Four federal by-elections have been called for Nov. 25th, including in Toronto Centre. While a new poll shows the Liberals comfortably ahead, I think it’s going to be a real battle. And so does NDP candidate Linda McQuaig, judging by the gambit she launched this weekend. McQuaig is challenging Liberal
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Dechene interviews Maude Barlow about the downside of privatizing public infrastructure: Somebody asked me to point blank explain the difference between private and public and I said, profit. That’s the difference. In a public system, it’s the same amount of money; you’re
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Christopher Ragan writes about the lessons we should be drawing from the 2008 financial meltdown – as well as so many similar bubbles before it: Contrary to what many people seem to believe, financial crises like the one that began five years
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: "Willing to bring it … hard", "stoke[ing]…frustration and anger" – What the expect from NDP campaigns in the upcoming by-elections
That’s what Pundits’ Guide and David Akin wrote about new Mulcair candidate Linda McQuaig’s approach to politics in their (both very good) summaries of the Toronto Centre nominations. I was happy to spend the day pulling vote for Chrystia Freeland, who McQuaig wasted no time in attacking. Those who read
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Needed Voice
For those interested in a broader public policy discussion than has been permitted by our political ‘leaders’ thus far, the NDP nomination of journalist Linda McQuaig yesterday in Toronto Centre, Bob Rae’s old riding, is an auspicious beginning. No stranger to progressives, McQuaig has exposed the iniquities of gross income
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Competition to replace Bob Rae in Toronto-Centre is officially on
The NDP and Liberal candidates for Toronto-Centre were voted on last evening. Chrystia Freeland and Linda Mcquaig were elected by their memberships to run for their political parties. Mcquaig’s win was on the first ballot, which surprised me a bit, as my original perception from reading up on this race
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: Liberals and NDP pick their Toronto-Centre by-election candidates
A busy day in downtown Toronto on Sunday, as both the Liberals and the NDP picked their candidates to replace Bob Rae as the MP for Toronto-Centre at nomination meetings just a subway stop apart. It made for interesting comparisons, and I attendeed both meetings. The Storify below shares some
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Dog Days of August
Georges Laraque claims to be an animal lover. But see if he gets PETA’s endorsement once they find out he used to beat up sharks, ducks, and penguins. It’s the third summer of the Stephen Harper majority government. Leadership races have been run, the Cabinet has been shuffled, but we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Not surprisingly, this week’s revelations about Pamela Wallin have set off plenty more discussion about what’s wrong with the Senate and its current beneficiaries. Andrew Coyne recognizes that the problem lies in the design of an institution based on patronage and unaccountability
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On coopting
Paul Wells offers a note of warning for the Libs in recruiting Chrystia Freeland as a candidate. But I see a greater problem for Freeland herself in pursuing the role. It’s not hard to see how Freeland might seem appealing as a means of papering over the Libs’ disconnection from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Chrystia Freeland writes about the dangers of increased concentration of wealth – particularly when it bears at best a passing relationship to any worthwhile contribution to society at large. And CBC’s report on Peter Sabourin’s investment fraud highlights the fact that the tax
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Krugman points out that workers are receiving less and less benefit from technological advancements – and offers a simple policy prescription to ensure workers of all skill levels don’t suffer unduly based on forces far beyond their control: I’ve noted before that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Chrystia Freeland comments on the disproportionate influence of the super-rich in a democratic system which is supposed to value citizens equally: “I think most Americans believe in the idea of political equality,” Callahan told me. “That idea is obviously corrupted when in 2012,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
That and that for your Sunday reading. – Alex Himelfarb weighs in against gratuitous austerity by pointing out the dishonest cycle of excuses used to push destructive policy: (T)he consequences of cuts are increasingly visible, first for the most vulnerable: aboriginal communities struggling to meet basic needs, higher tuitions and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Chrystia Freeland points out why productivity doesn’t provide an accurate picture of economic development if it merely results in increased inequality rather than shared benefits: Productivity and innovation, the focus of policy makers and business leaders, no longer guarantee widely shared prosperity. “Digital
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – In addition to providing my latest tagline, Alex Himelfarb takes aim at the austerians who seem happy to attack social well-being and economic development alike in the name of government-slashing: (A)usterity had never been driven by fiscal policy or economics or evidence. It
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Crawford Kilian comments on Chrystia Freeland’s Plutocrats as a useful expression of trends many of us have seen in action for some time: (T)he plutonomy is not just booming, but skewing the still-depressed economy the rest of us live in. Many of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Chrystia Freeland discusses the developing view that inequality can serve to stifle growth and development, while more equitable tax systems and social supports can encourage them:Set aside any moral or polit…
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