In the wake of Justice Thomas Lederer’s decision last week to overturn the election results in Etobicoke Centre, the Conservatives have filed documents to declare challenges to seven other elections mute. The challenges were filed by the Council of Canadians in the following ridings: Don Valley East in Ontario, won
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: Who Creates Jobs
Yesterday, my son sent me a copy of this TED lecture. It features Nick Hanauer, an American venture capitalist, and is less than six minutes long. Hanauer did not turn my world upside down. He merely confirmed what I already believed. But his exposition was as clear as a Manitoba
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Flaw in Conservative Free Trade
Jim Stanford writes this morning that, as soon as the Harper government won a majority, it began dashing around the world signing free trade deals. But free trade alone does not amount to smart economic policy: There’s a big difference, however, between signing free-trade pacts and actually doing something about
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Summer Of Discontent
The Charest government’s passage of Bill 78 was supposed to return order to Montreal’s streets. But last night, the Globe and Mail reports, The scenes in Montreal unfolded during a tense late-night march that, on several occasions, saw riot police use tear gas and protesters throw bottles and rocks. Student
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Precedent Has Been Set
Yesterday, Ontario Superior Court judge Thomas Lederer overturned the election results in Etobicoke Centre because the number of votes he set aside exceeded the margin of victory for Conservative candidate, Ted Opitz. Lederer wrote that what makes an election victory legitimate is certainty: “We need to be assured that those
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Triumph Of The Sociopaths
Jeffrey Simpson writes that the Harper government should rename the Correctional Service of Canada. He suggests that it now be called Punishment Canada: Just when you think this government’s criminal justice policies, which have been almost universally denounced by experts in the field, can’t get worse, they do. So it
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The People They Don’t See
When Stephen Harper appears on an international stage these days, he likes to toot his own horn. Canada, he says, is the best of the best. But, yesterday, Olivier de Schutter — the United Nations special reporter on the right to food — gave Canadians and the rest of the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Repeating History
Tom Walkom writes this morning that the world economy is on the brink. As in 1931, international austerity has brought us to the tipping point: Then, as now, the watchword among the major world economies was fiscal restraint. Government deficits were up in Canada, the United States and Europe. The
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: It’s The Oil, Stupid
The Harper government’s budget is all about oil. The changes in environmental assessment and employment insurance are all about goosing Canada’s petroleum exports. As an economist, Stephen Harper supposedly learned something about the wisdom of diversification. “But,” Lawrence Martin writes, in the past decade, the clock has been turned back.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Defining Battle
At some point in the future, historians will note that Bill C-38 — the Harper government’s four hundred and twenty page page Budget Implementation Bill — marked the beginning of the end. They will note that the bill sowed the seeds of revolt across the country. They will write about
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Lessons From Europe
Tony Burman offers some important insights into the current situation in Europe. He suggests that there are similarities between 1912 and 2012: No inkling yet of the Great Wars to come or which superpowers will emerge to scar the decades ahead. But there are the first feelings of foreboding that
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Peter Mackay’s Math
We’re again dealing with the problem of Peter Mackay’s math. Yesterday, the Department of National Defence revealed that the “instrumental costs” of the mission to Libya were $106 million. Postmedia reports that: The $100-million figure stood in stark contrast to comments made by MacKay to CBC in late October, when
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Auditors? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Auditors!
In the wake of the F35 boondoggle, The Globe and Mail reports this morning that the office of the Auditor General is cutting staff: The Auditor-General’s office is cutting 10 per cent of its staff – or 60 jobs – and other parts of government are scrapping a wide range
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: About That Foreign Money
Peter Kent has accused environmental organizations of “laundering” foreign money, implying that they are enemies of the state. But, according to the Canada Revenue Agency, the organizations which receive the most foreign support are not focused on the environment. The Canadian Press lists the following organizations as the largest recipients
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Vaughn Report
The Harper government rues the day it appointed Kevin Page to the office of Parliamentary Budget Officer. Today, it must also wish that Scott Vaughn had never been appointed Environment Commissioner. Both men have fearlessly reported on the central thread that runs through the present government — fraud. Yesterday, Vaughn
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Seal Of Approval
It has long been evident that both Stephen Harper’s cabinet and caucus are trained seals. With Pavlovian discipline, they have been trained to honk on cue. However, yesterday marked a new low in the annals of Canadian democracy. Andrew Scheer, the Speaker of the House, became the First Seal Among
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Sad Difference
Nowhere is the difference between the Harper Conservatives and the Progressive Conservatives more apparent than in the area of foreign policy. Consider what former prime minister — and foreign affairs minister — Joe Clark wrote over the weekend: The critical talents, in [our] world, are the ability to respect and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Such Exquiste Timing
I doubt that Stephen Harper reads anything that Robert Reich writes. But, as a trained economist, the prime minister might take a look at Reich’s most recent blogpost. Reich writes that the most recent American job numbers signal that the American economy has stalled: Most of the job gains in
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Let The Bells Ring
The Harper government is intent on passing its 421 page Budget Implementation Bill in seven days. If Stephen Harper were the Leader of the Opposition, he would be up in arms. In fact, as Leader of the Opposition, he was. “In the interest of democracy,” he fumed, I ask how
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Distorting History
On the thirtieth anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Harper government made no mention of the event — other than to point out that the germ of the Charter was contained in John Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights. The Harper version of history is highly selective. It ignores
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