Tag: Democracy and Politics

Well, at least we have it confirmed for us. The reason that Vic Toews is a Cabinet minister despite being convicted of election fraud, the reason that Peter Penashue is allowed to stand as a Conservative candidate despite being responsible for similar violations of the law, the reason Peter Van

The Cyprus banking crisis is a useful teachable moment about banking and taxation — so I guess I’m not surprised that this opportunity is being entirely missed by the media, most of whom probably don’t know what’s actually going on, either. Both the left and the right are incensed at

If I had a shred of real optimism left, I’d say the wheels are starting to fall off of the Harper bus. But I have no such shred left. Instead all I have is a sinking suspicion that yet another wave of pro-government editorials will soon sweep the free press,

Regular readers of this blog will know that I maintain a sort of quixotic respect for our late lamented friend, the principle of ministerial responsibility. You’ll find it in the obituaries section of the Canada Gazette. It’s the principle which, until really very recently, obligated any senior politician in government

I mean, I knew it could happen in theory. But it might actually happen in practice. Not the federal government, of course. A provincial one, though: the Social Credit-turned-Reform-turned-”Liberal” Party that currently holds a majority in British Columbia under one Christy Clark. Later Sunday she will be hauled onto the

I’m not sure there’s a more delicious irony than the fact that the Conservative Senator now being publicly alleged to have defrauded the public of tens of thousands of dollars in wrongfully claimed living expenses, on the dubious grounds that his vacation cottage in PEI is his “primary residence” and

In case you haven’t heard yet, the Conservatives have apparently decided to double down on their shadowy robocall schemes by putting out an allegedly bogus push-poll telling Saskatchewan residents that the new riding boundaries being drawn in that province are going to screw good Saskatchewan residents out of their democratic

I don’t think there’s really any need for a detailed analysis of the following: the right-wing, free-market, anti-government “news” channel set up by Quebecor and some former Harper staffers is losing money and wants the government to mandate a special tax on cable consumers to guarantee it a revenue source.

It’s disappointing, depressing even, that the anonymous editorial board of Pravda West — excuse me, the Globe & Mail — felt the need to leap to the defence of unethical Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. It’s an extraordinary editorial, even by the generally low standards of Pravda West editorializing. I should

As you may have heard by now, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is in a bit of trouble after attempting to intervene before the CRTC on behalf of a radio station based in his riding. Such interventions violate the rules laid down for ministerial activity under the Harper government. There is

My posting rate has slowed over the past couple of months because of some work in, as they say, real life, which unfortunately takes precedence. I do hope to be back in the saddle properly soon, though. In the meantime, I thought a couple of lines from this country’s pathetic

Some explanation is necessary, I feel, for my post of a couple of days ago, noting the media was displaying a striking degree of hypocrisy with respect to the apparently sorry state of the Attawapiskat First Nation’s finances, and using that as a way to discredit Theresa Spence’s hunger strike.

Under the circumstances, it’s actually a little surprising that it took this long. Through a convenient leak to the state broadcaster, presumably from the government, evidence has surfaced that hunger strike chief Theresa Spence’s Attawapiskat First Nation does a terrible job of keeping their books. An internal audit which the

There are a number of disturbing implications to a new report from CBC, mainly because the individual involved is a Cabinet minister (Peter Penashue, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and MP for Labrador) and therefore a senior member of the government: Letters shedding light on the election spending and deal-wrangling by

As I predicted yesterday, the Harper government has seized upon the olive branch extended by the Assembly of First Nations earlier this week to hold a summit later this month as a way to extricate itself from the Theresa Spence hunger strike. Also as I predicted, Harper claims that the

For those people hoping Theresa Spence will get out of this hunger strike alive, or simply too weary of all the coverage and wanting it to be over, today’s modest proposal by Assembly of First Nations head Shawn Atleo offers an apparent way out via an olive branch to Stephen

No substantive post today. I’m in the middle of writing up a series of posts on military procurement which should be fairly interesting (predicting what I think will be the next, bigger scandal after the F-35), and I think I’ve said all that needs to be said with respect to

I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised to read this weekend that the Globe & Mail has officially joined Postmedia’s Christie Blatchford in denouncing the ongoing hunger strike in Ottawa by Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence as an act not just of protest but of violence against the lawful order of