Author: Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Could He Have Been Wrong?

                                                      https://www.tumblr.com/ Bill C- 51 was supposed to have been Stephen Harper’s trump card. If the economy went south, he could scare voters into supporting him. It worked a couple of elections ago, when Harper claimed that coalition governments were for losers. But Mr Harper’s

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Northern Reflections: It’s About Obsessions

Stephen Harper is a man obsessed. He’s obsessed by Alberta bitumen. He’s obsessed by the Liberal Party — particularly the name Trudeau. And he’s obsessed with punishment — most particularly, the punishment of Omar Khadr. Gerry Caplan writes: Under the Geneva Conventions, which govern the rules of war, soldiers who

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Northern Reflections: Entrenching The Corporate Agenda

                                            http://www.perspectives.com/ Stephen Harper is a man of inconsistencies. But, if there is one thing he’s been consistent about, it’s putting his signature to free trade deals. Each of those deals contains an ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) clause. Murray Dobbin writes: This is not hyperbole — that is the actual,

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Northern Reflections: The Wright Thing

                                               http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ The Duffy trial is about to resume. The question hanging over the proceedings is: What will Nigel Wright say when he takes the stand? Michael Harris writes: It is doubtful that Nigel Wright will endorse [Donald] Bayne’s argument that the demonizing of Duffy was

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Northern Reflections: Superlative Debates

                                          http://www.calebmcmillan.com/ The Harperites claim that the standard leaders debate is stuffy and boring. Steve Sullivan suggests that there is a way to spice up the debates. Instead of Harper debating Trudeau and Mulcair, Sullivan suggests that Harper go one on one with some other opponents: What if outgoing Correctional

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Northern Reflections: Raising Those At The Bottom

                                          http://www.pilgrimagepodcast.com/ There has been a lot of discussion about the 1% of us who are fabulously wealthy. A new OECD report, In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All, suggests that concentration of wealth at the top does not promote economic growth. And taking our cue from recent economic

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Northern Reflections: An Empty Chair

                                           http://www.westernfreepress.com/ An empty chair can symbolize a lot of things. John F. Kennedy’s empty rocking chair symbolized the loss a nation felt after the president’s assassination. But, in Stephen Harper’s case, an empty chair at the consortium’s leaders debate would symbolize many things — none of them good. To

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Northern Reflections: The Man Who Would Be King

                                                  http://www.theguardian.com/ Yesterday, the broadcast consortium announced that all the party leaders — except Stephen Harper — had agreed to attend a debate in French and a debate in English. Harper, you see, only plays by the rules he makes. And sometimes he breaks those. Think of his fixed election

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Northern Reflections: One Or Two Loose Screws

                                                 http://www.examiner.com/ Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney announced that the Harper government will show “zero tolerance” for groups advocating a boycott of Israel as a protest  against that government’s treatment of Palestinians. Those who now openly criticize Israel include former president Jimmy Carter and Pope Francis. And their criticism is

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Northern Reflections: Targets Of Our Fellow Citizens

                                                 http://www.sodahead.com/ Bill C-51 has been passed by the House and is on track for speedy passage in the Senate. As it has from the very beginning, the Harper government is focused on aping the American experience. But, before we rush down that road yet again, we would be wise

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Northern Reflections: Richler On Stephen Harper

                                                  https://www.linkedin.com/ The late Mordecai Richler saw through the phoneys who inhabited the Canadian landscape. He had no patience for narrow nationalism — whether English or French. He particularly loathed French Canadian nationalism, which he believed was rooted in old totems and religious sophistry. His son Noah has inherited his

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