Yesterday marked a shameful moment in the history of this country’s foreign policy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestine as an observer state … and Canada voted no. Our vote puts the lie to our claim that we believe in a two-state solution, or
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Wildrose has this one right
To say I rarely agree with the Wildrose Party would be an understatement. Yet they have recently stated a policy which I heartily support and have heartily supported for a long time. Party leader Danielle Smith reported this week that her party wants Alberta’s election financing laws to ban donations
Continue readingCanadian democracy—always good for a laugh
Headline: Conservative Joan Crockatt wins Calgary Centre by-election with 37 per cent of the vote. So … I will now have an MP most of my fellow constituents don’t want in a government that most Canadians don’t want. Ah, Canadian democracy, you’ve got to love it.
Continue readingHere’s a headline I’d rather not see
Checking The Guardian on my morning round of news websites, I encountered the following headline: “Canada, the surprise “pariah” of the Kyoto protocol.” The subhead went on to add, “Some Canadians doubt whether their country should have any say in negotiating the second Kyoto protocol after it became the only
Continue readingSun suckers the rest of the media … again
As the NDP rapidly and somewhat surprisingly closed in on the Conservatives during the last federal election campaign, Sun Media dug deep into Jack Layton’s past to find something to smear him with and then flaunted it just days before the election. The rest of the media instinctively jumped on
Continue readingTime to disestablish the Church of England
The Anglican Church, as the nation’s officially “established” church, has had a privileged position in England since the Act of Supremacy in 1534. It isn’t called the Church of England for nothing. For example, the 26 most senior bishops of the Church have by right a seat in the House
Continue readingWhy can’t we be more like Norway?
Canada and Norway are a lot alike. We are both prosperous, free-market democracies. But as Bruce Campbell points out in his series of articles in the CCPA Monitor, there are also some significant differences. For example, the way it manages its oil resources which, as an Albertan, I cannot but
Continue readingFederal environment minister joins the real world
When I worked in the oil industry many years ago, we used to refer to those politicians, academics, media people, etc. who didn’t fully appreciate our interests as not living in the real world. The real world was of course our world, the world of industry. Ironically, now many people
Continue readingThe corporate counterrevolution rolls on
In the 1960s, a phrase was being bandied about that included the two words that most terrify corporate executives: consume less. A substantial number of people, particularly young people, were coming to the conclusion that the road to nirvana may not necessarily lie through endlessly consuming more stuff. Indeed, consuming
Continue readingNew leaders face challenge as U.S. and China mistrust grows
With Xi Jinping assuming leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, China and the United States have both now chosen their leaders for the near future. They both face considerable challenges, not the least of which is the growing mistrust between the people of the two superpowers. According to a Pew
Continue readingClimate predictions are getting better … and hotter
Arguably, the biggest winner on election night in the U.S. wasn’t Barack Obama, but the nerdy Nate Silver. Silver is of course the statistician who fed reams of polling data into his laptop and correctly predicted how every state voted, including the tie in Florida that eventually flipped to Obama.
Continue readingIs the U.S. right rigging elections?
After reading an article in the November 2012 issue of Harper’s (“How to Rig an Election” by Victoria Collier), I’m not as surprised that Barack Obama won the recent presidential election as I’m surprised he was allowed to win. The article points out that most votes in the U.S. are
Continue readingWhy does Britain have nuclear weapons?
There’s a lot of talk these days about the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Britain’s government is one of the voices adamant that it must not be allowed to do so. Oddly, no one has raised the obvious question, Why does the UK have nuclear weapons? Iran, although insisting
Continue readingThe CBC—a very good deal
The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting recently sent me an email summarizing a few pertinent facts about the CBC, our national broadcaster and the only national medium not owned and controlled by the corporate sector. Some of these facts I would like to share. For instance, we sometimes forget in these
Continue readingSorry for Romney? Save some pity for Adelson.
If you think Mitt Romney lost big on Tuesday night, give a thought to poor old Sheldon Adelson. The casino mogul is one of those very rich Americans trying to buy up the political system. After backing Newt Gingrich in the Republican primaries (not much luck there for the gambler),
Continue readingIran and Israel negotiating nukes—will common sense break out?
Officials from both Iran and Israel attended a nuclear non-proliferation meeting in Brussels this week. The intent of the meeting was to set the stage for a full international conference on banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. The Iranian and Israeli officials are ostensibly attending as private citizens, yet
Continue readingWork is making us crazy
In 1991, Linda Duxbury of Carleton University and Christopher Higgins of the University of Western Ontario conducted the first national study of work-life conflict in Canada to “explore how the changing relationship between family and work affects organizations, families and employers.” They repeated the study in 2001 and in 2012
Continue readingAn Allende returns to Chilean politics
Last Sunday, Maya Fernández Allende was elected mayor of Ñuñoa, a district of Chile’s capital, Santiago. Ms. Allende is a granddaughter of Salvador Allende, the Chilean president who died when General Augusto Pinochet headed a coup that ended Chile’s lengthy democracy and introduced a reign of torture and murder. Democracy
Continue readingIn Iraq, as in Vietnam, the war never ends for the innocent
The Vietnam war officially ended almost 40 years ago, two generations in time, yet the sacrifice continues. The soldiers have all left the battlefield, but every year thousands of Vietnamese, mostly children, are maimed and killed by unexploded munitions, and thousands of babies are stillborn or deformed by the lingering
Continue readingThe Canada-China investment treaty—why?
Having read the investment treaty that Prime Minister Harper negotiated with China last September, my concerns about it have not been alleviated. (Honestly, I actually did read it!) To begin with, I have problems with the process that created it. Negotiated in secret, it was then tabled in Parliament where
Continue reading