There are so many factors that NDP members have to look at when choosing who to vote for in their leadership race that I don’t envy them (I am not a member). How do you weigh the various elements: policies, philosophy, engaging personality, ability to take on Stephen Harper in
Continue readingAuthor: Murray Dobbin
Canadian Dimension Feed: Canada supports the dark side of international finance
You can say one thing for the powers that be in the banking industry. They’ve got a lot of nerve. This past week our own finance minister Jim Flaherty, along with Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, came out strongly in opposition to a modest proposal to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: On the environment Canada is a rogue state
There are so many areas of conventional democratic governance being challenged or eliminated by the Harper wrecking crew it is hard to keep up. Those searching for a line in the sand that even this government won’t cross still haven’t found it. So far, it seems, there is nothing in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Time to Zip John Baird’s Loose Lips
It is hard to credit the latest statements and actions by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. On both Iran and Israel Baird seems to almost deliberately seek to humiliate both himself and the country he is supposed to represent on the international stage. Taking an ultra-orthodox rabbi (whose organization opposes
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Bow Down Canadians, Corporations Are King
Two recent stories out of Ottawa underline the ongoing political and economic assault on ordinary Canadians. More Canadians are now working for low wages than at any time in decades, continuing a trend that began in the early 1990s, and Stephen Harper has announced major changes to retirement benefits —
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Stephen Harper and the Big Oil Party of Canada
Where will you be and what will you be doing when the first giant oil tanker (there will be two every three days), carrying over 200,000 gallons of tar sands goop diluted with solvent, spills its load into the pristine waters of the northern B.C. coast? We often remember catastrophic
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Ousting quasi-dictator Harper means putting country ahead of party
As we enter the new year the prospects for defeating the Harper government in 2015 seem uncertain at best. And yet if those who care about the country were musing over a new year’s resolution that would be it: a dedication to this single overarching purpose. Even if Stephen Harper
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: It’s the economy, Dippers
The NDP leadership race suddenly seems like a very long, drawn out affair. Initially, there was much outrage – especially from Thomas Mulcair – at the suggestion that the party go along with what Jack Layton seemed to want: an earlier leadership convention in January. But now many in the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Fox News North—your national, pro-war TV Network
You will no doubt recall the controversy surrounding the efforts of Quebec billionaire Pierre Peladeau to get a prized licence for his Sun News TV network. If he had succeeded, the cable companies would have been obliged to carry his extremist right wing news channel, dubbed by many as “Fox
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Wake up and Listen to Occupiers
The amazingly resilient Occupy phenomenon is running up against the same ugly reality that so many social movements have encountered over the past 20 years: There is a world of difference between influence and power. Governments and the corporations they serve have power — that is, the power of money
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Stephen Harper’s social engineering
The Harper government’s announcement that it will change the laws regarding capital gains taxes to encourage more charitable giving strikes an ominous note for the country’s political culture. Harper is mimicking the Conservatives in Britai…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Occupy the NDP
There’s nothing quite like a global social movement to knock other stuff off the front pages and the Occupy movement has done just that. After ignoring it for weeks while it was being born in New York, the media has been all over it. I half expec…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Occupy: What can it teach the left?
The occupy movement has been a like a powerful cleansing wind blowing over the political landscape – exposing not just the obscenely rich, and criminally irresponsible political elite, but almost every other political player too: cowardly liberal…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Is something happening here?
Occupy Wall Street – and now Bay Street? The 99%? Conservatives losing elections all over the country? A Red Tory elected head of the Alberta Conservatives? American billionaires demanding to be taxed at higher rates?
Is something happening here…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Is Capitalism Preparing to Bury Itself?
Where is Henry Ford when you need him?
You may remember Henry — the ruthless industrialist who nonetheless refused to be hobbled by suicidal ideology when it came to doing business. He realized as his workers cranked thousands of new cars off th…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Libya, the Lie
When the U.S. invaded Iraq riding a pack of lies and monstrous manipulation, the entire U.S. elite, including major news services, academics, and politicians from both “sides” of the spectrum, lined up to cheerlead and off they went to war….
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Can the NDP thrive after Jack? And save the country?
Canadians who maintain the dream of a more equal, democratic and civilized society may no longer be reeling from the death of Jack Layton. But they are surely stuck in a kind of political limbo, trying not to think of the damage Stephen Harper can do w…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: NDP Needs to Launch a Culture War
Back in April, 2010, EKOS pollster Frank Graves got into a lot of trouble in the neo-con blogosphere for advising the Liberal Party to “invoke a culture war” on the Harper Conservatives. “I told them that they should invoke a culture …
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Can the NDP Help Restore Canada’s Reputation?
Why is it that our collective social intelligence on so many critical matters falls dramatically short of our individual citizen intelligence? It is amazing that our society can function as well as it does, given that we are in a state of continuous de…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Libya, Canada’s Other Ugly War
NATO members, including Canada, are continuing their massive bombing campaign against Libya in a war that may just break the record for the casual breaking of international law, and lying about the motives for the war. There is no mandate to engage in …
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