Ultimately, the critical thinker has an obligation to educate him/herself. To simply accept government ‘assurances’ that all is well is to surrender the responsibilities inherent in being a citizen in a democracy. HARPER SAYS: CETA and free trade deals do not allow foreign investors and foreign companies to challenge Canadian
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Politics and its Discontents: CETA – Trust No One – Part Three
Here are two more CETA myths being perpetuated by the Harper regime, according to the Council of Canadians, that we should be aware of: HARPER SAYS: Free trade deals like CETA do not prevent governments from regulating standards that protect the public, including in the areas of the environment, labour,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: CETA – Trust No One – Part Two
As reported in today’s Star, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after meeting with Stephen Harper, has promised to push for early completion of the gruelling negotiations for a Canada-European Union free trade pact. While that may hearten those who believe the pact would be an unalloyed blessing for Canada’s economy, there
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: CETA – Trust No One – Part One
As I get older, I sometimes feel like a character from the X-Files, one of the recurring motifs of which was “Trust No One.’ I think I have lived long enough and read widely enough to know that things purported to be the truth are often the exact opposite. Such
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Stuart Trew comments on the Cons’ utterly implausible claims to try to impose the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the EU without the slightest bit of public scrutiny: CETA will also most certainly give European firms the power to challenge and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer theorize that we should discuss the economy as a garden rather than a machine: A well-designed tax system — in which everyone contributes and benefits — ensures that nutrients are circulated widely to fertilize and foster growth. Reducing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Barbara Yaffe discusses Thomas Mulcair’s strong start in winning over B.C. voters. And Martin Regg Cohn notes that Stephen Harper is starting to face some real (and needed) pressure from Darrell Dexter and other premiers to start actually talking to the provinces,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – In keeping with the theme of my column this week, the Mound of Sound highlights the distinction between a “plutonomy” which serves as the source of easy profits, and a “precariat” which businesses are looking to treat as irrelevant (except when they need
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how CETA and especially the TPP are serving as ever more glaring examples of the Cons’ willingness to give away everything Canadians value as part of ideologically-driven trade negotiations for no real economic gain. For further reading…– Scott Sinclair and Michael Geist have recently commented on the TPP
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dan Gardner draws some parallels between the Cons’ attacks on Europe and the well-worn (and entirely false) Reagan-era “welfare queen” line of spin. But I wonder whether the Cons are making matters somewhat more difficult for themselves by trying to negotiate a free
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review – April 27, 2012
Friday, April 27 saw another day of relatively non-contentious debate on the main bill up for discussion in the House of Commons. But there was plenty of reason to question why the focus would be as narrow as it was. The Big Issue That main bill was the Cons’ elder
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Gerald Caplan looks at the principled leadership which Stephen Harper embarrassingly made into an attack on the NDP as an example what Canada desperately needs now: Repeating that war settles nothing, Mr. Woodsworth declared: “I rejoice that it is possible to say these
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Y’all keep using that term "free trade"
Kate Heartfield has an interesting column on trade negotiations between Canada and the EU and specifically on the possible consequences for the cost of pharmaceuticals. The EU is insisting on changes to Canada’s intellectual property laws and there’s some dispute about what that will mean for Canadian consumers. You can
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrew Coyne is rightly alarmed at the Cons’ move to short-circuit any debate about major policy changes through an omnibus budget bill. And Bea Vongdoaungchanh reports that the biggest of those changes is to set our environmental laws back by half a
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Finding New Strategies for Progressives in Canada
A few weeks back, Andrew Coyne wrote an excruciatingly epideictic column for The National Post on the virtues of free trade in general, stressing in the process how virtuous CETA (the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) is likely to be for Canada. It was such an egregiously neoliberal column
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Amy Minsky uncovers some suspicious-looking spending patterns underlying Robocon, while Postmedia also points out that election results in at least a couple of seats may plausibly be subject to challenge. Emma Pullman offers some more details on the Manning Centre’s voter suppression
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mike de Souza’s report on the Cons’ attempts to hide both the oil industry’s involvement and its own lack of credibility is well worth a read in full. But let’s focus on a more basic revelation: Harper has set up a publicly-funded
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 2, 2011
Friday, December 2 saw the final day of debate in Parliament on the Cons’ omnibus crime bill. And for at least a moment, the proceedings took a perhaps surprising turn. The Big Issue As debate wound down on C-10, Irene Mathyssen questioned why the Cons insisted on delaying the passage
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: November 28, 2011
Monday, November 28 saw the final day of debate in the House of Commons on the Cons’ legislation to trash the single-desk Canadian Wheat Board. And not surprisingly, the result was a particularly focused set of concerns about the bill – though those were waved aside yet again. The Big
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jack Knox comments on how the rest of the world sees Canada under the Harper Cons: A week after bleating about foreign radicals slowing the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, you have to figure Joe Oliver just wishes he had kept his cakehole corked.
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