This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ashley Renders reports on the Canadian mining companies which are using corporate trade deals to threaten developing countries with billion-dollar claims to stifle environmental protections. And Mike Blanchfield and Andy Blatchford report that China wants any trade deals to similarly privilege investors
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Accidental Deliberations: On structural barriers
As the NDP’s federal leadership race approaches its conclusion, Tom Parkin has been doing some noteworthy writing on some of the issues which voters may want to keep in mind. And I’ll start with Parkin’s discussion as to how some of the systems which most deserve to be modeled may
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Leduc No. 1 and all that: Was February 13, 1947, Alberta’s unluckiest lucky day?
PHOTOS: Dignitaries stand around and have their photos taken at the Leduc No. 1 well near Devon on – if the Internet is to be believed – this day in 1947. Not sure if I believe that, seeing as the first photo below was supposed to have been taken on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Christo Aivalis offers some suggestions for a set of progressive and effective tax policies: My view is that the Left has to combine the general philosophy of economic redistribution with the practical needs of getting the money to preserve existing social programs and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Justin Trudeau’s broken health care promises – and the need for a concerted provincial push for an equal partnership in maintaining and enhancing a universal health care system for all Canadians. For further reading…– The Liberal and NDP 2015 election platforms (PDF) offer a useful indication of the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Comparing Fiscal Federalism in Canada and Australia
One interesting topic for a Canadian living in Australia is the manner in which fiscal and social responsibilities are divided between the levels of government. Both countries are big, regionally diverse, and resource-rich (with all the pluses and minuses that entails). As in Canada, Australian states are largely responsible for the big-ticket social programs: including […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On failed obstruction
I’ve written several times before that any federal climate change plan was doomed to fail if it allowed Brad Wall a veto over any emission reductions.Well, it appears the Trudeau Libs have finally come to terms with that reality, indicating their inten…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, expanding on this post about Brad Wall’s sad attempt to beg Justin Trudeau for federal money to make up for his own mismanagement. For further reading…- Once again, Wall’s call for a bailout was here. And his previous decision to drop any attem…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Tony Atkinson offers reason for hope that it’s more than possible to rein in inequality and ensure a more fair distribution of resources if we’re willing to put in the work to make it happen: (T)he present levels of inequality are not inevitable;
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On leadership failures
Among the many responses to the Cons’ latest Senate shenanigans, one (from someone who’s not exactly known for his recent NDP ties) stands out as being worthy of mention: In his 10 years in office how many meetings with the prov premiers did PMSH hold to discuss Senate reform or
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On projection
Shorter Leona Aglukkaq to Canada’s provinces: I’m very disappointed in all of you for my government’s longstanding failings, and demand that you take responsibility immediately.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that to start your year. – Ian Welsh comments on the challenges we face in trying to turn wealth increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few into a better world for everybody: The irony is that we have, again, produced a cornucopia. We have the potential to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – In the context of Scotland’s referendum on independence, Polly Toynbee reminds us why fragmentation can only serve to exacerbate inequality – a lesson worth keeping in mind as the Cons look to devolve responsibility for taxation and public services in Canada: What’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Robert Jay Lifton discusses the “stranded ethics” of a fossil fuel industry which is willing to severely damage our planet in order to protect market share: Can we continue to value, and thereby make use of, the very materials most deeply implicated in
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Flaherty’s Legacy: Ideological, reckless and just plain lucky
This piece was originally published at the Globe and Mail’s online Report on Business feature, EconomyLab. There are two reasons why it is difficult to comment on the legacy of a finance minister. 1) It is a tremendously challenging job, anywhere, any time. Stewarding one of the largest economies
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Fool me twice
Andrew Coyne has a suggestion as to how the Cons might extort some increased adherence to free-market fundamentalism from the provinces: It’s the balance between spending and revenues, not just the totals, that matters. The federal government, as the PBO numbers show, will have substantial fiscal “room,” revenues in excess
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Housing Policy Under Harper
Today I gave a presentation on Canadian housing policy at the annual conference of the European Network for Housing Research. Points raised in the presentation include the following: -Fiscal context, more so than which party has been in government, appears to have shaped federal housing policy in Canada over the
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Three Solutions to Mark Canadian Environment Week
In honour of Canadian Environment Week — currently underway amidst accelerating tar sands development, hot on the heels of withdrawals from the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification — let us reflect upon what the federal government, if it were so inclined, could be doing differently. In other
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: A Toast For Canada
After the Quebec Conference, at a gala dinner hosted by George-Etienne Cartier, Canada’s Fathers of Confederation held a toast; it was offered as encouragement to face the difficulties still before them in forming a nation, but the verse stands today as encouragement for us to face the difficulties in now
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
If a non-Con federal government even hinted at this kind of policy in dealing with provinces, the western Village would collapse under the weight of its own hysterical shrieking. But because it only involves Stephen Harper trying to extort resources from First Nations, I don’t expect to hear of it
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