Yes, of course, it is a big stretch to suggest that Preston Manning, for the former head of the Reform Party had anything to do with the rioting in Vancouver after the hockey game. But in trying to determine what is at the root of this mindless violenc…
Continue readingAuthor: Murray Dobbin
Canadian Dimension Feed: Harper’s Goal: Create a New Irrational Reality
In observing Stephen Harper for the past 20 years, I have often been reminded of the line from Shakespeare: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Replace lawyers with scientists, and you capture the role that the irrat…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: The ongoing evil of asbestos exports
The ongoing fight to get this country to ban the export of the world’s deadliest industrial material has finally reached the Comedy Network and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. The sheer absurdity of pretending that chrysotile asbestos can be …
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Will Libyans See Us as Saviours?
Canada is at war again but you would hardly know it from the media. We should pay attention, for our part in the Libyan “mission” is a stunning example of how easily the self-righteous West can get involved in war without considering the co…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Will the NDP become the new Liberal Party?
Almost since he was elected NDP leader in 2003, Jack Layton has mused about replacing the Liberal Party as the official opposition. He was roundly ridiculed for this fantasy and can now, if he chooses, tell us all that he told us so. But for the NDP an…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: A Conservative majority. Now what?
There is no point dwelling on the obvious other than to simply reiterate it. The election of a Conservative majority government will usher in wrenching change in Canada and we will have to witness the worse that Stephen Harper has to offer. It remains …
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Strategic voting is more important than ever
Analysts and activists across the country are still trying to get a serious grip on the stunning rise in the polls of Jack Layton’s NDP—almost pinching themselves in the aftermath of fear and the loathing that characterized the first weeks …
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Layton’s Surge and the Intentional Citizen
The flurry of polls last week [See here and here] suggesting an unprecedented surge in support for the NDP has stunned political commentators and given progressives something to cheer about for the first time in ages. Paradoxically, it comes at a time …
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Preparing for Harpergeddon
Looking for a suitable theme for Easter weekend isn’t difficult when you have a born-again Christian as prime minister who actually may think he is God. Renaming the Canadian government the Harper Government is just one sign. Surrounding himself …
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Alan Blakeney versus Stephen Harper: Nation builder versus nation destroyer
Politicians come and go but some go leaving a genuine legacy and that is the case with former Saskatchewan premier Alan Blakeney who died yesterday at 85. Unlike too many ex-NDP premiers, he didn’t take on the job as ambassador to the US or get s…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Dr. Harper’s New and Improved Medicare
Medicare is turning out to be the sleeper issues in this election as Canadians continue to say that public health care—universal, comprehensive, publicly administered care, transferable across provincial lines—is their most important electi…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: John Duncan: Another Conservative Hypocrite
The Bruce Carson story, involving a former, senior Harper advisor who managed to hook up with not one but two escort mistresses, is rich with irony. Conservatives in their previous incarnation as the Reform Party claimed they would clean up corruption …
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