Maureen Dowd writes, in today’s New York Times, that the man behind Republican rhetoric these days is Dan Senor, a kid who grew up in Toronto and graduated from the University of Western Ontario. If you listen to what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are saying about the Middle East,
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: Here They Come — Again
Joanna Slater writes in today’s Globe and Mail that, if you thought the Occupy Movement was dead, you should hold that thought: After months of internal wrangling and low morale, the campaign is staging a return to the spotlight. Sept. 17 is the first anniversary of the movement that took
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed had a political pedigree. His grandfather was a senator and a partner in R.B. Bennett’s law firm. But, during the Depression, the family lost its fortune and — as a child — Lougheed moved from one rental accommodation to the next. He, therefore, understood both wealth and poverty.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Political Implosion In Slow Motion
Royson James writes in today’s Toronto Star that mayor Rob Ford is beyond redemption: At some point, Mayor Rob Ford’s mayoralty will collapse under the weight of his own political folly. Not today — despite reports the mayor uses his city-paid staff, cars and cellphones to administer elements of the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Statesman Of The Year?
The Globe and Mail reports this morning that Stephen Harper has been named Statesman of the Year: The Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an international organization founded by New York rabbi Arthur Schneier, has picked Mr. Harper as its World Statesman of the Year for 2012. He joins a list of
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Politicians and Poverty
Two weeks ago, Ann Romney told Republicans that she and Mitt had known lean times: “We were very young. Both still in college. There were many reasons to delay marriage, and you know what? We just didn’t care. We got married and moved into a basement apartment. We walked to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Triumph Of Political Cynicism
Out on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have been arguing that Barack Obama is a failed president. They claim that he didn’t do anything when he controlled both houses of congress. But Paul Krugman takes a quick trip down memory lane: As anyone who was paying attention
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Gregg On Harperland
In his brilliant essay, 1984 in 2012 Allen Gregg delineates how much Stephen Harper’s Party — for that’s what it is — learned from Orwell. The Harperites, he writes, have systematically sought to destroy reason by working overtime to suppress information: First they nixed the long form census, then the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Spoiling For A Fight
Tony Burman writes in this morning’s Toronto Star that Canada has a new Foreign Affairs Minister: His name is Benjamin Netanyahu. His day job may be prime minister of Israel, but Canada’s abrupt actions against Iran seem to confirm that the Harper government’s outsourcing of Canada’s Middle East policy to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Not Such A Bright Idea
Dalton McGuinty scored on his own goal yesterday, when his party came in a distant third in Kitchener-Waterloo. Having engineered the by-election, by offering the sitting MP — Conservative Elizabeth Witmer — a plum government appointment, he then proceeded to attack the province’s teachers as the enemies of austerity. Throughout
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Clinton Hits A Home Run
Whatever your politics, you have to admire Bill Clinton’s ability to give a stem winding speech at a critical moment. He did it again last night at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C. Clinton can reduce an argument to its essential syllogisms and drive it home. He summed up the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Now What?
Jeffrey Simpson writes this morning that Jean Charest only has himself to blame for his party and his personal defeat last night. That’s true — but only partially true. For Stephen Harper also helped Pauline Marois ascend to power. Harper’s neglect of Quebec gave Marois the ammunition she needed to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Politicizing The RCMP
On Saturday, the RCMP forced a plane which was flying over Ottawa and Gatineau to land. The plane carried the banner “Stephen Harper Nous Deteste” — Stephen Harper hates us. The plane and banner were hired by the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Given the 20,000 job cuts in the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Pink Elephants Have Left The Big Top
Now that the Republican Convention is over, what have we learned? It would appear that not much has changed. Economic policy remains the same — the party favours the wealthy over the working man. But, more strikingly, the party of George W. Bush — which did not feel beholden to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: As Unions Die, So Does The Middle Class
There’s a lot of talk these days about defending the middle class. Politicians of all stripes claim they are the champions of the middle class.. But everyone knows that the middle class is disappearing — because the post World War II social contract has been broken. Tom Walkom writes in
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Oh, Quebec, Where Art Thou?
Jeffrey Simpson’s column, in this morning’s Globe and Mail, is a sad commentary on Quebec’s links to the rest of Canada: In most walks of life – in what we might call civil society – the links are thin. And within the political realm, where historically francophones and other Canadians
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Monumental Stupidity
Jim Flaherty likes to wag his finger. Two days ago, he wagged it at the business community for sitting on $500 billion. It was the private sector’s time, he said, to step up to the plate. However, “at a certain point, it’s not up to government to stimulate the economy.”
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: McGuinty And The Teachers
Governments these days aren’t into labour relations. And so, Dalton McGuinty has torn a page out of Stephen Harper’s playbook, ordering Ontario teachers back to work before they took strike action. As Tom Walkom writes this morning, this is about politics. There are two by-elections taking place in Ontario, and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Observations From An Odyssey
I returned from a trip across Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with the following impressions: 1. In Quebec, Jean Charest and his Liberals are in deep trouble. Nonetheless, the results on September 4th will be close. If Pauline Marois wins the election, it will be by a narrow margin.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: What Science?
Stephen Harper claims that science will determine the viability of the Enbridge Pipeline. But he also insists that science must meet his deadline of 2013. However, as the Canadian Press reported yesterday, science will not be able to meet that deadline. For one thing, the project is massive and requires
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