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 readingAuthor: Owen Gray
Northern 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
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Country For Old Men
On Tuesday, at the Museum of Civilization, David Frum argued in favour of the proposition that Pierre Trudeau was “Canada’s most disastrous prime minister:”Pierre Trudeau was a spending fool. He believed in a state-led economy, and the longer he lasted…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Contempt Continues
After last spring’s election, the optimists among us hoped that — with a secure majority — we would see a kinder, gentler government. Those optimists hoped for more mutual respect among the parties. But Jack Layton’s death was a harbinger of things t…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Marching Backward
When it comes to foreign policy, Canada has traveled a great distance since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister. Lester Pearson would not recognize his country.There was no greater supporter of Israel than Pearson. But the man who won the Nobel Prize …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Not Seeing The Trees For The Forest
Paul Krugman’s analysis of the European Debt Crisis, in this morning’s New York Times should be required reading — not just for the movers and shakers in Europe, but for our own so called wise men. Krugman’s critics on the right accuse him of fi…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Black Is White
Janice Kennedy has accurately described what has happened to Canada during the Harper years. She writes that “a good country is being turned into a sad joke.” Reviewing Stephen Harper’s immigration policy, his military swagger and his “tough on crime” …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Righteous Are In Charge
Someday, historians will cite what Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said this week as the Harper Government’s Mission Statement. Nicholson declared that, “We’re not governing on the basis of the latest statistics. We’re governing on the basis of what’s r…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Rich Have Declared That The Poor Are The Enemy
When President Obama proposed higher taxes on the very wealthy this week, Republicans were apoplectic. Once again, they screamed, “Class Warfare.” A look at the numbers exposes that lie. Paul Krugman writes in this morning’s New York Times that:D…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The New Normal
Lawrence Martin has an interesting rejoinder to Stephen Harper’s claim that — economically speaking — Canada is at the head of the G8 pack. If you look at Canada’s economic record from an historical perspective, there is little to applaud:In an…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: A Just Society?
The phrase was Pierre Trudeau’s, and it caught on. Canadians like to think of themselves as citizens of a Just Society. Certainly, they believe, things are better here than in the United States. But, Carol Goar wrote recently, we have been emulating ou…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Triumph of Incompetence
Lawrence Martin weighs in this morning on the subject of Bob Dechert and the company he keeps. John Baird’s parliamentary secretary, writes Martin,showed such poor judgment in entering into that kind of relationship [with an agent of the Xinhua News Ag…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: And So It Begins
As The House of Commons opens its doors after the summer recess, John Ibbitson writes in this morning’s Globe and Mail that:Nothing on the fall agenda should surprise anyone. Most of the bills have been introduced before, only to be beaten back b…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Stupid Party
The late Irving Kristol — the godfather of Neo Conservatism — once referred to the Republican Party as “The Stupid Party.” In today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd uses the same epithet to describe a party which has been thoroughly Kristolized.The pre…
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Top Down
The central tenet of trickle down economics is that the benefits of strong support for those at the top of the system will eventually drip down to those at the bottom. The late John Kenneth Galbraith, who grew up on a farm on the northern shore of Lake…
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