These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * How can we stop the right?Christine Beckermann, member of ISMay 29, 2011 With the emergence of the Tea Party in the US, Rob Ford’s election in Toronto, and now the Harper
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wmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: how can we stop the right?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * How can we stop the right?Christine Beckermann, member of ISMay 29, 2011 With the emergence of the Tea Party in the US, Rob Ford’s election in Toronto, and now the Harper
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: how can we stop the right?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * How can we stop the right?Christine Beckermann, member of ISMay 29, 2011 With the emergence of the Tea Party in the US, Rob Ford’s election in Toronto, and now the Harper
Continue readingwmtc: conrad black vs war resisters: the most whopping double-standard of them all
The Government of Canada welcomes an ex-convict who renounced Canadian citizenship, a man who defrauded seniors of their pensions and life savings. Indeed, the path for his return was cleared while he was still in prison! But people who refused to kill innocent civilians, who courageously defied the US military
Continue readingeaves.ca: My LRC Review of “When the Gods Changed” and other recommended weekend readings
This week, the Literary Review of Canada published my and Taylor Owen’s review of When the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada by Peter C. Newman. For non-Canadians Peter Newman is pretty much a legend when it comes to covering Canadian history and politics, he was editor of the
Continue readingMinister Kenney to meet with Burmese-Canadian community leaders in Toronto
Minister Kenney to meet with Burmese-Canadian community leaders in Toronto May 4, 2012 TORONTO – The Honourable Jason Kenney – Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism – will be meeting with Burmese community leaders in Toronto at Mahadhammika Buddhist Temple on May 6, 2012 at noon for a special reception and felicitation
Continue readingwmtc: what should be done about election fraud? vote now.
Canadians, what do you think should be done about vote suppression and potential election fraud by the Conservative Party? If there is clear evidence that the party in power is responsible for, or complicit in, systematic election fraud, what should be done? ___ The individuals directly responsible should face criminal
Continue readingwmtc: harper and kenney’s refugee healthcare changes are based on lies – and people will die
The inhumane, unjust, and, under international law, illegal shredding of Canada’s refugee system by the Harper GovernmentTM will take effect at the end of June. Of all this Government’s policies, the changes to Canada’s laws regarding refugees are perhaps the least recognized and least contested. The people whose lives will
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: A Multi-Partisan Approach to Environmental Protection
I am a strong believer in the Green Party. It plays an essential role. Environmentalists cannot afford to patiently wait around for traditional parties to see the light and pass the necessary laws to avert catastrophe. That being said, Canadians have been slow to embrace the Green Party, and that
Continue readingTaylorOwen.com: Liberal Baggage
David Eaves and I have a review of Peter C Neman’s When the Gods Changed, in this month’s Literary Review of Canada. We use it to continue to explore the theme of progressive politics that has now been the basis of many joint articles, opeds and a forthcoming book. Our
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: 14 economic advisors Flaherty consults on policy and budgets are all from the financial sector: Fiscal contraction doesn’t work
The 14 economic advisors Flaherty consults on policy and budgets are all from the financial sector, mostly banksters. Here’s what James K. Galbraith says about the implicit danger of such a stacked deck: “….economic policy should not be under the control of bankers, and any economic team which is dominated
Continue readingThe Equivocator: 5 Questions: Adam Exton
Adam Exton does communications for the Barrie Young Liberals. If you don’t like Adam Exton I’d like you to leave this blog, turn off your computer, and find a quite place to reevaluate your life. The Barrie Young Liberals should serve as a model to young liberals across the country.
Continue readingCompromise be gone, how radical change cannot be achieved without violence
I think the world by now generally understands that great social change, the kind that affects the public generationally, like Martin Luther’s Civil Rights Movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s fight against Apartheid in India, cannot be achieved without some violence and without some suffering, minimal or otherwise. Whether it’s the oppressor or the
Continue readingbastard.logic: The F-35 boondoggle in context: This “is oppressive, dictatorial regime-building that would do any petro-state proud”
We are definitely not in Kansas anymore, Canuckistan — and Michael Harris says that we just had our “Wizard of Oz moment”: The curtain has been well and truly whipped away from the PM’s self-promoting deceptions and he is revealed for what he is: a power-tripper on a mission to
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: The more (choice), the merrier
I sincerely hope this is true: At least a half dozen Liberal leadership candidates could be gearing up their campaigns as soon as this summer. Liberal party president Mike Crawley says he knows of about “six or seven” people who are thinking of entering the contest, which he expects to
Continue readingWomen in politics: the “squeeze” factor
As any student of Canadian politics knows, Ellen Fairclough was Canada’s first female cabinet minister, appointed by Diefenbaker in 1957 and serving until her defeat as MP for Hamilton West in 1963. I have mixed feelings about Fairclough’s politics: she did good work on the immigration file, but she was
Continue readingThe Equivocator: 5 Questions: Paulina O’Neill
I met Paulina O’Neill while canvassing for Grant Gordon in Toronto-Danforth (though I have been receiving e-mails from her for the past year on the UofT Young Liberals listserv.) She was a delight to canvass with and I am proud to support her for the position of Communications Director for
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Speech in Support of the Abolition of Capital Punishment (House of Commons, June 15th, 1976.)
“I am sure that very few of us consciously contemplated, when we decided to run for public office, that we would find ourselves playing a decisive role in the resolution of a question as awesome as that of life and death. Yet, here we are, with all our individual limitations,
Continue readingeaves.ca: Public Policy: The Big Opportunity For Health Record Data
A few weeks ago Colin Hansen – a politician in the governing party in British Columbia (BC) – penned an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun entitled Unlocking our data to save lives. It’s a paper both the current government and opposition should read, as it is filled with some very
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Parliamentary impotence is nothing new
Andrew Coyne has a column where he rages over Parliament’s redundancy or seeming lack of influence – specifically over Bill C-38, the Conservatives “omnibus bill”, which basically combines several different type of legislation that could and should be debated on their own merits into one big monstrosity. On the one
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