In case you missed it, today’s Star has Linda McQuaig’s latest column in which she opines on the Harper austerity program, juxtaposing the P.M.’s insistence that we live in challenging fiscal times and thus must cut spending with his government’s apparently cavalier attitude about the extra $10 billion that they
Continue readingTag: harper government misdeeds
Politics and its Discontents: An Inconvenient Truth For The Right Wing To Digest
Over the past several years, most notably since the ascension to power of the Harper regime, taxation, especially the concept of progressive taxation, has fallen into bad odour, Thanks to the ethos espoused by the right, we have been consistently bombarded with messages that we are unfairly burdened with oppressive
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Fabrications from MacKay
The Indefensible Defense Minister, Peter MacKay, continues to insult the intelligence of all thinking Canadians. As one who has followed the F-35 jet issue somewhat closely for the past year, I am astounded by his latest contemptible ‘explanation‘ that he says proves there was no intention on the part of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Where Do Justice and Morality Reside?
On this Easter Sunday, when many turn their thoughts from the secular to the sacred, it is perhaps a propitious time to remember that the elusive goals of justice and morality, so often seemingly absent from the world, can and must be pursued, however imperfectly, only by those living in
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: And Because I Hold Harper In Such Contempt ….
I thought I would share today’s Star editorial cartoon. Enjoy: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: CBC Truculence: Too Little, Too Late
About a year ago, I lamented the fact that the CBC, through Peter Mansbridge, seemed to be following a policy of appeasement toward the Harper government, probably in the forlorn hope of avoiding further decimation of its funding. Quite predictably, as we learned last week, that policy has proven to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The F-35 Debacle: Will There Be Fallout?
Not counting this post, in the past year I have written nine times on the F-35 jet controversy. I point this out, not to claim any particular perspicacity on the subject, (many others have written much more and in much greater detail than I have) but only to demonstrate how
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Harper Budget’s Attack On Charities
Although hardly surprising, given both the ideological bent of the Harper regime and earlier warnings from Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, there is little doubt that the provisions of the new federal budget authorizing an $8-million special audit by Canada Revenue Agency to see if charities are adhering to the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Vic Has A Warning For All of Us
Our alleged Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, issued the following warning today: Online hacker group Anonymous a threat to us all Maybe. Or perhaps it is a threat only to those who seem to have an unhealthy, intrusive, and/or pruient interest in our Internet lives. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper Inc. Continues To Deform Our National Ethos
While it is probably impossible to define the soul of a nation, one aspect of the Canadian psyche must surely be a generosity of spirit and a concern for the collective that is absent in many other nations. It is the relentless attack upon this very spirit, with the intention
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: F-35 Lies From The Department of National Defence
Much to my surprise, the National Post has been doing a good job lately in covering Conservative misdeeds. While the Canadian taxpayer has been subjected to so many falsehoods and a great deal of subterfuge about the true cost of the F-35 jets over the past year-and-a half, The Post’s
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Smoke From That Gun Is Turning Into An Overpowering Stench
Despite the Harper regime’s steadfast denials over involvement in the voter suppression crimes and their attempts to divert suspicion onto the Liberals and NDP, evidence is mounting suggesting their complicity in the felonies: An investigation by CBC News has turned up voters all over Canada who say the reason they
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Epochal Moment in Toryland
While there has been a long and sustained objection to Canada’s planned purchase of F-35 jets, today marks the first time that the Harper regime has, even for a moment, taken its head out of the clouds. Associate Defence Minister Julian (the dour and humourless) Fantino has raised the possibility
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tuesday Recommended Robocall Reading
Both Lawrence Martin and Linda McQuaig have columns well-worth reading today on government misdeeds both present and past. McQuaig suggests that it is only our national modesty that prevents us from likening the voter suppression crimes to Watergate, while Martin chronicles misdoings of the past and concludes that what the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Toronto’s Voter Suppression Protest
If you live in southern Ontario, you know that yesterday was a gift, with sunny skies and temperatures reaching about 15 degrees Celsius, surpassing normal highs by about 11 degrees. A crowd of maybe 1000 gathered in Toronto’s Dundas Square to protest the threats against our democracy epitomized by the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Update On Canada’s Export Of Death (Asbestos)
While I have written many posts on Canada’s indefensible export of asbestos to third-world nations, I am pleased to report that the latest news seems to suggest that this hideous and immoral practice could soon be coming to an end. Despite the ardent and ongoing efforts of the Harper regime
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Criminal Activity in Joe Oliver’s Campaign?
The Star is reporting that Natural Resources Minister Joe (‘radicals are threatening the tarsands’) Oliver’s riding of Eglinton-Lawrence may have been the scene of another electoral crime, this one involving the last-minute rush of previously unregistered voters who cast ballots in the last federal election. Veteran Liberal MP Joe Volpe
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Tale of Two Newspapers
The Globe and Mail and its sundry propagandists (excepting the principled Lawrence Martin, of course) continue their Sisyphean task of defending the indefensible by issuing almost daily dismissals both of the seriousness of the voter suppression crimes and of those who see those crimes as part of the pattern of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Guess Who Doesn’t Support Our Troops?
If you guessed Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, you are correct. While dear leader and company pull out all of the rhetorical stops about supporting the troops when it serves their ideological purpose, they are decidedly niggard when it comes to helping them when they are no longer fodder in distant
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Words, Words, Words
And, I suspect empty ones at that as energy giant Enbridge Inc. denies any role in the Harper government’s cancellation of a grant from the Gordon and Betty Foundation to help fund public-private consultations into the economic use of the waters off British Columbia’s north coast. This cancellation occurred, by
Continue reading