Today’s Star editorial offers a gloomy but apparently realistic assessment of the direction Canada’s manufacturing is headed in. Abetted by the federal and Ontario McGuinty provincial governments’ seeming indifference to the corporate depredations underway, the most recent occurring at Electro-Motive Canada, and unions that are hamstrung by the refusal of
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Politics and its Discontents: Sunday Insight From A Star Reader
I’m reproducing another insightful letter from a Star reader, this time from Edward Carson of Toronto, who writes about how ideology reigns supreme over reality in the Harper government: The Harper government’s “tough on crime” agenda through Bill C-10 is a policy and fiscal disaster in the making. A government
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Sad Case of Lucene Charles
Because she failed to complete the paperwork to achieve permanent residency status when she married a Canadian 15 years ago, St. Vincent native Lucene Charles, the mother of four children, three of whom were born in Canada, faces deportation. Please watch the following video and consider signing this petition to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Being Stephen Harper Must Be Frustrating At Times
Were I a more compassionate and empathetic man, I suppose I could at times muster a modicum of sympathy for our dark lord, Stephen Harper. Why, you may ask – doesn’t he now enjoy a majority government that allows him to impose his will throughout our once fair land? Doesn’t
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ottawa Police Chief (Do You Remember Tracy Bonds?) Appointed to Senate
Despite the CBC puff piece interview of Ottawa Police Chief Vern White on his appointment by the Harper government to the Senate, many will remember him as the chief presiding over infamous police prisoner abuse cases in Ottawa, especially the one involving Tracy Bonds. Given Stephen Harper’s diversionary crackdown-on-declining-crime-legislation, his
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Pension Fund Shuns Walmart
Years ago, when Maple Leaf Foods was demanding deep concessions from its workers in Burlington, Ontario, many teachers tried to get the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan to divest itself from the company. We were unsuccessful, the response being that the Plan had a fiduciary responsibility to its members to maximize
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: From a Star Reader: Welcome to Harper’s Harsh New World
A particularly insightful lead letter is found in today’s Toronto Star. Because most letters seem to be available online for but a short time, I am reproducing writer Stephen Douglas’ thoughts on the folly of our pseudo-economist Prime Minister’s tax giveaways to the corporate sector, which continues its relentless mission
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Caterpillar, Inc. – A Reprehensible Corporate ‘Citizen’
When I think of caterpillars (which, until recently, I have to admit, has been rarely), I think of a slow-moving yet determined creature on its way to metamorphosis, often into something quite beautiful. Unfortunately, that gentle imagery must be cast aside when considering Caterpillar Inc., an ugly corporate entity intent
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Good News For the Corporate Sector
While corporations continue the arduous task of union-busting and contract-gutting, their efforts are being amply rewarded. Not only has a beneficent and ideologically-driven Harper government cossetted them with a record-low tax rate, but the captains of industry who lead these voracious job-destroying entities are also prospering quite nicely thanks to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: American ‘Rocket Scientist’ Pronounces on The Electric Car
[Sigh,] and some say this is the best the Republicans have to offer in the next election. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Our Prime Minister’s Great Economic Plan Seems To Be Working …. For the Corporate Sector
In light of the ongoing dismantling of our industrial base by our corporate ‘masters,’ coupled with the latest reduction in the corporate tax rate engineered by the pseudo-economist Stephen Harper, this video is worth viewing: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Caterpillar Locks Out Employees at London Plant
After unilaterally imposing the terms of its last contract offer on its workers, terms of which entail the halving of wages and a substantial reduction in benefits, Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar Inc., has locked out its Lomdon-based workers. The Harper government, which permitted the company’s
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Michael Ignatieff on the Politics of Fairness
Many of the worst excesses of the age of greed occurred in markets that were anything but free, anything but transparent. Government must be there to clean up markets riven by fraud, corruption, insider trading and toxic products that made risk systemic. Competition demands that governments are prepared to use
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Industry Canada Fails Yet Another Group of Canadian Workers
Hot on the heels of the Harper government’s capitulation to U.S. Steel in Hamilton, yet another failure by Industry Canada to protect the interests of Canadians is evident in the latest contract ‘offer‘ from London, Ontario-based Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar Inc. The C.A.W. has taken
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: If You Are What You Eat …..
Many thanks to my son for sending this link to a story that may give pause to those who are eager consumers of burgers from McDonald’s. Makes me also wonder how successful we can be at composting such fare. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Rick Salutin on The Decline of Deference to Authority
As is so frequently the case, The Star’s Rick Salutin has written a thoughtful and original piece, this time on some of the factors involved in our increasingly dynamic resistance to traditional sources of authority. Thanks to the arrogance of the financial world, even after receiving massive taxpayer bailouts for
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Coming To An Institution Near You
I have long held a very critical view of institutions. Whether they be political, educational, religious, charitable or protective, I believe the effectiveness and integrity of any organization declines with age as self-interest, self-promotion, and lust for power and control supplant the original purposes of serving the common good. Two
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Santa’s Hit List
Well, here it is, Christmas Eve, and Santa has been rechecking his list, and five have been struck from it. This sad distinction goes to the following, who perhaps can be consoled by the fact that they have something in common: they are devoid of any recognizable morality; they have
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper To U.N: Call Us When You Have Another War, But Mind Your Own Business Otherwise
In what is emerging as a clear pattern with the Harper government, or, as I like to call them, Canada’s national embarrassment, master puppeteer Harper has essentially told the United Nations to mind its own business about our domestic matters, especially when it comes to the third-world conditions on our
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Very Conservative Christmas Message
Couldn’t resist this one. Thanks to Mark-Leiren-Young. Recommend this Post
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