PHOTOS: Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, from the days no so long ago he could still be found in in this province. Below, from various Twitter photos: Vancouver journalist Bob Mackin, “Liberal” B.C. Premier Christy Clark, and Conservative federal leadership candidate Andrew Scheer. Got questions for the elusive Jason
Continue readingTag: brad wall
Canadian Political Viewpoints: Forget the Wall, We’ve Just Opened a Hell of a Door
Source: CBC News – Saskatchewan Government Passes Bill 40 Allowing Partial Sale of Crowns Let’s ignore the long absence, and just get right to it, shall we? We’ve talked about Bill 40 before on the blog, and how the government was making overtures towards moving the goal line on what
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: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Krugman notes that after promising to bring some outside perspective to politics, Donald Trump is instead offering only a warmed-over version of the Republicans’ typical voodoo economics. And John Cassidy highlights how Trump’s plan appears to be nothing more than to wage
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Eva Schaherl offers her take on how to fight against climate change: Stop being distracted by the “Sad!” theatre of the Greatest Show on Earth across our southern border. In Canada our leadership debates should be focused on how to save the world’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Andrew Jackson discusses the problems with increased corporate concentration of wealth and power – including the need for a response that goes beyond competition policies. In the 1960s, institutional economists like John Kenneth Galbraith described a world of oligopoly in which a few
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Martin Patriquin takes Saskatchewan’s increasing recognition of the Wall government’s institutional corruption to the national stage: Politicians who navigate a corrupted political system have some of the easiest jobs in the world. With the weight and legitimacy of the state behind them,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, pointing out that the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (PDF) serves no useful purpose even on the terms of its advocates following the unveiling of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (PDF) – and asking whether we’ll see any action to eliminate its downsides. For further reading…– I’ve previously discussed
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Silence on the right and in the media about NDP role as Alberta adds an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who is not getting any credit for her economic successes from the Opposition or the media. Below: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci; Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall; and University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe (CBC photo). Alberta added an impressive 20,000 full-time jobs in March, according
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jordan Brennan and Kaylie Tiessen write that it’s long past time to set a level of federal revenue sufficient to support the social programs Canadians want: In the decades since [corporate-driven] reforms were undertaken, Canada experienced a significant deterioration in its macroeconomic performance:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, expanding on this post about New Brunswick’s failed attempt to become a corporate tax haven – and why Brad Wall’s attempt at a similar scheme for Saskatchewan is similarly doomed. For further reading…– Again, the outline of Shawn Graham’s scheme to win over corporations as a tax haven is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Daniel Munro highlights how Uber and other service apps manipulate their workers. And The New York Times’ editorial board warns about the false promises of the gig economy: In reality, there is no utopia at companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Handy,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Abi Wilkinson writes about the importance of making social benefits universal in order to reflect a sense of shared interests and purpose: Universal aspects of the welfare state tend to be thought of as the fruit of common endeavour. The NHS tops
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The race to nowhere
Following up on in the Saskatchewan Party’s budget plan to benefit the rich with tax cuts (with the explicit aim of making corporate taxes lower than any other province) while soaking everybody else, it’s worth offering a reminder what happened to the last Canadian province to try the exact same
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – In advance of this year’s Progress Summit, Ed Broadbent writes that burgeoning inequality threatens our democracy: Inequality matters. Promises must be kept. It’s not enough for our government to celebrate the diversity of our country but not enact policies that head off
Continue readingMichal Rozworski: Budgeting for the oil bust in Saskatchewan and Alberta
The resource price bust is already a few years old but it’s still hitting parts of Canada hard. Two guests talk about the impact of the downturn on fiscal policy in the Canadian prairies and what this augers for the bigger question of a transformation of the economy away from fossil
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On incentive programs
Let’s add a couple more points to Brad Wall’s attempt to hand out freebies to corporations in which he owns shares while the rest of Saskatchewan faces grinding austerity. First, the Saskatchewan Party’s spin (claiming there’s no conflict of interest under current rules) is based entirely on an opinion from
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Two by-elections, three probes, and plenty more: All the Alberta political news that’s fit to print
PHOTO: The decision desk at AlbertaPolitics.ca calls it for Conservative candidates Bob Benzen and Stephanie Kusie in two Calgary by-elections yesterday. Actual Alberta political bloggers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Mr. Benzen and Ms. Kusie, former Conservative premier Alison Redford, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Wildrose Opposition Leader
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Your money, his pockets
So much for the theory that Brad Wall’s handouts to the oil sector would merely help his donors. Instead, the Saskatchewan Party’s plan to pay off oil barons would also serve to enrich Wall himself by paying the salaries of employees working for companies in which he owns shares. But
Continue readingAlberta Politics: April Fools jokes? In 2017? Just forget it! The zeitgeist forbids!
PHOTOS: Calgary lawyer David Khan, the only candidate willing to lead the sad-sack Alberta Liberals. Below: Donald Trump in a rare presidential moment; Jason Kenney, the man with a mandate to destroy the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta; and Sheila Gunn Reid, who in real life has nothing whatsoever to
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