For decades, many economists have noted that GDP is a crude index of a nation’s well being. Yesterday, the University of Waterloo introduced a better idea. The Canadian Index of Well Being (CIW) has been in the works since 1994, when a group of academi…
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: The 21st Century Bickersons
E.J. Dionne writes that last night’s Republican candidates debate was like listening to that popular radio program from the 1940’s, the Bickersons. But instead of Don Ameche and Frances Langford, viewers were treated to Mitt Romney and Rick Perry putti…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Rebranding of Canada
The Harper government has been working overtime to rebrand Canada. They hate what they see as the “mushy middle” which, for nearly one hundred and fifty years, has been the secret of Canada’s success. They view with disdain the two parties that practic…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Life Gets Tough
Paul Krugman writes that the Masters of Wall Street are beginning to whine: “The modern lords of finance look at the protesters and ask, ‘Don’t they understand what we’ve done for the U.S. economy?'” They really do not understand why people are in …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who Will Lead?
We may be at one of those moments when the whole world changes. Like 1848, 2011 may turn out to be a historic year for world governments. David Ignatius writes in Friday’s Washington Post that:What’s intriguing about the eruption of Occup…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Country For The Young
John Ibbitson, in the Globe and Mail, worries about declining voter turnout. In all recent federal and provincial elections, turnout has gone south:Ontario set a grim new standard last week, when only 49 per cent of electors cast ballots in its provinc…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: In Their Sights
Rod Mickleburgh writes in this morning’s Globe and Mail that the Federal Ministry of Labour may soon be a thing of the past. Like the Ministry of the Environment, one suspects that — for the Harper government — both ministries are absolut…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Reverend Mr. Harper
Stephen Harper is a dreadful prime minister. But we would have made a superb minister — the kind who stands smugly in a pulpit. He truly believes he is a member of the elect — and his vocation is to bring everyone else into the promised land.In this …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Answers Are All Behind Them
Ezra Klein, in his analysis of last night’s Republican Candidates debate, writes: “The candidates vying for the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination want to force history backward.” If there is one thing all of them want to do, it is to repeal everythi…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Policy By Other Means
Lawrence Martin’s review of Murray Brewster’s book, The Savage War, illustrates yet again Von Clausewitz’s observation that war is “policy by other means.” Canada got into Afghanistan because the Martin government wanted to appease the United States fo…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Something’s Happening Here
And what it is is increasingly clear. The people who were responsible for the financial crisis of 2008 — and the growing economic inequality of the last thirty years — are starting to get scared.Eric Cantor said last week that “mobs” are now dedicate…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Surveying the Wreckage
Surveying the wreckage of the Conservative campaigns in both Manitoba and Ontario, Andrew Coyne offers this analysis:In short, conservatives in this country, at least of the partisan, capital-C variety, have lost their nerve. They do not believe in the…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Charisma Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
Dalton McGuinty won a third mandate yesterday. Six months ago he was a dead man walking. He will need support from the NDP to keep him upright. But the truth is that the uncharismatic McGuinty will join Oliver Mowat in the history books as only t…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Here They Come
The Occupy Wall Street Protests are moving north. Under the banner “Occupy Toronto,” protesters are due to take to the streets on October 15th. It’s easy to dismiss these folks — as many have — as simply lazy kids with nothing better to do. But, as T…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Prime Minister By Default
Stephen Harper likes to claim that Conservative values are Canadian values. But, if the two provincial elections which have taken place this week — and the one which will take place in Ontario tomorrow — are any indication, Canadians are far from Con…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Buffoon’s Progress
Lawrence Martin writes, in today’s Globe and Mail, that:If you were picking the most valuable player on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s front bench, you wouldn’t be far off in pointing to John Baird, the Foreign Affairs Minister.Baird, writes Marti…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: We Need More George Baileys
Robert Kuttner writes, in today’s Huffington Post, that the Occupy Wall Street protests are a sign of what is to come:For three years, we have been wondering, where is the outrage? For a time, it was co-opted by the Tea Parties — a faux populism, atta…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Costs of Inequality
Alex Himelfarb writes that, like our neighbours to the south, Canadians are falling into The Inequality Trap. And he warns that accepting that trap as a fact will have horrendous consequences:In an extremely unequal society the very rich and corporatio…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Price Of Moral Clarity
Historians will not be kind to Michael Ignatieff. They will point to the collapse of the Liberal Party under his leadership — although, in truth, it was a long time coming. He happened to be there at the fall. But, in the wake of John Baird’s address …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Living In An Insular Universe
Republicans despise Paul Krugman. — which is really not surprising. The official position of the Republican Party on any issue is denial. They are truly living in the Twilight Zone. Since 2000, Krugman writes, Americans have witnessed:the party
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