“It’s perfectly possible for a man to lead a comfortable, indeed enviable life by any objective standard, yet be consumed with bitterness driven by status anxiety.” Dr. Paul Krugman in a NY Times article He goes on: “This sort of high-end resentment, the anger of highly privileged people who nonetheless
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Democracy Under Fire: Our Unsung Hero.
Now that much of the initial commentary on the US – Canada – Mexico trade deal has run its course and the usual right wing suspects continue to nit pick the few things that were not resolved 100% in our favor its time to thank our team for their work.
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Municipal Government Vulnerability
Lost among the back-and-forth political battles between Ford and Toronto city council is that municipalities are not constitutionally protected as sovereign levels of government in Canada. As a federal state, Canada is a confederation of two co-equal levels of sovereign government: provincial and federal. But municipalities fall under the jurisdictions
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Majority not enough for Ford.
The PCs are moving to change the legislature’s rules of procedure, formally called the standing orders. These rules control such things as when bills can be introduced, when opposition parties get to put forward motions, and how much debate must take place before a bill goes to a final vote. The
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: An Abuse of Power
Last Sunday an open letter signed by about 400 Ontario legal professionals was sent to Attorney General Caroline Mulroney asking that she not support the use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause. “We, the undersigned members of the legal community, are writing this open letter to you because your office is
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Fordocracy in Action
“Democracy is going every four years to elect a government…without worrying about your mandate being overturned,” said Mr. Ford. No Mr Premier that’s Fordocracy or if you prefer Dougocracy our Canadian democracy is much more than electing a new government every few years, it is a living reflection of the
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: About That Gravy Train…
Bob Reynolds was named as a new chair of the negotiating team, as the Ford government looks to smooth relations between the government and Ontario doctors. Reynolds takes over for Dr. Barry McLellan, who Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet made the decision to fire in early August. McLellan had
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Sen. John McCain Eulogized
“He was a great man,” “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness.” “The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege,” Meghan McCain during
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Another Ford Short Circuit.
Ontario’s government has launched an online portal for parents to report teachers who they believe aren’t following the current curriculum. Teachers who use the previous Liberal government’s sex education curriculum from 2015 will be investigated by the Ontario College of Teachers, Premier Doug Ford’s office said Wednesday. “We will not
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Democracy Versus Populism
“One of the oldest rubs against democracy is that ordinary people aren’t up to the job. And the friends of populism aren’t helping the cause. They’re lining up to throw democracy under the bus in the name of, well, more democracy. The result will surely be less, not more.” So
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Democracy Under Ford (#2)
I struggled with finding a suitable title for this article which it seems may well be the start of a series of observations regarding the high-handedness of the new Ontario authoritarian regime so just went with the previous headline part2! Is it oppression, repression, authoritarian, bullying, despotism, simply high-handedness, all
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Democracy Under Ford?
This blog was started back in 2009 to highlight what I and my then blogging partner viewed as the declining respect for democracy by the then recently elected federal leader , one Stephen Harper. I now find myself appalled to see a similar mind set being displayed by the freshly
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: I’m Tired……
I’m tired of the impossible promises that Doug Fraud keeps spouting, many issued before his newly elected MPs (blindly Con supporters?) had a chance to have any say in the matter. No one could accuse Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government of being unambitious in the agenda set out in its
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Google Blooger Comment Problem
Folks using or replying to posts on Google Blogger should be aware that at least some users are not getting notification of replies to their posts if they have moderation enabled! This has apparently been the case since late May (at least in my case and some other users that
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: New Report on the State of our Democracy.
The Samara Centre for Democracy interviewed 54 former MPs from the last Parliament about their experience in Ottawa and found many of them questioning the very purpose of being an MP in an era when political power is concentrated in the hands of party leaders. The Samara Centre is a
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Tough Choices……
In my final post before Rob Fraud becomes his self appointed gods gift to all of Ontario ……. or will those of us who see through his blather actually gather behind the only other viable choice, one union loving but less corporate embracing NDP candidate? In my own riding
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Voting A B C
I’m voting ABC ….. Any But Conservative ! Whilst I have nothing against our local conservative MPP and actually liked our previous MPP of the same persuasion, one Bill Murdoch now retired after putting the local needs ahead of provincial politics for many years, the new ‘leader’ is something else.
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Promises, promises, promises…
With the Ontario election period rapidly approaching the major political partys are busy trying to buy your votes with your own money (or actually promises to spend it by putting various shiny things in the window) whilst at the same time using ‘creative accounting’ to say how much it will
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Weeding the Garden
“You have to tend to this garden of democracy, otherwise things can fall apart fairly quickly. And we’ve seen societies where that happens,” Former president Barack Obama And we have now seen how quickly that can happen by simply looking to the south of us, no one should think that
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: An Exelent Compromise…..
British Columbia premier, John Horgan, has an eminently reasonable solution to Justin Trudeau’s and Rachel Notley’s pipeline fetish – refine that cruddy bitumen here and sell it on the Canadian market. “If they have disposable billions, I would suggest a better course of action would be to invest in refining
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