When your bitumen belches carbon into the atmosphere, remember that Ontario is rapidly closing all its coal-burning power plants to reduce our pan-Canadian footprint for greenhouse gases. I don’t hear you thanking us for that. Alberta owns the resources under its soil. But if this were a truly functional federation,
Continue readingTag: Dalton McGuinty
BigCityLib Strikes Back: But So What?
Dalton McGuinty is right about the oil sands and its effect on Canadian manufacturers, says Andrew Coyne, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it so we all might as well suck it up, or, better, move to Fort Mac with our shovels. But if you let your resource extraction
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Should Ontario Capitulate To The West?
Alison Redford thinks so; some guy from the Canada West Foundation thinks it isn’t necessary. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the clowns on the Op-Ed pages of Canada’s various right wing papers, Alberta has become the new Central Canada, and Calgary the new Toronto. Cheerlead for the tar-sands all you want, folks, McGuinty’s
Continue readingGlobe editorial: McGuinty a bad, bad boy for not bowing to Redford’s demands
The Globe calls it an “appeal”. It’s really a demand from Alberta for Ontario to promote the tarsands. Ontario is under no obligation to support a polluting province. There is no proof that Keystone will not further dirty our country. There is no proof that Keystone will add to Canada’s
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Jesse Kline: Dalton McGuinty Should Let Alberta Steal Ontario Jobs
In a more efficient economy, people would be moving westward to fill jobs. But Mr. McGuinty’s solution has always been to subsidize dying industries, a process which necessitates taking capital away from more productive uses. Perhaps that lesson was taught in Economics 102 — a course the Ontario Liberals would
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Alberta’s Interest Is Not Ontario’s Interest Or The National Interest
Testify Brother Dalton: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has rebuffed Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s plea to publicly defend the oil sands, saying the high “petro” Canadian dollar has “knocked the wind” out of exporters in his province. […] “…if I had my preferences as to whether we had a rapidly growing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Erin nicely summarizes Don Drummond’s report on Ontario’s finances. But it’s worth noting that leaving aside Drummond’s own choice not to follow the instruction, anybody looking for a thorough analysis of Ontario’s fiscal realities should be able to discount the report in
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: The Drummond Report
The eagerly anticipated Drummond report has been released – if you’re into horror stories, by all means curl up by the fire and read the full 562 pages here. In it, Drummond offers 320 recommendations. The initial reaction by many pundits is that this puts NcGuinty in a bind, since
Continue readingRedBedHead: Caterpillar Won Because Nobody Fought Hard Enough
It doesn’t have to be this way. We built this country, this economy and this world. We don’t have to mourn the loss of more jobs, this time sent to a union-busting “right to work” state, Indiana, for half the wages. It isn’t inevitable that our wages, pensions, benefits –
Continue readingbastard.logic: The New 1% Doctrine in Action (Electro-Motive Diesel Edition)
While many the US were celebrating seemingly positive job numbers yesterday, for London, Ontario residents such news was caustic, rock salt poured into a gaping wound. WSWS: Caterpillar subsidiary Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) has announced that it is transforming the lockout at its London, Ontario diesel-locomotive manufacturing facility into a plant closure. Six
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: An update on all the people not running for Liberal leadership
It’s been six months since I last looked in on the field of possible Liberal leadership candidates, and that’s because, well, there’s not much to report. Apart from speculation surrounding the interim leader, there’s been little chatter in the media, on blogs, or in Liberal circles. However, the Liberal Biennial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Andrew Jackson notes that the IMF is telling countries in Canada’s position to hold off on gratuitous austerity. And Trish Hennessy wonders why so many Canadians seem to have forgotten what happened last time budget-slashing was in vogue. – Meanwhile, Erin documents
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Sunday, January 15h, 2012: The Day the Crime Debate Changed
“At a time when global competition is growing and our crime rate is falling, it is smarter to invest in education than jails. – Dalton McGuinty After two days of sessions on the economy, health care, foreign policy, the environment and evidence based policy, the 3200 delegates who attended the
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Dalton McGuinty speaks at the Liberal Party of Canada Biennial Convention 2012
Favourite quotes: “Polls can impede our vision of the future.“ Laurier’s Definition of Liberalism: “I am a Liberal. I am one of these who think that everywhere, in human things, there are abuses to be reformed, new horizons to be opened up, and new forces to be developed.“ “At a
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Liberal voting reform endorsement reduces chances of NDP-Liberal merger
The question of a Liberal-NDP merger was something that was discussed quite openly following Harper’s ascent to a majority. Such poltical heavyweights as Jean Chretien even weighed in on the idea, and Jack Layton (an opponent or merger) has now passed away. It is thus worth noting, given recent events, how such
Continue readingCatholics say no to anti-bullying bill because it promotes LGBT acceptance
Constantly reading about the bigoted nature of the richest Christian church on this planet, the Roman-Catholic church, can make a secular-humanist like myself sick and perhaps even resentful of Catholics themselves. It’s as sure as it can be that when the McGuinty liberals drafted Bill 13 for the Ontario legislature
Continue readingCompetitive corporate taxation does not guarantee deficit reduction
The nerve displayed by the rich and their largely conservative backers both in the U.S. and Canada can reach staggering proportions at times, from in your face taunting through their TV stations like Fox and Sun News, to a flood of gibberish coming from their die hard columnists in the
Continue readingthe reeves report: Fighting the deficit by defunding the Catholic school system
St. Boniface Catholic School in Toronto. The question of funding for Catholic education in Ontario is similar to the question of reforming the first-past-the-post system we employ for electing members of parliament – any rudimentary thinking on the issue would show it to be egregiously undemocratic and discriminatory, yet politicians
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – It’s bad enough that what’s passing for climate change discussion is an agreement to keep meeting for years on end that doesn’t really advance matters any from the early ’90s. – But lest there be any doubt, the Cons aren’t quite happy enough
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Bully for Him
It is probably largely due to both the verbal and physical abuse I suffered as an elementary and high school student in the Catholic school system many years ago that I am so sensitive to abuses of authority, be it individual or institutional. I also suspect my experiences play a
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