So, yesterday, a police officer in Ontario was killed. Inevitably, we get cries of “this could have been prevented”, largely on the basis that one of the accused in the murder was out on bail awaiting trial for a series of charges. There’s a problem here: the claim that
Continue readingTag: Canadian Politics
Canadian Dimension: Ontario’s strong mayor reforms: a new shell for urban neoliberalism
Toronto Mayor John Tory and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo from Twitter. Earlier this month, Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell affixed her signature to Bill 39, the Better Municipal Governance Act, conferring Royal Assent upon the most substantial reconstruction of local democracy since Confederation. Along with Bill 3, the Strong
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Danielle Smith is stumbling and bumbling and terrifying right out of the gate
UCP leader and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Photo by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta/Flickr. It used to be that conservatives campaigned to the right and governed to the centre. This tried and true strategy reflected the realities that conservative-minded people generally like to blow off some steam during campaigns (There’s too
Continue readingScripturient: The Death of Local Democracy?
Thirty nine per cent. That was the risible turnout of voters for the local municipal election here in Collingwood. Significantly fewer than half of our eligible voters made the effort to participate in our democracy, even though they could vote in person or on the internet for three weeks. It
Continue readingAlberta Politics: National convoy inquiry not going as hoped? Preston Manning plans partisan pandemic panel
Now that the national inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act has turned its spotlight on the organizers of last February’s occupation of Ottawa and various border blockades, and they’re not lookin’ all that good, Preston Manning says he wants to have an inquiry of his own. Mr. Manning
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Something for Doug Ford to remember: Once in a while when you pull the cork from a bottle a genie pops out!
The Conservative movement’s vast army of online trolls has been strangely silent about the right of poorly paid Ontario education workers to negotiate a decent salary for themselves. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, encountering a stiff breeze (Photo: Premier of Ontario Photography/Flickr). Funny that, Conservatives being such lovers of Canadian rights
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Manitoba’s Stefanson to Alberta’s Smith: Drop dead!
When Manitoba Conservative Premier Heather Stefanson blew off Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith’s call yesterday to ship Alberta oil through the Hudson Bay port of Churchill, Wild Rose Country’s most quotable and quoted political scientist called it a rebuff. Alberta’s United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Jake Wright/Manning Centre/Creative
Continue readingwmtc: hard times: we are ruled by banks, corporations, and the governments that enable them. it doesn’t have to be this way.
In Canada this year, food bank usage hit an all-time high. In March 2022, there were almost 1.5 million visits to food banks — 15% more than there were one year ago, and a whopping 35% more visits than in March 2019, pre-pandemic. Food prices have ballooned at the highest
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: BC NDP technicalities evade party takeover by its own members
Anjali Appadurai meets with supporters in downtown Nelson, BC, August 30, 2022. Photo by Peter Schramm. The BC NDP has just narrowly avoided a takeover by its own members. Responding to the leadership challenge by climate activist Anjali Appadurai, the party resorted to a technical disqualification and dodged an open
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Anjali Appadurai in her own words
Anjali Appadurai meets with supporters in Lakeside Park, Nelson, BC, August 30, 2022. Photo by Bill Metcalfe. Below is a full transcript of Anjali Appadurai’s response to the BC NDP Chief Electoral Officer, Elizabeth Cull’s report on the Appadurai campaign. Cull’s report was the evidence used by the party executive
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: BC NDP shreds its credibility again with Appadurai disqualification
Climate and social justice advocate Anjali Appadurai was disqualified from running for the BC NDP leadership on October 19. Image courtesy Anjali For BC NDP Leader/Facebook. In British Columbia, the last hopes for a progressive insurgency against the ossified leadership of the provincial NDP were scuppered on October 19. Prior
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Loyalty oath shows inconsistencies in Canadian democracy
Should Canadians still pledge their allegiance to the monarch? Photo from iStock. It is not often that I find myself agreeing with Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, whose ethno-nationalist, anti-immigrant policies I despise, but these are strange times we are living in. Particularly odd is the fact that in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: BC NDP disqualifies Anjali Appadurai from leadership race
Photo courtesy Anjali Appadurai/Twitter The BC NDP executive committee has voted to disqualify Anjali Appadurai from the race to elect its new leader. This means that David Eby—the only remaining candidate—will replace John Horgan as leader of the NDP and premier of the province. Eby is the former BC attorney
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Yes, city councils can cut the police budget
A Winnipeg police cruiser sits parked near a church on Cumberland Street. Photo by Dave Shaver/Flickr. Winnipeg is in the midst of another uninspiring municipal election. But unlike previous rounds, a handful of mayoral and council candidates have actually dared to discuss the ever-growing crisis of the Winnipeg Police Service
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney, working remotely by cellphone from London queue, tweets ostentatiously while waiting to bid farewell to Queen
“In queue for Queen, Premier Kenney signs order banning remote work option for civil servants.” University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). In fact, there was nothing for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to sign. Alberta’s civil servants were ordered back to their offices months ago, on
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Poilievre’s working class pitch needs to hit an NDP wall
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to supporters at a rally in Alberta. Photo from Facebook. “Dog bites man isn’t news,” the old adage goes. “But man bites dog sure is.” The rare, unusual, freakish and shake-your-head unbelievable is newsworthy. And so it has been well reported that new Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Politics: So, some things seem to have changed in the past couple of days: We’ll have something to say about that!
NEW YORK It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to file any commentary on this blog. Times Square at supper time tonight (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). While I was taking the opportunity to hear the inspiring stories of young people who have successfully organized unions at places like
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: On yelling at Chrystia Freeland
This still image from a video posted to social media shows Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland being verbally accosted as she visits Grande Prairie, Alberta, August 26, 2022. Irrespective of your political inclinations, you probably wouldn’t like to live in a country where it is not perfectly acceptable to shout,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Happy Labour Day: the tide of workers who wish they had a union is growing
Happy Labour Day! Overall union membership may be shrinking, but the number of workers who wish they had a union and would vote to join one if they could appears to on the rise. United Nurses of Alberta members picket and help a supporter during their province-wide strike in 1980
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The insults hurled at Chrystia Freeland Friday are nothing new: Alberta’s UCP has long encouraged such abuse
Many Canadians were shocked by the profane verbal attack on Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in Grande Prairie Friday by a thuggish convoy goon. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who was assailed by a convoy goon in Grande Prairie on Friday (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Social media immediately exploded with
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