Photo by Women Deliver 2019 The world is now at the mercy of a coalition of three of the most dangerous autocrats on the planet: Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia’s new absolute ruler Mohammad bin Salman, a name that will become increasingly familiar as the months go by.
Continue readingAuthor: Murray Dobbin
Canadian Dimension: As B.C. Election Approaches, Greens Get Cozy With Liberals
From left, B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark, Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver and NDP Leader John Horgan • Photo by B.C. Broadcast Consortium Is the Green Party in a tacit alliance with the Liberal Party of Christy Clark in B.C.’s election? A lot of people in B.C. think so and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trudeau runs risk keeping flawed politician as foreign affairs minister
The irrational has begun to dominate our politics as if the American virus has stealthily moved north to infect our national narratives. It reflects itself in various ways but it seems that wars – old wars, current wars and future wars – have gripped the minds of our political elite
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: NAFTA Kills: Who will Speak for the Working Class?
Photo by Ben Goff A recent report out of the US raises questions about politicians’ (in Canada and the US) obsession with the state of the middle class and highlights why Donald Trump won the US election. It is a sobering picture and an scathing indictment of neo-liberalism – particularly
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: EKOS poll: Canada should support Israeli sanctions, not demonize them
Photo by the McGill Daily Foreign policy is one of those areas of democratic governance that doesn’t often get on the public’s radar. But when it does it provides citizens with a kind of unsullied opportunity to apply their values. That is, unsullied by considerations of self-interest, we get to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Liberal addiction to the Washington Consensus
Peter Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung/CagleCartoons.com Justin Trudeau makes no secret of the fact that he supports “free trade” — that euphemism for cor- porate-rights agreements. He has declared the Lib- eral party “the party of free trade.” And of that there is no doubt. Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin took it
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Faith in Big Trade Deals Keeps Crumbling
Photo from Public Domain
At the height of the battle over the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement in the 1980s, full page ads promised the deal would bring “more jobs, better jobs.”
The ads were expensiv…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: NDP Now Has Chance to End 13 Years of Error
Photo by Jonathan Allard
In the aftermath of Tom Mulcair’s crushing repudiation at the NDP convention, the party is entering a period of self-reflection and reinvention that it has never experienced before…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: If Mulcair Survives Next Week’s Review, the NDP Is Doomed
Cartoon by Greg Perry
Can the NDP see the writing on the wall? More than 1,500 delegates will be heading to the federal NDP’s Edmonton convention next Friday. Do they realize how critical their vote on the…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Liberals’ shameful BDS stand gives carte blanche to Israel
Photo by David Shankbone
Here’s a Middle East multiple choice question for you (warning: one of these will get you condemned by the government of Justin Trudeau).
Would you rather that the Palestinian peo…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trade Minister Needs to Break Out of Bureaucrat’s Bubble on TPP
Photo by DonkeyHotey
Are Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland’s officials misleading her about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?
Freeland signed the agreement Thursday in New Zealand, but repeated her assu…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: On TPP, Trudeau Must Think Like a Keynesian
Photo by Alex Guibord
Place your bets. Will Justin Trudeau and his economic advisors choose a neo-Keynesian approach to the growing economic disaster facing the country or will it stick to the neo-liberal ideolo…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Does Justin Trudeau Want Fair Elections or Not?
Photo by vl04
Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s election pledge (and subsequent confirmation) that Canada will not have another election under first-past-the-post has morphed into a growing controversy. Trude…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘Canada Is Back?’ Not Until Taxation Is Truly Fair
Photo by Alex Guibord
Justin Trudeau is fond of saying “Canada is back,” and in some genuinely gratifying ways it seems to be the case. But by far the most important and substantive evidence for this…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Pacific Trade Deal Will Test Trudeau’s Resolve
Photo by Day Donaldson Justin Trudeau has proven to be much more bold in his first couple of weeks than almost anyone imagined. Unlike Jean Chrétien and his 1993 election Red Book, Trudeau actually seems to be intent on keeping many of his promises. Most importantly he has done what
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Greens: A party that plays politics just like the others
Photo by ItzaFineDay After a visit by the Green Party’s Elizabeth May to Powell River on July 31, she was quoted in the local newspaper: “There is no chance of a Conservative winning in this riding. It’s either going to be a Green or an NDP member of Parliament in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: We Are All (or Should Be) Greeks Now
Photo by Bob Dass The temple of neo-liberalism and its ideology of social suicide in the interests of the banks has been breached. The hysteria in European capitals (particularly Germany) after the resounding “No” vote by the people of Greece is entirely appropriate. For decades now developed country governments and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Can You Trust Justin Trudeau?
Cartoon by Greg Perry Here we go again – the Red Book 3.0. Yet another build-up of Liberal election promises just like the ones we’ve seen before (though I admit the one about changing the voting system might be hard to dodge). The most infamous, of course, was Jean Chretien’s,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canadian Medicare and the Retirement Conundrum
Photo by Christine Singh Powell River, British Columbia – There’s been lots of attention paid recently to the Canada Pension Plan and how to extend it, and news stories and commentary about how adequate or otherwise Canadians’ retirement situation will be. The sunshine boys over at the C.D. Howe Institute
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why is the West Spoiling for a Fight with Russia?
Photo by Kremlin.ru What are the consequences when elected governments make policy based on faith and imperial hubris instead of science and expertise? It’s a question that is forcing itself on the world as we watch the United States, Britain, NATO and the Harper government continue to up the ante
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