Jim Flaherty jumped ship yesterday. It came as no surprise. When he questioned the wisdom of income splitting, he signalled that he was heading for dry land. He had the temerity to question the central tenet of Harperism. The surplus could not be used to pay down the national debt.
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: Harper’s Mephistopheles
Politics has always been a nasty profession. But Stephen Harper has brought a new viciousness to the way it is practiced in Canada. That viciousness, Michael Harris writes, has been orchestrated by a merchant of venom — Arthur Finkelstein: Three U.S. Republican presidents, countless senators and other right-wing world leaders
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Press Gallery Takes A Stand
Last week the parliamentary press gallery passed the following motion: “We as the Parliamentary Press Gallery reserve the right to ask questions in all photo-ops and availabilities with the prime minister, cabinet ministers, and all parliamentarians, to fulfill our function as journalists in a democratic society.” The motion was passed
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Sabotaging Environment Canada
Minister of the Environment Leona Aglukkaq recently released a report setting forth her ministry’s priorities. They are: “conservation and restoration of landscapes, water and wildlife; information on changing weather patterns and minimizing threats from pollution.” These priorities are supposedly part of an overall plan to provide “a clean, safe and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Rae On Peladeau
In this morning’s Globe and Mail, Bob Rae writes that — as a general rule — good businessmen don’t make good politicians: With the notable exception of Silvio Berlusconi, corporate divas don’t do well in politics. There is a reason for this. To be an effective politician is not as
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Worst In History?
When historians eventually get around to rendering judgement on the Harper Government, they will point to many things. They will certainly cite the gutting of Statistics Canada. Jeffrey Simpson writes: In the summer of 2010, more than 200 institutions and individuals asked Stephen Harper’s government not to eliminate the long-form
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Leaving Them Behind
When Stephen Harper was the Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Mitrovica writes, he sought out journalists: He courted press coverage enthusiastically. (There’s a word commonly used in Ottawa to describe politicians who hunger for media attention as shamelessly as Harper once did; I’m guessing I can’t get away with using
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Living In The 19th Century
Yesterday, with great fanfare, Stephen Harper signed a free trade deal with South Korea. He claims that the deal signals prosperity for Canada. There will be winners. But, Tom Walkom writes, they won’t include the auto industry: Some Canadian high-tech firms, including those making aerospace equipment, hope to profit from
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Flim Flam Men
Listening to Pierre Poilievre defend the “Fair” Elections Act, you really have to ask yourself: Just who is this guy? He insists that voter fraud is a major problem. But Michael Harris writes that a report by Harry Neufeld concluded that voter fraud was virtually non existent in Canada. However,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Price Of Conservatism
Robert Reich writes that, in the three decades after World War II, the United States created the largest middle class the world has ever seen: During those years the earnings of the typical American worker doubled, just as the size of the American economy doubled. (Over the last thirty years,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Economics Of Coercion
The British economic historian Avner Offer believes that the gap between our economic model and our economic reality is now similar to the gap between Karl Marx’s Communism and Leonid Breshnev’s Communism. Chris Hedges reports: Our current economic model, he said, will be of little use to us in an
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Alarm Bells Should Be Going Off
The Harperites didn’t consult Marc Mayrand when they drew up their election “reforms.” And there was a reason they did everything they could to prevent him from testifying before the parliamentary committee looking into those reforms. But testify he did. And, Andrew Coyne writes, he shredded the bill: The chief
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: What Leaders Read
Earlier this week, Angela Merkel worried that Vladimir Putin was living “in another world.” Leonoid Bershidsky writes that Putin does indeed inhabit another world — not because he’s crazy, but because he has read different books than those we have read: Maria Snegovaya, a graduate student at Columbia University, provides
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Circular Course Of Things
Yesterday, Pauline Marois announced that Quebecers will be going to the polls on April 7th. She is prepared to defend her Charter of Values. But she has said nothing about holding a third referendum. In 1980, my wife and I voted in the first referendum. But by 1995, like many
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Manning Knows His Man
The report from Elections Canada on irregularities in the 2011 election is due at the end of the month. Lawrence Martin foresees three possible scenarios unfolding: One is that Elections Canada finds that the dirty work was limited to just the riding of Guelph. In that case, no worries for
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Coming Implosion
Michael Harris writes that the Harper Party keeps moving closer to its own self destruction. Last weekend, the Manning Conference stripped Mr. Harper naked. He is no longer the leader of Canadian conservatives. Preston Manning himself — in polite language — called Harper a dictator: The man who laid the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Solutions
Jeffrey Simpson writes that, in what used to be called “The White Commonwealth,” Margaret Thatcher’s children are in charge: Mrs. Thatcher’s children, intellectually speaking, are prime ministers in four countries: Tony Abbott in Australia, Stephen Harper in Canada, David Cameron in Britain and John Key in New Zealand. They are
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Under The Bus
Andrew Coyne writes that there is a distinct difference between conservatives and Conservatives. That difference was on display at this weekend’s Manning Conference: The Conservative party is supposed to be conservative. If the Manning conference has gotten more overtly partisan over the years, it may be because the party has
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Me And Thee
This week, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation handed out its Golden Pig Awards for profligate public spending. And — world of wonders — Jason Kenney’s ministry, Employment and Social Development Canada, copped a pig. How was that possible? After all, Michael Harris writes, Stephen Harper has a long and distinguished record
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Munchkin Brigade
John Baird and his brigade are in the Ukraine this morning. Tim Harper writes that it’s interesting to examine the composition of the group: The delegation on the ground in Kyiv Friday includes Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, an unelected Conservative senator and a
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