Ok, some somebody doesn’t know what Tyranny means or actually, what democracy means. That somebody today is Scott Armstrong. Here’s the quote from the Globe and Mail article regarding this week’s committee about obtaining government estimates of spending: Fellow Tory Scott Armstrong suggested opposition parties are abusing their dominant position in a minority Parliament, making unreasonable […]
Tag: democracy
Pop The Stack: Tyranny of the Majority
Ok, some somebody doesn’t know what Tyranny means or actually, what democracy means. That somebody today is Scott Armstrong. Here’s the quote from the Globe and Mail article regarding this week’s committee about obtaining government estimates of spending: Fellow Tory Scott Armstrong suggested opposition parties are abusing their dominant position in
Continue readingLarry Hubich's Blog: Naomi Klein and Rachel Maddow: Michigan, Disaster Capitalism and Corporate Greed
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Continue readingA Sustainable Now: Canada’s Economic [Distr]Action Plan
Canada’s Economic [Distr]Action Plan
Continue readingRight of Center Ice: Corking popped CPC Champagne: EKOS reports reality
A week ago CPC drones were celebrating tantalizing poll numbers that put the Harper Party close to majority territory. Today, EKOS reports what I believe to be the reality on the ground. How does one party go from a 13 point lead to just under 5? Was it the shameful
Continue readingDemocratic Progress: Parliamentary Reform
Aaron Wherry has some interesting suggestions for how we might reform the House (I summarize):
Elect committee chairs by vote of the entire House. Involve committees in legislative design
Empower Speaker. Allow Speaker to determine whether a question…
Pop The Stack: This is the worst attack on our democracy since…
The recent refusal of International Development minister to resign after lying to a parliamentary committee seems an afront to the principles of democracy. I find myself searching for another event so outrageous, and I find I don’t have to look back far. So, for posterity, and to be continually is the your list of democratic […]
Right of Center Ice: Private Bills from the gov’t that are not Government bills
We saw this tactic months ago when Candice Hoeppner tried to kill the long-gun registry through her “private member’s bill.” Since it worked so well, Harper is going to try it again. This time, with the Canadian Wheat Board. Bruce Stanton, MP for Simcoe North in southern Ontario, introduced a
Continue readingPop The Stack: What does a single vote weigh?
So I’ve got a comment on an arcane voting procedure issue for a current party leadership contest…sounds exciting huh? Everybody gather round! The party is the BC Liberal party. The issue is weighting a votes by riding. The current rules say that each party member will get one vote towards the leader. The new rule […]
Late Friday Night Ode To … Peaceful Democratic Uprisings
Back there last Saturday, I wrote the following:As we applaud our Tunisian and Egyptian brothers and sisters, let us keep firmly in mind that it is they whom are bravely uprising in order to win their birthrights of freedom and liberty that are the bon…
Continue readingMeanwhile, Back In Utopia Democratica …
First Tunisia and now Egypt.
One can only rejoice at seeing people taking their aspirations for civil rights and freedoms into their own hands, courageously claiming these justly as their undeniable birthrights as human beings and steadfastly demandin…
Continue readingCan You Tell Me Where My Country Lies?
Here is the authoritarian mind in action:
1- At the request of a city Chief of police, in anticipation for an international summit in said city where peaceful protesters and demonstrators (and yes, including an inevitable small minority of idiotic ind…
Continue readingPop The Stack: In Which I Get Outraged at…Oshawa?
If you read me regularly you may have noticed I’m writing less, well, regularly, recently. I’ve promised myself to cut back on political blogging while I try to finish my thesis so the bar is pretty high for a political/democracy story to force me to comment with a full blog post. I have to say, […]
World Headlines Review: China: Fear of its Rise is Fear of Ourselves
A recent Economist article, The dangers of a rising China, leads a 14 page report loosely discussing the dangers posed to the world by China’s eclipsing of the USA’s international economic and military order. The article attempts to draw parallels in the power-balance shift between Britain and Germany which led
Continue readingBut, But – It’s Only Rhetoric! (… Right?)
(Updated below)
“It’s only rhetoric meant to energize the base”.
How often have we been hearing this excuse, this self-serving justification to diminish the terrible impact that words and symbols can have on all of us?
How often those demagogues lik…
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: British Ethics: A Dark Comedy
North Sea Oil Drilling by crawfish head Yesterday, January 6th 2011, the UK Parliamentary committee appointed to look into whether the government should enact a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico-BP oil disaster, has ruled out the need for a halt to new projects
Continue readingYou Know You Are Living In A Corporatocracy …
… when your elected government begs Big Business interests to help them write and/or kill bills:Back there, Transport Minister John Baird (yes – this same John Baird) was caught privately encouraging Canada’s big airlines to step up their lobby campaign in order to kill a proposed "passenger bill of right" while his predecessor, then-Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, publicly supported s…
Continue reading2010 Vs 2011: Same As It Was, Same As It Will Be
The following struck me as the very essence of the (now past) first decade of the 21st century, in effect constituting at the same time a resounding call that will define this second decade that is just beginning (emphasis added):
“If the president …
Continue readingThe Canadian Branch Of The North American Security Surveillance State
Read it and weep, folks (emphasis added):
Canada’s little-known spy agency comes out into the open
At a time when most government agencies are cutting and slashing, a little-known spy agency led by a Rhodes Scholar is the envy of Ottawa for its pla…
Continue readingWitnessing The Nearing End Of The Modern Experiment In Democracy
As I wrote previously, a democratic society – whether breathing through a parliamentary system or a republic one – can only bring about and sustain the commonwealth of its citizens so long as said citizens remain knowledgeable, respectful and protectiv…
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