Much though I hate to admit it, Canada’s right-wing has achieved a new maturity, self-confidence and ebullience. Gone are the days when right-wingers were little more than liberal wannabes who looked awkward and out of place in public. Now they’v…
Continue readingAuthor: James Laxer
Korea: How Wars Can Start Between Countries Whose Leaders Don’t Want War
It is generally assumed that when a great war breaks out, at least one of the parties to the conflict wanted it. That assumption can be wildly wrong. None of the regimes at the helm of the powers that went to war against one another in Europe in 1914…
Continue readingWake Up: Arbitrary Rule is All Around Us
We live in a dangerous, disordered time. The flashing signs are there to warn us that, both at home and abroad, those who are at the helm of the socio-political order do not preside over outcomes that make even a modicum of sense. Arbitrariness is th…
Continue readingOn Afghanistan: How about a Little Reality from the Opposition Parties?
The other day, in separate interviews, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar and Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae spoke to CBC News about the future of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.
From their tone, they sounded as if they were musing abo…
Continue readingOn Afghanistan: Harper’s Casual Betrayal of Canadians
Far away from home, while Parliament is not sitting, the Prime Minister of Canada announces that Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan will be extended beyond July 2011, the date when it was due to end. Prior to his stunning about-face in Seoul, …
Continue readingThe Demagogic Right Plays a Tough Game in Tough Times
Two years after the great crash of 2008, an economic meltdown that exposed the forces of greed for what they are, the political right is more ferocious than ever. Having presided over the unleashing of the most severe economic crisis since 1929, the r…
Continue readingWhat should be on the Wider Agenda as Parliament meets?
Canadian politics has been reduced to a series of small battles in a static war as the parties jockey for position for the next federal election. As the politicians skirmish in Question Period, it is as though they are operating inside a hermetically…
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