Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Robert Reich comments that Democrats who failed to recognize and respond to a rigged economic system share in the blame for the rise of Donald Trump’s toxic populism. And George Monbiot notes that Trump is just one of many strongmen-in-the-making daring anybody to
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Alberta Politics: Ernst & Young review of Alberta Health Services gives UCP cover to do lots, flexibility to do little
We’re not closing any rural hospitals, have you got that? Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro strove to make that point perfectly clear at his news conference in Edmonton yesterday on how Ernst & Young, the multinational management consulting firm based in London, England, thinks Alberta Health Services could save nearly
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Arbitrator’s decision awarding 1% pay increase to some AUPE members undermines UCP austerity arguments
An independent labour arbitrator yesterday awarded unionized Alberta government employees and health care support workers a modest 1-per-cent pay increase for 2019. Having gone into wage-reopener negotiations in the final year of their current collective agreements seeking much higher pay increases ranging from 6.5 to 7.85 per cent, the Alberta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Worried about coronavirus? Ideology trumps expertise when Conservatives meddle with health care
If the world is on the cusp of another deadly coronavirus outbreak, this might seem like a peculiar time to be signing up for a high-risk experiment in health care management based on ideology instead of facts. But as far as Canada’s increasingly extremist conservative movement is concerned, of course
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the Saskatchewan Party’s dangerous focus on privatization and photo-ops rather than the public infrastructure the province needs. For further reading…– Alex MacPherson reported on both the Moe government’s advance notice of the flaws in the roof of the new North Battleford hospital, and the continued use of panels
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: My review of Robert Clark’s book on Canada’s prisons
Robert Clark has written a very good book about Canada’s prison system. Mr. Clark worked from 1980 until 2009 in seven different federal prisons, all located in Ontario. The book is a compilation of personal accounts based on the author’s various assignments. Since prisons can be a pipeline into homelessness,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Brace yourselves, Alberta, Premier Kenney’s promising us another spring of renewal!
Good Lord, can Alberta survive another spring of renewal like the last one? Another springtime of renewal — that’s what Government House Leader Jason Nixon and the United Conservative Party’s meme machine were promising yesterday with the announcement the Alberta Legislature well get back to business on Feb. 25. Alberta
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your year. – Armine Yalnizyan writes about the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights a century after the Winnipeg General Strike: Most workers have no channels for acting, or even talking, collectively. That may be changing. Here in Canada, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers launched a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Chris Hatch discusses the glaring contradictions between Canada’s lip service to the fight against climate change, and its actions in pushing to expand dirty energy production for decades to come. The Globe and Mail’s editorial board rightly recognizes that increasing the production and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Abby Innes writes that the UK’s general election reflects a decision point as to whether to discard neoliberalism to serve the public, or democracy for the benefit of plutocrats. And Trish Hennessy looks at Cleveland’s move to ensure a democratic economic system, including
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Crawford Kilian highlights how ongoing inequality is among the many factors leading to stagnant life expectancies in Canada. Jim Stanford points out that tax cuts don’t do anything to help workers facing stagnant wages due to policies designed to leave them under the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Laurie Macfarlane writes that contrary to the dogma of budget scolds, the truly reckless course of action is to fail to invest public money in state capacity: After four decades of neoliberalism, the state’s capacity has been drastically hollowed out. Key public
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Groundhog Day on Black Friday! With 5,000 job cuts planned, perpetual chaos returns to health care in Alberta
With yesterday’s announcement the Alberta Government intends to wipe out close to 5,000 jobs in public health care by 2023, and another 2,500 or so in other parts of the public service, perpetual chaos has returned to health care in Alberta. Get used to it. It won’t be getting better
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the “hush memo” issued to Saskatchewan doctors, and the Moe government’s eagerness to limit any voice for public servants to an ineffective whistleblower process. For further reading…– David Giles previously reported on the Saskatchewan Party’s plan for a snitch line to centralize all concerns about the health care
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Guy Dauncey makes the case that it’s entirely possible – even if daunting – to meet the challenge posed by the climate crisis. But we need first to come to terms with the reality that emissions are still rising even as the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Andrew MacLeod discusses how an anti-worker campaign at the Mountain Equipment Co-op demonstrates the need for employees to be able to bargain collectively without being subject to employer interference. – Linda McQuaig writes about Doug Ford’s plans to slash what’s already Canada’s lowest
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sabrina Shankman discusses new research showing how the climate crisis will affect today’s youth. And Bill McKibben highlights why we can’t afford to delay in reining in catastrophic climate change. – But Damian Carrington reports on fossil fuel extraction projections which far exceed
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how decades of laissez-faire economics and deference to the rich have undermined any effective democratic decision-making. Bruce Boghosian observes that structural change is needed to avoid a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and concurrent rise of inequality. And
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about the 2019-20 Alberta budget
I’ve just written a ‘top 10’ overview of the recent Alberta budget. Points raised in the post include the following: -The budget lays out a four-year strategy of spending cuts, letting population growth and inflation do much of the heavy lifting. -After one accounts for both population growth and inflation,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – In an excerpt from his new book, Martin Lukacs examines the disappointment Justin Trudeau has inflicted on anybody who thought his carefully-cultivated progressive image would be matched by action: Long before photographs of Trudeau partying in black-face and brown-face in his twenties
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