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 readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern 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
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Road Not Taken
Stephen Harper is obsessed with the name Trudeau. When he arrived in Edmonton, a university drop out, he admired Pierre Elliott Trudeau. By the time he graduated from the University of Calgary, his hero had become his bogeyman. Now he is faced with Trudeau le fils and, Michael Harris writes,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Justin’s Main Stream Economic Vision
The details are lacking, Tom Walkom writes, but Justin Trudeau’s economic vision is becoming clear. First, there is his focus on the middle class: Trudeau’s argument here is that both poor and rich gain when the middle class prospers. For the poor, a strong middle class represents a “ladder to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Where Are The Big Ideas?
Murray Dobbins writes that none of our political parties are adopting big ideas. It’s not that they’re not out there. He points to the Alternative Budget which the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives has released in response to Jim Flaherty’s do nothing document: The CCPA’s alternative budget replaces most of
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Inconvenient Truth
If the Harperites read their own internally generated research, they know why Justin Trudeau is a threat. The Globe and Mail reports that a document prepared last October by Employment and Social Development Canada concluded that between 1993 and 2007: “The wages of middle income workers have stagnated. Middle-income families
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Harper’s Achilles Heel
Some commentators were disappointed that both of Justin Trudeau’s convention speeches were not barn burners. But Michael den Tandt writes that Trudeau’s second speech was masterful in the way it went after those who voted for Stephen Harper the last time around. He did not demonize them: Appealing directly to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Progressive Party?
Andrew Coyne is upset. The Liberals may have a new leader. But he worries that they are pretending to be a left wing party: This is not a “new” or “reinvented” Liberal party; it is not even the centrist party of recent memory. From the evidence of the convention, it
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Picking Up The Tab
Jim Flaherty’s budget may have been full of happy talk. But, Frank Graves writes, Canadians — particularly young Canadians — are not happy. They know they’ve been had: The simple fact is that the agenda of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is no longer about an incremental, gradual shift away
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: It’s Not Inevitable
Stephen Harper has said that the Keystone XL pipeline is “inevitable.” He bases his conclusion on a simplistic analysis: We’ve got the bitumen. You need it.” The first part of that proposition is true. The second part isn’t. But the most important truth is that, when it comes to selling
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: His Fundamental Weakness
From now until the next election, the Harper Party will repeat the same meme — Trudeau lacks experience. Never mind that Mr. Harper himself has very narrow life experience. Michael Harris writes: Stephen Harper was a university drop-out from suburbia who became an office boy in an oil company out
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