Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Alex Himelfarb highlights the vicious circle the Harper Cons have created and driven when it comes to public services: Today’s austerity is not a response to fiscal crisis. The 2012 budget demonstrated that it’s about redefining the purpose of government, about dismantling, brick
Continue readingTag: canada 2015
Accidental Deliberations: On distinguishing factors
The common personalities and strategies by tired right-wing governments are leading to some comparisons between the ongoing Canadian campaign and the UK’s election earlier this year. But even as we treat David Cameron’s re-election as an important warning, let’s note that there’s a rather crucial difference between the two. In
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Equality Trust reminds us that economic inequality leads to harmful health consequences even for the lucky few at the top of the income scale. And Matt Bruenig observes that a basic income would provide workers with far more scope to avoid employer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how we should call out the Cons’ bigotry surrounding the niqab for its own ill intent as well as for its effect of distracting from more substantive election issues. For further reading…– The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision confirming that the niqab is a matter of religious freedom
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Rosemary Barton discusses why it’s in Canada’s best interest on the global stage to work on building strong multilateral institutions (including the UN) rather than counting on bluster to make a difference. But Gus van Harten notes that we’re instead signing onto
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The Political Prisoner’s Dilemma
Let’s double back to Karl Nerenberg’s take on the opposition parties’ messages in Canada’s federal election and point out how it relates to a classic decision-making hypothetical, the prisoner’s dilemma. In the case of the federal election, here’s how the dilemma plays out for anybody whose primary goal is to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Armine Yalnizyan sees the Volkswagen emissions test cheating as a classic example of the dangers of relying on business to do anything toward the social good without facing strong and effectively-enforced regulations. And George Monbiot describes just a few of the preposterous new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Miles Corak writes about the spread of economic inequality in Canada: Companies like ATS epitomize the underlying tide driving jobs and incomes when the computer revolution meets global markets. This tide never went away, even if until a year or so ago
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On game theories
Paul Dechene’s riff off of this post is definitely worth a read. But while we’re largely in agreement on the significance of polls, I will challenge his wider view as to what election coverage means: Policies? Platforms? These are not the weapons political parties wield in an election. Those are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jennifer Wells writes about the drastic difference in pay between CEOs and everybody else. And Henry Farrell interviews Lauren Rivera about the advantage privileged children have in being able to rely on parents’ social networks and funding rather than needing to learn
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On accurate readings
Paul Barber offers a rundown of the problems with an overreliance on polls, while Heather Libby goes further and suggests that we ignore national polls altogether. But I’ll follow up on the argument I’ve made before that rather than taking any concerns about poll data as a basis for throwing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On continuing opportunities
Let’s answer Greg Lyle’s headline question as simply and concisely as possible: No. The NDP’s opportunity in the ongoing federal campaign has never involved the ability to move the election date up to fit a rise in the polls, nor a plausible expectation that well-funded opponents would let that rise
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Burning question
Even leaving aside the past politicians who we’d expect to be mentioned in an election, the Cons’ ultra-long, ultra-nasty campaign has managed to drag three of the top ten Greatest Canadians into the political muck. So who has Frederick Banting in the pool?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Yonatan Strauch and Thomas Homer-Dixon discuss how the Cons’ economic plans involve betting against our planet. And David Macdonald notes that the supposed reward for prioritizing oil profits over a sustainable future is to stagnate at recession-level employment rates. – James Bagnall documents
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Readiness!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada: Sitting in his riding office in Montreal, Cotler says he didn’t like C-51, despite ultimately voting for it. The Liberals, he says, supported C-51 largely out of political considerations. “The party voted against the multilateral mission [against ISIS]. Then
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On political placement
While others have already commented on Adam Dodek’s argument that judges should never enter politics after leaving the bench, I’ll offer a couple of observations of my own having to do largely with our perceptions of politics (and the need not to let them override democratic principles). Dodek’s concerns arise
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Lies and the lying liars who tell them
Ideally, this would be the end of the story when it comes to Stephen Harper’s callous and desperate attempt to claim the Terry Fox Foundation’s reputation for his own. But there’s reason for serious doubt that will happen – and indeed the Cons may end up treating the story as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, expanding on this post about the crucial difference between the types of change on offer from the NDP and the Libs. While there wasn’t room for this point in the column, I’ll also note another rather important distinction between the two parties. In the NDP’s case, Prime Minister Tom
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how the Trans-Pacific Partnership is renegotiating NAFTA – and taking away what little Canada salvaged in that deal. And Jared Bernstein highlights the TPP’s impact on prescription drug costs. – Rick Smith rightly challenges the effort some people have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On partial answers
Having posted earlier on the message we should expect from our opposition leaders when it comes to ensuring change, let’s make clear exactly what Justin Trudeau has now said – and most notably, what he hasn’t said. “There are no circumstances” under which the Liberals would prop up Harper should
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