Owen Gray – Page 157 – Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes

November 4, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Inconvenient Questions

http://business.financialpost.com/ Word has it that Stephen Harper wants to clamp down on individual liberties on the pretext that national security demands such a clamp down. But Murray Dobbins writes that Harper should — but won’t — answer some very inconvenient questions: The bigger questions remain to be asked and

November 3, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: We’ve Seen This Movie Before

http://www.ctvnews.ca/ Stephen Harper has made an initial six month commitment to the war in Iraq. If anyone thinks the war will be over in six

November 2, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Comforting The Rich

morningstaronline.co.uk Stephen Harper revealed his income splitting plan last week. It’s classical Conservative policy. Comfort the rich, they say, and everyone else will

November 1, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: The "Talent" He Courts

http://www.ctvnews.ca/ Pity poor Dean del Mastro. He stands convicted on all counts. Del Mastro claims he is the victim of a gross injustice. Michael Harris writes: In fact, one of the things noted by Judge Cameron in rendering her verdict was Del Mastro’s lack of

October 25, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Down For A Bit

http://subjectguides.fortlewis.edu/ I haven’t blogged much over the last few days. We are currently involved in moving my ninety-one year old mother into an assisted living facility in Montreal. For today, all I wish to say is that, while cancer is a viscous disease, and diabetes is a horrific disease,

October 21, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: The Man Behind The Curtain

http://www.sodahead.com Andrew Coyne is a philosophical and an economic conservative. So one would expect that he would support the present government. But he saw through the

October 17, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Irresponsible Government

http://thechronicleherald.ca/ Brent Rathgeber’s book, The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in Canada is seminal. Frances Russell writes: Canada’s parliament is now a damp squib, a meek handmaid to power.

October 15, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Steve And Bashar

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ Paul Adams writes that Stephen Harper is now Bashar Assad’s newest ally. The coalition he has joined strengthens Assad’s hand: Most obviously, it strikes directly at the

October 14, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Peddling Snake Oil

http://littlegeorgiesblog-a-thon.blogspot.ca/ Stephen Harper has been traveling the country, announcing tax breaks. So you know the election campaign is on. But the real proof that Mr. Harper is in campaign mode,

October 13, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: When The Righteous Are In Charge

The IMF recently released a report warning that the world economy was once again tipping towards recession. Why? Paul Krugman writes in today’s New York Times: The proximate answer lies in a series of policy mistakes: Austerity when economies needed stimulus, paranoia about inflation when the real risk is deflation,

October 12, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: And They Call That Brilliance

http://www.thethingswesay.com/ Last month, Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced the Conservatives job creation plan — to cut Employment Insurance contributions to small businesses. Tom Walkom writes that the “plan” represented yet another attack on the Employment Insurance regime in Canada: Under Oliver’s plan, small-business owners will see their employment insurance

October 11, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: When Journalism Fails

http://www.today.com/ Apparently, many journalists — including Andrew Coyne — believe that Stephen Harper’s decision to join the bombing brigades in Iraq is

October 10, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: He Should Blush

http://www.macleans.ca/ It’s fascinating to hear the Harper Party conflate its own self interest with the national interest. The latest example is a Tory proposal —

October 9, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: What To Do With The Surplus?

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/ There’s going to be one. And, if the Harper government gets its way, it will go to tax cuts. That happened under the Liberals, too. Linda McQuaig

October 8, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Fire. Aim. Ready.

http://www.aquila-style.com/ Paul Adams has an interesting piece this morning over at ipolitics. As of yesterday, Canada is now officially at war. Adams points out

October 7, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: One Last Assault On Labour

www.nationalpost.com/ Jim Stanford writes that, by resurrecting Bill C-377, the Harper Party is making one last assault on labour. The bill died in the Senate last year when Conservative senators, led by the now retired Hugh Segal, revolted and refused to pass the bill because — according to Segal

October 6, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: A Foolish Mission From A Foolish Prime Minister

http://www.vancouversun.com/ After the Conservatives vote this afternoon to go to war, we will enter the annals of historical folly. Dishonesty and folly are Stephen Harper’s hallmarks. They

October 5, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Severe Meglomania

A month ago, Brian Mulroney took Stephen Harper apart on national television. This weekend, writing in the National Post, Conrad Black told Harper his fifteen minutes were up: If Harper really, seriously, wants his government re-elected, he should let it change leaders. That does not appear to be his pleasure

October 4, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: War: The Ultimate Wedge

http://www.ipolitics.ca/ Stephen Harper planned to win the next election on the economy and tax cuts. But his numbers have tanked for a year. And the

October 3, 2014 Owen Gray

Northern Reflections: Not For You

http://www.ipolitics.ca/ Stephen Harper tells us that there are lots of things we can’t afford — like veterans affairs offices, lawyers to check the proposed constitutionality of