Assorted content to end your week. – Susan Riley brilliantly slams the message that austerity is necessary for everybody but those who already have the most: Is anyone else getting tired of being lectured about austerity by wealthy consultants in expensive suits who charge $1,500 a day for their advice
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eaves.ca: Transparency isn’t a cost – its a cost saver (a note for Governments and Drummond)
Yesterday Don Drummond – a leading economist hired by the Ontario government to review how the province delivers services in the face of declining economic growth and rising deficits – published his report. There is much to commend, it lays out stark truths that frankly, many citizens already know, but
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Progressive and supporting Ron Paul? How can that be?!?!
A recent post of mine, supportive of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, elicited a comment from Laura, the author of We Move to Canada. An excellent blog about her experiences as an American moving to, and now living in Canada. She directed me to a post she had written on the Texas congressman
Continue readingHellberta: February mid-month round-up: Greece burns, Alberta gambles & Canada trades soul for Pandas
Well it would appear that China has finally found a spot to park it’s unwanted USD. That would be here in good old Canada and all it cost them was leasing us two Pandas. What a deal! Back in 2011 I wrote a quick post about why Canada’s economy is
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Economic turnaround, all it takes is innovation
Wall and Bay Streets have been recovering nicely over the past few years in the wake of the global financial meltdown, Main Streets haven’t been doing nearly as well. Many corporations are sitting on massive balance sheets, while workers like those at Caterpillar have seen their jobs disappear. What will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The New Democrat comments on the need to develop the NDP as a movement as well as a party. And a national movement to protect pensions looks like a great place to start. – I’m generally in agreement with Trish Hennessy on the
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: The real Stephen Harper is slowly emerging
Ever since his speech in Switzerland many have been talking about the real Stephen Harper and his so called ‘hidden agenda’. Rarely though are things ever black and white, and even more rare in the political realm. Talk of reducing public pensions, capping transfers for health care, opening up new avenues
Continue readingTrashy's World: Classy move…
I might just go out and buy something from Mark’s Work Wearhouse this weekend! Closing the plant had immediate political reverberations on Parliament Hill and at Queen’s Park. Electro-Motive received $5 million in federal tax breaks announced on the factory floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008. That was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Tim Harper comments on the Harper Cons’ collusion in a war against Canada’s middle class: Under the Investment Canada Act, (foreign) takeovers are supposed to demonstrate a “net benefit” to Canada, but, in fact, are acting as an anvil on wages, living standards
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mike Ward nicely describes the “Orwellian reverie” being used by the Cons to try to manipulate the public into acceding to the every wish of the oil sector: In what other world could the delivery of jobs, profits and unrefined oil to a
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Occupy Boston: No War On Iran
On Saturday, February 4, The Action for Peace Working Group of Occupy Boston will co-sponsor a rally and march as part of an international day of action to demand NO WAR ON IRAN. The march, …Read More
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the Wall government’s insistence that public-sector cuts are the answer no matter what the question – and the cautionary tale we should draw from their Irish model. For further reading…– The CP documents Wall’s latest demand for austerity at any price.– Paul Krugman has done plenty of work
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 29 saw debate at third reading on the Cons’ omnibus crime bill. And with even some Cons starting to recognize the desperate need for amendments, the government’s obstinate refusal to allow for any real consideration of the bill stood out all the more. The Big Issue At the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Wells points out that despite the Cons’ best efforts to get Canadians to panic over the state of our retirement system, the truth is that we’re actually better positioned now than was projected 20 years ago. (And for those looking inexplicably for
Continue readingTrashy's World: More leisure time…
…earlier retirements? To some, this was the future as seen through the lenses of the mid 1990′s. With the Robot Master and his minions raising the possibility of changing the age at which one qualifies for OAS from 65 to 67, I cannot help but think of a course that
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Report on housing prices says no need to panic….yet
Doesn’t this sound like the chatter going on in the US back around 2007 before the balloon that was their housing market went BANG!!! Average prices have grown more than twice as fast as family incomes since 2001, but BMO’s report argues there’s no reason to panic yet. (Emphasis mine)
Continue readingHellberta: Why the dinosaur propaganda system can’t use social media effectively
Lately I have been swinging my sights on to Ethical Oil’s latest mouthpiece Kathryn Marshall. Of course I am not a radical environmentalist; what angers me about Ethical Oil is how insulting their campaign is. Their campaign is propaganda designed to fool Canadians, not other countries. The Ethical Oil campaign
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Publicly Funded Oil R&D
If there is one monolithic industry that could afford to do its own Research & Development (R&D) into cleaning up its significant “associated byproducts” (AKA toxic waste). But they don’t have to, because our super helpful provincial and federal governments are paying the UofR to do it for Shell, Syncrude,
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Minister of Threatening Canadians
Modified form letter I sent started with: Dear Prime Minister Harper, Threatening charities as ‘adversaries’ of your government, is wrong. The form response I got back started with: Dear [Saskboy]: Thank you for writing to the Prime Minister. In your e-mail, you raised an issue that falls within the portfolio
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Dances With Oil
If Stephen Harper were a character in a Hollywood epic movie about the western Canadian frontier, and went to live with the First Nations people, I can’t help but think his alternate name would be Dances With Oil. He sure doesn’t dance with the one he brings to the ball.
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