Welcome to the race for the leadership of the federal NDP.And before you launch into your campaign, you would do well to ponder the campaign strategies devised for two recent success stories in Alberta by Stephen Carter.This is a summary of his w…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Older I Get, The Less I Like Old People
“Most men die at 27, we just bury them at 72”- Mark Twain It’s interesting living in the human equivalent of the fabled “elephant graveyard.” My town is a place where the climate is, by any Canadian standard, idyllic. It’s as though there w…
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Red Hair: A Drug on the Market or Sign of Fertility?
Vivaldi was a red head, so were Napoleon , Galileo, Eric the Red and Thomas Jefferson. A rather distinguished group, don’t you think? But apparently, the sperm from red heads is not moving at an international sperm bank, and they have announced they’…
Continue readingCities—the provincial option
The possibility of Toronto becoming a province has popped up in the news again. The idea has floated around for years, supported by a variety of civic thinkers including the urban guru Jane Jacobs.The idea has considerable merit and not only for Toront…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Heart of OccupyWallStreet
The British are deft with words – is every Briton born a wordsmith? – and today The Guardian has come close to defining the heart of the American Spring now taking place in many cities there (my highlights):But the ultimate failure here is of imagi…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Who’s Bailing Whom? Challenging the Private Credit System
The time since 2008 has been a crucial historical moment for progressive economists to pull back the green curtain that surrounds the operation of the for-profit banking system, and expose that system for what it is: a government-protected, government-subsidized license to print money. The problem is, as soon as you start saying things like that, people […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Chris Selley points out the absurdity of Ontario’s Libs and PCs both running away from the idea of a coalition just as needlessly as their federal counterparts. But let’s remember that since the NDP spoke up for…
Continue readingWhat Do The Wall Street Protestors Really Want?
AllTheExplanationsThatFitTippingPointVillePersonally, regardless the various points of view, I think it comes down to two words.Which are….Fair.And…Play.And, as Simon and Cathie point out, it is getting harder and harder not to think that all the f…
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Standard of review from NAFTA tribunals is correctness
Mexico v. Cargill, Incorporated, 2011 ONCA 622 deals with the standard of review from a NAFTA trade tribunal. The Court, after lengthy review, holds the standard is correctness:
[42] I con…
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Bursa – and not the city in Turkey!
The ever-increasing pain I have experienced recently now has a name – bursitis. It follows the hip-femur repairs in 2003 and from years of strain on my minimal maximus – gluteus, that is. Yesterday I began physical therapy treatments and le…
Continue readingAs Memory Serves, This Happened Before
Imagine my surprise when I read in today’s Globe and Mail that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he was “relatively confident” that we would see modest economic growth in Canada. What is modest economic growth, I wonder? Is it 0.3%, …
Continue readingTrashy's World: At least there’s one victory for the Liberals…
….as PEI can welcome another Grit government for 4 more years! Congrats! And, as a sidebar, the Cons kept true to form in using personal attacks during the campaign to try to gain political advantage. The premier used most of his victory speech to condemn the personal attacks he says he suffered at the hands […]
Continue readingJess McCormack: work = worth = innocence
I just wanted to take a quick opportunity to direct your gaze at the work of a friend of mine, Jess McCormack. Her recent work explores some of the interconnected threads between homelessness, employment, police violence, stigma and mental illnes…
Continue readingOntario NDP: Oooh, scary!
The corporate media and their loyal spokesthings are worried about Andrea Horwath. It seems likely now that the NDP will hold the balance of power after the election this Thursday and the burial of Tim Hudak. So a little cherrypicking…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: A message of support from Olivia Chow for Andrea Horwath
A message of support from Olivia Chow for Andrea Horwath – YouTubeNDP momentum is spreading. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done. Put people first, vote NDP! A message of support from Olivia Chow for Andrea Horwath
Continue readingConservatives Clueless On Environmental Monitoring
Greenhouse gas, oilsands monitoring ineffective: auditor – CTV News. Canada’s environment auditor called on the Harper government today to better understand the environmental impacts of their decisions before moving on with oilsands project…
Continue readingCapitalism’s nosedive. What happened to invention and innovation in the last half of the 20th century?
I’ve asked this question before, many times in fact in the last few decades. What happened to invention and innovation in the last half the last century? Think about the fading days of the 19th and the first half of the 20th. Unprecedented progress exp…
Continue readingRunesmith's Canadian Content: The CFUW Debate
Four of Halton’s provincial candidates came together at Milton District High School last Thursday to debate the issues and make another pitch for your vote. Unlike some previous debates, this one had a sizable crowd attending, possibly because this would be the last candidates meeting with no admittance fee and
Continue readingRunesmith's Canadian Content: The CFUW Debate
Four of Halton’s provincial candidates came together at Milton District High School last Thursday to debate the issues and make another pitch for your vote. Unlike some previous debates, this one had a sizable crowd attending, possibly because this would be the last candidates meeting with no admittance fee and
Continue readingRunesmith's Canadian Content: The CFUW Debate
Four of Halton’s provincial candidates came together at Milton District High School last Thursday to debate the issues and make another pitch for your vote.Unlike some previous debates, this one had a sizable crowd attending, possibly because this woul…
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