By the Jurist: But it won’t be so easy to make up for any questions about unsure political footing once a new leader faces a Con government eager to spread banana peels everywhere then run attack ads about a lack of balance. Which is why Nash has gone from being
Continue readingMorton's Musings: The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Analysis – Nathan Cullen
Nathan Cullen has managed to put together than some observers (myself included) expected when he first raised the idea of joint nominations as a campaign centrepiece – and all while emphasizing that controversial proposal. But has he overcome the initial concerns? 1. What direction will he set for the NDP?
Continue readingIt’s #ndpldr Voting Time
Starting today members of the NDP (New Democratic Party) will start to receive their voting information in the mail. Members can choose to vote immediately upon receiving their information. Below are the details on how to vote as released from Leadership 2012 How To Vote There are four ways you can vote for the next
Continue readingStupid Sex Tricks: Wear it, (over)share it
When I first saw the headline for this Glamour piece, I have to admit, my mind jumped to all kinds of dystopian conclusions: Love-gloves with a built-in nanochip that automatically activates when the rubber gets used, and spills all the dirty deets of your deed to a breathlessly waiting Internet?
Continue readingcmkl: Sigh. I’ll say it. I don’t think Thomas Mulcair is a New Democrat
I’ve got friends and acquaintances in pretty much everyone’s campaign these days. So I’m going to disappoint someone I’m sure when I say that I can’t believe anyone who would be comfortable serving in Jean Charest’s cabinet could turn around and call themselves a New Democrat and be taken seriously,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Alert! Episode 205
Sara Flounders, Director of the International Action Centre debunks the myth that Iran poses a nuclear threat and reveals that money and oil and containing Iran’s role as a regional Middle East power are the real motives behind the interventions under discussion. Noted Canadian author Yves Engler discusses Canada’s interest
Continue readingkirbycairo: Our taunting PM…..
I find Harper’s reaction to the robo-con scandal remarkable. He expressed no real concern, no hint that something is really wrong, and simply taunts and excoriates the opposition saying “Prove it!” He claims that conservatives weren’t behind the calls, even though it would be absurd for anyone else to have been behind
Continue readingImpolitical: A short C-30 video
“OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis and Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian debate whether the powers proposed in Bill C-30 are needed to battle cybercrime. More at: http://bit.ly/wvdZLb.”
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: The Six "S" of Scandal Stickiness
This time last year, the Tories found themselves engulfed in scandal – Carson, Contempt, In & Out, Oda… The opposition parties were licking their chops at the prospect of bringing the government down. We all know how that turned out. The scandals didn’t stick, and the result was a Tory
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How Heartland-style Climate Sceptic Campaigns Play "Hide the Deniers" Using Secretive Fund
donorscapital.jpg A LOW–PROFILE funding organisation acting as a middleman for wealthy conservative businesspeople has been quietly backing climate denial campaigns across the US. The Virginia-based Donors Capital Fund and its partner organisation Donors Trust has been giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups blocking attempts to limit greenhouse gas pollution
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Rick Mercer Has Harper’s Number
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Continue readingGeoff at Mount Allison: Using social media to get a job: Is Going Above and Beyond the New Standard?
Earlier this month, I wrote an article for The Argosy on a 4th-year student Daniel Hebert who did more the standard writing a cover letter with a resume when he applied for a job at Radian6. For those who think the dead-tree resume is nearing the end of its life,
Continue readingImpolitical: Elections Canada expands their investigation of robocall scandal
Or, if you speak Harper, it means that the “smear campaign” by sore losers is being investigated beyond Guelph and will now include calls made at the RMG call centre in Thunder Bay. CBC reported a little while ago on Power and Politics that Elections Canada is now looking at
Continue readingThings Are Good: Diversity is Good for the Economy
The benefits of having a diverse workplace and a diverse community are obvious, but it always helps if some researchers back up these common-sense positions with helpful facts and demonstrated success. For those who champion diversity initiatives you’ll be pleased to know that a diverse workforce can mean $630 more
Continue readingThe Left Stuff: My country’s political system has fallen down and it can’t get up.
“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” Stephen Harper while Leader of the Opposition as quoted in the Globe and Mail Feb 26/12 Contrast the above statement by Stephen Harper with this opinion of the
Continue readingThe Left Stuff: My country’s political system has fallen down and it can’t get up.
“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” Stephen Harper while Leader of the Opposition as quoted in the Globe and Mail Feb 26/12
Contrast the above statement by Stephen Harper with this opinion of the same Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party of Canada and its possible connection to irregularities with the 2011 Canadian federal election as written by Andrew Coyne (hardly a “pinko lefty”) and reported in the Victoria Times-Colonist Feb 28/12
“In the case of the federal Conservatives, that predisposition to expediency is overlaid with a swaggering, bullying style, yet one that betrays a deep insecurity: the insecurity of a party that, for good reasons and bad, believes the system – the media, the bureaucracy, the judiciary – is stacked against it.
It is a party that believes it has had to fight twice as hard to get where it is, a belief that has only hardened through each of the many compromises it has made on the way. The progression is sadly familiar. Having first compromised its beliefs, a party finds it is easier to compromise its principles; having compromised its principles, it learns to compromise its ethics; and compromises of ethics, as we have seen in other parties, lead sooner or later to compromises with the law.”
So why should I believe anything that comes out of his mouth? (BTW, I don’t). Why should I believe in a political system that allows a bald-faced liar to become the so-called leader of my country? (I don’t do that either). And why should I participate in a system that I don’t believe in and that is broken beyond redemption? (So far, I do).
The only reason I can think of is that there is no obvious alternative to politics in place to pin our hopes on. Even so, I see no reason at all to have any hope for the electoral/political system now in place in Canada. It has been hijacked, stolen, abused, misused, broken and corrupted to the point that it is now an almost useless remnant of what was put together by committee 145 years ago.
Actually, there is an alternative, one that has been used by disenfranchised citizens around the world for millennia – Revolution. Revolution can be civil, non-violent, inclusive, empowering, unifying and effective. There is an excellent model to follow in the Occupy Wall Street movement which is bringing people together against oppression worldwide. And there is a specific issue to coalesce around in the hugely detrimental development of the Alberta tarsands and its attendant infrastructure of pipelines and tankers.
So, individual citizens CAN make a difference if they are willing to take some risk. If they are not, they will get whatever the elite let them have and will have no justification for complaint.
Postscript:
“Public faith in the 2011 vote is gone” is the headline of an article in today’s Vancouver Sun Feb 29/12.
MY WEBSITE — ANewHumanity.CA
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Continue readingThe Left Stuff: My country’s political system has fallen down and it can’t get up.
“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” Stephen Harper while Leader of the Opposition as quoted in the Globe and Mail Feb 26/12 Contrast the above statement by Stephen Harper with this opinion of the
Continue readingOminous prediction from Andrew Sullivan re: Netanyahu vs. Obama
I guess it depends on what Andrew means by “get rid of Obama soon”. But I think we know exactly what he means. Shudder. Here’s a prediction. Netanyahu, in league and concert with Romney, Santorum and Gingrich, will make his move to get rid of Obama soon. And he will
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