Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Rhys Kesselman rightly points out how the populist message that propelled the Cons to power has given way to elitist policy-making:Once the federal budget is balanced, the Conservatives plan to double the TFS…
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Do you find it surprising?
I find it surprising not at all that even though many people who support politically right-of-centre parties (such as our current government, senate, and supreme court) often say things like: “we need LESS government not MORE”, the governme…
Continue readingPaper Dynamite Online: TEXT: Alfred Apps On A Charter Of Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
There were two major policy intiatives advanced by Liberal Party President Alfred Apps in his speech before The Empire Club of Canada last week. One was on electoral reform for both the party and the country which I posted yesterday. The other concerns…
Continue reading350 or bust: Eating Local Is Delicious With Rhubarb Kuchen
Here in northern Ontario where I live, rhubarb is the first harvest from the garden that we look forward to. In anticipation of a meal of homemade pasta and grilled eggplant that’s planned for tonight (thanks to Michael who is willing to shar…
Continue readingLeftist Jab: Hack Pundit Of The Week: Bronwyn Eyre
I often wonder if newspapers aren’t better off publishing high school essays instead of paying columnists. The writing might suffer but the research would be much better.Case in point: Bronwyn Eyre’s new column in Saskatoon’s Star Phoenix focusing on c…
Continue readingopenalex: Montreal Guerrilla Gardening: "Tour de Guerrilla" Silent Film
OuVert is an open urban sustainability lab that I’m helping to start here in Montreal. Below is an occasionally Chaplin-esque video of our first event – a seedbomb workshop and guerrilla gardening ride – that we ran a few weeks ago.
Before the rid…
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Parliament, not judges, should decide
Imagine a nation with rampant open, but unlawful, prostitution, a significant number of the poorest prostitutes coming from aboriginal backgrounds often with drug and alcohol addiction and a constant undercurrent of violence and disease running through…
Continue readingMy take on Senate reform
We need the Senate, but not as it is now. The current Senate is far too inefective, inefficient, and undemocratic. I don’t agree with Stephen Harper much, but I do agree with him when he says the Senate needs to change. What makes something democratic?…
Continue readingMy take on Senate reform
We need the Senate, but not as it is now. The current Senate is far too inefective, inefficient, and undemocratic. I don’t agree with Stephen Harper much, but I do agree with him when he says the Senate needs to … Continue reading »
Continue readingWise Law Blog: 140 Law – Legal Headlines for June 13, 2011
Here are today’s leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter:Witness to Innocence: 24 death row survivors speak at Virginia event – http://goo.gl/RF8HOIncredible Shrinking Workers’ Income – http://goo.gl/jF1E6Juror prosecuted over Facebook messa…
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: A Blast From Ezra’s Past:
Despite his constant criticism of CBC as a “state broadcaster” spouting propaganda “on the tax-payers dime”, Ezra Levant sponged up government dough when he ran The Western Standard. And, when it went under, what happened to its subscribers?
I wasn
Continue readingLeDaro: Anthony Weiner Song
Anthony Weiner knows how to be famous. Enjoy.
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: The CANARIE in the coalshaft: CPC cuts funding to Internet research network
Cross-posted from Mediamorphis
I received an email this morning alerting me to something that had, well, been flying under my radar: CANARIE, or Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network as it is formally known. It appears that the Conse…
Northern Reflections: The Harper Doctrine
Perhaps the starkest development from The Conservative convention was the enunciation of what John Ibbitson, in The Globe and Mail, calls the “Harper Doctrine.” It is a radical departure from traditional Canadian foreign policy:The Harper Doctrine perm…
Continue readingFar and Wide: The Party Of Paranoia
Obviously, a sweeping generalization, but in totality I would argue Conservatives tend to be a paranoid bunch. The rest of the world is an enemy, a host of motivations comes from an “us vs them” mentality, it provides inspiration and resolve. Fundraisi…
Continue readingwmtc: the half-century mark
I was born on June 13, 1961. I’ve been alive on this planet for 50 years today. And I’m pretty fucking happy about it.
In my belief system, we only get one shot. When we die, our bodies go the way of all organic matter, and that’s all there is. Prete…
Continue readingThe Skwib: Monday scotch blogging: a proposal
This series of short videos (and extremely annoying ads) at the Esquire website feature the actor Brian Cox demonstrating how to pronounce a large variety of scotch names. My modest proposal is that we should recreate this useful series and actually consume a dram for each scotch in the list. Perhaps when a scotch’s name […]
Continue readinggay persons of color: Hate, violence at Croatian Pride event in Split
Just 24 hours after the European Commission announced that Croatia would be able to join the European Union, violence marred the first Gay Pride Parade to be staged in the port city of Split on Sunday. UK Gay News reports that shouts of “kill the fags”…
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: I Stand Corrected on Tony Clement
I’m still unable to leave comments on my blog, or even respond to them, but several of my readers provided some vital insight into Clement’s spending orgy.One dealt with bicycle racks, which are indeed part of infrastructure spending. However, they sho…
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Tories Raise The Spectre Of A Same-Sex Marriage Ban
Well, that didn’t take very long, did it? Just weeks after Canada’s federal election, delegates at the Conservative Party Convention have raised a dead social issue over the weekend, discussing and voting on a resolution to ban same-sex marriage in Canada. While a same-sex marriage ban had already been official Conservative Party policy, delegates readily […]
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