http://muncievoice.com/ In 1974, Arthur Laffer famously drew a curve on the back of a napkin while he had dinner with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal. The curve illustrated Laffer’s theory that, as governments cut taxes, their revenues increased. Margaret Thatcher gave the curve a try and it
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: Getting It And Them
www.nationalpost.com/ Paul Calandra’s behaviour this week — first preening arrogance, then blubbering self pity — is symptomatic of our sick politics. Andrew Coyne
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Next Wedge
http://reason.com/ This week, the Conference Board released a report predicting generational warfare between Canadians. Macleans has also jumped on the bandwagon. Linda McQuaig writes: I turn to Maclean’s if I want to know what idea conservatives will be pushing next. So when I saw a recent copy of Maclean’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Mere Mortal
http://www.ctvnews.ca/ Andrew Nikiforuk writes that, according to Gus Van Harten, the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement — which Stephen Harper signed without any public debate — trumps both First Nations and provincial rights which, up to this point, have been enshrined in Canadian jurisprudence. Van Harten has several concerns
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Fossil Fool
http://toronto350.org/ Stephen Harper is at the UN today to attend a meeting of the Security Council. He chose not to attend yesterday’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Bunker Buster
http://backofthebook.ca/ The conventional wisdom these days seems to hold that Stephen Harper will never testify at Mike Duffy’s trial. But Scott Reid, who used to be Paul Martin’s director of communications, knows what kind of damage scandal can do to a prime minister’s future. He writes that no one
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Anxiety Breeds Passivity
Over the weekend, Conservative senators announced that they will re-introduce a bill which previously sparked rebellion in the Red Chamber. The bill would force unions to publicly disclose their spending. It’s all part of a movement which began forty years ago. Murray Dobbins writes: In those pre-corporate globalization days, it
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Wearing It Proudly
http://www.macleans.ca/ This week Stephen Harper heads to the United Nations, an organization which he has consistently snubbed. The goal is to present himself as a world
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Better Off?
http://yrfn.ca/ The latest Conservative campaign ad proclaims that we are all “better off under Harper.” But the latest EKOS poll
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Magic Steve
http://www.stonecoldmagicmagazine.com/ Between now and the next election, Stephen Harper will try hard to be a magician. He’ll try to make his record disappear. Michael Harris writes: That is a conversation Harper isn’t
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Harper’s War On The CCPA
http://deslibris.ca The Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives is in Mr. Harper’s sites. Linda McQuaig writes: Of course, we’re all familiar
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Mistaking Malevolence For Moral Clarity
http://www.smh.com.au/ Stephen Harper is a nasty piece of work. Just how nasty was made clear recently when he refused to allow wounded Palestinian
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: He Could Care Less
http://joyhog.com/ If yesterday served as any indication, Stephen Harper isn’t going anywhere. I confess I’ve had my doubts
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Hubris Is Alive And Well
Some economists saw the Great Recession coming. Certainly Robert Reich did. But, as Paul Krugman writes in this morning’s New York Times, an army of economists missed the boat. They did so for a number of reasons: Clearly, economics as a discipline went badly astray in the years — actually
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Daffy’s In Charge
http://www.poxteer.com/ Last week was a banner week for the Harper government. It announced the ratification of FIPPA. And it also announced a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The March Of Folly Continues
http://rabble.ca/ On Friday, the Harper government announced that it had ratified the Foreign Investment and Protection Agreement with China.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Stunning Inequality
http://rabble.ca/ The Broadbent Institute has just released a study on the distribution of wealth in Canada. Rick Smith, the institute’s director, writes: While the growing income share of the richest 1 per cent often dominates the headlines, looking at the distribution of wealth as opposed to income provides a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Welcome To The Harperian Universe
http://americanelephant.com/ The Harper government plans to enter the 2015 election with a hefty surplus. But, Linda McQuaig writes, don’t expect that money to be spent on health care: Medicare, with its principles of equality and accessibility regardless of income, represents values that are the very antithesis of the marketplace
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: More Poor Choices?
http://zoompf.com/blog Yesterday, the Harper Party released its latest campaign ad. It was Stephen Harper’s steady hand at the tiller, the ad claimed, that has guided Canada through the economic storms of the decade. But Scott Clark and Peter Devries beg to differ. The economy, they write, is dead in
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Smell Of Desperation
http://notesfromachair.com/ If you want to really know what’s driving the Harperites these days, Devon Black writes, consider the tactics they are using: Twice in the last three months, Conservatives have sent individuals into Liberal events in the hopes of deliberately instigating missteps — while secretly recording the whole thing
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