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While most European countries are working on a proposal that would effectively ban the use of Canadian tar sands in the European Union, the United Kingdom has made it clear that the…
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DeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Apache Corp Pulls Out Of New Brunswick Gas Fracking Project
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Halifax’s Corridor Resources Ltd. has announced that Apache Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Houston’s Apache Corporation, is giving up on unconventional…
Continue readingOn the Quebec question: (4) Devolution
So far, I’ve argued that there are good reasons to favour Quebec’s right to determine, on its own, whether to separate from Canada. One option that has come up under various names — “sovereignty association” or “asymmetrical federalism” — is the poss…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Canada supports 1967 borders after all despite blocking this position at G8
Faced with significant pressure, Harper’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has affirmed that Canada does, in fact, support Obama’s position of using the 1967 borders with land swaps as a basis for a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine. In …
Continue readingOn the Quebec question: (3) Nationhood
Is Quebec a nation? Is Canada a nation? Can there be a nation within another nation? These are difficult points, but some committment on these issues seems to underlie both proponents’ and opponents’ attitudes towards Quebec separation and nationalism….
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Once upon a time on the bald prairie
In 1935 a group of farmers in Regina, Saskatchewan pooled their savings, re-mortgaged their farms and build the Consumer Co-operative Refinery Limited (CCRL). CCRL is the oldest and largest co-operative in the energy sector in Canada, controlled by Canadian members, and is one of the oldest energy co-operatives in the world. Who knew? This story […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Gas Prices Are Too Low
Everyone loves to talk about gas prices, but few can agree what to do about them. Pointless boycotts of local stations have no real impact on the price of gasoline because they are very temporary and not widespread despite organizing attempts on the Internet. It’d be almost like trying to control how much water is […]
On the Quebec question: (2) Self-determination
Yesterday, I suggested that objections to the definition of a “clear majority” in favour of separation as 50%+1 were insincere, and really masked forms of other objections. The first I want to talk about is the claim that there is something wrong with …
Continue readingOn the Quebec question: (1) Clarity
(After this, I may just go ahead and write that Israel thing I’ve had kicking around in my head for a few years. While I’m stepping on landmines, I might as well step on them all in one go.)As newswatchers will know, there’s been a lot of chatter about…
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: Lather, Rinse; Repeat, as needed!
Apparently, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it… at least, 39.62% of the Canadians who took the time to vote believe it — all of it.
Continue readingPoliTeching: Who will Harper Appoint as Auditor General?
With Sheila Fraser’s 10 year term ending, Harper would have to appoint a new auditor general. For lack of a better system, the government is the one who appoints the person who audits them. We can only hope that Harper won’t appoint another Christian Ouimet. She have seriously undermined the
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Canada dutifully fulfills the US’s role towards Israel
Canadian policy and rhetoric has been staunchly pro-Israel for a long a time. It is a stance which, especially with Harper at the helm, arguably resulted in Canada’s inability to win a security council seat last year. However, despite adopting a positi…
Continue readingArt Threat: Radio Without Boundaries: Tapping into the treasures of fictional ‘truths’ – An interview with Jonathan Goldstein
Jonathan Goldstein’s work on CBC’s Wiretap is something of an under-appreciated gem of Canadian public broadcasting.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Reconfiguring Democracy
Even when I was a kid (and, yes, they had indoor plumbing back then) I understood that democracy, as we embraced it, was something of a work in progress. It was never truly complete. It was something that should advance and expand. Ev…
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Five Feet of Fabulous!
Your colon, of course. What else? A funny, retro animation produced by the Canadian Cancer Society to start a colonversation on colon health. Also features a few fart gags and uses the word “poop”, in case you’re a delicate flower. (And who doesn’t like fart jokes? My mother-in-law does, anyway. Don’t ask.) Filed under: Advertising […]
Progressive Proselytizing: The left needs to reconsider public funding of parties
With Harper’s recent majority it was inevitable that his party would start pushing through policies that were not politically possible when they only had a minority. The first major example is going to be in campaign finance – in particular, phasing ou…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The NDP, The Quebec Question and 50% + 1
Much has been made of Jack Layton’s “controversial” comments on a possible Quebec sovereignty referendum.The fact is that it is a very rational and defensible position. Based on the closest precedent, the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation, Quebe…
Continue readingOn election 41.
It really is amazing how difficult it is to drag oneself back into longer writing after a significant time away.Anyway, I just want to run with an idea regarding the recent Canadian federal election that’s not being well-discussed (or discussed at all,…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Economic Hitman Confesses
This is how I see the economic system of the world operating, and it’s the basis for many of my feelings about the economy in Canada and in Saskatchewan. It’s why I work to make things better however I can. Capitalism may be the best economic system we’ve run into thus far, but it’s not […]
Politics, Re-Spun: Harper, Hypocrisy, Syria, and Degrees of Freedom
Yesterday I lifted my head from some work to watch the Ottawa journalists in Twitter filling us all in on John Baird’s first press conference as the majority Conservative government’s Foreign Affairs minister. They noted he read from the speech: very odd. It was a signal of a new degree of hypocritical oddity now besetting […]
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