The Star is reporting that Natural Resources Minister Joe (‘radicals are threatening the tarsands’) Oliver’s riding of Eglinton-Lawrence may have been the scene of another electoral crime, this one involving the last-minute rush of previously unregistered voters who cast ballots in the last federal election. Veteran Liberal MP Joe Volpe
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: The Cremation of Canadian Democracy – With apologies to Robert Service
There are strange things done ‘neath the Canadian sunBy politicians lusting for power;The backroom boys have their techno-toysThat would make your blood go sour;The ballot boxes have seen sly foxes,But the slyest they ever did seeWas on election day, the second of MayWhen they butchered democracy. In two thousand eleven,
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: The Cremation of Canadian Democracy – With apologies to Robert Service
There are strange things done ‘neath the Canadian sunBy politicians lusting for power;The backroom boys have their techno-toysThat would make your blood go sour;The ballot boxes have seen sly foxes,But the slyest they ever did seeWas on election day, t…
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: The Cremation of Canadian Democracy – With apologies to Robert Service
There are strange things done ‘neath the Canadian sunBy politicians lusting for power;The backroom boys have their techno-toysThat would make your blood go sour;The ballot boxes have seen sly foxes,But the slyest they ever did seeWas on election day, the second of MayWhen they butchered democracy. In two thousand eleven,
Continue readingChronicles of a Pure Laine: Times are good for Sovereigntists
Three months ago, The Globe and Mail headlined: “Sovereignty on its death bed in Québec” (click here to read my reaction to it). The underlying premise to such a statement is the conclusion much of the English press has reached by equating support for sovereignty with the demise of the
Continue readingChronicles of a Pure Laine: Times are good for Sovereigntists
Three months ago, The Globe and Mail headlined: “Sovereignty on its death bed in Québec” (click here to read my reaction to it). The underlying premise to such a statement is the conclusion much of the English press has reached by equating support for sovereignty with the demise of the
Continue readingChronicles of a Pure Laine: Times are good for Sovereigntists
Three months ago, The Globe and Mail headlined: "Sovereignty on its death bed in Québec" (click here to read my reaction to it). The underlying premise to such a statement is the conclusion much of the English press has reached by equating support for sovereignty with the demise of the Bloc Québécois. This conclusion doesn’t hold.A CROP survey, conducted in the weeks that followed the Bloc’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: China: Rise, Fall and Re-Emergence as a Global Power
John Hobson’s brilliant historical survey of the world economy during this period provides an abundance of empirical data making the case for China’s economic and technological superiority over Western civilization for the better part of a millennium prior to its conquest and decline in the 19th century. China’s re-emergence as
Continue readingcmkl: Happy International Women’s Day to all the women in my life
Friends, family, comrades, co-workers, store clerks, waiters, all. So much progress made, so much more to do. Personally and politically.
Continue readingTalking about public debt: dumb, dumber and dumbest
As austerity is all the rage among policy making elites I thought it would be a good time to talk about ways of measuring public debt. Here I will deal with the dumb way, the dumber way and dumbest way … Continue reading →
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Utah Proposes Anti-Gay Censorship Bill
The Utah state senate has voted in favour of a bill forbidding discussion of homosexuality in classrooms, even if a question was posed by a student. Other jurisdictions are now reportedly considering legislation forbidding discussion of Utah.
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Why Nobody Believes the Conservative Talking Points on the RoboCon Scandal.
Mere days ago the Conservative Party finally admitted their guilt in the “In & Out” election fraud scandal (remember that the Conservative Party headquarters was raided by the RCMP.) Months ago, the Conservative Party admitted that they paid to make phone calls in Mount Royal (saying Irwin Cotler was going
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Pooled Registered Pension Plans
PRPPs – or what I prefer to call Mr. Flaherty’s Inferior Pension Plan or FLIP- are a poor alternative to the option of expanding the Canada Pension Plan. Unlike the CPP, PRPPs will not provide a defined pension benefit in retirement; there is no required employer contribution; there is no
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Are Canada’s conservatives a house divided?
Here’s a question dear reader. Are you conservative or liberal? It might seem a straight forward question, but I imagine responses would vary widely based on the context of the question. Are we talking about political parties, money, human rights…all three? In terms of party politics, the Conservatives are hot.
Continue readingCuriosityCat: NDP Leader: Nathan Cullen is the best choice for Canada
The biggest problem facing Canada right now is the apparent contempt for upholding our democratic rights that the current Harper new Tory government has. This contempt is shown in the prorogations of the recent past; the attacks upon the independence of civil servants; the evasion shown in question period in
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: The First Look at Redford’s Playbook
That sound you hear is the unofficial starting gun on Alberta’s 2012 election, as the PCs launch their first round of negative ads, under the familiar “Danielle Smith: Not Worth the Risk” tagline. The immediate reaction by most has been similar to Don Braid’s: In my prehistoric memory, the Tories
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland has Long History of Blowing Smoke
Joe Camel ad.jpg One of the most bizarre reactions to the St. Valetines Day Striptease, in which the Heartland Institute was tempted by a mild-mnannered scientist to completely expose itself – its strategies, funders and plans for the new year – is the complaint by "neutral" observers like Judith Curry
Continue reading350 or bust: In Honour of International Women’s Day, Let’s Stop Harming and Start Helping
It’s International Women’s Day, a good time to reflect on the fact that women around the globe are, and will be in the future, disproportionately affected by the effects of a changing climate. Oxfam lists the ways that climate change affects women – and consequently children: Women are more likely
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