This piece was first published in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. Five years after a global economic crisis unleashed chaos on markets everywhere, income inequality has become an inescapable political and economic issue, in Canada as elsewhere. That’s because of mounting evidence that the increasingly skewed distribution of gains from economic
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The Progressive Economics Forum: When Good Data Goes Bad: The NHS2011
This piece was published today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. Two findings stand out in the National Household Survey (NHS) data released Wednesday, both critical in this post-recession era of uncertainty: 1) A quarter of Canadian households spent 30 per cent or more of their pre-tax income on shelter, the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: EI, Self-Insurance or Three-Card Monte?
Monte Solberg, the former Conservative cabinet minister responsible for Employment Insurance, proposed to eliminate the program in a recent Sun Media column: An alternative would be to self-insure. Employee and employer premiums would accumulate in an account in each worker’s name. Including interest, anyone who managed to stay employed through
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: The un-Canadian Harper Conservatives recently announced they are…
The un-Canadian Harper Conservatives recently announced they are giving away $1.5 million of our tax dollars to fund a politically motivated monument with the misleading name Memorial to Victims of Communism—Canada, a Land of Refuge. It’s not “victims of Stalinism”, “victims of totalitarianism”, “victims of dictatorships”, “victims of the Soviet
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Stephen Harper, Benign Dictator Gallery 3: Man of the…
Stephen Harper, Benign Dictator Gallery 3: Man of the people This week, somebody posted an old quote by Stephen Harper (Canada’s worst prime minister) calling our country a “benign dictatorship”. That – combined with seeing Harper’s ridiculous staged photos from his northern propaganda tour – inspired me to put together
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Stephen Harper, Benign Dictator Gallery 2: Pretending to be in…
Stephen Harper, Benign Dictator Gallery 2: Pretending to be in the military + being saluted This week, somebody posted an old quote by Stephen Harper (Canada’s worst prime minister) calling our country a “benign dictatorship”. That – combined with seeing Harper’s ridiculous staged photos from his northern propaganda tour –
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Stephen Harper, Benign Dictator Gallery 1: Waving, pointing and…
Stephen Harper, Benign Dictator Gallery 1: Waving, pointing and staring This week, somebody posted an old quote by Stephen Harper (Canada’s worst prime minister) calling our country a “benign dictatorship”. That – combined with seeing Harper’s ridiculous staged photos from his northern propaganda tour – inspired me to put together
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Stephen Harper, Canada’s scandal-ridden prime minister,…
Stephen Harper, Canada’s scandal-ridden prime minister, went on a pre-election campaign tour in mid-August, raising funds for the Conservative Party and participating in highly choreographed, obviously staged photo ops (with nobody around but paid staff and a few hand-picked, highly screened locals). As you know, Harper billed this whole propaganda
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Here is a blast from the past. A drunken, bloated Conservative…
Here is a blast from the past. A drunken, bloated Conservative senator Mike Duffy acts like a pompous, over-stuffed bag of Conservative shit, trying to defend Conservative overspending of our tax dollars by himself and 26 other recently appointed Conservative senators. NDP MP Peter Stoffer rightfully tears a strip off
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Why Is Tom Mulcair Opposed to Tax Increases?
A recent online article suggests that Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is opposed to increasing federal tax rates. I find this quite surprising. According to the August 8 article: Mulcair seemed surprised when he was asked if taxes would go up under an NDP government. “You’re the first person who’s
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Hooray! Sun News Network (SNN), aka Scum “News" lost…
Hooray! Sun News Network (SNN), aka Scum “News” lost their hypocritical bid to force all Canadian cable TV viewers to pay for their shitty channel regardless of whether we want to watch it. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) correctly declined to award special treatment to the undeserving TV
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: The Conservative-appointed lickspittles who currently control…
The Conservative-appointed lickspittles who currently control Canada’s public broadcaster, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), have refused to air a commercial by Friends of the CBC that criticizes Stephen Harper’s government for directly meddling in the supposed arms-length media organization. The overpaid, ass-kissing CBC executives don’t have a problem, however, with constantly
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Canada is an un-developing country. It has been for decades….
Canada is an un-developing country. It has been for decades. Here are some of the signs. * Crumbling infrastructure. * Irresponsible deregulation of industry and cutbacks to enforcement of the few, weak regulations that remain. This resulted – and will continue to result – in otherwise-preventable deaths, injuries and illnesses;
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: For Canada Day 2013. Images from Facebook and elsewhere; text…
For Canada Day 2013. Images from Facebook and elsewhere; text from rabble.ca: The National Stop Harper Campaign presents….”SAVE CANADA DAY.” Join us across the country as we proclaim our distrust in the Harper Government and band together to form a group of True Canadians who really care about this country.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Housing Policy Under Harper
Today I gave a presentation on Canadian housing policy at the annual conference of the European Network for Housing Research. Points raised in the presentation include the following: -Fiscal context, more so than which party has been in government, appears to have shaped federal housing policy in Canada over the
Continue readingMusings on Canadian Politics: Haircuts and highlights: Conservative MP Eve Adams on accountability
I hate to state the obvious, but the Conservative Party of Canada has some problems right now. There are very few things the average Joe dislikes more than people who say one thing and do another. This notion applies as equally to the individual as it does to politicians and
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: These photos are just begging to have captions or speech bubbles…
These photos are just begging to have captions or speech bubbles added. What a bunch of crooks and parasites these Conservatives are — all brought to power by cheating, lying and taking advantage of an antiquated, semi-democratic, rigged system. We warned you, but millions didn’t listen. Many still remain oblivious.
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: This morning I saw a few minutes of a CBC Newsworld political…
This morning I saw a few minutes of a CBC Newsworld political panel and again concluded that Canada must abolish its senate immediately. Abolish it now! There is no time for messing about. The dishonourable, fraud-committing senate serves no legitimate purpose in this day and age, and it’s debatable whether
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Polozogistics: Nine Thoughts About the Choice of the New Bank of Canada Governor
1. He’s Number Two: Stephen Poloz was widely acknowledged in economic and political circles as the second-best choice for the top job at the Bank of Canada. So the surprise was not that he was chosen. The surprise was, Why Not Tiff Macklem? Will someone please find out and tell
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: It’s April 27, 2013: a few days after my blog’s…
It’s April 27, 2013: a few days after my blog’s first anniversary, the weekend of Rebelfest in Hamilton, and a few days before International Workers’ Day (aka Mayday, aka the real Labour Day). Additionally, April 28 is International Day of Mourning for workers who were killed or injured on the
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