Today’s Toronto Star reports that things have been as they are in Attawapiskat for decades — and there’s not a lot of hope that they will change: The community was founded in 1893 by Catholic missionaries. The steepled church, an aging grey structure next to the Attawapiskat River, remains the
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Northern Reflections: How Not To Buy An Airplane
David Olive writes that the F-35 fiasco is a case study in how to bungle a military purchase: If anything’s to be gained from the monumental botch that is the costliest and most multi-functional military aircraft project ever attempted, the Joint Strike Fighter program from which the F-35 is derived
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Holding Their Breath
It’s truly remarkable. The Republican Party will not move away from its one big idea: No new taxes. Ever. After losing in November, Republicans appear to have chosen David Farragut as their source of inspiration. “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead,” they shout. Then, like children, they hold their breath
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Doomed To Repeat Themselves
Today, Postmedia’s Michael den Tandt asks a question of national import: Can the Conservatives learn from their mistakes? For, indeed, they have made many. But they all add up to one major mistake: The hardest knock of all against the Tories, however, and the one that cuts deepest, is simply
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Democracy Or Oligarchy
The American editor and essayist Lewis Lapham has delineated the three hallmarks of democracy. Michael Harris refers to them in a piece he wrote for ipolitics: Lewis Lapham, author and twice editor of Harper’s Magazine in the United States, made the same point. Democracy, he wrote, announces itself in three
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Reader’s Response
Two days ago, I published a post on Stephen Harper and guns. Yesterday, I received an email from a reader. That term, while accurate, is a bit misleading. Like me, the reader is a retired teacher. But, unlike me, he has been an officer in the Canadian Forces. And, during
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Behind The Numbers
When Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page released a report two weeks ago, which documented the average annual salary of a federal employee as $114,100, there were howls from the usual critics. Andrew Jackson writes: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation was quick to jump on the report of the Parliamentary Budget Office
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Harper And Guns
On the day the NRA advocated having an armed guard in every American school, Thomas Walkom wrote that the gun issue could come back to haunt Stephen Harper. For all of his bloviating about the long gun registry, Walkom reminds his readers that Harper originally voted for it: Certainly, Harper
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: She Has His Number
As Theresa Spence enters the tenth day of her hunger strike — and as Canada’s First Nations put the Harper government on notice that they will be Idle No Longer — it’s becoming clear that Stephen Harper has a big problem — a problem of his own making. Michael Harris
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The War On Wages Continues
On the subject of rotating teacher strikes in Ontario, Tom Walkom offers a little historical perspective: When Bob Rae’s New Democratic Party government overrode collective agreements in 1993, many private sector unions — including the Steelworkers and my union, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers — broke with their public sector
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No Lincoln
Errol Mendes writes that Stephen Harper recently went to see Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln. If Harper saw himself in the man, he’s deluded: If he saw any of himself in the film’s focus on the rather Machiavellian methods Lincoln used to obtain congressional approval for the 13th Amendment proscribing slavery for
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Getting Their Act Together
A new poll, published by Forum Research, predicts that, if there is a by-election in Toronto, Rob Ford will be reinstated as mayor — unless his opponent is Olivia Chow: Ford came out tops in a variety of three-way and four-way combinations that did not include Chow (Trinity-Spadina). When her
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Elizabeth May
As 2012 draws to a close, Michael Harris reviews the state of all of Canada’s federal parties — except the Bloc Quebecois. He has some insightful comments about each. But I am particularly struck by what he writes about Elizabeth May and The Green Party: For now, the Green Party
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Evidence Suggests Now Is The Time For Pension Reform
Martin Regg Cohn writes that federal bureaucrats have presented Finance Minister Jim Flaherty with a plan to shore up the faltering Canadian pension system. Private pensions have been decimated by the Neo Conservative Revolution. Cohn writes: The world of pensions is collapsing around us. Traditional “defined-benefit” pensions that reliably promise
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Sometimes They’re Are No Words
But the American columnist E.J. Dionne has found some that adequately describe the situation: We have had enough. American politics is plagued by timidity and paralyzed by opportunism whenever we even consider talking action to curb gun violence. No other developed country in the world has these massacres on such
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Truth? What’s That?
For those who wonder why Peter MacKay is stiill in cabinet, Michael Harris has a straightforward answer: Very simple; Peter MacKay has done no worse on this file than Stephen Harper. In fact, he has merely followed the core of Stephen Harper’s communications strategy: the Conservatives aren’t bound by the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Underhanded Economists
The F-35 fiasco should serve as a cautionary tale: beware of politicians who claim to be economists. For, Andrew Coyne writes, — even as the Harperites peg the cost of those jets at $45.8 billion — they still can’t bring themselves to tell the truth: Now, this increase in the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Keep Those Wages Down
When all the rhetoric has cooled, Tom Walkom writes in today’s Toronto Star, it should be clear that the Chinese government and the Harper government share the same objective: The real problem with China’s Communists is not that they’re unusually wily but that, like the Harper Conservatives, they want to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Champerty and Maintenence
The Conservative Party of Canada appears to be incapable of embarrassment. Consider their argument against the robocall case, which opened yesterday. Arthur Hamilton, the party’s lawyer, accused the Council of Canadians of bringing the case forward for the purposes of “champerty and maintenance” — to push their political agenda and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Things Fall Apart
Not all Conservative MP’s agreed with Stephen Harper on the Nexan Energy deal. James Bazan wrote to one of his constituents in Manitoba: “I would like to note that I am strongly opposed to this deal, and I have raised my concerns directly with cabinet as well as with the
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