Here, on the need to question both the importance of trade agreements compared to other forms of interjurisdictional cooperation in general, and the Cons’ warped priorities in particular.For further reading…- Again, here’s the Council of Canadians’ n…
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day.- Frances Russell nicely sums up the effect of the Cons’ bevy of anti-democratic trade deals:Don’t be fooled. The innocuous language used to describe the avalanche of so-called “trade” agreements raining down on …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Laura Ryckewaert reports that Elections Canada’s response to Robocon is now including an unprecedented level of public consultation, while Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor are digging deeper into voters’ complain…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Bill Curry reports on the Cons’ latest public-sector slashing. But there hasn’t yet been much discussion of the most alarming number: upwards of 30% of the Cons’ cuts are coming from the Canada Revenue Agency…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On editorial decisions
By all means, I agree with the commentators pointing out that this is rather less than surprising treatment of (and by) a Con cabinet minister. But as always, there’s another rather important followup question: why would Don Martin or anybody else stil…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
This and that to end your week.- Tavia Grant writes that at least one region of the globe – Latin America – is seeing some real progress in combating inequality. And the World Bank has some ideas to keep up the momentum:The bank still sees room for imp…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andrew Potter highlights the difficulties in practicing and encouraging truth-based politics at a time when entire parties make a deliberate strategy of lying – as well as the one technique that seems to be wor…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Lawrence Martin’s take on Robocon doesn’t offer much by way of new information, but nicely sums up exactly what deliberate vote suppression and electoral fraud should mean for a governing party:At issue here is …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading.- Andrew Jackson takes a look at the UK’s strong movement for a living wage, and notes that it’s long past time for a similar push in Canada.- The most remarkable part of this week’s revelations about the Cons’ cu…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unwanted imports
The Mound of Sound is rightly appalled at the revelation that JP Morgan is making money off of the U.S.’ food stamp program. But lest we think the problem is limited to our neighbours, let’s note that the Cons are doing their utmost to ensure that ever…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On bad bets
It’s been glaringly obvious to those of us paying attention that the Cons have set up plenty of means to keep dictating the terms of Canadian politics from beyond the political grave – with the most obvious being their continued stacking of the Senate …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Rick Salutin offers an important take on the U.S. election by pointing out that the Occupy movement and its focus on inequality laid the groundwork for Barack Obama’s re-election:The aftermath to the bailouts was the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Republicans’ electoral strategy once again included a failed attempt to prioritize fossil fuels over mere people – and how the Harper Cons look to be on the verge of making the same mistake.For further reading on the developing resourc…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On lemmings
No, we shouldn’t be surprised that Jim Flaherty is lending the weight of Canada’s federal government to a concerted effort to attack U.S. social programs. But for those who may have missed it, the supposed “fiscal cliff” being used as an excuse to push…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Barbara Yaffe writes about the continual rise in food bank use and the underlying political choices which have brought it about:(I)n the last decade food banks have been helping Canadians through both good time…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell discusses how the Cons have corporatized Canadian politics: In fact, elevating corporate rights over the rights of citizens and their democractic institutions seems to be the Harper government’s core agenda. Its aggressive “free trade” stance has led to agreements with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Stephen Maher follows up on this week’s Supreme Court ruling on Etobicoke Centre by pointing out where we should be most worried about our electoral system: Fraudulent voting is far from the biggest problem facing our democracy. Disengagement is. Voting rates are declining
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Timothy Noah writes that since Republicans haven’t been able to convince the American public that inequality is desirable or acceptable, they’re taking another angle: engaging in inequality denialism to try to pretend a growing problem doesn’t exist. – Tim Harper discusses the importance
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On positive precedents
Naturally, there’s plenty of discussion today about the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on Boris Wrzesnewskyj’s challenge to the 2011 federal election results in Etobicoke Centre. But I’ll take a moment to highlight a couple of passages which show why the decision doesn’t affect challenges based on fraud or corruption
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Heather Scoffield reports on the Canadian Index of Wellbeing’s stunning finding that Canadian quality of life declined by a quarter between 2008 and 2010, while the Vancouver Sun and Lindor Reynolds comment on the collapse in well-being far beyond the economic damage
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