Much has been made of Jack Layton’s “controversial” comments on a possible Quebec sovereignty referendum.The fact is that it is a very rational and defensible position. Based on the closest precedent, the entry of Newfoundland into Confederation, Quebe…
Continue readingTag: democracy
Writings of J. Todd Ring: The system is broken: strategic voting, coalitions, and the political regime under which we live
While I can of course see the rationale for strategic voting, there is much to be said for voting with one’s conscience. When we consistently choose the lesser of two evils, our choices are reduced to evil, and the results are evil. When everyone hol…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Anonymous: The Commons and the Last of the Outlaws?
The ongoing attacks on net neutrality constitute a new round of enclosures of the modern commons. If the original enclosure movements during 16th and 17th centuries in England signified the opening overture of capitalism, then the contemporary attacks on the electronic commons are certainly part of its fully formed fruition. Taking what was once common, […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Harper, Hypocrisy, Syria, and Degrees of Freedom
Yesterday I lifted my head from some work to watch the Ottawa journalists in Twitter filling us all in on John Baird’s first press conference as the majority Conservative government’s Foreign Affairs minister. They noted he read from the speech: very odd. It was a signal of a new degree of hypocritical oddity now besetting […]
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Harper’s anti-democratic senate appointments.
Harper has appointed three senate seats from among his party. Here is the kicker: these people just lost their election campaigns to be MP’s.
Opposed to supporting democratic influences it is actively rewarding loyal party members even thought they l…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Tonight, Live-Blogging COPE’s Re:Imagine Schools
I’ve already written about how much I’m looking forward to COPE’s Re:Imagine Schools event tonight. I’ll be live-blogging the event as well. You can scroll down to watch or participate in the live-blog! The COPE Education Committee Presents: Re:Imagine Schools – Defending the Potential of Public Education Imagine a chance to take a step back […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Tory, PC, Harper, Conservative, Alliance, or Reform Majority?
I know what’s in a name. Soon, everyone will. We’ll have a long time with this new Harper Government. Bets are now on in terms of what he’ll name the Government of Canada this time. He’s tried “Canada’s New Government” and “The Harper Government” already. But when I read analysis of the election results, it […]
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Akaash Maharaj: A Party of the Many
As long as I have been involved in the Liberal Party, it has been my conviction that for all its strengths, its one fundamental weakness has been an unhealthy obsession with the identity of its leader. This impulse has taken us from being a party of th…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: And The Contempt Continues
Before Parliament even resumes Cabinet Ministers are issuing decrees to Parliamentary committees:”Industry Minister Tony Clement said Thursday he will ask oil industry refiners, distributors and retailers to appear before a parliamentary committee to e…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Can We Get Better Public Schools?
Well, the first thing we can do is carve out some time to ponder, imagine, dream, inhale, exhale, chat, brainstorm, breathe some more, and forget for a minute that we’ve had a decade of hard-core privatizing, de-funding of the public education system. It’s hard to imagine a better future when we’re constantly fighting the latest […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Know Your Lines – Center for Urban Pedagogy’s latest poster tackles redistricting
The Center for Urban Pedagogy’s latest issue of Making Policy Public takes you behind the scenes of the largely invisible redistricting process in which politicians often get to choose their voters, instead of the other way around.
Continue readingmike watkins dot ca: PC Party Confusion
A word association test: If handed a federal election ballot that displays a candidate’s name beside the "PC Party" label – what do you make of that?
Some may mistakenly believe the candidate represents Stephen Harper’s party due to long …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: After an election about personalities, not policies, we can and must do better
We have just witness an election which while historic in many ways was not one of any significance in terms of a discussion of actual issues or policies. The political choices of all four major leaders – and we the audience who responds to them – focus…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Liberal party needs to play a long game on leadership
After its crushing defeat on May 2nd, the Liberal party has some considerable soul searching to do. Not least among its problems is the task that has recently proved most difficult for them: choosing a leader. How it accomplishes this task will be of c…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Landslide Election Victory That Isn’t
I initially had a vague plan for this post but have decided to go with whatever comes to mind to create an election commentary medley of sorts. Actually, it more resembles a rather large balloon filled with statistics and cynicism and it keeps growing! The Conservatives have won a majority government and this ensures their […]
Continue readingthe disgruntled democrat: In Canada It’s All Part of the Game
The Canadian federal general election has come and gone and from what I can gather most Canadians are pretty well satisfied with the results: a majority government, the centre left in opposition, the blasted sovereignists almost swept completely off th…
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Our democracy is broken
In his new job as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Jack Layton has pledged to “fix Ottawa.” I’ve taken this to mean he will lead by example in hope of teaching the children to play nicely. I wish him luck. The problem with our democracy goes far beyond Stephen Harper’s well documented contempt for […]
Continue readingPop The Stack: Hobbits for Electoral Reform
Dear Wise Races of the United Kingdom of Middle Earth, Please forgive a humble Hobbit for bothering you but I just wanted to write about an urgent matter of democracy. Here in Hobbiton we have just had a Shire-wide election. Let’s just say that I’m fairly miffed about the results.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Did NDP Sectarianism Screw Canada?
While NDP supporters might be celebrating last night’s election results, the reality is that it was an umitigated disaster for Canada. The Tory majority will mean more tax breaks for corporations, the gutting of social services and cultural institutions, the widening of the already cavernous income gap, the public defunding of political parties, and the […]
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