Yes, plenty of people are pointing out Stephen Harper’s decision to be less prime ministerial, more game show host as the election campaign comes to an end. But we should note also that he’s doing that in the face of a noteworthy cautionary tale. After all, the last time Harper
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Accidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Review – Liberals
Finally, let’s take a look at the Liberals’ platform. Leaving aside the question of whether the Libs can plausibly live up to their campaign messaging of simultaneously being more progressive than the NDP, more business-friendly than the Conservatives, more devoted to the revolution than the Marxist-Leninists and more subcutaneous esplanade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Review – NDP
I’ve pointed out before that Tom Mulcair’s practice – both in pursuing the NDP’s leadership and in leading the party – has been to continue largely with the party’s existing policy base. In keeping with that principle, the NDP’s platform doesn’t contain many surprises for anybody who’s kept a reasonably
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On technological preferences
Shorter Diane Francis: I don’t much like Facebook, but this Google machine is neato. I just typed in “Harper Conservative Talking Points”, and it practically wrote my column for me!
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Review – Conservatives
Given the lengths Stephen Harper has gone to in limiting how his party is presented publicly as well as the Cons’ general status quo campaign theme, it may come as a surprise that the Cons’ platform includes 159 pages – making it nearly twice the length of any other party’s.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Reviews – Overview
The combination of a majority government and an extra-long campaign period has left Canada’s major political parties with ample time to refine their election platforms. And regardless of what your disingenuous neighbourhood Wildrose MLA might tell you, those platforms represent the best indication as to what policies you can expect
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Mariana Mazzucato argues that in deciding how to vote, we need to challenge the Cons’ assumptions as to what the federal government can do to encourage development: Markets are themselves are outcomes of different types of public and private sector investments in new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On continuing leadership
Others have responded to Chantal Hebert’s latest by pointing out her past track record of telling the NDP when to change leaders. But even leaving that history aside, it’s worth seriously questioning her assumptions. To start with, I’m rather less certain than Hebert that even Stephen Harper will be out
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Edward Keenan writes that a lack of affordable child care is the crucial financial pressure facing families across the income spectrum. And Michael Wolfson discusses the dangers of talking about taxes in a vacuum without recognizing what we lose by failing to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On conversation pieces
Following up on this post, the stretch run of the election campaign (particularly a holiday weekend with advance polling already underway) is exactly the time when our messages in talking to unpersuaded voters will matter most in shaping the results. And I’ll offer a few suggestions as to how to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unaccountability
Shorter Harper Cons: It has come to our attention that we may have come to power on a platform of “whistleblower protection“. This was a typo: our plan was instead to pursue “whistleblower prosecution”. Don’t you dare tell anybody about the error.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: To summarize…
…the Cons’ campaign is effectively down to brainstorming new ways to gratuitously attack women who wear niqabs, regardless of the excuse used to do so or even the non-existence of the circumstances where new discrimination would be imposed.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Cons’ multi-billion dollar price tag for Trans-Pacific Partnership compensation makes clear that every party is planning to spend large amounts of public money reshaping Canada – leaving us to choose which we value most out of the NDP’s social programs, Libs’ temporary infrastructure spending or Cons’
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Scott Santens writes about one possible endpoint of the current trend toward precarious employment, being the implementation of a basic income to make sure a job isn’t necessary to enable people to do meaningful work. And Common Dreams reports that a strong
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On power dynamics
Paul Wells offers his thoughts on what might happen if the Cons lead in the seat count in a minority Parliament. But I’d think it’s worth noting two other considerations to counter Wells’ take that the Cons could hold on with substantially less than half the seats in the House
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On campaign reflections
There’s been a flurry of discussion elsewhere about the NDP’s campaign over the past couple of weeks, and I’ll chime in quickly with my own take on how the campaign has developed so far – and what we should hope for as it reaches its conclusion. To start with, I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Theroux comments on the gall of corporations who move jobs to the cheapest, least-safe jurisdictions possible while trumpeting their own supposed contributions to the countries they leave behind. And Wilma Liebman sees more progressive labour legislation as one of the keys to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood highlights how the Trans-Pacific Partnership will do little but strengthen the hand of the corporate sector against citizens. Duncan Cameron notes that even in the face of a full-court press for ever more stringent corporate controls, there’s plenty of well-justified
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On uncosted liabilities
So even from the sketchy details made public so far, and even leaving aside the more general harm done by limiting government action and entrenching corporate monopolies, the Trans-Pacific Partnership will cost Canada: $4.3 billion in compensation to dairy, chicken and egg farmers Up to 20,000 lost jobs in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ian Welsh writes that the Harper Cons have destroyed Canada’s historic economic balance by scrapping the parts of the manufacturing sector which previously provided a buffer against low resource prices. And Bruce Campbell compares Canada’s record on climate change to Norway’s, and
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