Oh Stockwell, you never let us down do you? Whenever we doubt for a moment that the Conservative government makes all its decisions based on gut instinct, emotion and irrational fear you’re there to remind of the true Reform-Alliance-Conservative way of thinking, like protecting Canadians from the “alarming” amount of unreported crime. You have to […]
Author: Mark Crowley
Pop The Stack: Spectorvision is Skewed on UK Election Lessons for Canada
I’m not sure what Norman Spector of the Globe and Mail is trying to get at with his recent article about the coalition situation in the UK. He points out that the coalition seems quite stable for now given their agreement on a fixed term election: So Britons have been spared the leaks and jockeying […]
Pop The Stack: Disturbing Censusgate News
Two disturbing articles on the census today: The first collects together a few comments from people who know Harper and his people well about how they hope to use prolonged presence in government to change the public ethic, the culture of Canada towards a Libertarian philosophy. I don’t think this is always as conscious as […]
Pop The Stack: No, wait, I got a dumber one!
I am endlessly surprised by the creativity the Conservative government is putting into explaining why their irrational, scientifically unsound decision to scrap the mandatory long form census is really A-OK. This one comes from none other than Minister Doris Day himself: “All we’re saying is, people shouldn’t be threatened with jail because they don’t want […]
Pop The Stack: Censusgate Continues
Two comments on the ongoing censusgate saga: The Chief Statistician has resigned his position in light of the dispute: Fantastic, good for him. He should have done it sooner but it seems last night’s ‘clarifying’ interview with Minister Clement pushed him over the edge. The Minister pointed out that some people at StatsCan believe the […]
Pop The Stack: Guessing About the Silent Majority
Just a quick note on the continuing CensusGate. Some questions over Minister Clement’s honesty and very fun sarcastic response to recent contortions to explain their ‘reasoning’ to drop the census. It has been pointed out that the US actually experimented on a small scale with a voluntary census and abandoned the plan as it would […]
Pop The Stack: Census is too intrusive, says Idiot.
Oh my God, I can’t believe Warren Kinsella is such an idiot. I’m sorry, did I say that out loud? I didn’t mean to read this story, it just happened, and now it can’t unhappen and I’m very upset. Call me crazy, call me anal, call me “someone who understands statistical methods” or “someone who […]
Pop The Stack: An Economist Who Doesn’t Want More Data? UCalgary Called, they Want their Degree Back.
Witness Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first non-lawyer to lead this great nation since Lester B. Pearson. Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics from the fabled University of … Calgary. He dropped out of UofT. And Witness Tony Clement, proud UofT graduate in Political Science and Law and one of the architects of Mike Harris’ Common Sense […]
Pop The Stack: Democracy is a Canadian Tradition
Just a housecleaning post with a bunch of random stuff I’d like to get out there. Canada is awesome and Vancouver’s not bad at all, at all. This site went over 8000 reads today due to a post from last year entitled Canadian Traditions. It shows the big human flag from Victoria’s Canada Day celbrations […]
Pop The Stack: More from Beyond the End-Of-The-Line
As if to justify my recent frustration with transit in this city today it took me much longer than usual to get home after a very nice time downtown. Now, one reason is the Greek Fest on Broadway, but that’s fine. Buses are rerouting around the festival and move quickly. The problem is getting a […]
Pop The Stack: Predictable Opposition to UBC Transit Expansion
Well, this is very predictable, the Point Grey neighbourhood association is against expanding rapid transit to UBC if it disturbs paradise. We all knew this was coming ever since the courts awarded and enormous $600,000 in damages to a business owner on Cambie who chose to relocate during the construction of the Canada Line. Note, […]
Pop The Stack: The Myth of the Conscious Political Party
Two links to the growing discussion about suggestions that the Liberals and NDP form some kind of coalition to win the next federal election. First, the Globe. Scott Reid asks that we “Don’t sacrifice the Liberal Party for a coalition of the centre-left”. He makes some good points that the idea of a formal coalition […]
Pop The Stack: Could Coalition Be Used to Get the Bloc to Stop Being Separatists?
Great point by Chrystal on Lessons on Framing – Coalition Governments As important as the question regarding whether the Liberal Party and NDP would consider being part of a coalition government is whether the Conservative Party would. Why are virtually all media, journalists, other writers and democratic reformers ignoring this? Just because Canadians won’t vote in […]
Pop The Stack: Call for Discussion of Abortion, How About a Call for Data First?
Tasha Kheiriddin over at the National Post just posted a generally pretty reasonable call for discussion on abortion in Canada. I don’t disagree with her general conclusions, that a law, crafted properly in a civilized manner, would be better than no law. But she makes the mistake of assuming one is needed based on […]
Pop The Stack: Ibbitson Gets Some of it Right and Some of it Wrong
I have to respond to the Globe and Mail’s article today by John Ibbitson “Parliament takes another step toward being a true arm of government”. It has a lots of good facts, a couple good points and a few misleading and incorrect conclusions. Friday’s accord on releasing Afghan detainee documents… marks the rise of Parliament as a genuine […]
Pop The Stack: Lib-Dems Should Consider Tory Proposal, But be Wary
News now that the Liberal-Democrats have two offers from those courting them to form a coalition, and both involve a referendum on electoral reform. In brief: The Tories offer a referendum on Alternative Voting, basically the smallest step up from FPTP you could get. Not really proportional but better nothing. Important question (reply in comments […]
Pop The Stack: Future of Democracy Lies in Hands of Cleggy Weggy
So the old mother country has practiced democracy once again and wow, it was a doozy. With a hung parliament and a very distorted result returned by their First-Past-The-Post voting system, the Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats are now in talks to see if they can form some kind of coalition. Nick Clegg has said before that […]
Pop The Stack: Google Takes a Step to Reclaiming “Do No Evil” Status
Sometimes you think the world can never chance, companies and governments won’t ever really improve or open themselves to scrutiny, they’ll never backtrack because in the end all they care about are money and power. Well, maybe that’s true. And maybe, Google’s famous desire to “Do No Evil” is naive, pie-in-the-sky silliness. But today, Google […]
Pop The Stack: Time to Come Together Around Democratic Reform
Today I’m going to tell you my vision for creating a national discussion about Democratic Reform. If you’re a regular reader of PopTheStack you know that one of the things I’m really passionate about is fixing our democracy in Canada. There are lots of things wrong with the way that voices of Canadians are heard, […]
Pop The Stack: Andrew Coyne speaks to the Liberal Party, but will they listen?
I’m just growing more and more fond of Andrew Coyne as time goes on. Maybe I’m getting older and more conservative, or maybe he’s getting less so. Or just maybe, the old templates of “conservative” and “liberal” aren’t nearly as useful as they once seemed to be. That is essentially the point of Coyne fantastic […]