I’m happy to announce new findings that show that if BC returns to the old Provincial Sales Tax (PST) following the referendum, probably as many as 12 million jobs will be created. This estimate is based on Sixth Estate’s personal exploration of how economics is a worthless bullshit profession which only gets worse when you […]
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The Sixth Estate: Thoughts on the Clement Pic and the Parliament Hill Farce
If you haven’t seen it yet, there is no reason to read about the media’s self-created ridiculous prefab controversy over whether corrupt Treasury Board president Tony Clement should or shouldn’t have snapped a romantic photo of William and Kate watching the Parliament Hill fireworks. Maybe he shouldn’t. But then, maybe he shouldn’t have siphoned tens […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Fraser Institute on Poor People’s Health Insurance: “Let Them Eat Cake!”
Yesterday I reported on a new Fraser Institute study by Brett Skinner and Mark Rovere, noting that the existing government drug system does not serve poor people well and claiming that the best way to fix the system is to make it harder for Canada to check whether drugs are safe and harder for poor […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Fraser Institute Tries New Ethical Disclosure Tack in Bid to Promote Private Healthcare, Fails Miserably
The Fraser Institute’s latest propaganda piece is Access Delayed, Access Denied, an attempt to solve the very real problem of delayed access to important new medications in Canada by bogus methods, like more private insurance and less Canadian inspection of new drugs. This is a very silly idea, and I’ll get into that tomorrow, but […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: New Documents: A Record of Abandoned Promises: Election Platforms Since 2000
This week’s Sixth Estate Document Collection update is a record of futile and abandoned promises: the major political parties’ election platforms of the past ten years. Election platforms are not, or at least not always, a summary of the actual political beliefs of a political party’s leadership. Instead, they’re a statement that those leaders think […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Government of Canada Issues Statement Opposing the Alphabet
Or so I’m forced to conclude from this press release, in which new foreign affairs minister John Baird appears to express surprise and dismay at the “appointment” of North Korea to the presidency of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament. Baird says Canada will “immediately review” whether to withdraw in protest from the Conference. Now, […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Returns as Conservatives Reward Ridings
I apologize for dropping off the face of the planet over the past week. I’ve been swamped with work on a research contract and, even for crazy left-wing loonies like myself, sometimes there really is work to do. However, I’m back now. To show you I haven’t been doing just nothing, I’m updating the Pork […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Postmedia Attempts to Spin Asbestos Controversy
Here’s a strategy question for would-be journalists: given that the Mulroney government was pro-asbestos, should you attempt to cover the current asbestos controversy by pointing out that Conservatives have a history of supporting this cancer-causing industry, or by pointing out that one of the Mulroney ministers responsible was Jack Layton’s father, Robert? If you’re Postmedia, […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: William Watson Says Scrap Public Programs — Even When They Work Well
Sometimes the right-wing columnists which populate our supposedly left-wing mainstream media get truly bizarre. Witness, for instance, today’s asinine free-marketeering in the Ottawa Citizen by William Watson, who offer the absurd and even pathetic market that even though EI programs successfully helped laid-off workers during the recession, we should get rid of them anyways to […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Harper Cabinet Minister Opposes Asbestos Policy… But Only After He Retires
The declaration by former Harper regime Cabinet minister Chuck Strahl that he agrees the government should list asbestos as a carcinogen is a welcome one, but it’s also a highly suspicious one. It’s public knowledge (if not widely disseminated public knowledge) that Strahl has been through the ringer on this. He was diagnosed with terminal […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: National Post-Endorsed Journal Recognizes Threat of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
Last week, the National Post said that the journal Climatic Change was an important and valid source for information on the climate change “scare.” They said this because of literally 10% of the articles in that journal — specifically, an article suggesting Venice would suffer less from sea level rise than first thought. It’s worth […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Media Misses New Report from Information Commissioner: Nearly Half of Information Requests Processed Illegally
Appallingly, all but CTV appears to have missed this week’s tabling of the annual report of the Information Commissioner, which makes for disturbing if characteristically dry reading. I’ll admit, I would have missed it myself but for the appearance of a fluff piece on the government newswire, claiming that the report highlighted “efforts to reverse […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: When You Don’t Know Your History, You’re Bound to Make Up S@@t
“God give our land a Conservative majority…” Every time I read the press’s lamentable suggestions that left-wing anarchists caused the Vancouver Riot this week (a talking point they loyally picked up from the Vancouver police), I’m reminded of the decidedly right-wing idiot behind me belting out his modified lyrics to O Canada at the last […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: The Rule of Law and the Harper Regime Forced Labor Laws
Apparently what the Conservatives meant by “small government” during this spring’s election was “government so small it can dictate terms of employment to people even when they are not government employees.”
It’s wor…
The Sixth Estate: National Post’s “Junk Science” Week Disgraceful
Normally, I’m all for Junk Science critiques. I even do them myself from time to time — when the Government of Canada sees fit to promote homeopathy, for instance. But the National Post‘s Junk Science week, sadly, is precisely the opposite. What they’re doing is promoting Junk Science this week, not criticizing it. Sadly, I […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Lobbyist Watch 2: Ministers for Sale
A couple weeks ago I started tracking new registrations by lobbyists, professional political activists who make their living attempting to make sure that politicians and top bureaucrats are at the beck and call of whoever has the cash to buy them. The most interesting appearance in this update: Ian Brodie, Stephen Harper’s late chief of […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Former Harper Minister Monte Solberg Calls Layton “The Ax-Weilding Loon Who Lives Below”
The Conservatives, at their recent convention Blue Party, apparently played the “media hates us” card, something the Sixth Estate Media Bias Project conclusively disproved last month. More proof arrived today in the form of this deranged screed in the Ottawa Sun, in which former Harper Cabinet minister and 15-year Reform-Alliance-Conservative MP Monte Solberg refers to […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Pork Barrel 2: Liberals, Conservatives Come Out Ahead
My last post in this series was published May 30. Since then, there have been 15 new spending announcements on News.gc.ca. Of those, 60% of announcements, but 94% of funding, went to Conservative ridings. It’s too early to call this out as any sort of manipulation, mind you. 60% is barely within the range of […]
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