Glen McGregor at the Ottawa Citizen put an article up yesterday to report on spending by unions on federal election advertising. Using "newly-released financial reports" which are filed with Elections Canada McGregor can tell us, for example: Among the biggest advertisers was the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which spent $134,000, mostly on a radio blitz the day before Canadians went to the polls. In the week before voting day, PSAC launched radio ads encouraging Canadians to vote in support of the public service, with spots heard on radio stations in Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and elsewhere. PSAC also paid for lawn signs in Miramichi, New Brunswick, encouraging voting for "Anyone but Tilly" — a reference to local Conservative MP Tilly O’Neill-Gordon. PSAC targeted the riding because of fears that unionized employees who work on the federal gun registry would be laid off. O’Neill-Gordon was re-elected, despite PSAC’s efforts. That’s quite a bit of detail and it’s important to note that it’s not based on leaks nor did it require having a mole to infiltrate the secret weekly meetings in which the union bosses plot world domination. The information is freely available through reporting requirements that are already in place….
Continue reading350 or bust: “Canada’s The Best Country In The World”
It’s Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada. Me and mine have much to be thankful for today, having narrowly avoided a serious health crisis among one of our own. So this Thanksgiving I am grateful for the blessing of good health, and I can even appr…
Continue readingHalf an Hour: A Conversation on Innovation
This is a summary of the ‘expert discussion’ at the conclusion of Day One of the International Monitoring Organization conference. Each paragraph denotes a different speaker, the speakers are not identifies, the result being to produce a single more-or…
Continue readingPeter Kent makes lemons out of lemonade
“Designed to Fail”. That should be the motto of Peter Kent and the Conservatives’ ‘environmental mismanagement’.NDP Environment Critic Megan Leslie (Halifax, N.S.) accused the government of creating a climate change plan that is “designed to fail.”…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Libertarians for an Inheritance Tax
I rarely give thanks for Neil Reynolds, but today’s column is a must-read. The point is that taxing large inheritances should appeal not only to those of us concerned about highly unequal outcomes, but also to those simply concerned about equality of opportunity. It may or may not be possible to justify inequalities based on differences […]
Continue readingSouthwest Airlines follies: "It’s a go!"
Southwest Airlines is the product of a true southern sensibility. Meaning there is little sense – or heart – in anything it does. It represents all that is ugly about the US south. Especially lately. It is making a name for itself not for excelling in …
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: CBC in the news
FRIENDS says although Heritage Minister James Moore has assured Canadians the CBC is safe, “There’s more than one James Moore. He’s a hydra-headed creature.”
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Harper’s War on Universal Human Rights Continues
It’s Air Canada again. This time it’s the 6,800 flight attendants who have voted down an offer from the airline and will be in a legal strike position on Thursday.It wasn’t long after the flight attendants’ Sunday vote that a spokesperson for Lab…
Continue readingTerahertz: I do not mourn for Steve Jobs
Back in early August, I recall reading a comparison between the NDP and Apple. At the time both leaders were still alive, but had each taken a leave of absence for health reasons. When Jack Layton left, it was unclear who could fill his shoes. When he became leader in 2003, the party appeared lost […]
Continue readingLeDaro: Happy Thanksgiving
Poor turkey.
Continue readingShutting down the blog
After six years, many elections, and two leadership contests, I have decided the time has come for this website to die. It has been fun, but I have lost interest. The ‘eureka’ moment came to me when I was forcing myself to write something, …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Something’s Happening Here
And what it is is increasingly clear. The people who were responsible for the financial crisis of 2008 — and the growing economic inequality of the last thirty years — are starting to get scared.Eric Cantor said last week that “mobs” are now dedicate…
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Where Richard Warman’s Money Goes
Richard Warman (left) presents a donation of $1,000 to Wayne Nightingale (centre), head of the Military Family Resource Centre. The money is the first instalment of a $5,000 pledge that comes from a libel lawsuit where Mr. Warman accepted damages and a…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Will Conservatives make liberal cuts to the CBC? by Randy Boswell
Columnist says the CBC, embroiled in both a legal fight and a parliamentary probe over
its record on responding to access-to-information requests, is now also
bracing for deep funding cuts.
Dead Wild Roses: #OWS – Principled Action Against Corportist Rule
Haven’t heard much about the protests going on in the financial districts in the US? Are you surprised? When the interests of the elite are being challenged getting the mainstream media to notice is like trying iceskate uphill (go see what al jazeera has to say on OWS). I repost this nugget about the […]
Morton's Musings: Any time you go into a fight you’re going to come out with scars
John Carlos (American Olympian)
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tim Harper on the One-Year Anniversary of U.S. Steel’s Hamilton Lock-out
We are approaching the one-year anniversary of U.S. Steel’s lockout of the workers from its Hamilton plant; the lockout would seem to be in contravention of the guarantees that the company undertook when seeking approval from the Harper government for …
Continue readingwmtc: right-wing editor admits to playing provocateur, instigating violence at protest
We all know that agent provocateurs are a reality, but whenever we are offered hard evidence, we should spread it far and wide. A right-wing “journalist” has admitted to infiltrating a protest group and claims to have personally instigated events that …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chris Hedges Addresses the Occupy D.C. Protesters
The acclaimed journalist offers a stirring indictment of the American Dream that has become a living nightmare for the majority of Americans:Recommend this Post
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