Guardian enviro-scribe, George Monbiot, delivers a stark warning and a call to arms in this year’s Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute address. Monbiot warns that we’re about to feed the environment into the gaping maw of the financial sector so responsible for its current degradation. Monbiot says that neo-liberalism will
Continue readingTag: failure of political leadership
Politics and its Discontents: No Shame, No Shame At All
There is no situation, however tragic, that Harper and his regime won’t exploit for political advantage. I guess that comes as no surprise to anyone: Be sure to check out the Conservative Party website for more evidence, as well as Alison’s caricature at Creekside. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: When Israel Says It Isn’t Out To Punish Innocent Palestinians, It’s Lying – And We Don’t Care
Actions speak so much louder than words, especially when it comes to Israel attacking Palestinians. The current invasion of Gaza demonstrates that Israel’s claims to be targeting Hamas but not the Gaza Palestinian population is an outright lie. That much is blatant from the weapons used. What weapons? Try water.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Oh, And One More Thing
It seems I, Martin Regg Cohn and Cheri DiNovo aren’t the only ones to take issue with Andrea horwath’s leadership these days: Re:Horwath admits ‘bittersweet’ election result, July 9 I wonder what Robin Sears has to say about Cheri DiNovo. The day Andrea Horwath walked away from the Liberal budget
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrea Comes Down From Her Perch
But only a little bit. And only because her campaign is being criticized from within. As I noted in a recent post, Ontario NDP leader Andrea’s Horwath’s hubris following what almost everyone else would call a failed Ontario election campaign has been both unseemly and wholly unjustified. She initially avowed
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Disingenuous At Best, Hypocritical At Worst
To listen to post-election Ontario Tories and to take them at their word would suggest that the lot of them were simply dupes of Machiavellian forces over which they had no control. Up to and including the day of the election, they all appeared to be solidly behind their leader
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Can I Get Back To You On That?
Maybe I am just angry because a progressive budget was dismissed by an allegedly progressive party. Maybe I am fearful that an NDP-induced Ontario election could see the ascension to power of young Tim Hudak (‘I’ve got a plan to create one million jobs!’), who clearly will never be ready
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A New Motto For The Liberals and The NDP?
Many political observers and bloggers, including me, have lamented the fact that outside of style, little separates the policies of either the NDP or the Liberals from those of the Harper regime. Given their timidity when it comes to policy proclamations, the biggest clue to their abandonment of a progressive
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Invitation To The Dance Party
What dance party is that, you ask? Why, the one being hosted by the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party whose name, it is rumoured, is in the process of being rejigged into the New Dance Party. At least, that is how it appears to this political observer. As
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A World Badly In Need Of Inspired Leadership
Since he was elected to the position, I have written several posts related to Pope Francis; several of them express a renewed hope that the plain-speaking pontiff can generate some hope in a world badly in need of inspiring leadership, something almost wholly absent in our current crop of politicos,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: He Has A Nice Smile
That’s the highest praise I can think to extend to young Justin Trudeau, who many see as the best hope of unseating Mr. Harper in 2015. For those who enthusiastically back the young Liberal leader, I can only wonder, to what end? Do they want someone more polite and amiable
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Double Dare Ya
Apparently, instead of taking his position as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party seriously by articulating responsible policy, young Tim prefers to engage in children’s games: Tory leader Tim Hudak dares Liberals to call election ‘Nuff said? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Young Tim’s ‘Transparency’
In a political landscape littered at all levels with lies, deception and expedience, it is hardly surprising that young Tim Hudak, the beleaguered ‘leader’ of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party, has hung former Finance critic Peter Shurman out to dry. Those who follow Ontario politics will likely be aware that Shurman,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: This Is The Best They’ve Got?
Many Ontario residents of a certain age will be aware of the fact that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party ruled the province for forty-two years, from 1943 to 1985, a time during which the term ‘progressive conservative’ did not constitute an oxymoron. That was then. This is now. A headline
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Soul of the Nation
Last April, as part of a larger post, I write the following about the pernicious effects of bad political leadership: If we consider, for example, the widespread cynicism and disengagement gripping people today, we are witnessing the effects of bad leadership. When people are manipulated by the politics of fear,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Let’s Hope We Never Sink To This Level
While the Harper government is no stranger to fear-mongering, its tactics look both brilliant and subtle compared to the the following two American political ads:Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyser…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Willful Ignorance in the Ford Administration
Toronto Mayors Rob and Doug Ford and their minions, like so many of the extreme right, tend not to let facts, reason, and data interfere with the purity of their ideological vision. Someone who describes city employees as ‘the gravy’ and denies that e…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Christopher Hume On Ignorance
As usual, The Toronto Star seems replete with thought-provoking articles and ideas. In a column by Christopher Hume entitled, If ignorance is no excuse, how do leaders manage to get elected? published yesterday, Hume reflects on the current crop of p…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Incisive Analysis Of Broken U.S. Tax Policy
Although readily dismissed as a socialist by the right-wing, Linda McQuiag offers a fine analysis of the failings of U.S. tax policy in an article entitled Tycoons Laughing All the Way to the Bank. In it, she gives the example of hedge fund managers, t…
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