Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – On the Robocon front, Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher’s latest good work investigating the Cons’ electoral fraud got Maher expelled from the Manning Centre’s hive-mind-building exercise. And the robocalling firms themselves are being similarly aggressive in trying to shut down any discussion of
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Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Robocon may damage the Harper Cons’ reputation for years to come – so long as the opposition parties seek out better ways to reach voters in the meantime. For further reading…– Again, the focus on the “least informed, least engaged voters” comes from Susan Delacourt.– Annick Papillon
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 Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – In the latest on Robocon, John Ivison rightly notes that the scandal figures to give many Canadians a long-overdue first look at the Cons’ computerized voter information. Meanwhile, Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher note that the Cons’ spending in last year’s election
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On subtle effects
I’m not the first to make the point, but I’ll briefly wade into the Frank Graves vs. Nik Nanos debate over Robocon by noting why this may be a scandal which may have far more of an impact on Canadians’ perceptions than prorogation or contempt of Parliament. In those cases,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your pre-debate reading. – Dave connects a few more dots as to who’s behind Robocon. Guy Giorno helpfully acknowledges that the Cons were supposed to have business-style processes to avoid the exact kind of electoral fraud that’s been discovered across Canada – signalling both that they’re indeed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The blogosphere is now out in force in chasing down new angles on Robocon. Dave pointed out that the misleading calls look to be linked to a “target seat management unit” set up by the Cons’ central brain trust; Saskboy connected that same
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On non-factors
Having raised what I see as significant issues for Thomas Mulcair’s NDP leadership campaign, I’ll take a moment to contrast those against the trumped–up story that’s become the latest shiny object to catch the media’s attention in the race. Simply put, we don’t trust Con spin or leaks generally because
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – In the last couple of days’ worth of developments on Robocon, the Cons defaulted to their standard setting of admitting nothing and misleading about everything – though it’s hard to see that strategy working out well given the amount of information that’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The revelations just keep on coming in Robocon, to the point where the news of an offensively-named burner cellphone account used to leave fraudulent messages with Racknine has already been overtaken by more ridings and staffers being implicated – even as the Cons
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Erin notes that the revenue gap being used as an excuse to demand massive cuts in Ontario is nearly entirely closed with a more plausible set of underlying assumptions and projections – and that’s without taking the look at revenue which was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – In the surest sign yet that the Robocon scandal involved a calculated decision by political operatives rather than having anything to do with mere overzealous volunteers, the Star reports that call centre staff hired by the Cons to perform live calling actually tried
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to close out your weekend. – Erica Alini points out that the effect of the Cons’ lobbying on behalf of the tar sands has been solely to make sure that the absolute worst polluters force the public to pay the cost of their activities, as anybody actually operating
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – There’s been plenty of followup on Robocon, with columns from Andrew Coyne and Thomas Walkom on the Cons’ increasingly unethical culture, along with followup reporting from Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor on live voter fraud and Steve Rennie and Bruce Cheadle on Elections
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Friday reading. – Jim Stanford points out that free trade hasn’t delivered any productivity gains as promised – and has in fact moved Canada further away from the model that’s working elsewhere: The famous Macdonald Commission, influenced heavily by market-oriented economic analysis, made two core
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On battlegrounds
Paul Wells has a theory about the political playing field developing for Canada’s 2015 federal election. And his laments that a new NDP leader won’t get to take a three-year sabbatical aside, I can only hope that he’s right. Yes, it’s true that the Cons will enjoy a few more
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to end your week. – Sure, it’s a plus to know that Canada’s military is ready and willing to leap into action to protect what matters most to the government of the day. Now if only that meant something other than serving as political operatives to protect the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – pogge points out that the Cons’ response to the perception that judges aren’t fully onside with their efforts to impose top-down control has been to eliminate the judiciary’s ability to ensure fair results: Where the institutions of government have put constraints on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that the McGuinty Libs’ choice to emphasize austerity rather than stabilizing Ontario’s economy may lead down exactly the same destructive path travelled by Greece and other countries: (T)he crises in Spain, Portugal and Greece occurred because government spending cuts
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The outrage against the Cons’ total online surveillance scheme continues, with Dan Leger, Mia Rabson and Michael Geist adding noteworthy comments to the mix. – Meanwhile, the Star rightly criticizes the latest legislation to hand Con cabinet ministers the power to make
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