Banks as predators? Surely, no! Temporary foreign workers have become a lightning-rod topic in Canadian labour in recent months with the high-profile news of the Royal Bank of Canada replacing staff with TFWs. But the issue is not about RBC, which is merely the latest flashpoint. The temporary foreign worker
Continue readingTag: conservative party of canada
Politics, Re-Spun: New Prime Minister Tells Canadians- No War With Syria
What should military service actually be for? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Canada were Canada again? Wouldn’t it be even better if Canada would step up and be a better Canada than we had ever been in the past? Wouldn’t it be just spectacular if we could step up and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MexAmeriCanada? We Are Not Thinking Creatively Enough
MexAmeriCanada doesn’t have to be our future. I think I’m guilty of being a bit slow and uncreative. The bogeyman of deep integration, North American Union, the United States-ification of Canada, the United States OF Canada, and Canada becoming states #51-60 plus three more protectorates is just too simplistic. We
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The 1%, Their Cottages, and the Occupy Movement
You aren’t middle class if you own a cottage. Remember that. If I need to single-handedly reboot the Occupy Movement for this one, I’ll do it, I tell ya [emphasis is mine]: A month ago, I had a conversation with Deb Hutton, wife of PC leader Tim Hudak, who said
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MexAmeriCanada, Version 2013
Welcome to the United States of MexAmeriCanada. Represent! I was just thinking a few days ago how I haven’t used the MexAmeriCanada tag for a while. Did I cause this to happen, in some cosmic kind of way? In the old days it was Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Class War: US$11.5 Trillion Hidden in Tax Havens
Which tax haven is right for you? Class war is alive and well. I have this rose-coloured, nostalgic dream of history. Once upon a time we emerged from feudalism with a democratic revolution. All were equal. Well, most. But the hope of democracy was to rid the world of the
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: On generations, reefer madness and focusing on the economy
A week later and my news clippings are still filled with news about Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s sensible talk about marijuana legalization – and they say it’s hard for an opposition leader to get attention in the summer, when the House isn’t sitting… The Conservatives are helping keep the issue
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stephen Harper Thinks You’re Stupid: Yet Another Reason
You know it’s a rough day for the prime minister when the Sun News Network demonstrates they aren’t always a Fox News North Conservative Party lapdog by calling them on the Economic Action Plan lunacy. If you wonder why lots of people don’t vote, it’s in part because they think
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why We Must #HonourTheApology to Residential School Survivors [#INM]
I don’t know why we still have to do this kind of thing, but here goes. The federal government “apologized” to survivors of residential schools 5 years ago. It is clearly quite empty, considering how much neglect, abuse, victimization and racism has spewed forth from Stephen Harper’s government since then.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Canada’s Evolving Soft Fascism
Things are bad under Prime Minister Harper. They’re getting worse, even since the last time I wrote about Harper’s soft fascism. But how do we measure it? It’s so…subjective, unless you have some kind of benchmark for totalitarian political behaviour. Luckily we do, at least these three: This powerful graphic
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: The state has no business in the computers of the nation
The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, a future Prime Minister once said. Nearly 50 years later, it’s time for an update, as the state has no business in our bedrooms either. Inspired by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has proposed legislation that would require
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: What happened to Harper’s cheques for whistleblowers?
In the 2006 election, the Conservatives talked some good talk about whistleblowers. They got a whistleblowing former federal civil servant to run for them as a candidate, and they made protecting whistleblowers a key part of their election platform. Here’s what they promised: They won that election, and several
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stephen Harper Visits Lac Megantic
Mourning the senseless tragedy. Today I was very impressed when Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, broke with his almost long-held position of not visiting Lac Megantic. While he and his wife took the opportunity to participate in staged political photo ops helping out with the Calgary floods, he has
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fearing Kate MacEachern: The Latest Canadian Military Blunder
Kate MacEachern and helping others: not on the DND agenda, yet. Canada’s continued neglect and abuse of our military personnel and veterans continues to enrage me. An epidemic of untreated PTSD has become a new normal. And until citizens compel the government to take responsibility for this neglect–and fix it–they
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: We Failed Rwanda; Let’s Stand for the #Rohingya
Indonesia Muslim Rally It’s been almost 20 years since the Rwandan genocide. We were too stupid, callous, or indifferent to stop it, and Senator Dallaire has more than a few words on the topic. Granted, the WWW was just getting going in the early 1990s, so we didn’t have the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why Don’t People Respect Canada Anymore? Reason #766, Egypt
A huge crowd of protesters stretched along an avenue near the presidential palace in Cairo on Sunday evening If you ever wondered why Canada is losing international respect, here’s a shining example, #766 in fact. The “Harper Government” [sic] is fully addicted to neoliberal economic 1%-ism. Egypt, as we’ve seen
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: Former CPC candidate Saulie Zajdel arrested — what does this say about PMSH?
You remember Bruce Carson, a [former] top adviser to PMSH? And, then there was that $90K cheque from PMSH’s right-hand man, Nigel Wright, to Mike Duffy… Well, now there’s Saulie Zajdel… you remember Saulie Zajdel, right? Saulie Zajdel was arrested this morning by Sûreté de Québec and faces five charges,
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 readingAlberta Diary: Did he jump or was he pushed? Outspoken Alberta Conservative MP goes over the side
Your blogger with Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber, who is a Tory no more, back in the day when he still was. TORONTO From Rob Ford to Brent Rathgeber in a single day – talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous! Or is that the other way around?
Continue readingbastard.logic: Down and Out in Harperconia
Sweet tit-humping Christ I’m tired. Tired of the chronic lack of accountability in Ottawa. Of a parliamentary press corps that been for far too long too prissy and timid to rightly ferret and call out endless examples Conservative corruption with tenacious vigour (see also: libel chill). Tired of national apathy
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