Nokha Dakrou (Delegate Mississauga-East Cooksville.) The convention that took place this past weekend felt like a much-needed family reunion after a period of mourning and grief. With 3200 delegates present, it was more than I had even hoped for or anticipated. It was difficult to find people amongst the crowds,
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Winnipeg’s North End – the good, the bad and the unspoken
Winnipeg’s fabled North End, long known for its contributions to the arts, popular culture and radical politics, has always had a reputation for being a tough place to grow up. These days, however, crime, violence, gangs and poverty seem to be its defining characteristics, at least in the minds of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: “Real” Youth Unemployment Rate Close to 20%
Statistics Canada’s “real” (R8 supplementary) unemployment rate adds to unemployed persons some labour force dropouts (discouraged job seekers who have given up looking for a job in the belief that no work is available) and the hours of work lost by part-time workers who would rather have worked full-time. In
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Peter Paul & Mary – Blowin in the wind (1966)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6NVcqcRVE&feature=related
Continue readinggritchik: Anti-choice group at it again
Campaign Life Coalition is at it again, handing out a slick flyer this past weekend, full of unattributed “facts,” demanding the government defund abortion because “it is an elective procedure and not medically necessary.” These pro-life zealots don’t believe that abortion should be funded in any case. If the woman
Continue readingthe woodshed: Street curling
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Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Classroom Climate Battle: A New Heavy Hitter Joins the Fray
Teacher-writing-on-blackb-007.jpg For a year now, I’ve been covering the growing fight over the teaching of accurate climate science in American classrooms. The conflict is being driven by politics, of course, but also by the fact that school districts are, increasingly, bringing information about global warming into the educational curriculum—leading, inevitably,
Continue readingCritical Brain Candy: Bob Rae for the Liberal Leadership
I’ve never understood why there was a supposed agreement that Rae wouldn’t run for the leadership. Doesn’t that seem a bit un-democratic? I have no idea if him running would be a good thing, but if he ran and won, who should argue with that?
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The half-bold, half-timid Liberal Party Convention
There are three primary lessons from this Convention. First, the Liberal Party of Canada is well on the way to a renewal that will stun Stephen Harper (who believes he has hammered in the final nail on its coffin with the elimination of direct public political party funding), and disconcert
Continue readingBut Mitt Romney is the moderate one
Palling around with white supremacists? Hey, call it outreach. The GOP is a big tent! [H/t SherryBGood via deBeauxOs]
Continue readingthe woodshed: Oh the weather outside is frightful…
and I don’t have a goddamn fireplace to curl up in front of with a good book while it drizzles outside (Rain? in January? in Canada? Are you shitting me? There ought to be a foot-and-a-half of snow outside by now at least, not this filthy mud.) So I decided
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Lula: Son of Brazil
In the press notes for “Lula: Son of Brazil,” screenwriter Denise Paraná, upon whose biography (originally a PhD dissertation) the script is based, advises: “This is not a political film but a human story about overcoming great odds.” Just so everybody gets the picture, director Fabio Barreto replies as follows
Continue readingThe Enlightened Savage: Leadership in Calgary-Fish Creek
On Saturday, January 14th, my team of dedicated volunteers (whom have dubbed themselves the “O-Team”) and I spent the daylight hours knocking on every door we could find, blanketing 2 communities in Calgary-Fish Creek. I heard a lot of good ideas and strong opinions. About health care. Policing. Seniors care.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Repetition for effect
Since Aaron Wherry has rightly connected the NDP’s response to Lise St-Denis’ floor-crossing to its efforts to engage constituents on other issues, I may as well offer a similar bit of reiteration. So here’s what I had to say last time it was noted that the NDP was working on
Continue readingDarkness falls.
If you want a canuck badge, feel free. <a href="http://americancensorship.org/"><img src="http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p222/Thereal_pale/SOPA.gif”width=400"width=225 /></a> This SOPA thing that has been mostly ignored by the corporate media (some of us would say on purpose, because it seems that many of the big US corporations that run the show are in support of
Continue readingMorton's Musings: No rule that a breaching fiduciary employee must, in all circumstances, be denied compensation in respect of the period of wrongdoing
Mady v. Rossetto, 2012 ONCA 31 holds that a breach of fiduciary duty does not, in itself, disentitle a fiduciary to payment for employment income including bonuses: (2) General principles governing fiduciary relief [18] Fiduciary relief is equitable in nature. The remedies for breach of fiduciary duty are discretionary. They are "dependent
Continue readingThe David Hahn 400…Gone But Not Forgotten.
AllTheCutsThatFit RunFerryRunVille Remember when David Hahn tried to cut sailings rather than executive salaries (and not just his own) to cut the ballooning deficit he and his created? Well, it would appear, based on an the docs released by FOI Request by Peter Ladner’s Business in Vancouver, that he was
Continue readingStaffroom Confidential: School boards discuss ‘net zero’
At least two School Boards discussed motions last night to ask the BC government to bring a new mandate to the provincial bargaining table with teachers. Teachers are seeking increases to keep up with inflation and to catch up with other provinces in Canada. The government has refused to discuss
Continue readingNDP dirty tricks?
What dirt? What tricks? Newly-minted Liberal Lise St-Denis is getting unwelcome phone traffic. Quebec’s Liberal mouthpiece, Denis Coderre, thinks he sees a chance to tar the NDP with the Conservative (US Republican) playbook. Robocalls were made to constituents asking if they were pleased with St-Denis’ jump. And if they weren’t,
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Kyle Peterson: A Biennial Unlike Others
Kyle Peterson (Past candidate, Newmarket-Aurora.) Although I had been to umpteen LPC events since I first joined the Liberal Party in September 1990 at the campus of the University of Western Ontario (where, incidentally, I came to know our new President, Mike Crawley), I was particularly excited about this Biennial.
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