Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dan Gardner writes about the Cons’ backup plan of answering their own wrongdoing with criticism of anybody who dares to investigate it – and points out the dangers of that approach: (W)hat happens if Elections Canada delivers a report even a fraction as
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Swiftboating His Opponents
The central problem the opposition parties have with Stephen Harper is that he defines the terms of the debate.He does that, first and foremost, by conducting an eternal campaign. His forces are continually on the attack, defining his opponents as weak, and their policies as un-Canadian. The recently released attack
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: TED speaker looks at the Internet and reimagines government
This is a great video on how the Internet can be used to reimagine the role and process of government so that it’s more open, transparent, engaging and responsive to our needs, rather than the demands of industry lobbyists. Thank you to Andrew William Sampson for posting this on our
Continue readingLeDaro: Senator Rick Santorum race for the Whitehouse
When my kids were very young I used to watch Bugs Bunny Road Runner with them. Poor coyote was never able to catch the Road Runner. Santorum has the same problem as he has no hope in hell to get the Republican nomination. Romney has won Illinois by a double-digit
Continue readingLeaders, leadership and the NDP
My piece in iPolitics: At some point this coming Saturday, all the debates will be over, and the NDP will have a new leader. Disclosure: I’m rooting for Paul Dewar. So read the following through that lens: both on the subject of other folks in the race, and on the
Continue readingTrashy's World: My debate teacher told us that…
… ad hominem attacks were cowardly and used only by those of inferior intellect. And I agree. Yet the CPC doesn’t see it this way. Politics over policy. Attacks over debate. Accusations over cooperation. It’s the Stephen Harper Way. Daniel Veniez penned a good article in iPolitics about the latest
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Toronto Library Strike
As a lifelong user of public libraries (I can still remember the very first book I took out as a child) and one who aspires to practise critical thinking on a regular basis, I feel for the people of Toronto who are now without this invaluable resource. Despite the inability
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The United States and the Inequality Trap
A double-quick quiz to see if need to read this article or not – Is the following statement true? – Egalitarian societies are in general are more economically, socially and politically sound than those where inequality more pronounced. If you answered false go here and evaluate the evidence for
Continue readingwmtc: david suzuki fights back: he needs our help
If you have not already done so, please take a moment and send a letter to the Canadian Senate, calling on them to tone down their offensive rhetoric, and stop trying to marginalize and demonize Canadians who stand up for the future of the country (and the planet) by opposing
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: More Sackings At Sun TV?
Their full schedule page shows this: First Look was Neelam Verma; Newswire was Jacqui Delaney. Couple that with this tweet from Lorne Gunter (National Post): …and I think we have some staff rotation.
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Peter Pan: Worst Spaceman Ever
Alltop is the lost boy of humor.
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Conservative attack ads already? A distraction attempt, I’d say.
Some folks in the media and elsewhere are saying the fact that the Conservatives chose to start running attack ads going after Liberal “still interim” leader Bob Rae means they view him as the de facto next permanent leader and the greater threat then the Opposition NDP’s new leader –
Continue reading350 or bust: The Harper Government’s “Friends With Benefits”
In September 2009, at the G20 summit, Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined world leaders in committing to end government handouts to climate polluters. But the Harper government is still paying Canadian taxpayer’s money to the richest corporations in the world, at the rate of $1.38 BILLION per YEAR, which works
Continue readingMorton's Musings: I was wrong — looks like the shooter was connected to al Qaeda
http://bit.ly/GDpFlT
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: I’m In!
Got my confirming email yesterday, so that makes it official. I’ll be blogging NDP leadership convention this weekend. My prep work is almost complete, and I’m down to choosing which t-shirt to wear on day 2. Any blogging I do will be relatively gentle and non-partisan–like a friendly anthropologist come
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Sun News Tries To Raise Funds
Apparently nobody showed up for Ezra’s Freedom Weekend. You can deduce this from the fact that when you google “Ezra Levant” and “Freedom Weekend” you get basically nothing. Not a single news story, blog-post, tweet, twit-pic…nothing. The gang at FreeD bowed out; the Shaidle’s were busy waving placards in front of a
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Bennett’s telephone call “gendered violence” according to PACSW prez #nlpoli
Most of you likely missed it, but a sharp exchange in Twitter on Monday showed the way politics in this province rolls these days. Dara Squires writes a blog called ReadilyAParent, She’s also syndicated in the Western Star and some of the TransCon weeklies. Dara’s post on Sunday took up
Continue readingIs Mark Steyn One Up On Ann Coulter AND Dick Cheney?
BigTime,He’sOnHisWayHe’sMakin’It Cheney-O-MiteVille Remember when Ann Coulter came to Canada awhile back, in March of 2010, to be more precise? And remember how a single, pointed, intelligent question from a female undergraduate at the University of Western Ontario caused the conservative comedian to first debase herself and her audience before she
Continue readingThe Harper decade
Holy cripes! Yesterday marked ten years since Stephen Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance Party, and the slow march to 24 Sussex. Over at Maclean’s, Paul Wells marks the occasion with an e-book of columns over those ten years, and talks about the man and his rise to power. As we
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