This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tessa Jowell writes that we need to treat inequality as a disease which can be cured through effective public policy, but the Star points out that the Cons have instead gone out of their way to make it worse. Fair Vote Canada
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Accidental Deliberations: On corporate takeovers
CTV reports on the funnelling of money from SNC-Lavalin into the Cons’ coffers. And we shouldn’t be surprised to see that connection in light of the Cons’ attitude toward corporate wrongdoing. But it’s especially worth noting what’s missing from the Cons’ denials of involvement: Elections Canada records reveal that 10
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Reevely writes about the stench of corporate corruption hanging over a privately-sponsored premiers’ conference. And Paul Willcocks nicely contrasts the professed belief by politicians that campaign contributions don’t unduly policy against the expectations of everybody else affected by the political system –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On soft support
Ezra Klein discusses Ray LaRaja and Brian Schnaffer’s graph of U.S. donor policy preferences against political donations: Klein’s take involves a comparison between the graph and the U.S.’ discussion about political polarization. But it’s worth wondering to what extent the same theory might apply in Canada – and how they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Krugman explains how one’s political values figure to affect one’s view of evidence as to the success or failure of a policy: (T)he liberal and conservative movements are not at all symmetric in their goals. Conservatives want smaller government as an end
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses the link between perpetually-increasing inequality and the loss of social trust: Unfortunately, however, trust is becoming yet another casualty of our country’s staggering inequality: As the gap between Americans widens, the bonds that hold society together weaken. So, too, as more
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, discussing what elements of Saskatchewan’s referendum law look to have worked properly in Regina’s wastewater treatment plant referendum process – and where there’s some obvious room for improvement where future issues call for a vote among citizens. For further reading…– While I note in the column that the 10%
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jordon Cooper writes about the need to understand poverty in order to discuss and address it as a matter of public policy. – John Greenwood reports on Cameco’s tax evasion which is being rightly challenged by the CRA – though it’s worth
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Gawker donates Rob Ford “Crackstarter” money to 4 Canadian non-profits
New York-based news and gossip website Gawker has announced that the money raised on Indiegogo to buy Toronto Mayor Rod Ford’s alleged crack cocaine video will now be donated to four Toronto-area non-profits. The post Gawker donates Rob Ford “Crackstarter” money to 4 Canadian non-profits appeared first on The Canadian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Cons’ abuse of supporters’ donations can only stoke cynicism about the value of participating in politics – but how the limited number of people currently involved in politics creates a huge opportunity to change the system. For further reading…– Samara’s poll and analysis on public participation
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell discusses the inevitable collateral damage to our planet from the Cons’ war on science: Over the past 200 years, Canadians built on flood plains because “we thought we had relatively stable climate — the climate we experienced over the past century,”
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Vol. 1: The actual dark secret of democratic politics
The front page of Saturday’s St. Albert Gazette. A good first week of campaigning. ST. ALBERT, Alberta Well, I reckon the first week of my campaign for city council here in St. Albert has to be judged a success – at least by the measure of the excellent coverage I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership campaign winding up this weekend looks to be well ahead of the party’s 2009 campaign in voter turnout and fund-raising. For further reading…– The current financial reports from this year’s campaign are here. 2009 numbers are from James Wood’s post-campaign report, showing full-campaign
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #skndpldr Roundup
The second-last Saskatchewan NDP leadership debate took place in Moose Jaw this past week, with the most thorough coverage coming from the Times-Herald (and Justin Crann). As usual I’ll hold off on commenting until the video is available – though I have a couple of earlier debates to address over
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Shawn McCarthy discusses the Cons’ latest plan to sell Keystone XL to the U.S. – which involves hoping that the best-resourced government on the planet will be suckered into accepting a transparently false pretense that the Cons have the slightest interest in addressing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #skndpldr Candidate Update – Cam Broten
We’re now approaching the home stretch of Saskatchewan’s NDP leadership race – with the membership deadline looming in just over two weeks, and under two months left until the vote itself. But while there will be plenty of news to cover in that time, let’s take a look back at
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Louise Story reports on tax goodies and direct giveaways to businesses at the local level (which of course seldom deliver the promised economic return). That said, it’s worth noting that we’re desperately lacking…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Christopher Curtis and Stephen Maher break the news that the Cons have falsified donation records, claiming donations to their Laurier-Sainte-Marie riding association from individuals who deny ever making contributio…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell discusses how the Cons have corporatized Canadian politics: In fact, elevating corporate rights over the rights of citizens and their democractic institutions seems to be the Harper government’s core agenda. Its aggressive “free trade” stance has led to agreements with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Timothy Noah writes that since Republicans haven’t been able to convince the American public that inequality is desirable or acceptable, they’re taking another angle: engaging in inequality denialism to try to pretend a growing problem doesn’t exist. – Tim Harper discusses the importance
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