Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Yanis Varoufakis writes that the tendency of capitalism toward stagnation signals the need for greater public input into economic decisions. And Branko Milanovic discusses how the attitude that politics should be governed by greed has undermined the trust between citizens and governments necessary
Continue readingTag: Doug Ford
Babel-on-the-Bay: Ford Forestalls Hillier’s Hussars.
It might not be up to the standards of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade but somebody should have warned Ontario premier Doug Ford before he got into a squabble with the caucus bad boy of the Ontario Tories. Oh well, Ford is due for a drubbing anyway.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fighting the Beer Store fight.
Have you seen the opinion pieces running in what is left of Ontario’s small-town papers? These are warnings forecasting higher prices for beer if we change the way it is sold? This is old-fashioned protectionism for the beer store’s unionized employees. Frankly, with some grocery stores already offering beer, that
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Be careful what you wish for, Conservatives: Canadians may like a tougher Trudeau
Memo to Conservatives, New Democrats and others who are crowing about how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have been revealed as a harsher and less cuddly politician than he has been thought to be till now: Be careful what you wish for. If Mr. Trudeau is revealed as a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Reefer Madness in Ontario?
It is too bad premier Doug Ford’s younger brother died. The late Rob Ford might have been a wealth of information about the marketing of street drugs. As it is, it will take years to straighten out the mess the Ontario conservatives are making of legal retailing of cannabis. But
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Wells weighs in on the far-too-long-delayed exposure of Justin Trudeau’s fundamental phoniness – particularly when it came to his promise that Canada had seen its last first-past-the-post election: The operating assumption seems to be that we’re simply supposed to read between
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Katrina vanden Heuvel discusses the importance of pushing toward universal child care in order to relieve avoidable stress on families. – Allison Jones reports that the Ford PCs are only making matters worse by ordering school boards not to hire to fill developing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chantal Hebert, Andrew Coyne and Paul Wells all weigh in on yesterday’s revelations by Jody Wilson-Raybould about the Trudeau PMO’s protection racket on behalf of SNC-Lavalin. And Andrew Nikiforuk examines the track record of corruption both from SNC-Lavalin in particular, and within
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: From Astroturf To Corporate Shill (The Ontario Proud Story)
“No massive donors. It’s not like one group or another. Small businesses, a lot of people giving $100, $200, or $300, that kind of thing,” Jeff Ballingall on Ontario Proud’s Fundraising. “Yeah, its crowdfunding. But no, we have people giving us $5,000 cheques. But no one big donor has given
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When compromise is the problem.
Nobody should celebrate too soon about the compromise solution to paying Ontario’s doctors. After more than four years of arguments, back-stabbing and threats, nobody is particularly happy. The three-member arbitration board did not have to find the money, so they could be generous. And they were. The doctors got what
Continue readingAlberta Politics: ‘Free votes’ on ‘matters of conscience’ may seem incongruous for a guy like Jason Kenney, but then again, maybe not …
Last Thursday, presumably hoping to distract from the NDP’s launch of an advertising campaign illuminating the dark side of Jason Kenney, the United Conservative Party leader announced a passel of policy ideas that would include significant changes to how the Legislature operates. Among Mr. Kenney’s ideas were a ban on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Marshall Shepherd writes that the U.S. is facing a true national emergency in the form of climate breakdown. And Michelle Goldberg theorizes that the unlikely election and presidency of Donald Trump may open the door to a transformative response, including the possibility
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chris Jackson presents a new Ipsos survey showing that the majority of American workers face stress issues at work. And Arthur White-Crumley reports on a spate of injuries at Evraz’ Regina steel mill. – Rob Ferguson reports on Doug Ford’s attempt to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ford Follies.
This entertainment is settling in for a long run. Ontario premier Doug Ford and his ensemble are enjoying their reviews. You cannot help but compare the show to the old 19th Century minstrel shows—without blackened faces, though Doug Ford does seem pleased in playing the role of Mr. Interlocutor. In
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Super-agencies,’ been there; done that.
Health care in Ontario is a machine of many parts. It seems the Ford government wants to start collecting those parts into one super agency. The only problem with this is that there once was a super agency responsible for health care in the province. It was called the Ministry
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Eric Holthaus writes that the Green New Deal which looks to be at the centre of Democratic policy development offers an important opportunity for the U.S. to make amends with a world bearing the brunt of its past pollution. But Rick Salutin discusses
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Iglika Ivanova discusses how British Columbia can move toward eliminating poverty in its next budget. – Patrick Maze points out the need for Saskatchewan’s education system to be able to rely on stable and sufficient funding. But Alex MacPherson notes that Scott
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Dirty Thirties’ solutions for Ford.
Ontario premier Doug Ford must admire the past. His government keeps reaching back in time to the solutions of the 1930s. The latest is to return to those times when a landlord could hire thugs as bailiffs and physically remove a tenant. They would toss impoverished tenants and their pitiful
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Election 2019 and the Con Carbon Tax Deniers
As everybody knows Andrew Scheer and his climate change denying Cons are on a crusade to try to destroy the Liberal government's carbon tax plan.A tax Scheer blames for everything, and I mean everything.And he isn't the only Canadian Con leader who feels that way.Read more »
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: The Long Con And The Overton Window
I have been thinking a lot lately about the Overton window. I am beginning to apply it to long term strategy being employed by Conservative thinkers/politicians in Canada, what I like to refer to as the long con. What is the Overton window? The Overton window is a concept developed
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