I feel more like a broken record: another piece for Ricochet on the economic debate in the 2015 election and the missing big picture. This after the Globe Debate on the economy. The Conservatives have promised balanced budgets and have even enshrined them in law. The NDP is also promising balanced
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The Canadian Progressive: Information commissioner takes Harper to court for withholding Senate expenses scandal documents
Suzanne Legault, Canada’s federal information commissioner, is taking Stephen Harper to the Federal Court for withholding information relating to the Senate expenses scandal. The post Information commissioner takes Harper to court for withholding Senate expenses scandal documents appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingcentre of the universe: How to get engaged in Canadian politics: an educational resource
Here is a handy guide that will help you, disenfranchised Canadian, get engaged with and get involved in the upcoming (eventually, at the end of several more weeks of pre-election hell) federal election! The first step, as the number to the left would indicate, is to click every single link
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The alternative to economic fatalism
The Bank of Canada today cut its benchmark interest rate today to nearly record lows, now just 0.5%. In the face of an oil shock and other weakness, monetary policy is expected to do the heavy lifting of beating an economic funk. Today’s move reflects a poverty of economic policy
Continue readingMichal Rozworski » Political Eh-conomy: Canada’s new recession and the push for alternatives
The Bank of Canada today cut its benchmark interest rate today to nearly record lows, now just 0.5%. In the face of an oil shock and other weakness, monetary policy is expected to do the heavy lifting of beating an economic funk. Today’s move reflects a poverty of economic policy
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Quick thoughts on Vancouver’s transit referendum “No”
Here are a few quick, initial thoughts on Vancouver’s transit referendum, where new transit funding paid for by a regional sales tax was rejected roughly 60% to 40%. You might want to read on even if you’re not from Vancouver: after all, it isn’t the only property-value-driven urban “utopia” where public services, public spaces
Continue readingMichal Rozworski » Political Eh-conomy: Quick thoughts on Vancouver’s transit referendum “No”
Here are a few quick, initial thoughts on Vancouver’s transit referendum, where new transit funding paid for by a regional sales tax was rejected roughly 60% to 40%. You might want to read on even if you’re not from Vancouver: after all, it isn’t the only property-value-driven urban “utopia” where public services, public spaces
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: TRC report: Canadian party leaders avoided term “cultural genocide”
Last week’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report called Canada’s residential school policy “cultural genocide”. Reacting, both Trudeau and Mulcair avoided mentioning the two loaded words. The post TRC report: Canadian party leaders avoided term “cultural genocide” appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: Ontario’s Common Sense Revolution at 20: A Look Back
Today marks 20 years since the Progressive Conservative Party foisted its so-called “Common Sense Revolution” on Ontario. Former PC Ontario leader Tim Hudak took to Twitter this morning to extol the virtues of this full-throated neoliberal experiment, declaring it “the most effective, courageous gov[ernment]” in his lifetime. Some remember those days
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: Ontario’s Common Sense Revolution at 20: A Look Back
Today marks 20 years since the Progressive Conservative Party foisted its so-called “Common Sense Revolution” on Ontario. Former PC Ontario leader Tim Hudak took to Twitter this morning to extol the virtues of this full-throated neoliberal experiment, declaring it “the most effective, courageous gov[ernment]” in his lifetime. Some remember those days
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Austerity and economy in Quebec (transcript)
On last week’s podcast, I interviewed two researchers from Montreal’s IRIS, or the Insitut de recherché et d’informations socio-economiques, which has now been producing important progressive research for 15 years. This conversation with Julia Posca and Eve-Lyne Couturier is a great introduction to Quebec’s experience with austerity, the resource extraction agenda and
Continue readingRACHEL NOTLEY’S CABINET
NDP Caucus 2012-15, credit: rabble.ca Later today at a public celebration on the legislature grounds, Alberta’s new NDP government will be sworn in. With a large number of inexperienced MLAs elected, many are suggesting that the NDP doesn’t have a strong group for cabinet. The announcement earlier this week that the cabinet would only have … Continue reading RACHEL NOTLEY’S CABINET →
Continue readingRachel Notley’s Cabinet
Later today at a public celebration on the legislature grounds, Alberta’s new NDP government will be sworn in. With a large number of inexperienced MLAs elected, many are suggesting that the NDP doesn’t have a strong group for cabinet. The announcement earlier this week that the cabinet would only have
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: Reflections on McChesney: Problematics of Media Self-Regulation
FULL DISCLOSURE: I worked as a mainstream news reporter between 2003 and 2012. News media goes where many cannot or will not. It infiltrates the halls of power, the courtrooms, protest sites, war zones and scenes of tragedy. It is, unquestionably, the source of much of the information used to
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: Reflections on McChesney: Problematics of Media Self-Regulation
FULL DISCLOSURE: I worked as a mainstream news reporter between 2003 and 2012. News media goes where many cannot or will not. It infiltrates the halls of power, the courtrooms, protest sites, war zones and scenes of tragedy. It is, unquestionably, the source of much of the information used to
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Podcast: What’s next for Alberta?
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/podcast150515-alberta-election.mp3 This episode focuses on what else but the recent Alberta provincial election that saw the social democratic NDP sweep into power after 44 consecutive years of Conservative rule. To gain some perspective on this rather remarkable result in Canada’s oil and gas heartland and see what lies ahead for
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Canada’s Austerity Consensus
I have a longer piece out in Jacobin today on tracing the roots of today’s austerity consensus in Canada to the 1990s. In a way, it’s me coming to terms with the last twenty years of Canadian political economy. How exceptional is Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his crop of Canadian conservatives?
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Budget 2015: A tale of austerity past, present and future
I’ve been banging the drum of “slow-motion austerity” for a while and little in the 2015 federal budget suggests any change from the pattern of death by a thousand cuts. This budget is another is a series of unspectacular austerity budgets. Taken together, however, the cuts rapidly add up and
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The Conservatives’ balanced budget legislation: Silly economics, smart politics
I wrote up the Conservatives’ new balanced budget law for Ricochet. In short, the law is really silly in terms of economics, but simply pointing out its economic stupidity is not enough, because the whole point is to shift the political consensus. Politically, it’s not that dumb. So rather than play games
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Relocate Victims of Communism Memorial or Cancel Project
An online petition and prominent Canadian voices demand that the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism be relocated, or the project entirely. The post Relocate Victims of Communism Memorial or Cancel Project appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
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