Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Adams rightly points out that there’s no inherent value in centrism merely for the sake of centrism – especially when the spectrum of choices is itself shaped by decades of distorted assumptions: (T)he reality of modern politics is that the muddled middle
Continue readingTag: free trade agreements
Accidental Deliberations: #mtlqc13 Priority Resolution – International Affairs
The NDP’s position on trade policy has of course been a hot-button issue both inside and outside the party – making it the area I’d see needing some discussion in Montreal. And while a number of other resolutions deal with the issue, one offers a particularly neat means to add
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Book Review: The Blaikie Report
Among other highlights of the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership convention this month, I was able to meet and chat with longtime NDP MP (and later MLA) Bill Blaikie, who attended in large part to introduce party members to The Blaikie Report. And I appreciate the opportunity to review the book –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unbalanced trade
When it comes to trying to justify perpetually-increasing restrictions on democratic governance in the guise of “free trade” agreements, advocates present two polar opposite views as to what such agreements are intended to accomplish. The first – and more plausible – view of the actual and intended effect of trade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Cory Doctorow duly blasts the Harper Cons for meekly complying with an onerous copyright treaty which isn’t even in force. Which raises the question: if the Cons were really interested in demonstrating some independence as a response to the U.S. declining to rubber-stamp
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
That and that for your Sunday reading. – Alex Himelfarb weighs in against gratuitous austerity by pointing out the dishonest cycle of excuses used to push destructive policy: (T)he consequences of cuts are increasingly visible, first for the most vulnerable: aboriginal communities struggling to meet basic needs, higher tuitions and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On trade-offs
Dan Tan has put together a noteworthy series of posts comparing the NDP’s actual position on trade to its portrayal in the media, then discussing the effect of the gap between the two on party members. But while Dan seems to show some sympathy for an attempt to cultivate a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: It takes a Village
Shorter John Ivison: I consider it a sign of profound unseriousness that Romeo Saganash and the NDP want to give effect to an international treaty which might result in indigenous people having some influence over policy. Veto power for multinational corporate conglomerates, that’s fine. But *people*? Outrageous, says I.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Crawford Kilian comments on Chrystia Freeland’s Plutocrats as a useful expression of trends many of us have seen in action for some time: (T)he plutonomy is not just booming, but skewing the still-depressed economy the rest of us live in. Many of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Suzuki makes the case for evaluating our well-being through Gross National Happiness rather than GDP alone: There’s more to happiness than just having a clean environment – and Bhutan has yet to get there. According to research for the UN Conference on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jim Stanford responds to the claim that we should be eager to import whatever capital we can for lack of other means of developing our own resources: Measured by foreign direct investment, Canada has been exporting capital, not importing it. During the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #skndpldr – Swift Current Debate Notes
As Scott has already noted, Saskatchewan NDP’s Swift Current leadership debate included plenty of familar themes: And indeed, one of the more interesting issues facing both the candidates and the debate organizers is how to account for the difference between an audience which may be seeing the candidates for the
Continue readingThe free trade bust
Judging by the editorial hype in the corporate press and among Conservative politicians, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was the greatest boon to this country since the fur trade. When the agreement celebrated its 25th anniversary in October, International Trade Minister Ed Fast claimed opponents of such agreements are “denying
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Paul Boothe discusses the dangers of giving in to resource-boom hype rather than planning for sustainable development:The resource roller coaster and the crazy things it causes us to do are not new. Remember the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On precedence
There’s not much doubt that Canada’s debates over the FNOOC/Nexen takeover bid and FIPPA investor privilege treaty with China have become intertwined. But it’s worth noting that some observers seem to be misreading how the two will relate to each other…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need to question both the importance of trade agreements compared to other forms of interjurisdictional cooperation in general, and the Cons’ warped priorities in particular.For further reading…- Again, here’s the Council of Canadians’ n…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Diana Carney discusses the public’s growing recognition of inequality in Canada:I see three root causes of our concern with inequality in Canada (three seems to be the magic number). First, there is a general l…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- David Macdonald takes a closer look at a Fraser Institute study on income mobility, and finds strong evidence that there’s a significant lack of mobility at both the bottom and the top of Canada’s inco…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day.- Frances Russell nicely sums up the effect of the Cons’ bevy of anti-democratic trade deals:Don’t be fooled. The innocuous language used to describe the avalanche of so-called “trade” agreements raining down on …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Duncan Cameron highlights the choice between austerity and prosperity facing the governments of both Canada and the U.S.:The economic realities faced by working people in both Canada and the United St…
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