Alice notes that all three official parties in Parliament amassed record fund-raising totals during the course of this spring’s election campaign. But it’s worth adding one asterisk to the raw numbers.While both the Cons and the NDP mostly raised money…
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Martin Patriquin offers up the definitive response to the pearl-clutching over Nycole Turmel’s Bloc membership (italics in original, bold added):(H)ere’s the wee nuance that seems lost on the rest of…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On building opportunities
There’s no doubt that the trumped-up story about Nycole Turmel’s one-time Bloc membership reflects the inevitable first real pile-on against the NDP in its new role as Official Opposition. But it’s worth noting that the NDP also has an opportunity to t…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
This and that for your long weekend reading.- I’m not ordinarily a huge fan of spending much time in the present focusing on the past. But Dan Gardner’s suggested label for today’s holiday looks to be well worth adopting – if nothing else as a reminder…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your long weekend.- I’ll agree with pogge that Tabatha Southey’s latest is well worth a read. But while it’s worth recognizing the differences between the respective priorities involved in managing a country as opposed to a f…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Failing by any measure
It’s no particular secret that “intensity” targets for greenhouse gas emissions are an utter joke, designed to facilitate the continued growth of heavy polluters as long as they make marginal improvements in per-unit emissions with no regard for the fa…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your long weekend.- Thomas Walkom highlights the message being sent to students as to what workers should expect in the years to come. And it’s well worth reflecting on whether the problem lies precisely with the politicians s…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: An accidental opportunity
This morning, I theorized that the political fortunes of the NDP and the Libs will make for an interesting test case on the relative importance of leadership politics and party planning. But let’s note part of the reason why Rae holds a relatively stro…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Trish Hennessy crunches the numbers on vacation time for Canadians:47Percentage of Canadian workers who say they need a vacation more today than they’ve needed in four years. 10Number of statutory holidays Canadian…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 22, 2011
The second-last day of debates in this spring’s session dealt mostly with Bruce Hyer’s motion on small business. But lest anybody think there would be agreement on the details of an issue where every party supported the motion itself (resulting in a ra…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On non-news
No, it isn’t news that the Cons tried unsuccessfully to recruit Thomas Mulcair around the time when he decided instead to run for the NDP. But for those looking for an actual topic worth discussing, what does it say that the Cons’ idea of a “gotcha” is…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Coming soon to a country near you…
Yes, it’s telling that Stephen Harper’s spin on the U.S. debt ceiling crisis is to pretend that the problem has more to do with “the U.S. debt and fiscal situation” than his sister party’s choice to hold the country hostage.But since he’s apparently wi…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your midweek reading.- Not surprising: Canadians find Stephen Harper’s constant politicization of everything – including awards for volunteers – to be improper. Even less surprising: Stephen Harper couldn’t care less.- Meanwh…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- In case anybody held out hope that the Harper Cons might follow up on their residential school apology with some concrete action to change First Nations relations for the better, here’s the predictable result: a…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your weekend.- Nick Falvo discusses the unfortunate theory that any talk of improving standards of living for the neediest Canadians is either fruitless or extreme politically:In reference to the Put Food In The Budget cam…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On primary purposes
Yes, it’s striking enough that multiple parties’ MPs went out of their way to destroy information about constituent requests to make it harder for new NDP MPs to do their job. But it’s particularly worth comparing the Cons’ treatment of constituents’ p…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On revocability
Dr. Dawg has a post worth reading on the Cons’ purification strategy. But let’s take a closer look at part of that plan which I’ve only dealt with in snark form so far:The federal government believes some 1,800 people have obtained their Canadian citiz…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
If there’s any good news in the report that it’s apparently impossible to keep corporate sponsorship off even the most political of public functions, it’s that it should be highly entertaining to see where the trend goes next. I for one look forward to…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- As quickly as the Fraser Institute churns out corporate propaganda, Sixth Estate responds – this time nicely debunking a report encouraging yet more giveaways to big pharma:(T)here’s a glaring lie by omission in th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
An environmental monitoring plan explicitly designed to improve the reputation of the industry involved is a thoroughly useless environmental monitoring plan.
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