Shorter Stephen Harper: I only need to receive a single piece of correspondence from somebody to claim their permanent blanket endorsement of everything I might someday propose. Stay tuned for future policy announcements unveiled with the enthusiastic support of grade-school penpals, American Express, and multiple members of Nigeria’s royal family.
Continue readingTag: canada 2015
Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Oxfam points out that without a major redistributive effort, hundreds of millions of people will be trapped in extreme poverty around the globe no matter how much top-end growth is generated.And Michael Valpy writes that the Cons have gone out of their
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On rigged outcomes
I’m not sure when “what would Michael Ignatieff do?” became the Libs’ operating mantra. But as long as the subject of fighter procurement is on the table, let’s highlight the real similarity between two parties on that front: both the Cons and the Libs seem bent on handing Lockheed Martin
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On ill-advised pledges
Shorter David Beers: We should start demanding that candidates drop out if a single poll shows them running behind because there’s absolutely no history of voters’ minds changing in the month before election day.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Roheena Saxena points out that personal privilege tends to correlate to selfishness in distributing scarce resources. And that in turn may explain in part why extreme top-end wealth isn’t even mentioned in a new inequality target under development by the UN. – Or,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Haroon Siddiqui comments on the Cons’ tall economic tales. And Steven Chase and Greg Keenan note that workers are rightly fighting back against the Cons’ plan to sell out Canada’s auto parts industry and its 80,000 jobs. – Canadian Doctors for Medicare
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On contrasting activities
Thomas Walkom rightly notes that this fall’s election has seen somewhat more discussion of government acting in the public interest than we’ve seen in some time. But it’s worth drawing a distinction between the varieties of intervention on offer from the NDP and the Libs respectively. As much as the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On full responses
I’ll weigh in quickly on the controversy surrounding Jean-Francois Delisle – and start by noting that his comments yesterday reflected a desire to alter law to discriminate against a particular group that we shouldn’t accept from any political candidate or party. That said, today’s follow-up statement also signals that responsibility
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michal Rozworski highlights the deeper economic issues which are receiving minimal attention compared to deficits and minor amounts of infrastructure spending in Canada’s federal election: In the long term, two decades of Liberal and Conservative austerity have left Canada with a revenue problem,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – PressProgress highlights just a few of the Cons’ obviously-flawed claims about corporate tax rates. And Ethan Cox discusses why we should be talking about the CETA and TPP during the campaign both due to their own importance, and the potential to tap into
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On changing standards
Paul MacLeod reports on the latest candidate to be summarily axed due to an even mildly controversial social media history uncovered by Robert Jago, while Robyn Urback suggests either a truce or a wholesale destruction of past posts. But it’s worth asking what comes next for Canada’s political parties –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On wasted opportunities
Before the first federal leaders’ debate, I wrote about the factors worth watching for which we might not otherwise get to evaluate during the course of a campaign. But unfortunately, we didn’t get much chance at all meaningfully test the party leaders’ judgment due to some poor choices in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unclear pictures
David Akin may have been right to point out that Justin Trudeau’s response to the federal government’s latest fiscal update was based on an avoidable lack of knowledge. But it’s worth noting why it’s so difficult for anybody to have an accurate picture of what’s actually happened within the federal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, summarizing these posts as to how the opposition parties can set the stage for a minority Parliament by telling us what they’ll do on the first set of confidence votes – and how we can make better voting choices if they fail to do so. For further reading…– Having
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Paul Weinberg discusses the need to focus on inequality in Canada’s federal election, while Scott Deveau and Jeremy Van Loon take note of the fact that increased tax revenue is on the table. The Star’s editorial board weighs in on the NDP’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Exchange highlights the World Economic Forum’s observation that countries can do far more to combat inequality. And Angus Reid finds that Canadian voters are far more receptive to Tom Mulcair’s progressive economic plan than to more of the same from either of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Climenhaga sees Jeremy Corbyn’s resounding victory in the Labour leadership race as compelling evidence that progressive hope can win over centre-right fearmongering, while Michael Laxer takes some lessons away for Canadian politics. And Paul Krugman notes that there’s a reason why
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: In need of explanation
Lee Berthiaume reports on the $8.7 billion budgeted but unspent by the federal government over the past year. And if the Cons want to try to claim credit for the government’s fiscal position, then surely they have to answer a couple of key questions for the money that went unspent:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ira Basen discusses the Canadian federal election campaign’s focus on the middle class – as well as the reality that the economic security which looms as the most important priority within that group will require more government action than the limited policies currently
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On caretakers
Since there’s been plenty of talk lately about caretaker governments and their duty to exercise restraint, I’ll raise one question as to the appointments made the last time a new federal government took office. The day he and his Cabinet were sworn in, and two months before Parliament convened following
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