This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom adds another piece to the picture showing the Cons’ efforts to shift both jobs and wealth offshore, pointing out that lax visa rules have only encouraged RBC-style outsourcing schemes. Craig McInnes recognizes that a cheap, low-rights worker strategy is a
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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: J’accuse! Thomas Mulcair’s treason and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
TweetThe rhetoric is running high this week with President Barack Obama expected to soon decide the fate of the controversial TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline. In Washington D.C. last week, federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair criticized the pipeline that would ship bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries in Texas. Mr. Mulcair also
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Jennifer Ditchburn reports that the Harper Cons are making ample progress in their goal of removing Canada from any list of socially-developed welfare states, as Canada has dropped from being the world’s leader in the UN’s Human Development Index to a position outside
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Yves Engler highlights the two-tiered justice system exacerbated by the Harper Cons, as anybody with a sufficient level of privilege avoids any punishment for wrongdoing: One law for the rulers and another for the rest of us — wasn’t that supposed to
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Canadian Taxpayer Federation Exposed! In running for ‘Turfy Award’
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger You have to hand it to the ‘Right Wing Nuts.’ when. The smallest gaggle of true believers seem able to attracting funding and dispense their gospel broadly throughout the MSM without a murmur of questioning, measuring or guaging its’ accuracy or value. In Canada we are
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Star’s editorial board highlights why our elected representatives should be countering the effect of precarious employment (rather than exacerbating them as the Cons have done): Simply put, programs like Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan were created back in the days
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Zoe Williams questions when being poor became grounds for deliberate discrimination and ritual public humiliation (h/t to Mound of Sound): What I cannot help noticing is a failure of normal human respect for the people at the bottom of the heap – Tuesday’s
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Will Premier Redford’s TV message address Alberta’s tax dilemma?
Tweet“Our party was elected to keep building Alberta — to focus our spending on the priorities that you told me were important, and that is exactly what we’ll do.” – Premier Alison Redford in an email to Progressive Conservative Party supporters on January 23, 2013 Premier Alison Redford will star
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Bill Curry reports on what looks like a thoroughly warped view of the role of the Minister of Justice and Parliament in assessing the constitutionality of legislation (h/t to bigcitylib): Ottawa is crafting legislation that risks running afoul of the Charter of Rights
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Christmas reading. – Naomi Klein comments on what we should take from the Idle No More movement: Chief Spence’s hunger is not just speaking to Mr. Harper. It is also speaking to all of us, telling us that the time for bitching and moaning is over.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Unions After Bill C-377
In my favorite Shakespearian play, Hamlet, there is a scene wherein his erstwhile friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, explain that an acting company that used to enjoy great popularity has fallen on hard times. Thanks to a new craze in which troupes of child actors have become the rage, and “are
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Disappointed Wildrosers sit outside as Redford Tories abandon Klein-era financing.
TweetAlberta’s opposition parties are traditionally notorious for being unforgiving towards leaders who fail to meet or beat electoral expectations. Take for example former Edmonton Mayor Laurence Decore, who after leading his Liberal Party to it…
Continue readingAlberta Diary: More files from the You-Heard-It-Here Dep’t
Jeffrey Simpson of Canada’s National Website ponders the topic of another column. High-profile national prognosticators may not appear exactly as illustrated. More files from the Déjà-Vu-All-Over-Again Dep’t at Canada’s National Website and the You-Heard-It-Here Dep’t at Alberta Diary : “Are storm clouds forming in Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s sunny skies?” “… Ms. Redford’s problem in …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted material to end your weekend. – Chrystia Freeland comments on the self-destructive nature of elite protectionism: (E)ven as the winner-take-all economy has enriched those at the very top, their tax burden has lightened. Tolerance for high executive compensation has increased, even as the legal powers of unions have been
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Files from the You-Heard-It-Here Department
Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail tries to remember when he first thought that thought. High-profile national prognosticators may not appear exactly as illustrated. “It’s semi-official: The Enbridge Northern Gateway project is kaput!” – David J. Climenhaga, Alberta Diary, July 19, 2012 “You heard it here: Northern Gateway’s dead”
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Harris follows up on the previous activism to save the Experimental Lakes Area by noting that efforts to work with the Harper Cons are providing both divisive and disastrous: (J)ust a few months after the Death of Evidence rally, another event is
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Can a ‘progressive’ win in Calgary-Centre? It is not impossible, but it might not be very likely.
TweetCan the online campaign 1 Calgary Centre succeed in its goal to unite (or crowd-surf) progressive voters behind one candidate in the impending Calgary-Centre by-election? It is not impossible, but it is improbable. The existence of a Naheed Nenshi, Linda Duncan, or Chima Nkemdirim style of candidate who progressive voters could unite behind could
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how Canadian right-wing parties are picking up on the most extreme anti-labour stances of the U.S. Republicans. But I do have to wonder whether the comparison between union dues and taxes is one that they’d particularly shy away from:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Mia Rabson writes that patronage and secrecy are thriving under the Harper Cons, even after they’ve lost any excuse about other parties’ ability to stop their plans: But when the federal appointments process has no transparency, any time someone with political ties as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tom Korski nicely captures the essence of the Cons’ omnibus attack on the environment (along with anything that stands in the way of a cheap and dirty buck): C-38 is a gift for oil and gas lobbyists. It repeals 20 years of environmental
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