As the Robert Reich film, Inequality for All, hits theatres this weekend, Jordan Brennan and Jim Stanford write that what has happened in the United States has also happened in Canada: Now Statistics Canada has turned its attention to the problem, too. The agency’s National Household Survey has documented the
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: On His Own Little Planet
If you were hoping that Stephen Harper was re-evaluating his approach to people — particularly Barack Obama — yesterday should have dashed that hope. Speaking before the Canadian American Business Council, the prime minister said that, on the Keystone Pipeline file, he wouldn’t take no for an answer: The logic
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Bright and Blind
Michael Ignatieff still does not understand the part he played in his party’s worst defeat in history. Bob Hepburn writes that Ignatieff’s new book should be titled It Really Wasn’t My Fault: According to Ignatieff, the Liberals were trounced because they lacked money to buy television ads to counter Harper’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They Tell Us It’s About Principles
Tim Harper writes that the prime minister and the mayor of Toronto are a political odd couple: Harper would treat a meeting with a voter in an unscripted moment as a crisis. Ford ditches his aides and wanders into crowds at a Saturday night street festival on the Danforth. Harper
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Desperation Is The Harvest Of Failure.
Stephen Harper is desperately trying to get Canada’s First Peoples to buy into the Northern Gateway Pipeline. But, Michael Harris writes, they will not be snookered by Mr. Harper. They know the man too well: Stephen Harper’s trust account is badly overdrawn. Native leaders will not soon forget how the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Seismic Shift?
Some pundits claimed the 2011 election was a political earthquake. John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker asserted that it was a Big Shift. Peter C. Newman claimed that it marked the death of the Liberal Party. Andrew Cohen isn’t so sure. Canada may, he writes, be reverting to its old three
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Inequality For All
On September 27th, a documentary film with that title hits the theatres. The little guy who the film revolves around makes the same argument he has been making in print for over a decade: the middle class is being squeezed, and their plight — the harvest of right wing ideology
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Harper’s Achilles Heel
I wrote yesterday that, when it comes to the economy, Stephen Harper takes his cue from the 19th century. And that perspective, Lawrence Martin writes, should make the economy Mr. Harper’s Achilles heel. Ralph Goodale certainly thinks so: A more partisan view came this week from Ralph Goodale, Paul Martin’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Back To Where We’ve Been
The Harper government has repeated the same mantra for seven years: We know best how to manage the Canadian economy. But, Edward Greenspon writes, the truth is opposed to the mantra: With exceptions such as the drive to rebalance the budget, ours is a government that dabbles in economic policy,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Unpaid Internships
The latest entry point in the job market is the unpaid internship. Young people are told that an internship will help them get their feet in someone’s door and on their way to a promising career. But Devon Black writes that the truth is far different than the pitch: That
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: You Can’t Take Him At His Word
Stephen Harper was in British Columbia over the weekend, “negotiating” with British Columbia’s native peoples on the Northern Gateway file. Michael Harris writes that Mr. Harper has a constitutional duty to consult with first nations. But Harper doesn’t negotiate: That approach would violate the Harper government’s preferred tactic when dealing
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Emerging Police State
It all began with the War on Drugs and racial profiling. If you’re looking for the origins of the new police state, Chris Hedges writes, that’s where you should begin. Both developments made it easy to target minorities. Any police state begins with an attack on an easy to identify
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Dystopian Future
George Orwell and Aldous Huxley envisioned nightmarish worlds, which were the result of 20th century trends. Now American economist Tyler Cowan has produced a vision of the dystopian world of work in this century. Richard Reeves writes: It might be called “Brave New World 3.0.”—a new projection of a world
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The New Charge Of The Light Brigade
For the last decade, Stephen Harper has been pitching the idea that he and his party — which has changed its name three times — have given this country economic stability. But, despite the re-branding, Tim Harper wrote this week that the numbers tell a different story: In Harper’s Canada,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Remember The Robocalls?
The robocalls investigation continues at a snail’s pace. Perhaps that’s because, as Laura Stone reported this week, Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton has been sitting in on the Elections Canada interviews. But Hamilton was representing the Conservative Party, not the interviewees. According to excerpts of interviews, Hamilton at times took
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They’ve Come A Long Way, Baby
Tommy Douglas and David Lewis wouldn’t recognize today’s New Democratic Party. If you want to take the measure of how much the party has changed, start with economic policy. On that score, Tom Walkom writes, Thomas Mulcair and Stephen Harper aren’t that different: So how would a Mulcair government act?
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Our Darker Angels
Now that the Quebec Charter of Values has been officially unveiled, it’s clear that Pauline Marois and her party are appealing to an old strain in Quebec life — fear of those who aren’t like nous autres. It was there in Abbe Groulx’s anti-Semetism. It was there when Paul Larose
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Playing Into His Hands
A lot can happen before the next election. But, Andrew Coyne writes, public perceptions of the opposition leaders are beginning to solidify. Justin Trudeau has had a good summer: The Liberals continued to draft in the jetstream of their leader, Justin Trudeau, who demonstrated at several points his effortless ability
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Harper Unleashes The Dogs Of War
Stephen Harper is stocking his office with fanatical loyalists and delivering red meat speeches about the “dangerous” opposition. Clearly he is preparing to go to war — not in Syria, but at home. And that tells you a lot about the man. He does not see that he is the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Canada’s Sonny Corleone
Scott Reid writes in The Ottawa Citizen that the Senate scandal has forced Stephen Harper to give the Prime Minister’s Office a makeover. But that makeover isn’t merely cosmetic: But the shakeup of his staff in favour of flinty longtime loyalists tells us not only that the prime minister is
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