This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens links the themes of health and equality by suggesting that we treat a basic income as a needed vaccine against poverty and all its ill effects. – Erika Eichelberger and Dave Gilson highlight how U.S. corporations are siphoning money offshore
Continue readingTag: canada 2015
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on why we can’t expect our federal political parties to answer some of our most important questions without some significant public pressure – and how we can build that pressure for ourselves. For further reading, I’ll point back to my earlier posts on what I’d hope to see happen
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On simple questions
Gerald Caplan goes far beyond what’s necessary in proposing that the NDP and Libs develop a pre-election cooperation pact intended to lead to a party merger. But as highlighted by the conversation started by Fern Hill’s Tweet, we can take his suggestion as a starting point in discussing what we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #DefineHarper
A couple of earlier posts have started a bit of a discussion about the messages which will be most effective in convincing voters – and particularly swing voters – to shift their votes away from the Harper Cons. But I’ll take the opportunity to turn the discussion over to a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On changing reputations
Following up on this post as to the value of a common message in countering the Cons’ campaign spin, let’s test out Stephen Maher’s theory as to what the opposition parties need to offer: For years, Harper has missed no opportunity to portray himself as the only leader who can
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On common messaging
It shouldn’t come as much surprise that the new election year is bringing out the usual, tiresome round of calls for strategic voting and candidate withdrawals. In the past, I’ve responded by suggesting that if Canada’s opposition parties have enough common ground to cooperate, they should consider working with joint
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Oliver Milman reports on research showing how humanity is destroying its own environmental life support systems. And our appetite for exploitation is proving a failure even from the standpoint of the pursuit of shortsighted greed, as David Dayen considers how the recent drop
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On predictable arrangements
Aaron Wherry nicely summarizes the possible outcomes of the next federal election so the rest of us don’t have to. But let’s take a moment to consider what we can expect if we indeed have a hung Parliament, requiring parties to deal with each other to determine who will hold
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Duncan Exley points out that the UK has nothing to be proud of when it comes to income inequality. And Bill Curry reports on the Cons’ full awareness that the temporary foreign worker program was both taking jobs away from Canadian youth,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Robin Sears offers his theory that the upcoming federal election could represent a meaningful referendum on competing visions for Canada – and Paul Wells seems to expect much the same. But while that might make for a useful statement of the actual consequences
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Mariana Mazzucato discusses how inequality and financialization have teamed up to create an economy with little upside and serious risks for most people: (W)hat should we do in 2015? Financial reform–aimed at bringing finance and the real economy together again–must thus critically first
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how we’ll soon be seeing both federal and provincial governments alike try to block out their real history with glossy ad campaigns – and why we shouldn’t let them get away with the plan. For further reading…– Torstar reported here on the Cons’ use of public money to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the similarities between the federal political scene now and in the lead up to the 1988 federal election – and how the Liberals may soon face the NDP’s hard-learned lesson that personality politics may not go far in a sharp policy debate. For further reading…– The NDP unveiled
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Alex Hunsberger argues that the Good Jobs Summit reflected a gap between labour strategies aimed merely at trying to take a slightly larger cut of a corporate-owned system, and those which actually propose and fight for something better: The most useful and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Joe Cressy argues that we need to take strong progressive positions to highlight the kinds of public investment which need to be made, rather than buying into right-wing spin about slashing taxes and eliminating public institutions: Public investment is about social justice, taking
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that to end your weekend. – Paul Krugman notes that a concerted effort to combat climate change could be as beneficial economically as it is important for the future of our planet: Where is the new optimism about climate change and growth coming from? It has long been
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On advance notice
Between Joan Bryden’s report, Paul Wells’ interview and Murray Dobbin’s column among other coverage, there isn’t much room for doubt that the federal NDP’s economic focus – including a national minimum wage alongside a restored retirement age of 65 and reversal of corporate tax cuts – is earning some media
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Eve-Lyne Couturier discusses the rot in the state of Canadian labour negotiations, as workers outside of the 1% are being systematically denied any of the benefit of economic growth. – Meanwhile, Dean Baker points out that it’s only by choice that the vast
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: With new NDP shadow cabinet, Mulcair plots Harper’s 2015 defeat
Last week’s 24-hour House of Commons vote on Stephen Harper‘s draconian budget Bill C-38, the “Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act”, ended in a dramatic fashion. The New Democratic Party (NDP), the Official Opposition, concluded the vote with a spontaneous: Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! chant. That’s French
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On battlegrounds
Paul Wells has a theory about the political playing field developing for Canada’s 2015 federal election. And his laments that a new NDP leader won’t get to take a three-year sabbatical aside, I can only hope that he’s right. Yes, it’s true that the Cons will enjoy a few more
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