These pictures are courtesy of Press Progress: One hopes that the entire crew will find their hearts broken come October. Recommend this Post
Continue readingTag: harper government misdeeds
Politics and its Discontents: The Harperian Concept Of Justice
I don’t especially feel like writing today, so I offer you this from Walt Heinzie: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Our Monochromatic Political Leadership
The images are graphic and heartbreaking – buildings reduced to rubble, maimed and dead children strewn among that rubble, families fractured, lives broken beyond repair. Were it not for the distancing effect that television news inevitably brings, the pictures would be overwhelming, leaving room for nothing but despair. Thus is
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Yet Another Desperate and Despicable Ploy: More Harper Narrowcasting
The politics have a look of desperation about them. As they see their electoral chances diminishing among the wider Canadian public with each new sordid revelation, it looks like the Harper crowd is doubling down with its base, a strategy that I questioned in my earlier post today. Steven Blaney,
Continue readingPolitics 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: Thomas Walkom Misses The Mark
One of the reasons I subscribe to The Toronto Star is the quality of its columnists. Tim Harper, Martin Regg Cohn, Thomas Walkom, Heather Mallick, etc. rarely disappoint. However, no one is perfect, and today’s column by Walkom is not up to his usual critical standards. Entitled Conservatives’ downfall could
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: I Have A Simpler Solution
The headline reads, Restaurant owners seek meeting with PM over foreign worker freeze The group representing Canada’s restaurant owners is calling for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the freeze on temporary foreign workers in the restaurant industry. “The recent moratorium on temporary foreign workers in
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A New Enemy Of The State
When it comes to the media, it is common knowledge that the right-wing sees the CBC as a repository of leftists bent on perverting all that is sacred in Harperland. Hence the ongoing funding cuts, despite the Mother Corp’s repeated efforts at appeasement. What is surprising, however, is the fact
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: In Harperland, The Worst ‘Crime’ Imaginable
… apparently is hanging the flag upside down.* Crypto fascists have always been thus. *Hanging the flag upside down is recognized as a symbol of distress. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: We’re Not Paying You To Tell Us Something We Don’t Want To Know
That would seem to be the mentality behind the Harper regime’s chopping of $1.2 million from the federal Justice Department’s research budget. As reported by the CBC, the cut, which represents 20% of the department’s research budget and will result in the termination of eight very experienced legal researchers, seems
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why Is The Harper Regime Surveilling Us?
It’s a good question, but unfortunately and predictably, the government is providing us with no answers. As reported in today’s Star, The federal privacy watchdog’s concerns over electronic snooping are being met with silence from members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet. Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier directly appealed to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Is Dear Leader Trending Downward?
I certainly hope so: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Well-Said
While I may write something of my own later today, the letters in this morning’s Star are both incisive and damning of the Harper regime’s penchant for insinuating itself into our lives by bribing telecoms and social media to turn over our private date at the rrate of $1 to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Are We Feeling Any Outrage Yet?
If we care a scintilla about privacy or any measure of aversion to government snooping into our private business, we damn well should be. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, the Harper regime and its complicit agencies, intoxicated with power, have been requesting (sans warrants) and receiving data on us
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Failed Puppet Master?
In a withering assessment of Stephen Harper, that is the conclusion Andrew Coyne seems to draw in his National Post column: We are so heavily invested, we media types, in the notion of Harper as master strategist, able to see around corners and think seven moves ahead and what not,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Two Sentiments That Will Resonate With Many
Today’s Star brings two letters, one on despotic rule and the other on electoral reform, that many would find hard to argue against: Harper’s on a lonely road to political isolation, April 15 Aristotle once remarked that all forms of government — democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, tyranny — are inherently unstable,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The House That Ronald Built
… seems to be undergoing some serious perturbations these days. Earlier in the month came the story of three McDonald’s outlets in British Columbia abusing the Harper regime’s TFWP (Temporary Foreign Workers Program) by hiring temporary workers instead of available local people and reducing the hours of Canadian employees. Now
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Goodbye, Jim
The other day I wrote a post on Jim Flaherty and his ‘legacy,’ inspired by two columns published in The Star. On this day of his state funeral, it seems appropriate to offer the views of a few Star readers on Flaherty’s record, and the posthumous accolades and state funeral
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: I Come Not To Praise Flaherty
I have thus far avoided writing about Jim Flaherty’s passing for a very simple reason; it is difficult, if not impossible to keep separate his family’s personal loss with the man’s record as a politician. Yet two pieces I read in yesterday’s Star convinced me otherwise, and they allow me
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Tip And An Idea From The Salamander
Although I have never met him, the Salamander, from his frequent commentary on my blog and others’, is unquestionably a passionate Canadian who wants the best for our country. Based on his searing metaphors and observations, I think it is safe to say that he believes, as do most progressives,
Continue reading