I haven’t yet commented much on Ontario’s provincial election campaign – and readers interested in the race will find plenty of noteworthy observers on the blogroll. That said, it’s worth noting the parallels between this campaign and a couple of the NDP’s other recent breakthroughs. To start with, Ontario’s 2018
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Accidental Deliberations: On proportionality
Among the other possibilities raised by the Alberta NDP’s election victory, plenty of voices have chimed in on a shift to proportional representation. And while there may be limited scope to make a move immediately, electoral reform could well become both good policy and good politics for Rachel Notley. Let’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Support and illumination
David Moscrop laments the role of opinion polls in shaping political events – and there’s certainly reason for caution in presuming that immediate polls will have a lasting effect. But I’ll argue that at least as politics are now covered, polls in fact serve as an important check on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Vancouver Sun interviews Andrew MacLeod about his new book on inequality in British Columbia. And Tanara Yelland talks to Guy Standing about the need for governments responsive to the needs of the precariat: One central demand Standing makes is for the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Working across the aisle
Among the other lessons learned from Alberta’s recent election, let’s point out one more with implications for the federal scene. While the main opposition parties recognized that they were too far apart in their general policy orientation to justify a formal coalition, both the NDP and the Wildrose Party were
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – PressProgress weighs in on corporate Canada’s twelve-figure tax avoidance, while noting that the Cons’ decision to slash enforcement against tax cheats (while attacking charities instead) goes a long way toward explaining the amount of money flowing offshore. And Oxfam is working on its
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the rise of Rachel Notley’s NDP serves largely to bring Alberta’s political system into step with those of its regional neighbours. For further reading…– Murray Mandryk had previously pointed out why we should be cautious about reading too much into the Alberta results. But the most important
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On first steps
Dru Oja Jay, David Bush and Doug Nesbitt, Graham Steele and Karl Nerenberg have already offered their suggestions on the first steps for Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP government (and the progressives hoping for it to produce positive change). But I’ll offer my own take based on one overriding principle: having
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On rebuilding projects
I’ll have plenty more to say about last night’s resounding Alberta NDP election victory in posts to come. But for now, here’s a quick take on what comes next for the PCs. I had earlier wondered whether the PCs might effectively take a majority-or-bust position in contrast to the other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Branko Milanovic discusses how rent theory fits into the glaring gap between productivity and wages: Bob Solow explored a couple of days ago another possibility. Going back to his own initial work on the theory of growth, some 60 years ago, Solow
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On relative popularity
Jim Prentice is warning Albertans that they should vote for him lest they be governed by somebody like Tom Mulcair. Jim Prentice’s approval rating in Alberta is 22%. Tom Mulcair’s approval rating in Alberta is 42%. Which means, shorter Jim Prentice: You may think you’re getting an exquisitely prepared filet
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Failures of imagination and arithmetic
Colby Cosh’s latest includes this explanation as to why he wants to write off the party which holds a strong lead in Alberta’s polls: The province-wide NDP numbers, whichever set you prefer, are conceptually hard to translate into large numbers of seats outside Edmonton. Former Calgary alderman Joe Ceci, running
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Hegemony or bust
Earlier this week, I mused thusly: And I’m particularly curious as to whether the PCAA will bet heavily on a high-variance strategy, preferring to exhaust every hope of maintaining hegemony over Alberta politics rather than making any substantial effort to rebuild from the opposition benches. Suffice it to say that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Swing batta swing
Needless to say, the range of potential outcomes in the Alberta election (along with the continued flow of news battering the Prentice PCs as they try to regain some type of footing) has made for a fascinating campaign. But it’s worth pointing out that single polls and seat projections may
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Now we’re just haggling over the price
Others have rightly wondered whether the Wildrose Party’s new promise to make floor-crossing MPs pay a price to the party will be enforceable at all. But it’s also worth examining how it might affect MLAs’ decision-making – with the result potentially being the exact opposite of what Brian Jean intends.
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