Australia shares with Canada and the United States the dubious distinction of being one of the top three per-capita greenhouse gas producers among the industrial countries. The dirty three. Like its brothers it has learned little from experiencing the results of its behaviour. Australia’s 2019-20 bushfire season was the worst
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Views from the Beltline: Greenhouse gasses ain’t no joke
When Premier Kenney went down to the U.S. earlier this month to peddle even more of our major greenhouse gas-producing product, I was at a loss for words. The global warming threat looms ever more menacingly, threatening a cascade of catastrophes, yet here is a leading politician doing his best
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: I voted for the magpie
It’s official. The people have voted and The City of Calgary has declared its official bird. The winner is that little favourite, the black-capped chickadee. The decision will be confirmed at the June 7 council meeting. I was a supporter of the black-billed magpie myself. I see these cheeky rascals
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Roe vs. Wade, democracy, and minority rights
The American Supreme Court has certainly managed to catch the attention of the nation. The leaking of a draft of a ruling has people wondering whatever happened to Court security. Drafts are expected to be kept close to the vest until a final decision is made, for obvious reasons. So
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: How low will these Conservatives go?
A recent headline in the The New York Times read “Long After Blockade, Canada’s Truckers Have a Political Champion.” The champion it was referring to was the Conservative Party of Canada. The article went on to explain how “Many in the party are busy rewriting what happened on those chaotic
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Separation of God and state
This week the House of Commons debated a motion by the Bloc Québécois regarding the House’s morning prayer. Yes, the morning prayer no less. As a number of MPs pointed out, the House has somewhat more important issues to deal with. Furthermore, the Bloc might have waited until June when
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: NATO advances
Vladimir Putin. Yet another megalomaniacal psychopath pursuing Lebensraum, a true heir to the Nazis he claims to despise. If he has accomplished anything in his invasion of Ukraine, it is justifying the existence of NATO. Ironically, he claims that it was the advance of NATO, presumably threatening Russian security, that
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Oil, guns and ethics
Promoters of the Alberta tar sands suggest customers for the product almost have a moral obligation to buy it. Their term is “ethical oil.” We hear the refrain from an assortment of politicians, journalists and business executives, chief among them Alberta premier Jason Kenney. The oil of many of our
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Perhaps the party of Lincoln isn’t dead yet
The Republicans backing Trump again would be the definition of insanity. Who said that, you ask. A Democrat perhaps? Or a journalist? An academic? No, as hard to believe as it may be, the speaker was a prominent member of the Republican Party. He is, in fact, Larry Hogan, Governor
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: More craziness from Texas
Many years ago, when I toiled in the oil patch, I lived in Houston, Texas for a couple of years. It was most enjoyable, especially the part about missing Canadian winters. And the city had the best eating I’ve every experienced: the confluence of three cuisines—seafood, barbecue and Mexican—all first
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Canada’s climate scorecard: “highly insufficient”
Checking the various international climate performance indices for Canada’s rankings is a depressing business. Consider for example the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The CCPI is compiled annually by three NGOs: Germanwatch e.V., the NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network International. Based on 14 indicators, it ranks the climate
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The West? Really?
Many Canadians think of “the West” as one monolithic block. This concept seemed to firm up in many minds back when Preston Manning and his Reform Party stormed Ottawa proclaiming “the West wants in.” I remember Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson giving a talk to a standing-room only crowd
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The end of monarchy?
So the Queen is 96. A good age. Happy birthday, Your Majesty. Her birthday once again prompts the usual question. Do we want to continue with the monarchy? Or is it time to move on from an archaic institution? According to an Angus Reid survey, the answer is yes we
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Are liberal values failing?
A recent article in The New York Times by David Brooks, “Globalization Is Over. The Global Culture Wars Have Begun,” discusses the decline of globalization generally and Western values specifically around the world. I agree with much of what Brooks writes but found myself picking one nit. He states: “This
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: How much for defence?
Chrystia Freehand’s recent budget, although modest, did have some goodies in it for the military, including more than $8-billion in new funding over five years. While less than expected, perhaps, it’s not a bad raise. It is expected to bring our defence spending up to 1.5 percent of our GDP,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The authoritarian Americans
Why are Americans so much more authoritarian than Canadians? According to a survey by American business intelligence company Morning Consult, the U.S. has twice as many right-wing authoritarians as Canada and more yet than other Western countries. The table on the right shows the survey results for low and high
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Calgary’s three angry amigos
I have lived in Alberta a long time, all but four years under conservative governments—Social Credit, then Progressive Conservative, now UCP. Only for four years did I enjoy the governance of a social democratic party. I have never enjoyed that pleasure federally although I have found a number of Liberal
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Finally—a Bill to end news theft
It’s taken a while, and the loss of a third of journalism jobs and 451 news outlets since 2008, along with the migration of billions of advertising dollars to tech platforms, but finally the government has taken a big step to halt the bleeding. This week Bill C-18 (the Online
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Smalls vs. Amazon as David vs. Goliath
The recent success of employees at Amazons’s New York fulfillment centre in forming a union might be the best example of David defeating Goliath since the biblical incident. The union, spearheaded by Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee and now president of the union, is the first Amazon union in
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Will the poppy ban sink Afghanistan’s economy?
“All compatriots are informed from the date of the issuance of this decree, poppy cultivation is absolutely prohibited in the whole country and no one can try to cultivate the plant.” With this decree, the Taliban banned the growth of poppies, thus threatening 80 percent of the word’s opium supply.
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