I was intrigued by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s attempt to join the Tuvalu delegation at the Durban Climate Change Conference. As she explained, “If my government, the Government of Canada, does not need my help, I offer it to another government, one that works for my children because the
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Lest we forget: today is The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a United Nations sponsored event, has been observed every year on November 29th since 1977, 30 years to the day after the partition of Palestine. The UN General Assembly has requested that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights
Continue readingSouth Africa on slippery slope?
Normally, I’m wary of slippery slope arguments but when an African government acts to limit freedom of speech, I suspect such an argument may be valid. Unfortunately, South Africa has done just that. A law, ostensibly to protect state secrets, has been approved by the South African National Assembly. The
Continue readingWhy 338 constituencies? Why not 150? Or 100?
The Liberals have suggested an approach to achieving fairer regional representation in the House of Commons, and they should be listened to. Their solution is certainly better than that of Bill C-20 which will add yet another 30 seats to the House. The Liberals would achieve representation essentially as fair
Continue readingEhud Barak sympathizes with Iran’s alleged nuclear aspirations
Whether or not Iran is developing nuclear weapons, it appears that Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak appreciates why they would. In an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose, when he was asked if he would want a nuclear weapon were he a member of Iran’s government, he replied, “Probably, probably. I know,
Continue readingSay goodbye to the frogs
Frogs are delightful little buggers. Look at this little rascal in the photo, a red-eyed tree frog. With his goofy expression and padded toes, you can’t help but love him … or her. Too bad, really, that they are doomed. As we humans press on causing the world’s sixth great
Continue readingAPEC—Environment one, Keystone zero
Despite Stephen Harper’s 25-minute walk in the garden with Barack Obama during the recent APEC forum, the president was not dissuaded from his decision to conduct a thorough review of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project. Apparently he is unconvinced by our prime minister’s declaration that approval of the pipeline is a "no brainer." Perhaps the president, as Harper suggests, is just
Continue readingObama’s sartorial slip
"I was persuaded by our team to perhaps break tradition, and so we have
not required you to wear your aloha shirts."
Thus President Obama broke the 20-year tradition of having the assembled leaders at an APEC forum ditch their power suits and don the traditional local
dress.
Kind of a shame. After all, they were meeting in Obama’s home state of Hawaii and those aloha shirts are pretty spiffy.
Continue readingCanada’s climate change policy—drinking the Kool-Aid
The warnings continue. And they are ominous. In its annual World Energy Outlook released November 9th, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported
that the world will lose the chance to limit global warming if it doesn’t act
now. This isn’t news o…
Did former Israeli security chiefs rat out Netanyahu?
Meir Dagan, former head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, is no admirer of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has accused Netanyahu of being "irresponsible and reckless" and feels that Israel’s security is being mismanaged by the prime minister and Ehud Barak, the defence minister.
According to a story in the Guardian, Netanyahu is now said to believe that Dagan and
Continue readingThe UNESCO vote and the decline of American influence
Following the vote Monday to admit Palestine into UNESCO, Hamas official Ahmed Yousef said it “shows that Israel and America are not dictating politics to the world anymore.” Hamas’s view carries its own bias, nonetheless Mr. Yousef has a point. U.S. o…
Continue readingCongratulations to the Palestinians … and UNESCO
Allow me to add my cheer to those that went up at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 36th General Conference after delegates approved Palestinian membership. The move was particularly courageous considering th…
Continue readingSix more MPs for Alberta—not good news for this Albertan
I admit to ambivalence about the government’s announcement that under the proposed Fair Representation Act the country will gain 30 more MPs. It is a good thing, of course, to strive for more equitable representation and that’s what this Act attempts t…
Continue readingThe "climate change caucus"—good news on two fronts
An initiative championed by Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan has borne fruit in the House of Commons. Dr. Duncan proposed a “climate change caucus” consisting of members of all parties, and it has now been formed. In addition to Duncan, the caucus consists of …
Continue readingCapitalists really do run the world—science says so
Science, it seems, is confirming the Occupy movement’s concerns about capitalists running the world. A trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology combined the mathematics used to model natural systems with comprehens…
Continue readingThe Pope suppots a Tobin tax
In 1972, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin suggested his now famous currency transaction tax as a way to manage the volatility of exchange rates. He believed that governments were not capable of adjusting to massive movements of funds across fo…
Continue readingMeasuring social progress—the Canadian Index of Wellbeing
Released last Thursday, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) illustrates yet again the folly of using the GDP as a measure of social progress. The GDP is, after all, simply a measure of how much stuff we buy and sell. It doesn’t cover areas of our liv…
Continue readingPublic transit blossoms in Calgary
When Calgary’s GoPlan, the blueprint for the city’s transportation development for the next 30 years, was created in the mid-1990s, it predicted that by 2024, 50 per cent of commuters would be using public transit to get downtown to work. Only 33 per c…
Continue readingWelcome to the new Supremes
Finally, the Prime Minister has filled the gaps in the Supreme Court and seemingly with good choices: Justice Andromache Karakatsanis and Justice Michael Moldaver, both from the Ontario Court of Appeal. Politically, the two justices are considered smal…
Continue readingCalgary’s main attraction
What is Calgary’s most popular attraction? The Calgary Stampede, you say? Flames games, perhaps? The Calgary Zoo? Wrong, wrong and wrong.According to an article in Fast Forward Magazine, in 2010 the Calgary Public Library system “had more visits than t…
Continue reading