in Canada. Now he has signed on with Dentons, the world's largest elite law firm, to spread his dark viewpoints around the globe.

Carol Todd

We need to educate and talk with our kids more. They may not listen, but we have to find a way to get to their hearts and soul. We need to suppress our desire to blame, and teach our children how to show respect, kindness and compassion. We need to empower them to make them stronger and more resilient. Victims need to reach out rather than become isolated, sad and depressed.

Stephen Cornish

Dollars are desperately needed to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, but they will not stretch very far if the international trade barriers that currently restrict access to essential medicines continue to prevent low-income people and countries from getting the treatments they need.

Rebecca Nelson via Getty Images

There are only a couple things that are typically Argentinean that my dad taught me about: their love for dulce de leche (a delicious treat I use in baking), their obsession with soccer (although my dad was more of a basketball fan) and their love for meat -- specifically, steak. That's it. That's all I know. A huge chunk of me is missing and I don't know if I'll ever find it.

Ryan M. Bolton

The number of Canadian species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has more than doubled since 2010. While some of these species such as the polar bear, sea otter or whooping crane are in the public eye, the fate and future of many is guarded by a just handful of committed Canadians.

Gubcio via Getty Images

Private health-care costs in Canada have grown dramatically over the last 40 years. Adjusting for population growth and inflation, private healthcare costs have increased by over 220 percent on average since 1975 -- or around $1,800 per person. That's no small figure for most Canadian families.

NBC via Getty Images

I think that Grace VanderWaal is really special, and I would have preferred it if the big success could have been delayed a bit, so that she could have maintained her innocence for just a little while longer and enjoyed the rest of her childhood. And is Las Vegas the place that any decent parent wants their twelve-year-old hanging out in?

Ysbrand Cosijn via Getty Images

Imagine if all the money used to sell cars were put into promoting cycling and mass transit. To even the playing field, health and environmental agencies could run public education campaigns describing the private automobiles' dangers, pollutants, space consumption, financial burdens, toll on the climate, etc. Malmö Sweden, for instance, ran a "No Ridiculous Car Trips" campaign to reduce journeys of less than five kilometres.

Eric O'Connell via Getty Images

The other day, our Wi-Fi died and we were without Internet or television for 36 hours. Yes, that includes Netflix. The kids did not know quite what to do. What about Minecraft? What about Pokemon Go? To this generation, Wi-Fi is like oxygen and they cannot imagine a world where it isn't available all the time. Internet is, after all, considered a basic human right.

Chris Wattie / Reuters

Barely able to wait for the doors to close on August's three-day convention, Green leader Elizabeth May publicly and harshly criticized a key outcome of the convention. As leader of a party which so frequently touts the need for "evidence-based policy," Elizabeth May herself has fallen woefully short in recent weeks.

Sean Gallup via Getty Images

It's not so much the Bayer-Monsanto deal is a move in the wrong direction (which it is), but increasing consolidation is to be expected given the trend in many key sectors toward monopoly capitalism or just plain cartelism, whichever way you choose to look at it.

db2stock via Getty Images

We've all heard the phrase 'life is a journey'. What if we took it one step further and looked at life as the ultimate road trip with your Life Map helping you navigate the way. After studying my own life I can clearly see how all the different experiences, events and people have shaped me and have led me to where I am today.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

As Montreal gears up to host the biggest leaders in global health, it is our hope that Canada will go well beyond provision of international aid, and find a way to harness the abundant scientific talent in Canada. Doing so will not only amplify the financial contributions by Canadians, but also show our global solidarity.

Chris Wattie / Reuters

The Conservatives lost the election last year because they fell out of touch. This week Conservative MP Tony Clement unveiled a plan that proved just how out of touch his party still is on national security. The wedge politics and fearmongering of the Conservatives in the last election were resoundingly rejected by Canadians.

Mark Blinch/CP

The Liberal Party's hydro subsidy smacks of desperation. It's bad policy, and playing politics over rising electricity prices is going to be expensive. Just like with the gas plant scandal, the Liberals are putting their political self-interest ahead of good public policy. They are trying to buy your vote with your money. It is going to cost us big time -- over $1 billion a year to be exact.

Chris Wattie / Reuters

In the debate over whether pit bulls should be banned, Montreal's mayor has demonstrated rare grit. It takes backbone to stand firmly against every professional organization on the continent, and to embrace heroic ignorance.

World Vision

More than half of the world's child deaths occur in fragile places like South Sudan and Afghanistan. Yet Canada only commits 25 per cent of its official development budget to these areas. To go the distance to reach the world's most vulnerable people, the figure needs to change.

Jim Urquhart / Reuters

How is anyone to believe that either candidate will deal with the deeply-rooted problems of America today: income disparities, the legal corruption of political donations, a warming globe that needs to be cooled, crony capitalism that has harmed so much of the American middle class? Add to this the ultimate problem: an uncanny tendency to deal with all these fires by repeatedly pouring oil on them.

Kevin Dodge via Getty Images

At times, you may feel overwhelmed or alone, and it may seem as though things will never get better. Know that anxiety is a treatable condition and that you can overcome this. This is about your happiness and well-being. By speaking up and asking for help, you can start on your road to recovery.

Melissa Renwick via Getty Images

Without an ounce of self-awareness, the party that for over a decade has bungled Ontario's electricity policy, resulting in the fastest growing rates in North America, is petitioning itself against the high rates for which they are responsible.