When it comes to Canada and climate change, who can fault the Americans for seeing us as almost schizoid. We acknowledge the reality and danger of climate change, we worry about it, and yet we tolerate, even support, politicians who will do nothing about it. From Bloomberg View:Last week’s announcement
Continue readingTag: Harper
Babel-on-the-Bay: But who will pay for his hairdresser?
Seeing the Prime Minister striding arrogantly down the Hall of Honour with King Abdullah II of Jordan the other day gave us second thoughts on Stephen Harper’s future plans. He has run out of time to flee. With just days more than five months until the statutory call for a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: They Get It. We Don’t.
California has set an ambitious target for greenhouse gas emissions. Their target is to cut emissions 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. That’s an ambitious target but, let’s face it, 2050 is a long way off in the world of politics which means there’s lots of time to duck any
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bearing bad news for NDP’s Tom Mulcair.
George Lakoff is an American who thinks. The UCLA Berkeley professor was in Toronto last week. We missed a chance to meet him. He is reported to have told his audience there is no such thing as the political centre. That must have been bad news for the New Democrats
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Struggle Ahead for a Decent Future for our Youth
It’s sometimes hard to read a Henry Giroux essay without coming away feeling like you’ve been dragged into a dark alley and bludgeoned. In his latest essay, this American intellectual explores what we’ve allowed ourselves to become, how we’ve been complicit in our own orchestrated economic, social and political degradation.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: You’ll Never See Vlad Putin the Same Way Again
If there’s one guy who doesn’t get any slack from the Western media, it’s Russian strongman, Vlad Putin. We vilify Putin at every turn and, while he certainly brings some of it down on himself, we make sure to depict ourselves as the guys in the white hats while we
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Back to the Future with Joe Oliver
Finance Minister Joe Oliver brought Canadians his first budget yesterday. Instead of it being a budget for the coming fiscal year of our government, he tried to line things up for the next ten years. It was a very Conservative view of our future. And we can only hope that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair’s ‘Politics of Division’
Asking a voter why s/he is going to vote for the Conservatives this fall can cause a rising anger. The anger is hardly directed at the voter. This person has been had. They have been duped. The anger can only be directed at the Prime Minister—he of the Hair! And
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Diplomat’ Brown and his friend Narendra Modi.
What is wrong with Canada’s foreign relations is more than explained by the friendship of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Patrick Brown MP. Yes, that is Patrick Brown, the most useless member of the Conservative back bench and the candidate for the leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party. With
Continue readingCuriosityCat: 2015 election: Harper on road to minority government?
The problem? The latest compendium of polls by 308 have good news and bad news. Good news for Harper who – based on these results – would form a minority government after the 2015 election. Bad news for the Liberals, whose support is slipping. And good news for the besieged
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Legislating Ideology.
It is when you listen to the federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver that you realize what a breath of fresh air the late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty must have been in Mr. Harper’s Cabinet of Inadequate Ideologues. You can also imagine how he would have laughed at Joe Oliver’s suggestion
Continue readingLeft Over: Toxic Spills and the Toxic Con (tsk, tsk…) Response….
James Moore fires back at ‘political jabs’ over Vancouver oil spill Industry minister criticizes rush to blame before all facts are known CBC News Posted: Apr 10, 2015 4:33 PM PT Last Updated: Apr 10, 2015 9:42 PM PT http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2015/04/the-bc-oil-spill-and-con-clown-james.html As horrible as this event was, it did
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What’s the Senate all about Hair?
There is something of a contest going on. The Hair might draw the line at taking off his stuffed shirt and streaking the tourists gaping at Ottawa’s Confusion Square but no holds are barred in distracting Canadians from the Duffy Trial. The Duffy Trial is the big show in Ottawa
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Can Duffy Shred Nigel Wright’s "Goody Two-Shoes" Routine?
Nigel Wright’s ‘gift’ of $90K to senator Mike Duffy was a bribe when it was pocketed by Duffy but not when it was given by Wright. Most of us are finding that pretty hard to square and it is. The logic by which Duffy is culpable and Wright is not
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Alberta stumbles as the Hair’s empire crumbles.
There are at least a couple ridings in Alberta that could attract some smart Liberals for the federal election. Voters in that province are not stupid you know. They might also like to send a message to the Prime Minister after what he has helped to do to the province’s
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Why The "Fight Against ISIS" Is A Farce
Prime Minister Harper’s current political “divert the public’s attention” strategy is to beat on the war drums over ISIS. Yes, ISIS is a brutal lot, and they are doing a lot of horrible things. Should they be held accountable for their actions? Absolutely. Are the western powers the right people
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Why The "Fight Against ISIS" Is A Farce
Prime Minister Harper’s current political “divert the public’s attention” strategy is to beat on the war drums over ISIS. Yes, ISIS is a brutal lot, and they are doing a lot of horrible things. Should they be held accountable for their actions? &…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "Whack a Mole" is No Reason to Go to War.
We spent a decade in Afghanistan playing whack-a-mole, essentially achieving nothing. We had no coherent vision of what ‘victory’ might even look like much less how it could be achieved. In the result we never committed anything remotely like the size force that would have been necessary to keep the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Five Days Until the Senate of Canada Stands Trial
It’s been pretty obvious for a while now that the Mike Duffy corruption trial will likely be transformed into an indictment of the Senate of Canada. “We all did it” seems to be a core element of Duffy’s defence. Andrew Coyne seems to agree. He writes that the already overdue
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Has Harperland Made Canada a Rogue State
The Tyee’s Crawford Kilian argues that Harper’s Canada has become a rogue state. Kilian disposes of the arguments of those, including several Liberals, who see a “moral imperative” in our air war against ISIS. It’s a very selective morality that attacks the Islamic State in Syria while not attacking Boko Haram
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