Stephen Taylor has an interesting article about the decision to block the potash buyout today in the National Post. The gist is that fiscal conservatives are being betrayed by this protectionist action. I’m actually not sure which way I would go on the question of letting a foreign company own the potash resource. There are […]
Author: Mark Crowley
Pop The Stack: Sometimes War is not a Metaphor
Public discourse these days can sometimes get pretty raw. Opposing sides accuse each other of being monsters, of wanting to destroy society, of declaring “war” on the poor, on hard-working Canadians, on the environment, on taxpayers, on bicycle riders … on polar bears. Meanwhile everyone is “fighting” for something; for democracy, for equal rights, for lower taxes, […]
Pop The Stack: The Real Toronto Election Map
Note: this post is about the Toronto Municipal election that Rob Ford won. But you know, you can apply the feeling here to more recent elections, sigh. I’ve been very frustrated with the media’s story that the Toronto election was a landslide and that it was all downtown vs uptown. Ford won fair and square […]
Pop The Stack: So, how did that strategic voting go?
So in case you haven’t heard, Rob Ford was elected Mayor of Toronto last night. But you knew that, to find out why (oh why??) read my post from earlier today explaining how Toronto electing a conservative mayor and a progressive council actually makes a lot of sense. But this comment is about the vigorous […]
Pop The Stack: Two Cities, One Electoral Tale
Yesterday, Toronto chose fear and anger over reason and measure, they elected Rob Ford as mayor. Check my twitter feed from Oct 25 for some of my first gut responses to the win and people’s reactions to it. What follows is, hopefully, a more thoughtful response. Now I’m not happy about this, at all. But I […]
Pop The Stack: I Believe in Toronto
As a temporary exile from the Centre of the Universe I don’t get a vote in this week’s upcoming municipal election. But I do have a stake. Toronto is my home, it’s where my heart lives and I intend to return and live the majority of my life there. So here’s what I believe about […]
Pop The Stack: A Contrast in Leadership
This week we have seen a real contrast in leadership styles. First we have Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the UN. What should have been a sure thing, Canada being chosen to fill the rotating two-year seat on the security council, became a huge disappointment. Why did this happen? The reason seems to be that the […]
Pop The Stack: Democracy Around the Galaxy: A Hitchhikers Guide
In celebration of 42 day this Sunday here is an entry I offer from Pop The Stack for inclusion in that most remarkable of all books ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The subject is an introduction to some democratic systems in use around the galaxy. This should […]
Pop The Stack: What does 42 mean to you?
This is a call to all geek bloggers out there. This upcoming sunday is 10/10/10 no matter which way you order your Gregorian calendar which is 42 in binary…. If you don’t know the significance of that number you can stop reading now, sorry for wasting your time. It’s not my fault you aren’t interesting […]
Pop The Stack: Between a Bloc and a Hard Place
I’ve said it before, but coalition is not a dirty word. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to govern. This week Iggy said that ‘there is no coalition, period‘. True statement. A true statement in the present tense, because there isn’t one, right now. Even if Mr. Ignatieff is being coy, this is a good thing because […]
Pop The Stack: Who’s the Boss?
Congratulations to our new Governor General David Johnston. I hope you serve the office as well as Michaëlle Jean, I’m sure you will. As our new GG undoubtedly knows, he now has some reserve powers for extraordinary circumstances. It seems that when our previous GG had cause to exercise these powers on that long morning […]
Pop The Stack: Can Canadian Democracy Begin A New Era?
There are a couple things I’ve had on my writing stack for a while that have yet to be popped, but time is an ever contracting resource. So a call out to ask for people’s opinions on how to fix our democracy, a rant about my frustration over the 5-way train wreck that is the […]
Pop The Stack: You Can Tweet Us on Twitter, Where the Heck Else Could I Tweet You?
I’ve got a nagging pet peeve about how the media are explaining all the new ways of communicating with them. I’ve heard CBC and CTV doing this but I’m sure everyone does. Maybe this happens with all new forms of communication but its time to recognize the pattern and learn from it. It is completely redundant […]
Pop The Stack: Nanos Has No Idea
Pollster Nik Nanos, who gets quoted in the media because he runs a polling firm, has no idea what his statistics about Canadians means. His latest poll shows that Canadians are fed up with minority government and have no faith in any of the leaders or parties. True. Apparently Mr. Nanos thinks this means that […]
Pop The Stack: Can Iggy and Jack Learn to Work Together?
You should read this interesting article at Macleans by Peter C Newman on the trials of the Liberal leader this summer. It sounds like Iggy really has come a long way in understanding Canadian politics, good for him. (Of course, if they’d picked leader, ahem…Bob Rae…ahem, who already knew all this they could have recovered […]
Pop The Stack: A Simple Solution to the Gun Registry
It seems the opposition NDP and Liberals are dancing around each other, both wanting the same result yet shouting at each other about how to get there; and the Conservatives are providing the music they are dancing to. The Liberals support the gun registry in principle, but would introduce legislation if they form government to […]
Pop The Stack: Free Votes Are Nice But…Who Do Those MPs Represent?
Ah, the gun registry. I agree with FarAndWide completely on this. The NDP are planning to allow a free vote of all their members on the issue, even though the party advises savng the regsitry. Free votes are nice in principle, and if we had a truly representative parliament where the people in Ottawa actually […]
Pop The Stack: Vote, Check, Stalemate
Just saw this post about NDP-Liberal Coalitions by Gregory Morrow over on democraticSpace and my comment was getting so long it might as well be a blog post. Greg makes the point that with all this talk of how the NDP and Liberals should form an alliance or coalition before or after the election one […]
Pop The Stack: A nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat
Another day, another justification for dropping the mandatory long-form census by the Conservative government. Today’s argument comes from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty; he basically argues that because a bunch of policy wonks came voluntarily to a meeting when invited by the Federal Finance Minister that most Canadians will fill out a 40 page census form if they […]
Pop The Stack: Beware the Power of the Dark Side
Sometimes, when I see the crazy places some people want to take our country or other countries I wonder to myself, are they serious? Do they really believe that government is a sham, that it would truly be better for everyone if we paid no taxes and just lived off our own initiative and money? […]