VICTORIA, B.C. This is what you call a close election. When your blogger gave up and packed it in for the night, the vote in the British Columbia general election was still essentially a tie: B.C. Liberals 42, B.C. New Democrats 42, and Greens 3. By morning a lot may
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Derrick O’Keefe highlights why British Columbia’s voters should be careful before lending any credence to the corporate media’s call for yet another term of corrupt Lib government: As expected, The Vancouver Sun and Province, and the Globe and Mail, published editorials urging
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ben Kentish reports on the Equality Trust’s research showing that the poorest 10% of the population in the UK actually pays a higher percentage of its income in taxes than the top 10%. Dominic Rushe, Ben Jacobs and Sabrina Siddiqui discuss how
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Christian Cooper discusses how poverty is like a disease in its effect on a person’s mental and physical well-being. And Andre Picard highlights the reality that in order to address the damage done by centuries of systematic discrimination against Canada’s indigenous people, we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Owen Jones writes that excessive reliance on corporate profiteers is the reason why the UK’s trains don’t run on time. And Nora Loreto argues that postal banking is needed (among other reasons) to rein in abuses by Canada’s biggest banks. – Shannon Daub
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Louis-Philippe Rochon chimes in on why Justin Trudeau’s faux populism is entirely beyond belief when compared to his actions while in power: Since coming to power, the prime minister has openly pursued policies that have only exacerbated the economic situation by raising corporate profits,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Louis-Philippe Rochon chimes in on why Justin Trudeau’s faux populism is entirely beyond belief when compared to his actions while in power: Since coming to power, the prime minister has openly pursued policies that have only exacerbated the economic situation by raising corporate profits,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two polls and three by-elections signal an interesting spell in Alberta politics ahead
PHOTOS: No love lost for pipelines in B.C. – and all of a sudden that could have an impact on politics in Alberta (Rabble.ca photo). Below: Mainstreet research President Quito Maggi, B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark and Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Two polls were published this week by Mainstreet
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former B.C. NDP premier’s pro-pipeline sentiments boost Rachel Notley’s ‘social license’ strategy
PHOTOS: One of the few photos your blogger could find of Dan Miller (found on the Internet, original source unknown). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan and B.C. Premier Christy Clark (from the Canadian Encyclopedia). There’s more evidence out of British Columbia this week that Rachel
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Toby Sanger offers some important background to the federal government’s expected plan for privatized infrastructure by noting that the anticipated result would be to double the costs. And Luke Kawa notes that the Libs are already having trouble spending the money they’ve
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Go figure! Jim Prentice, failed former politician, resurfaces with sweet gig at Washington think tank
PHOTOS: Those were the days! This time last year, Jim Prentice was everyone else’s favourite Albertan, or so it seemed. Now look at him, already the last Conservative premier of Alberta. Below: Woodrow Wilson, the only American president with a PhD a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Controversial Wildrose leaflet had similarities to B.C. Liberals’ Chinese-language ads smearing NDP
PHOTOS: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, at right, appeared on a Calgary talk radio program yesterday. (Grabbed from Twitter.) Mr. Jean failed to repudiate accusations made in a Chinese-language party leaflet that the Alberta NDP advances communist ideology. Below: The late U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, anti-communist witch-hunter; former B.C. NDP candidate
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Annals of Government Relations: B.C. lobbyists with faint Dipper links keep turning up in Alberta
PHOTOS: A line of “government relations” specialists with packs full of resumes mentioning past NDP connections make their way over a mountain pass from British Columbia into Alberta. Actual lineups of B.C.-based lobbyists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Brad Zubyk, principal of Vancouver-based Wazuku Advisory Group, which is
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Tory-linked lobbying firm hires former Canadian Labour Congress president and former B.C. NDP minister
PHOTOS: Lobbyists head out to provide “strategic counsel” to Alberta’s new NDP government. Can you spot the recently hired New Democrats among them? No? Well, neither can I. Actual Alberta lobbyists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Former CLC president Ken Georgetti, former B.C. NDP party president and cabinet
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On legacies
Obviously last night’s Nova Scotia election results represent a huge disappointment for the NDP. But they also offer some reason to discuss the brand being developed at both the provincial and federal levels. The working assumption for both the federal party and most of the provincial parties close to forming
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Mark Leiren-Young shares Corky Evans’ perceptive take on how the B.C. NDP has lost its way – and the message is one which we should apply elsewhere as well: I remember when one of the Leaders I worked for asked some guys
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Thomas McDonagh discusses how the combination of concentrated corporate wealth and ill-advised trade agreements has allowed business interests to override the will of even strong citizens’ movements: In 2009, when the government of El Salvador refused to issue an environmental permit to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – To the extent corporatist voices are pushing increased private involvement in funding Canadian health care, their main argument generally involves the claim that private insurers will be more willing to fund expensive courses of treatment which might be rationed out of public plans.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Pat Steenberg observes that the Harper Cons’ deficits are the result of conscious choices to reduce government revenue – and that we can fix our deficit and rein in inequality at the same time by reversing the damage: (W)hen our governments say they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Murray Dobbin contrasts the B.C. NDP’s recent election loss against the type of popular focus which helped Saskatchewan’s CCF to earn a twenty-year stay in office in the face of far more hysterical opposition: You can design a campaign that projects a
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