As first lady of Syria, do you approve of your country’s continual shelling of the city of Homs, your father’s hometown? If so, I don’t understand why.
Continue readingkirbycairo: Will Thomas Mulcair (out of necessity) become our own Harper?
I believe that Harper and his bullies have poisoned our political culture in what might be a more or less permanent way. Even if we can escape this atmosphere of anger, hatred, attack, and offensiveness, it will take many years and a concerted effort lasting many years by a large
Continue readingcmkl: Dirty hospitals: horror shows about cleaning, cutbacks and privatization
CBC Marketplace has a really compelling exposé of the effects of cutbacks to and privatization of hospital cleaning. Astounding. Cleaners who used to have responsibility for one floor now cleaning three. People given 15 minutes to clean a room that normally takes an hour.
Continue readingFar and Wide: Rae Reacts To Mulcair On Co-operation
I’m a bit surprised how little attention Bob Rae’s appearance on Question Period today is receiving. Worth a view, because if I’m reading it correctly, Rae seems to be taking his co-operation cues from Mulcair, almost reactionary in tone, rather than unilaterally rejecting outright. Here is the exchange: Oliver referenced
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Religious Beliefs in the Public Square
Richard Dawkins provocatively suggests that the superstitious religious beliefs of politicians should be more openly challenged. “You challenge a candidate about his beliefs about taxation, about military policy, and so on; why don’t you challenge his beliefs about what he thinks about the universe and the world?” “As a voter,
Continue reading"Fucking coons" a "term of endearment"? The smearing of Trayvon Martin.
Right media’s new job: no brown Skittles allowed! Trayvon Martin, a victim in death as he was in life on the night he was killed by an overzealous and perhaps racist self-professed cop of the streets, is being vilified and murdered all over again by the right, the media and the assassin’s lawyer. You
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Bearded, Women, Leaders
It’s been 70 years since a major party leader had a beard, over 110 years since an opposition leader had one. A century ago facial hair used to be quite common, in Parliament and out. The NDPs selection of the bearded Thomas Mulcair as Leader makes one wonder, if beards
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Globe and Mail Pronounces on the NDP
Well, I guess the rest of us can stop thinking, now that John Stackhouse and the lads over at the Globe and Mail have done it for us. NDP: still not a credible alternative reads the title of their editorial. Could it be that ‘the paper of record’ which consistently
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – pogge rounds up last week’s news on the Robocon front – while the outside attack on the NDP’s leadership vote suggests that the block-the-vote crowd isn’t limiting its work to general elections. – Meanwhile, Dave connects some dots between the Harper Cons, the
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Note to Bob Rae: Get a little tougher
We have been hearing that the Liberals won’t take any more crap from the Conservative attack machine: Rae has said that he is prepared to give as good as he gets. Rae is such an effective and feisty politician that I believed him. Then we had our first Conservative attack
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Three Weaknesses of the Mulcair NDP that the Harper Tories will attack
Congratulations to the NDP for having over 60,000 members of the party involved in electing their new leader, and for using an advanced preferential vote system coupled with a live convention and with real-time opportunity for members to cast votes on a ballot by ballot basis. Thomas Mulcair will now
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Shout-Out to Young Women
Picture the Isobel Bolton Hockey League finals, Blue team against White. Blue had been the best team from the beginning of the season. But White came from behind, improving week by week until they were facing Blue in the final game. My older daughter M was on White; a classmate
Continue readingWho Was The First FedCon Operative Hired By Christy Clark?
YouKeepOnUsingThatWord,’Liberal’ IDoNotThinkItMeansWhatYouSayItMeansVille Look. We all know that the ‘BC Liberal’ Party is a misnomer. In that they really are ‘Liberal In Name Only’ (ie. ‘LINO’). Which is, on the surface at least, fair enough if they are a true coalition of ‘Everybody That Is Not A Dipper’, which makes for
Continue readingOkay, We have Mulcair
After a long seven months, the NDP have a new leader. Thomas Mulcair survived four ballots, gaining ground on each successive ballot. In they end he won with 57% to 43% for runner up Brian Topp. Mulcair after being elected leader Now the NDP will see the return to
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Thomas Mulcair and the Road to Victory
It was the result I was hoping for, the only real choice the NDP could have made. For Thomas Mulcair is the only leader that can win back support in Quebec from the Bloc, without which everything else would be in vain. He is the only one who can make
Continue readingStaffroom Confidential: From public to private: a subtle path
There was some nasty commentary this week in the Province because a BC teacher compared Bill 22 to Nazi germany. It was pretty ripe coming from a newspaper that had itself, a few short months earlier, compared teachers to Hitler in a cartoon. But despite the perhaps ill conceived comparison,
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Everybody is overreacting
So Mulcair has been elected leader of the NDP. His supporters are saying he is the greatest thing since sliced bread, that he is the only one who had a chance of rallying Quebec or of standing up to Harper, and that a centrist tilt such as they expect from
Continue readingImpolitical: Change under Mulcair
Just wanted to note this nugget in a CBC report on NDP changes now that Mulcair is leader: B.C. MP Peter Julian will be caucus chair and Anne McGrath will remain chief of staff during the transition before leaving in June. But Brad Lavigne, who was the party’s national director
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Buggy Stealth Buggy
Okay, the F-35 isn’t a buggy, it’s a bomb truck – a very buggy flying bomb truck. The F-35 has had more than its share of lurches, stumbles and controversy along its path to become the most overpriced, overdue and underperforming fighter aircraft in history. Originally intended to be operational
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