According to every poll and every projection by every firm and every commentator, Christy Clark and her Liberal Party are about to be handed an unbalanced ass-whooping of the sort we British Columbians seem to enjoy dishing out to governing parties once every decade or so. Naturally, when this happens,
Continue readingAuthor: Song of the Watermelon
Song of the Watermelon: Of Petrostates and Patriotism
If Alison Redford gets to define Canadian patriotism, then I don’t want to be patriotic. The Alberta premier yesterday accused federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair of “a fundamental betrayal of Canada’s long-term economic interests” after the latter took a trip to DC in what is being widely interpreted as an
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Thoughts on the New Israeli Government
On the same day that the world erupted in joyous, teary-eyed celebration following the selection of a new pope, a slightly less climactic breakthrough was reached thousands of kilometres away as four Israeli political parties, nearly two months after elections, quietly decided to form a coalition government. Right away, the
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Whipped Votes, Floor Crossing, and the Perils of Party Discipline
In Ottawa’s latest uptick of political drama, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair called on MP Claude Patry to resign his seat Thursday, after the latter joined the Bloc Quebecois. Noting that Patry, while still a New Democrat, voted with the rest of the caucus last year to ban the practice of
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Barack Obama and John Kerry
Dear President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry: As a concerned Canadian, I am writing to urge you to reject TransCanada’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline for purposes of transporting dirty oil from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries in the United States. I assure you that
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Some Thoughts on the BC Budget
Five months ago, I predicted that the Liberal government of British Columbia would fail in its effort to balance the 2013 budget. Notwithstanding this week’s boastful headlines to the contrary, the jury is still out. I will not assert, as many others have done, that the surplus is purely fictional,
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Vancouver Sun Letter
Please see today’s Vancouver Sun — or click here — for my latest letter to the editor. This one is about BC Premier Christy Clark’s efforts to raise government revenue via liquefied natural gas production. As regular readers might expect, I am not exactly on board.
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Carrots and Sticks: How to Fund Public Transit
If we as a planet are going to avoid passing over the two-degree threshold of runaway climate change, we are going to have to start rationing greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency gains in transportation will inevitably need to be part of that project. Put another way, emissions per person per kilometre
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Quebec, Referendums, and Formulas for Secession
National unity is back in the news after the NDP tabled a private member’s bill yesterday, a bill that would repeal the Clarity Act and set the bar for Quebec sovereignty negotiations at a mere 50 percent plus one in a clearly worded referendum. We all know what that means.
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Chimpanzee Literature
I appear to be becoming somewhat of a literary one-hit wonder (defining “hit” rather expansively, of course). While most of my short stories continue to suffer delays and rejections (ain’t that the name of the game!), “The Assembly of Equals” has just received publication for a third time today —
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Israel’s Election Results and the Prospects for Peace
Yair Lapid Well, that wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. Sadly, Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly remain prime minister of Israel after his Likud party and its electoral partner Yisrael Beiteinu won a plurality of seats in Knesset elections today. But their share has gone down sharply since the
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Playing to the Left: Joyce Murray and the Liberal Leadership Race
I still have nothing to say about golden boy Justin Trudeau. For the life of me, I cannot seem to form an opinion of the man one way or the other. Nice hair, I guess. But meh. In the wake of yesterday’s Liberal Party of Canada leadership debate, Joyce Murray
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Fanatics, Zealots, Warmongers, and Peaceniks: Israel’s Crowded Electoral Landscape
Haneen Zoabi Due perhaps to my Jewish identity and my family’s history, Israel tends to be the country whose politics I follow most closely apart from Canada’s and the United States’. Nevertheless, there is a giant gulf separating numbers one and two from number three. My understanding of Israeli parties,
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Three New Year’s Resolutions for Canada
I have never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions. The practice always struck me as little more than an excuse to put off self-improvement until next year. But now, with year’s end upon us, and solutions nowhere in sight for the host of problems that we face as a
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Mass Shootings by the Numbers
Over three-quarters of the firearms used to carry out mass shootings in the United States since 1982 were obtained legally. How on Earth can there not be a national discussion on gun control? And to those gun advocates who say that tragedy ought not to be politicized, that we need
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Emerging Consensus on Gay Marriage
Assuming that the world survives this coming December 21, the United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases in June which could result in the nation-wide legalization of gay marriage. I cannot forecast with certainty how the court will decide, but supposing for a moment that it
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: On the Latest School Shooting: Symptoms, Disease, and Gun Control
With every problem, there are symptoms and there is the disease. In the wake of yet another mass shooting in the United States today — this one leaving twenty-seven dead at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school — the disease, clearly, is the culture of violence that pervades the country, and
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Two-State Twilight
For many years, I have felt that, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were an exaggeration. Yes, Israel has been unyielding in its expansion of settlements in the West Bank in clear violation of international law, effectively dividing the already-slight
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Environmental Rights and Canada’s Constitution
Our Conservative government’s recent penchant for gutting several decades’ worth of environmental rules all at once using the stealthy technique of omnibus legislation is no secret. Given this depressing reality, some Canadian environmentalists yearn to ground conservation in something more … Continue reading →
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Montreal Gazette Letter
Joel Lion, Israel’s Consul-General in Montreal, wrote an op-ed in the Montreal Gazette detailing the virtuous lengths Israel goes to in order to avoid civilian casualties in its unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza Strip. At the urging of Canadians for … Continue reading →
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