This and that for your Thursday reading. – Andrew Jackson, Tavia Grant et al, Kate McInturff and Trish Hennessy each look at Statistics Canada’s new income data which shows worsening inequality and persistent poverty over the past decade. – Jordan Brennan offers a needed response to a Financial Accountability Office
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Alberta Politics: United Conservative Party stance on climate change amounts to not much more than hot air
PHOTOS: Hurricane Harvey batters Corpus Christie, Texas. (Photo: ABC News.) Below: Guest post author Barret Weber, Conservative leadership contenders Jason Kenney and Brian Jean, and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives researchers Shannon Daub and Seth Klein. Guest Post by Barret Weber One truly surprising aspect of the United Conservative Party
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Here, on how little Brad Wall and the Saskatchewan Party ultimately seem to have learned from the fall of Grant Devine and the PCs. For further reading…– Geoff Leo continues to report on the GTH scandal, including the recent revelation that the Saskatchewan Party went out of its way to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Labour Day reading. – Ed Finn offers a reminder of the rights and benefits we now take for granted which were won only through labour organization: Look back at Canada’s 150-year history, and you’ll find that many of the basic rights and benefits we all enjoy
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Here, on how simultaneous leadership campaigns in both of Saskatchewan’s main parties seem unlikely to spark much new interest or discussion due to the familiar players and strategies involved. For further reading…– CBC has reported on each of the candidate announcements: Ryan Meili and Trent Wotherspoon in the NDP campaign,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Stephen Metcalf discusses the meaning and effect of neoliberalism: “(N)eoliberalism” is more than a gratifyingly righteous jibe. It is also, in its way, a pair of eyeglasses. Peer through the lens of neoliberalism and you see more clearly how the political thinkers most
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Guest Post: Fiscal hawks’ formulas for cutting spending don’t really fly in the face of reality
PHOTOS: The Alberta Government’s Dash-8, used and abused by Premier Ralph Klein so that he could smoke while in transit between Calgary and Edmonton (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). It’s not just what you spend, but what you spend it on, says Guest Post Author Bob Raynard, below. Below him: former Conservative
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Roderick Benns interviews Ryan Meili about the value of a basic income in freeing people from perpetual financial stress. And Doug Cameron reminds us that we have a choice whether to show empathy toward people facing homelessness – even if far too many
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Angella MacEwen and Cole Eisen challenge Galen Weston’s laughable claim that he and his multi-billion-dollar empire can’t afford to pay something closer to a living wage. And Jared Bernstein and Ben Spielberg connect the U.S.’ growing inequality to policy choices which have facilitated
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jerry Dias writes that corporate greed is the common thread in numerous stories about Canadian workers being left without jobs or support. And Yves Engler points out that trade agreements have ultimately served little purpose but to entrench corporate power. – Chris
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace: proof Tory entitlement is still a thing in Alberta
PHOTOS: A scene from Derek Fildebrandt’s mini-Skypalace, the taxpayer subsidized Fildepartment in downtown Edmonton, grabbed from his Airbnb listing. Note the binoculars to the right of the window, presumably used for spotting examples of taxpayer dollars being wasted in the high-rises beyond. Below: The Fildebed, the Fildecloset, the Fildepot and
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: Regarding Brad Wall
As I drove back from Saskatoon this past weekend, I noticed something. Just outside of the grain terminal near Allan, an old stalwart had disappeared from the side of the road. I speak, of course, about the Saskatchewan Party Billboard that proudly proclaims “Keeping Saskatchewan Strong” and features a smiling
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Yvonne Boyer and Judith Bartlett’s report (PDF) on how Indigenous women were pushed toward tubal ligations within the Saskatoon Health Region – and how the now-departing Brad Wall bears responsibility to decide whether the system discrimination they identified will be dealt with. For further reading…– I’ve previously linked
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Linda McQuaig makes the case as to why any NAFTA renegotiation needs to focus on workers’ rights: NAFTA has been key to the transformation of Canada over the last two decades, enabling corporations to become ever more dominant economically and politically, while rendering
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on what the Wall government means when it talks about entering into “partnerships” with the corporate sector – and why Saskatchewan’s citizens shouldn’t stand to be cut out of the Crown assets now owned for public benefit. For further reading…– Others have also noted the “partnership” phrasing used by
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nobody can wreck an economy faster than an elected New Democrat, and that’s a Certified Kenney Fact!
PHOTOS: Jason Kenney, candidate to lead the United Conservative Party of Alberta, perhaps thinking up another Certified Kenney Fact. Below: B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan, former Saskatchewan premiers Roy Romanow, a New Democrat, and Grant Devine (CBC photo), a Conservative, and federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, a Liberal. According
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mariana Valverde examines how P3 schemes are putting financiers in charge of deciding what public infrastructure to build, while leaving future generations of citizens with massive bills to pay. And the Star Phoenix’ editorial board rightly warns Brad Wall against selling off Saskatchewan’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Louis-Philippe Rochon discusses the need for monetary policy to be better coordinated with fiscal policy to ensure both sustainable economic growth and a more fair distribution of wealth: Monetary policy has been a failure. It has failed to encourage growth, as has been plainly
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Martin Lukacs discusses the need for collective action to fight climate change – and the dangers of allowing ourselves to be distracted by calls to focus solely on individual choices: These pervasive exhortations to individual action — in corporate ads, school textbooks,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – George Monbiot examines the history of James McGill Buchanan, Charles Koch and others who have used massive amounts of time and money to ensure that wealth wins out over democracy in shaping U.S. policy – and how their influence will sounds familiar elsewhere
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