L. Ian MacDonald wrote a defence of the Senate in today’s Montreal Gazette. He makes the familiar argument that it provides useful study of policy issues. However, his first example is the 2002 Senate report supporting bank mergers. In the wake of the global financial crisis, we should be glad that
Continue readingTag: democracy
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Conservative Coverup #RoboCon #cdnpoli
Mayrand has come out to say finally that the Conservatives are not cooperating with the investigation into the robocall election fraud of 2011. I do not find this surprising, and if you’ve been reading my blog the past year, you’d know that’s because the evidence points to the Conservative Party
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Citizenship on the Sidelines
Being on holiday has induced in me a certain mental torpor, so please forgive me if this post states the obvious. Those of us who write politically-oriented blogs are, of course, engaged intellectually and emotionally in the machinations of those we elect. And I suspect it is to our regular
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Defending Election Fraud #RoboCon
With the Federal Court recently confirming in law that the Conservatives’ access controlled CIMS database was utilized by conspirators to commit election fraud, there are still some Conservative bloggers willing to put their reputations on the line in defense of not only the Conservative Party of Canada, but of the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Harper’s silent treatment of the Senate scandal undermines democracy
Stephen Harper’s silent treatment of the Senate expenses scandal is a dictatorship-style assault on our collective intelligence. The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), a union representing newspaper and broadcast journalists, says it undermines Canadian democracy. This press release: OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is undermining Canada’s democratic process by
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Conclusions You Can Confirm Using CIMS Computer #RoboCon #cdnpoli
Stephen Taylor was confused this morning. If he read my blog instead of dismissing me as a bother, he wouldn’t be so confused. He thought the Federal Court Robocalls judgement was saying that no Conservative could have been involved, because the judge had said he’d seen no evidence suggesting that.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Fraud, but No Punishment #RoboCon #cdnpoli UPDATED
The Federal Court found there was fraud in the 2011 federal election (duh), but decided the irregularities were not enough to justify calling byelections to let a fair election play out in each of the six challenged ridings. Six contested election results stand but Federal Court finds evidence of robocalls
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: DuffyGate Continues #cdnpoli
This whole Mike Duffy scandal isn’t new, but it is big news now, because further details came to light last week. We learned that Duffy was basically bribed by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, so an audit wouldn’t continue or look so bad for
Continue reading350 or bust: Harper’s House of Cards Disintegrating Under Weight of Conservative Senators
* We are living in interesting times, as the saying goes. Here in Canada, the house of cards that is the federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper is starting to self-destruct; the only surprising thing to me is that it took this long to happen. The Harper government is throwing
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Ya Gotta Pay to Play – Money and Private Interests vs. American Democracy
What is democracy about these days? Looking to the North American model to the south of Canada, one begins to worry that idea of responsible, accountable government is a sadly antiquated notion. Bill Moyers and his guests detail what is happening in Washington. Revolving doors, “dark” money, influence peddling –
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Live-Blogging the Next BC Government
Here we are: only hours to go until the polls close. What will be the next BC government? What are your hopes, fears, dreams, goals? This page will refresh every 15 seconds, or you can manually reload it. Please add in your comments below What are your seat predictions? What
Continue readingEclectic Lip: May 14 – British Columbia provincial election
Here’s to hoping that any and all British Columbians reading this, take their opportunity to vote. In the broad sweep of history, with precious few examples, democracy is a fairly new phenomenon — not unlike the concept of retirement — so it would be a pity to waste the opportunity for
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Monbiot – You Can’t Win on Climate Change Without First Vanquishing Plutocracy
Guardian enviro-scribe, George Monbiot, took the arrival of a recrod, 400 ppm concentration of atmospheric CO2 to deliver a few thoughts on our losing battle against climate change and what really stands in the way of our hope for progress. “The data go back 800,000 years: that’s the age of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: No Robo #RoboCon #cdnpoli
Good news on the RoboCon front: A team of talented, non-political-party-aligned Canadians is working to notify masses of people of the piles of evidence detailing the largest election fraud scheme in Canadian history. There are piles of evidence. I’ve collected some of the most important bits here for you to
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: No Robo One #RoboCon
I found a very worthwhile campaign to fight misinformation and apathy with robocalls and art by non-political-partiers, and hope you’ll assist with its crowdfunding. If you can’t make a PayPal payment, they’ll take Interac email money also if you ask. I’ll be talking more about this in the morning, along
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Gone Since December #RoboCon
The verdict for the Robocalls Federal Court challenge is still not in, after the judge started deliberating and writing back in December. No rush, I guess. Why hurry when we’ve coped for 2 years already with a probably illegitimate government? They are willing to run a confessed election criminal in
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Is Democracy?
The other day I wrote a post on the decline of democracy under the Harper regime. Included was reference to Bob Hepburn’s recent piece on the same subject. Although I am not quite as cynical as the letter-writer, Star reader Al Dunn of Kingston, in responding to Hepburn, expresses the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Dominoes of Democracy – Part 2
What is one of the chief effects of the Harper regime’s preference for an ideologically-based policy model over one premised on logic, facts and empirical evidence, as explored in my earlier post? The decline, perhaps even the demise, of a healthy democracy in which citizens are engaged and informed participants,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Dominoes of Democracy – Part 2
What is one of the chief effects of the Harper regime’s preference for an ideologically-based policy model over one premised on logic, facts and empirical evidence, as explored in my earlier post? The decline, perhaps even the demise, of a healthy democracy in which citizens are engaged and informed participants,
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Federal Court dismisses former PBO Kevin Page’s application
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The Federal Court of Canada has dismissed a request by former Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, to clarify the office’s mandate. In his application, Page had also sought ”judgment affirming he has the jurisdiction to seek the information” relating to the $5.2 billion in fiscal savings outlined in
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