It would be nice to be able to say that my moral leanings followed a consistent system of moral belief and didn’t leave central questions such as the source of morality unanswered. Were that the case, it might superficially lend credence to the weight …
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Accidental Deliberations: On learning experiences
Let’s close this blog’s discussion of #vancon2011 with one last post, this time dealing with the NDP’s constitutional preamble – which figured to be the convention’s main topic of interest until it was deferred for further consultation.There’s no doubt…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Paul Wells is pleased to have received some response about how the Cons claim to be saving money. But it’s worth taking a close look at the substance of that response, and particularly highlighting that one of …
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Harper’s plans for the Senate will create a showdown against the provinces.
Senate showdown looms – thestar.comOn one side, there will be the Conservative government. On the other side will be the opposition parties (or, at least the NDP) and the provinces – many of which would like to abolish the Senate altogether (as the NDP…
Continue readingOn back to work legislation. Whoa, deja vu.
So, another conservative (note the small “c”) government, another round of back to work legislation. Canada violates its international obligations yet again, and is again grouped with such shining lights of liberty as Colombia. It’s the same old song a…
Continue readingOn governance (3): The Crown.
So, yeah. The Crown. This could be a really short post — hell, by my standards, it probably will be.Here’s the thing. Constitutionally, we need the Crown. We can’t get rid of the monarch, or at least the Governor-General, without overhauling the whole…
Continue readingOn governance (2): Parliament
This one’s going to be a little disconnected. The overarching thread, as said yesterday, is figuring out how to adjust our governing institutions to suit the importance of the principle of autonomy — that is, the idea that legitimate government author…
Continue readingOn governance: (1) Principles
How should we govern ourselves? Since Locke’s Second Treatise, the presumption has been in favour of self-government — that is, each individual adult person has the natural right to govern his or her own life. Thus government by others is, when legiti…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On destructive suggestions
Lest there be any doubt, one of the most important ways an opposition party can have influence in a majority Parliament is by choosing issues to highlight, thereby creating a perceived safe space for the governing party to act if it so chooses.Which is…
Continue readingGrounds
Me on Twitter, May 28, 2011 (limited to 140 characters):It appears that smarter people than me seem to agree:Here’s University of Ottawa Professor Errol Mendes, cited in a Toronto Star article three days later about party financing (emphasis added):Yet…
Continue readingWeekend update(s)
Some different stuff, starting this weekend.(a) I just gave blog contributor status to my better half, Ruth. This could end very badly. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. A partial explanation appears in (b) below…(b) We’re off to New Yo…
Continue readingOn the Quebec question: (5) The Constitution
Final point I want to consider on this issue. Some objections to Quebec separatism or nationalism seem to turn on a fear of “opening up” — that is, amending — the Constitution. After all, Mulroney tried it twice, and was sunk both times. Constitution…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- The McGill Institute’s Election Content Analysis includes plenty of interesting information on how this month’s federal election was covered. But the most noteworthy point looks to be the lag time between dev…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The NDP, The Quebec Question and 50% + 1
Much has been made of Jack Layton’s “controversial” comments on a possible Quebec sovereignty referendum.The fact is that it is a very rational and defensible position. Based on the closest precedent, the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation, Quebe…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Harper, Hypocrisy, Syria, and Degrees of Freedom
Yesterday I lifted my head from some work to watch the Ottawa journalists in Twitter filling us all in on John Baird’s first press conference as the majority Conservative government’s Foreign Affairs minister. They noted he read from the speech: very odd. It was a signal of a new degree of hypocritical oddity now besetting […]
Continue readingCan You Tell Me Where My Country Lies?
Here is the authoritarian mind in action:
1- At the request of a city Chief of police, in anticipation for an international summit in said city where peaceful protesters and demonstrators (and yes, including an inevitable small minority of idiotic ind…
Continue readingYou Know You Are Living In A Corporatocracy …
… when your elected government begs Big Business interests to help them write and/or kill bills:Back there, Transport Minister John Baird (yes – this same John Baird) was caught privately encouraging Canada’s big airlines to step up their lobby campaign in order to kill a proposed "passenger bill of right" while his predecessor, then-Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, publicly supported s…
Continue reading2010 Vs 2011: Same As It Was, Same As It Will Be
The following struck me as the very essence of the (now past) first decade of the 21st century, in effect constituting at the same time a resounding call that will define this second decade that is just beginning (emphasis added):
“If the president …
Continue readingThe Canadian Branch Of The North American Security Surveillance State
Read it and weep, folks (emphasis added):
Canada’s little-known spy agency comes out into the open
At a time when most government agencies are cutting and slashing, a little-known spy agency led by a Rhodes Scholar is the envy of Ottawa for its pla…
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