Miscellaneous material to end your weekend.- Jeffrey Sachs muses that the Occupy movement may just be the beginning of a sea change in American politics:Both parties have joined in crippling the government in response to the demands of their wealthy ca…
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Paul Wells speculates as to what comes next for the Harper Cons once their first set of legislation is rammed through a majority Parliament. But as Wells notes, we shouldn’t get sidetracked as to where those …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
This and that for your evening reading.- Erin offers up his suggestions for the Saskatchewan NDP’s renewal process:The next NDP leader will presumably be met with a barrage of negative advertising from the Sask Party. New Democrats would do well to ele…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Too close to home
Yes, the threat of a slander suit probably had something to do with Gerry Ritz’ desperate retreat after attacking the Canadian Wheat Board. But more important is the significance of Ritz’ allegation based on what his own party has done: if one consider…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading.- Alice posts the full party spending numbers from May’s election. And the story in fact looks to have been near-maximum spending by each of the four parties then in Parliament – which of course failed to produc…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Everything wrong with Canadian politics in a nutshell
The Conservative Party of Canada admits to breaking the law, and describes it as a victory.
Continue readingRusty Idols: If Ezra Levant pushed his way into your house and wouldn’t leave, wouldn’t YOU call the cops?
OTTAWA – When the CBC’s Mary Walsh shows up unannounced with a camera crew at Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s house, the state broadcaster considers it comedy. When Sun News Network’s Ezra Levant pops up in the lobby of the CBC’s Toronto headquarters with a camera operator, it’s a matter for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Assorted content for your evening reading.- Murray Dobbin nicely summarizes what the Cons are hoping to do in prioritizing big-money “philanthropy” over a functional state and civil society:Ideology is meaning in the service of power, and the Conservat…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Nanos confirms that even as cities are starting to crack down on the Occupy movement, the general public is highly sympathetic to the message about reining in inequality and corporate control:The Nanos…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Dr. Dawg follows up on Stephen Harper’s apology to residential school survivors, and rightly questions how sincere it can be when it’s been followed up with repeated efforts to avoid either actual compensation o…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Rick Salutin nicely describes what’s behind the “charity” model of top-end wish fulfillment that the Cons are pitching in place of actual social programs:The Old Philanthropy, aside from a few big foundations…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Dan Gardner highlights how Stephen Harper is imposing exactly the kind of costly, top-down policies on Canada’s provinces that he once railed against:This week, at least five provincial governments, starting …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- If there’s any good news in the Cons’ constant attacks on labour, it’s the growing recognition that workers need to fight back with no less a concerted effort than they’re facing from a hostile government. And the po…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Misled
Angela Hall makes the fatal mistake of presuming that right-wing spin has anything at all to do with reality:Returning to the city where he made a recent campaign promise to crack down on violent offenders, Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall expressed…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Stephen Maher nicely summarizes Tony Clement’s sad committee appearance yesterday:The evidence shows that Clement chose the projects himself, in some kind of mysterious process in his riding office. He has stea…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On uneven playing fields
Nancy is understandably concerned about different rules applying to the NDP’s leadership race in 2012 than the Libs’ in 2013. But it’s worth pointing out that there are gaps going in both directions: in particular, the Libs will also get the benefit of…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your afternoon reading.- Jim Stanford highlights the Cons’ thoroughly imbalanced view of labour disputes by pointing out that their concern for the economy has been limited to action by workers rather than employers:When employers …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- I’d think it’s long past the time where any informed observer could cling to hope that the Harper Cons see good government as a goal worth pursuing. But Dan Gardner points out the role that Parliament …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The new normal
It wasn’t long ago that I considered it remarkable for a government to make any claim to concern about privacy which was so implausible as to demand refutation by the responsible Privacy Commissioner. But the Cons are managing to make a habit of it.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On diversions
It should come as no surprise that the Globe and Mail’s ongoing paean to high-end charitable tax breaks is apparently linked to a request from the Harper Cons. But perhaps more noteworthy is the fact that the Cons are commandeering the agenda of the Ho…
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