When Stephen Harper appointed Angelo Persichilli as his new Director of Communications, he raised eyebrows. Mr. Persichilli is bilingual in a country with two official languages. But Mr. Persichilli’s two languages are English and Italian. All of…
Continue readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern Reflections: The New Scapegoats
Tom Walkom writes this morning that, when times get tough, people look for scapegoats:In Germany after World War I, the scapegoats were Jews. In Canada during the slump of 1919-20, popular anger was taken out on Polish, Finnish, Russian and Ukrainian i…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Scrooge’s Children
Last week, Brian Topp had the temerity to suggest that it was time to raise taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. Jim Flaherty, predictably, called that notion “dreamy.” In the last federal election, none of the parties dared make such a sugg…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: When Mean Rules the Roost
In today’s Washington Post, E. J. Dionne reminds his readers what the Republican Party used to stand for:The Grand Old Party instituted the Homestead Act and created land-grant colleges, the interstate highway system, student loans, the Pure Food and D…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Is The West In Charge?
John Ibbitson wrote in Friday’s Globe and Mail that the ascension of the Harper government confirms a power shift which has been happening in this country for over two decades. “The West,” he writes, “isn’t just in. It’s in charge.”What does this mean …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Suspicion Is The Prime Directive
Jonathan Kay is not a noted critic of the Harper government. But, in Thursday’s National Post, Kay takes aim at Bill C-10, the government’s omnibus crime bill. The Conservatives won a majority by claiming they know how to prudently manage the nation’s …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Mitt’s Pursuit of Futility
Mitt Romney’s pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination has cost him a great deal — a great deal of money, a great deal of time, and a great deal of integrity. At the last candidates’ debate in Nevada, he was in everybody’s sights. His health …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The CIW and GDP
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 readingNorthern 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…
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