This weekend I attended Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons community gathering in Vancouver and Burnaby, sponsored by these groups and people. The basic premise is not so much that capitalism is broken, and we just need to fix it, but that neoliberal market fundamentalism is inherently broken
Continue readingTag: democracy
A good day for democracy in Montana
One of the biggest blows against democracy in American history occurred in 2010 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case that government could not place limits on independent spending for political purposes by corporations and unions. The ruling, by essentially giving corporations the same First Amendment
Continue readingOn “fascism” in the U.S.
Paul Street on why the U.S. is not a “fascist” state: Even if real historical fascism could be translated across times and place to the modern U.S. it would be largely redundant for America’s powers that be. The American elite already gets the basic regressive and authoritarian outcomes of fascism
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Canadians Want The Worst Politics Of America
Canadians would support our own political institutions if we didn’t idealize worse ones. The last few years have offered an incredible contrast in politics between what interests Canadians and what is best for Canadians. In looking at what has attracted support recently it is undeniably clear that pervasive American values
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Liberals & Conservatives, Two Halves of One Party
Are the BC Liberals a coalition of federal Conservatives and Liberals or are the Conservatives and Liberals just a federal party not yet united? There’s an answer to that question and though it relies on perspective, it doesn’t rely on your own. The BC Liberal Party is sometimes cited as
Continue readingLarry Hubich's Blog: SFL awaits Court decision in Charter Challenge case against Bills 5 & 6
During November of 2011 the SFL et al, along with 3 intervenor unions were in court to argue that the Saskatchewan provincial government’s (2007 – 2008) labour legislation (Bills 5 & 6) violates the Charter rights of working people. The SFL team argued 3 main points: 1. People have the right to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Happy Birthday for Haiti
So I’ve just turned 45. What a sweet age! Instead of asking people to only bring a quirky 45rpm record to my party next month, I’d rather give people an opportunity to donate money to the Canadian Red Cross for Haitian earthquake relief. As many of you know, the case
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Amen, brother, amen #nlpoli #cdnpoli
nottawa asks a good question about politicians, university professors and journalists and discovery of a fairly obvious point about public life in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2003. – srbp –
Continue readingThoughts on Canada’s new immigration laws in regards to the niqab and the Lowes ad controversy on All American Muslim
As a Canadian liberal blogger, I was contacted by a project representative from My Fellow American back in October, the month during which in Ontario, my province of residence, we had provincial elections underway. At the time I was volunteering to help with the campaign of my local liberal candidate.
Continue reading350 or bust: Franke James Does New York
Franke James made it into the New York Times last week. Andrew Revkin covered the Canadian environmental artist who is fighting back against interference and bullying from the Harper government in Canada’s Approach to Inconvenient Art. Tim Harper at the Toronto Star also covered her story in his recent article
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Don’t let dubious political tactics turn us off politics
Here’s a guest post from Ben Gillies, a political economy grad from the University of Manitoba. Canadians Must Not Let Dubious Political Tactics Turn Us Off Politics Altogether By Benjamin Gillies Last week, the Conservatives admitted their party was behind a rash of phone calls to Liberal Irwin Cotler’s federal
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Krugman Warns It’s a Depression and Democracy Itself is at Risk
New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman is now calling the developed world’s meltdown a depression. And he’s warning that we’d better wake up to the threat that poses to our democracy. “True, it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s cold comfort. Unemployment
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Transforming regional representation in democracy
First Past the Post Ballot For reasons purely of pragmatism, our democracies are actually representative democracies where we elect a relatively tiny portion of our population as leaders to represent us in government. In principle, there might be many different ways to go about choosing where these representatives come from
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Congressmembers Implicated in Insider Stock Trading on TransCanada, Keystone XL Pipeline
shutterstock_89794186.jpg When it comes to TransCanada Corporation's Keystone XL pipeline approval process, corruption has been rampant, as well covered by DeSmogBlog as it unfolded. The Keystone XL pipeline, currently in limbo, would carry tar sands crude — a thick and dirty fossil fuel called bitumen — from the Alberta tar sands through
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Well-educated Cardiologists Don’t Know Everything about the Occupy Movement
Had a debate with a well-educated cardiologist this morning who said the occupy movement is missing a political opportunity because it doesn’t have a single focused message. How many times have I heard that, and how many times have I answered that the occupy movement is not a conventional protest
Continue readingElizabeth May, Tuvalu and honest representation
I was intrigued by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s attempt to join the Tuvalu delegation at the Durban Climate Change Conference. As she explained, “If my government, the Government of Canada, does not need my help, I offer it to another government, one that works for my children because the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The New Politics Initiative: Ten Years After
Rabble.ca is running a series of reflections on the tenth anniversary of the New Politics Initiative, which sought to create a more democratic politics in Canada ideally as part of a revitalized NDP. The vision statement is here; my piece follows, and there are also contributions from Judy Rebick and Jim Stanford.
Continue readingThe New Politics Initiative vision statement of 2001: Open, sustainable, democratic | rabble.ca
This month marks the 10th Anniversary of the New Politics Initiative, a coalition of individuals and organizations that called for the formation of a new and more activist progressive political party in Canada. The NPI was concerned with the relationship between progressive social movements and progressive parties, trying to better
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