These are tough days for Canada’s parliamentary democracy. Having endured years of steady erosion, it is now under frontal attack. Journalists and public leaders, across the political spectrum, have begun to document the injuries. We are seeing stirrings of outrage. But this assault on our democracy could not be happening
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jeffrey Simpson criticizes the Cons for killing off the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy as punishment for telling the truth about climate change at its own request: In a letter to the National Round Table on the Environment and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
This and that to end your week. – Jeffrey Simpson discusses how the Cons have diminished Canada’s place on the world stage: For those who care about Canada’s international reputation and Canada’s ability to influence others in the pursuit of Canada’s self-interest, these are discouraging days. Everywhere, there is penny-pinching
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The OECD is the latest independent observer to confirm Thomas Mulcair’s point that dutch disease is a real problem for Canadian manufacturing. And Marc Lee calls for a green industrial revolution as a better path toward economic development and environmental responsibility than
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Elizabeth May Among Frontrunners In Unscientific LPoC Leadership Poll
You can still vote for her here. Presumably Andrew Coyne supporters are playing some kind of elaborate prank, or think funeral home directors are sexy.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrew Coyne On The Decline Of Parliament Under Harper
Despite his right-wing orientation, there has been unmistakable evidence in the work of Andrew Coyne this past year or so that conveys a clear disenchantment with the Harper regime. Using the sad spectacle of David Wilk’s public humiliation, today in the National Post Coyne offers the re-education of the Kootenay-Columbia
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: The Forgotten Issues of Quebec’s Student Strike
The ongoing three-month strike by Quebec university students over tuition increases has sparked near-unanimous outrage from members of Canada’s mainstream commentariat — and not just over the violence, but over the very content of what students are demanding. What do these spoiled rich kids have to protest, the pundits wail,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dr. Dawg responds to Andrew Coyne’s suggestion about cracking down on advocacy by charities with an entirely reasonable suggestion as to how to allocate our resources: Given that charities do essential work that the government does not fund—feeding and clothing the poor, defending
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Another National Post Letter
This one is about the Harper government’s crackdown on the charitable sector despite its important contribution to our democracy. Please see today’s National Post for my letter.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – There’s still plenty more emerging on the Robocon election fraud scandal. The reporting combinations of McGregor/Maher and Chase/Leblanc/Mills have both discussed Elections Canada’s latest court filing showing that Con campaign officials openly discussed implementing U.S.-style vote suppression efforts – including exactly the forms
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Why Canada will have a new government in 2015
Andrew Coyne has put his journalistic finger on the Achilles Heel of the ‘Harper Government’ – its inherent untrustworthiness: Stealth PM Harper But while the public might have been inclined to look indulgently on such behaviour when the dupe was the opposition, it is less likely to be so tolerant
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – The Cons’ move to suppress Canadian wages by encouraging the use of disposable, temporary foreign labour is receiving plenty of due outcry. Here’s Armine Yalnizyan: Disturbingly, the federal announcement also set out new wage rules that permit employers to pay temporary foreign
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrew Coyne is rightly alarmed at the Cons’ move to short-circuit any debate about major policy changes through an omnibus budget bill. And Bea Vongdoaungchanh reports that the biggest of those changes is to set our environmental laws back by half a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Tim Harper gets somewhat closer to the mark than most pundits in recognizing that any talk an NDP/Lib merger is neither timely nor particularly well-placed. But the “one more time” message is a little bit off: again, we’ve still run precisely zero election
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Lawrence Martin comments on the growing resonance of inequality as an issue for Canadian voters. But the most telling sign may be less the Ontario NDP’s steps to highlight the need for more progressive taxation (as Martin recognizes), but the McGuinty Libs’
Continue readingcenterandleft: Why the F-35 Scandal Matters
If the 65 F-35 fighter jets are purchased by the Canadian Government, they will cost Canadians $25 billion dollars over a span of 20 years. Minister of Defense Peter Mackay has argued the jets price tag is closer to $9 billion, contrary to the findings of government watchdogs. What he
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell comments on the Canada which the Harper Cons are determined to destroy. But the more important point looks to me to be less any theory of constitutionalism than the desire to have governments be as ineffective as possible at all levels:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On voter information
Andrew Coyne raises some noteworthy points about what political parties know about us and how they use that information. But while I agree as to the need for parties to treat voters as something more than a resource to be exploited, I’ll sound a note of caution that some of
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Rumour: Reporter Who Broke Robocon Story Booted From Manning Conference Party!
Source. PS. Don’t get too excited by Coyne’s column from yesterday, mourning how the CPoC’s lost its principles. He’s been writing the same piece for years now. They still let him into their events, which means that being reamed by Coyne, for a CPoC hardcore, is a bit like being
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Amy Minsky uncovers some suspicious-looking spending patterns underlying Robocon, while Postmedia also points out that election results in at least a couple of seats may plausibly be subject to challenge. Emma Pullman offers some more details on the Manning Centre’s voter suppression
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