Sure, a reasonable government would have some shame over its obvious doctoring of Hansard. But isn’t the most likely outcome of the NDP’s new complaint for Clement’s departmental officials to formally certify that no such committee hearing ever took place? Update: Or that would make sense too – particularly if
Continue readingAuthor: Greg Fingas
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jim Stanford points out that when it comes to manufacturing, any talk of an “invisible hand” doing much for productivity is based purely on faith rather than evidence: When it comes to Canada’s lousy record in productivity and innovation, the standard prescription of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Contorted cats.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 27, 2011
Thursday, October 27 saw the House of Commons discuss the gun registry – and if the Cons’ choices to not just dismantle the federal long gun registry but also shred the evidence weren’t problematic enough, the debate also featured the Cons’ closure motion. The Big Issue Once again, that motion
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: RIP Joe Kuchta
Leftdog and David Hutton have already posted about the passing of blogger and activist Joe Kuchta. But I’ll take a moment to pay my respects as well: nobody offered more thorough surveys of provincial and local issues than Joe, and his contribution to Saskatchewan’s political debate will be dearly and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Linda McQuaig points out how the Occupy movement has at least started to shift the terms of our political debate: Rather than hanging out at malls or zoning out on Facebook, these young people have endured real hardship in the Canadian near-winter
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On predictable problems
Yes, the news that the Muskowekwan First Nation may soon see its own potash development is a plus in many ways. But it’s worth pointing out how the story might have been important to the provincial election campaign which concluded earlier this month. After all, one of the Sask Party’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Barrie McKenna thoroughly debunks the claim that “financial literacy” alone is enough to put ordinary citizens on a level playing field with the financial industry: Looking to financial literacy to fill the void is like asking ordinary Canadians to be their own brain
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On rare independence
Yes, there’s some good news in the revelation that some Con MPs are asking questions about their party’s insistence on supporting and subsidizing asbestos exports. But let’s not minimize the issue as a story of “internal Con rift!!!” which will only push Harper and his message control machine to clamp
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Thomas Walkom rightly points out that the voters most affected by the Cons’ push for privatized pensions are the ones paying the least attention to the issue: For workers over 50, the pension reforms introduced by Canada’s Conservative government on Thursday mean virtually
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 26 saw a rare opportunity for the opposition parties to set the agenda. And as a result, the big issue was one which the Cons prefer to discuss as little as possible – even if it’s far more relevant to more Canadians than most of the Harper government’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your afternoon reading. – Stephen Maher exhorts the Cons to stop stifling democratic debate, featuring a strong point by NDP MP Jack Harris: When Harris was first elected to Parliament in 1987, he said, and Brian Mulroney had a majority, the government regularly adopted opposition amendments. “We
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012: Coming Attractions
With the Saskatchewan election over and a personal move soon to be completed, I’ll be covering the NDP’s leadership race in much more detail in the very near future. And based on the pace of coverage even in the early stages of the campaign, I won’t pretend to be able
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Marc Lee presents an alternative economic vision to the capital-first-and-only approach that currently serves as conventional wisdom. – Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson suggests five philosophical principles that can help the NDP to form government in 2015 on a social democratic platform: More – not
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Audioholics – External Key
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your afternoon reading. – pogge rightly questions the Cons’ continued efforts to have decisions made by ministerial fiat rather than through public debate. – Glen McGregor eviscerates Brian Lilley’s thoroughly inaccurate attack on Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand. – Murray Mandryk suggests that Saskatchewan’s New Democratic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Compare and contrast
One Western premier has some perspective on what a provincial leader can expect to accomplish on the global stage: She regretted, but didn’t condemn, the Obama administration’s decision to delay approval of the mega-project until after 2013. And she displayed refreshing humility about her own power to change minds in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Charlie Angus’ concerns about the Cons’ Albany Club schmoozing nicely parallel my take on the entire lobbying apparatus they’ve built up: Mr. Angus said the Albany Club reception is an example of the kind of informal lobbying, through cozy relationships, that has grown
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The upward trajectory
Alice posts the latest NDP membership numbers, showing a sharp spike in several regions of the country even before the leadership campaign has started in earnest. And the immediate growth looks to have the potential both to significantly change the calculations involved for the NDP leadership contenders, and set a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom suggests that the systematic eviction of Occupy camps from Canadian cities may only help the movement to evolve from its first form: City administrations in places like Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver are inadvertently handing demonstrators something they desperately need —
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