Michael Harris weighs in this morning on China’s bid to buy Nexen Energy. Five years ago, he reminds his readers, China was — in Stephen Harper’s lexicon — the devil’s disciple: There was a time when Parson Harper presided over a morality-based view of “Communist China”, that iniquitous, one-party dictatorship
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Northern Reflections: The Heat’s On
Thomas Homer Dixon writes this morning that the hot weather we have endured over the last decade has taught us something about crop yields: In the past few years, agricultural scientists have shown that crops critical to humankind’s caloric supply – including corn and soybeans – are extremely sensitive to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: 21 Trillion
That’s the number of dollars the super rich have hidden in off shore tax havens, according to a recent report written by James Henry for the Tax Justice Network: Mr Henry said his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Putting Us In a Box
Michael Behiels writes that if Canadians expected to see any federal-provincial conferences during the Harper regime, they should give up on the idea — for two reasons: First, Stephen Harper will not resuscitate the longstanding practice of inter-state federalism because the process threatens to undermine the very expansive conception of
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: European Caricatures
The Conservatives have spent a lot of time and energy berating Europe. Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty and Pierre Polievre have all suggested that the Europeans are inept bumblers. The latest broadside has come from Senator Doug Finlay, who wrote in the Globe and Mail that they have “taxed and deregulated
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Something’s In The Air
In his review of Stephen Harper’s first year of majority rule, John Ibbitson wrote that the prime minister had been “unbound.” And the passage of the government’s omnibus budget bill seemed to prove Ibbitson’s point. But, as the contents of the bill were made public, something else happened. The public
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: In The Wake Of MOUS
Michael Harris writes this morning that Stephen Harper suffers from MOUS — Master of the Universe Syndrome. Harris lists the symptoms of the disease: Here are the main symptoms of MOUS. You stop caring about what others think about you. They are merely the Plankton People – Vladimir Putin’s ringing
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: People, Not Policy
On last Sunday’s talk shows, Ed Gillespie claimed that Mitt Romney had retired “retroactively” from Bain Capital. In response, Dana Milbank wrote in the Washington Post: Retroactive retirement! It was a brilliant formulation, perhaps the greatest addition to the political lexicon since “no controlling legal authority.” And it raised tantalizing
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Taking Sides
The Globe and Mail reports this morning that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s proposal to overhaul Canada’s banking dispute settlement system “looks suspiciously like a gift to the country’s big banks.” Barrie McKenna writes: The changes are a direct and significant challenge to Canada’s existing national ombudsman – the Ombudsman for
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Omar Khadr And The Harperites
Nothing encapsulates what the Harper government is all about more than its refusal to allow Omar Khadr back into Canada. Certainly the government’s reaction puzzles the Americans.The Canadian Press reported last week that: One of Khadr’s U.S. lawyers said last month he has been told American officials can’t understand Canada’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Now That’s Interesting
Gordon Gibson floats a truly interesting idea in this morning’s Globe and Mail. He suggests that the antidote to our political polarization, which Stephen Harper has worked so hard to create, lies in a Single Transferable Vote. The idea has been proposed before — in B.C., and by former Liberal
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Worshiping At The Altar of Greed
Modern conservatives have worked very hard to make Greed sound reasonable. Thus, when Tim Hudak released his latest policy proposal last week, it was wrapped in the language of “reason.” Entitled “Path to Prosperity: Flexible Labour Markets,” Hudak proposed ditching the Rand Formula and transforming Ontario into a “right to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Progressives and Regressives
Yesterday, in a short blogpost, Robert Reich put American politics and our own politics in perspective. The real battle, he wrote, is not between Liberal and Conservative. It is between Progressives and Regressives: Regressives want to take this nation backward — to before Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Medicare; before
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Taking The Harper Road
The NDP released its first real attack ad yesterday. It could have been produced in the Conservative war room — at least it looked a lot like what has come out of that war room in the last five years. Lawrence Martin writes: It comes with an ominous voiceover. It
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Has Justin Got "It?"
“It” can be defined a number of ways — intelligence, the common touch, gravitas. The main knock against Justin Trudeau is that he doesn’t have what “it” takes to be Liberal leader. But Lawrence Martin writes that previous leaders — who had “it” — didn’t fare very well: Michael Ignatieff
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: They Don’t Get It
David Olive wrote last week that there are three things this generation of world leaders doesn’t get: The first point is that this is no run-of-the-mill industrial recession. This is a rare financial recession, whose devastation is acute and widespread in the world. To listen to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Mean Place Gets Meaner
Tondra MacCharles reports this morning that, in Canada’s prisons, the number of violent assaults is on the rise: Over the past three years, ending March 31, 2012, the total number of assaults Correctional Services Canada reported behind bars rose from 1,415 in 2009/10, to 1,566 in 2010/11, to 1,669 in
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Stiglitz on Inequality
In Canada, there has not been much comment on an op-ed piece which Joseph Stiglitz published in The Washington Post two weeks ago. Stiglitz examines American economic policy over the last decade. Because Stephen Harper has followed the same policy, Canadians should ponder Stiglitz’ analysis. The data, he writes, are
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Confidence Men
On July 4th, while the Americans were setting off fire works and putting out forest fires, Jeffrey Simpson reports that Conservative cabinet ministers were crisscrossing the country, making spending announcements: Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, was announcing money for John Lewis Industries in La Tuque, Que., at 10 a.m., then
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Too Smart To Stick Around
Pundits of all political stripes were expecting Stephen Harper to shuffle his cabinet this summer. Bev Oda left the cabinet yesterday and Julian Fantino replaced her. The shuffle was a fizzle. Why did Harper not deal the country another hand of cards? The truth is, no matter how he shuffles
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