There are encouraging signs that groups and even politicians you wouldn’t normally think of as being pro-Environment are perhaps balking to Stephen Harper and the Conservative government’s obsession with resources at all costs. This editorial mentions the report from The Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which called for a Canadian
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The Equivocator: David Merner and the Conversation the Liberal Party Needs to Have
David Merner (left) and Alberta Liberal Party president Todd Van Vliet (right.) “It’s funny, I thought I would be running as a pro-business, pro-environment West-coast Liberal but it looks like I’ve become the ‘cooperation candidate.‘” That was former LPC(BC) President David Merner’s reaction when I told him that I had
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Understanding Harper’s Evangelical Mission
harpersmiles300px.jpg This post originally appeared in The Tyee, and is re-published with permission. Any Canadian listening to the news these days might well conclude that the Republican extremists or some associated evangelical group has occupied Ottawa. And they'd be righter than Job, I believe. Almost daily, more evidence surfaces that Canada's
Continue readingcenterandleft: A Defence of Regularized Public Policy Referendum
I think Governments should consult with the people. The amount of public involvement with our federal democracy is essentially voting in a general election once every four years. We call our political system “free and democratic”, a rule by and for the people. For me, electing over three hundred people
Continue reading350 or bust: Global Warming: Most Of Us Say Catastrophe, Big Oil Says Opportunity
I’m back from a short canoe trip on a small lake just an hour’s drive from our house. The weather was warm & dry, the conversation lively, the food delicious (despite not catching any fish) and we only had to flee from the mosquitoes around dusk. Here’s what’s coming across
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why Omar Khadr’s psychology does not matter
This post is a quick update to my previous post ‘Why Omar Khadr still matters‘ in response to a CBC article that contrasts the views of two psychologists who studied Khadr. As interesting as the article may be, everything I wrote previously about whether Canada should repatriate Khadr, whether his
Continue readingAlberta Diary: It’s semi-official… the Enbridge Northern Gateway project is kaput!
Enbridge Inc., as seen and described by the U.S. National Transportation Board. Below: Federal Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, Alberta Opposition Leader Danielle Smith and B.C. Opposition Leader Christie Clark. No! Wait! Ms. Clark’s still the premier! If you thought NDP Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair was mistaken – or, worse, just
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Rick Salutin on Democracy, Parties, and Electoral Reform
“Democracy,” as Winston Churchill famously stated, “is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Somewhat less famously, he also remarked that “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Notwithstanding this somewhat anemic endorsement,
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Memo to Vic Toews
The gun violence in Toronto at a party that tragically ended up with 2 people being dead and being possibly gang-related did not occur because gang members saw that judges had struck down mandatory minimums in the courts… nor would it have deterred them if the courts had ruled in
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Yes Minister MacKay! Perfesser Dave explains the French role in the War of 1812
One of our heroic French allies, armed with a bassoon, holds off a Russian soldier near Niagara on the Lake some time during the War of 1812 with the Russians and the Taliban. Below: Perfesser Dave; Defence Minister and amateur historian Peter MacKay. Was he overtired? Elmer MacKay, at right,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Preston Manning is no saint, as secretive Carleton University scheme illustrates
Preston Manning and his then-protégé Stephen Harper back in the day. Below: Mr. Manning as he now appears (United Church Observer photo): Alberta premier E.C. Manning, Preston Manning’s father; Mr. Harper as a Reform Party candidate. Nowadays, folks think of Preston Manning as a benign force in Canadian politics –
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: No shock here on the Conservative foot-dragging on Omar Khadr
A column in the Star today about how the Canadian government has been doing nothing to live up to its agreement it made with the US and Omar Khadr’s lawyers to bring Khadr home and out of the Guantanamo gulag: Various United States officials have complained that Canada’s insolence is
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why Omar Khadr still matters
A decade after a wounded Omar Khadr, a then fifteen year old Canadian citizen, decided to lob a fatal grenade in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan, Ottawa is still dragging its feet on finally repatriating Khadr back to Canada from Guantanamo Bay where he is currently detained. Khadr’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Does Bizarre Bethune brouhaha signal ideological rift within Harper Conservatives?
Communist physician Norman Bethune, left, and a comrade from the Red Chinese Army speak with Canadian Treasury Board President Tony Clement, right, in a vignette as imagined by Sun News Network. Below: Dr. Bethune, looking weirdly contemporary with a fashionable goatee; far-right ideologue Rob Anders; the real Mr. Clement. Is
Continue readingThe Equivocator: The Liberal Party: A Substantial Heritage, a Future of Substance (Co-written with Theresa Lubowitz)
Theresa Lubowitz on the Death of Substantive Policy Canada is teetering dangerously close to the death of substantive policy as we know it, with the rise of a populist Conservative Government, a populist NDP Official Opposition, and a struggling Liberal Party so afraid of irrelevancy it has spent the last
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Toronto Pride with the Queer Liberals
“There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” – Pierre Trudeau While at university I made appoint of watching the Toronto Pride Parade a a member of the crowd. This year, thanks to my friends in the Queer Liberals, I was able to participate in
Continue readingThe Equivocator: In Defense of “Second Tier” Candidates
On July 4th Bob Hepburn wrote this silly article: “Warning to Liberals: Beware delusional no-hope leadership candidates.” I would like to defend these so-called “no-hope” candidates. The next Liberal leader is unlikely to be elected Prime Minister in 2015. We must have a 2 election strategy. The Liberal Party cannot
Continue readingwmtc: and the jason kenney award goes to… jason kenney
Have you all seen this petition? The Honourable [sic] Jason Kenney asks us to sign a petition thanking none other than Jason Kenney. Macleans found it amusing, and the National Post has the Twitter talk. But it took Dan Murphy, cartoonist with The Province, to really do it justice. Please
Continue readingBaird Announces Intention to Open Canadian Embassy in Burma
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today announced Canada’s plans to open an embassy in Burma. The announcement was made during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum and Post Ministerial Conference, where Baird met with his ASEAN counterparts, including Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin. “Canada continues to
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: ‘It won’t happen here’ is the likely Conservative defence for Northern Gateway pipeline
The Conservative government can’t be liking this US preliminary report too much on the Enbridge oil spill in Michigan: Enbridge “employees performed like Keystone Kops” in addressing the spill, demonstrating “a culture of deviance,” whereby staff felt they could freely ignore company procedures and protocols. So lame was Enbridge’s response
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