If you’re reading this right now you are doing something that I have refused to do: read any coverage or analysis of 9/11. I am boycotting the wall to wall coverage – the pull-out specials in the newspapers, the live coverage of ceremonies at ground ze…
Continue readingMorton's Musings: "When did we become for immigrants?"
I don't think that Tim Hudak, or his Party as a whole, is against new Canadians but gosh they do not seem to be able to control some of their more problematic potential MPPs. Of course, as an immigrant myself, I may be biased: Hudak trips on politi…
Continue readingImpolitical: Challenging the politics of division – part III
This is a very clever 90 seconds. McGuinty is articulating a moral view here, of what Ontario is about and what he believes, in continued response to Tim Hudak’s divisive attack on the tax credit for businesses to hire skilled new Canadians. Just to br…
Continue readingList of Potential NDP Leadership Candidates
A list of potential NDP leadership candidates could include the following…
in no particular order;
Roméo Saganash
Françoise Boivin
Thomas Mulcair
Robert Chisholm
Libby Davies
Peter Julian
Paul Dewar
Megan Leslie
Peggy Nash
Niki Ashton
Pat Martin
…
Slap Upside The Head: Dads Win Right To Remove Surrogate From Birth Certificate
Two same-sex fathers in Saskatchewan have won the right to amend their child’s birth certificate, removing the name of a surrogate mother. The surrogate, identified only as Mary, carried the child to term using an embryo created from the sperm of one of the fathers and an ova from an anonymous donor. Despite being neither the child’s […]
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Williams set to offer comms director plum patronage job before he quit #nlpoli
In his final days as Premier, Danny Williams was poised to offer Elizabeth Matthews – his communications director – a plum patronage appointment at the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. A copy of a draft letter for Wil…
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Wake Up New Brunswick Parents of Autistic Children! Our Never Ending Autism Residential Care & Treatment Disaster Will Not Change Unless We Change It!
In NB No Progress for Autism Residential Care Since 2005
New Brunswick parents of young autistic children enjoying the benefits of early autism intervention in our province should not be complacent. The benefits their children now receive will …
Continue readingEstablishing the ground rules
The NDP will hold their leadership convention on March 24th in Toronto. The entry fee for the contest
is $15,000, with a maximum spending cap of $500,000. I have to wonder, of
course, whether this leadership contest will dampen the enthusia…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Falcon: Revenue neutral HST an "urban legend"
When the referendum delivered an unwanted result, BC’s provincial government reshaped, polished and coordinated messages to the public. One particularly troublesome claim, made by Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the July 2009 HST annou…
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: what’s next for raj sherman and the alberta liberals?
What kind of leader will Raj Sherman be? This is a tough question to answer. As Edmonton Journal columnist Graham Thomson somewhat dramatically described yesterday: Sherman – energetic, intelligent, charismatic – could prove to be a political white knight riding to the Liberals’ rescue. Or Sherman – inexperienced, mercurial, impetuous – could yet prove to […]
Continue readingQueer-liberal: Message to Sun Media readers…
I captured this today on Sterling just outside the delicious Nestle chocolate factory. Had to share…hahaha!
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: When Civil Disobedience is Justified
Last week I advised that we must be prepared to lie down in front of machinery aimed at creating the pipelines from the Tar Sands to Kitimat and, as I fully expected, got some heat. We have to face this question before we get into morality and legality…
Continue readingMe and Morrissey
Sad to say in my old age one of my biggest accomplishments is that one of my sayings is engraved in the dead wax of the B-side to the UK EP of Morrissey’s ‘Interesting Drug’.Do you know what? That’s fine by me.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Royal Plan to Kill Canada
I wish I could laugh at Stephen Harper’s ridiculous attempt to return us to the days when we were British.This is all fairly subtle, of course. We’re not going back to the days when every classroom featured a royal portrait and we started every da…
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Mostly competent government
You may remember — and if you don’t, this article will remind you — that not too long ago Tony Clement and Rona Ambrose stood on a stage together and announced with great fanfare the formation of Shared Services Canada. This new agency was to drive a complete reorganization of the federal government’s information technology which was to result in greater efficiency and serious savings and would help balance the budget by 2014. Or maybe not. An ambitious project to centralize the federal government’s far-flung data centres will take at least a decade, and require up to $278 million in new spending, an internal report concludes. … … the internal report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, suggests any projected savings are long-term, with consolidation complete only in about 2024. "Data centre transition of service delivery and transformation of the environment is not a low risk undertaking," warns the document, dated April 25, and stamped "protected, private and confidential." Dated April 25. So Clement and Ambrose had this report in hand and knew its contents when they did their dog and pony show and assured us that we’d see savings from this in three years…
Continue readingthe woodshed: the terrorists won
Apparently all it takes is an airline passenger eating a dodgy burrito before the flight to make NORAD shit its pants. Given what it costs to scramble an F-16 and have it fly from Denver to New York, al-Quaida could probably bankrupt the United States …
Continue readingcmkl: Foam blocks? Check. Spatula? Check
Next weekend my friend Martin and I are off to Killarney Park. Our third annual fall canoe trip. I’m very excited. I was trolling the gear shops in the west end for bits and pieces of gear, including foam blocks to put the canoe on the roof of the rental.
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Thinking It Through Brings Clarity
So what is an atheist who believes in a single secular public school system supposed to think about noon hour Muslim prayers in public schools.The answer should be simple but first let us look at the context.In the province of Ontario there are two pub…
Continue readingThe Enlightened Savage: PC Leadership Candidate Profile – Doug Horner
Legacy. Any story about Doug Horner’s rise in politics has to start with the Horner legacy. Doug’s grandfather, Ralph, was a Senator for Saskatchewan. At the time of Doug’s birth, his father was the sitting Member of Parliament for…
Continue readingthe reeves report: Tim Hudak’s Hypocracy is Apparent in Recent Immigration Debate
Perhaps Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak would like to find a new issue with which to drive a wedge between the Ontario electorate and Premier Dalton McGuinty. Why? Because in recent days, his decision to use an immigration pledge in the recently-released Liberal platform shows both his lack of experience as a party leader and … Continue reading »