Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ethan Cox reports on new polling showing that Canadians are highly concerned about inequality – even if our governments aren’t doing anywhere meaningful to address it: Of Canadians surveyed, 73 per cent said their and their family’s economic situation had stayed the same
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Owen Jones writes that excessive reliance on corporate profiteers is the reason why the UK’s trains don’t run on time. And Nora Loreto argues that postal banking is needed (among other reasons) to rein in abuses by Canada’s biggest banks. – Shannon Daub
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Andrew Jackson writes about the opportunities missed when governments restrict their economic policy to propping up the corporate sector, rather than seeking to innovate directly in the public interest: The received wisdom among economists used to be that governments should just set
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Scott Clark and Peter DeVries point out that with interest rates still at historically low levels, Canada would be far better off funding infrastructure for itself rather than locking itself into privatized structures: But that is not true at all at the federal
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: World’s richest country and it can’t even do health care. Sad!
Watching the Americans thrash about trying to put together a decent health care system prompts much head-shaking and eyeball-rolling. The Republicans have bitched and moaned about Obamacare for seven years, but in all that time haven’t been able to come up with a plan they can agree on. “It’s complicated,”
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – In the wake of a thoroughly disappointing budget day at both the provincial and federal levels, it’s worth taking note of Ivan Sigal’s view on the importance of building trust – rather than limiting citizens to either fake news or fake policies:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Heather Whiteside discusses how the privatization schemes being toyed with at all levels of government represent nothing more than reckless gambling with public money and goods: When a federal, provincial, or municipal government builds a bridge, a highway, a school, or a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig discusses the need to fight fake news about Canada’s health care system (and the corporate raiders trying to amplify it): (I)t was with some pleasure last week that I watched as a Republican congressman tried to insist that Canadians routinely flock
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the Saskatchewan Party’s determination to make work more precarious – and pay and benefits harder to come by – in the public and private sectors alike. For further reading…– The history of the Skip the Dishes saga includes the government’s plan for millions of dollars in handouts; the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Foundations for an Alberta Alternative Budget
An Alberta-based volunteer working group, of which I’m a part, recently released a document titled Foundations for an Alberta Alternative Budget (for media coverage, see this Metro article). Working group members include staff from Alberta’s non-profit sector, labour movement and advocacy sector. While our long-term goal is to emulate the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Wanda Wyporska writes that growing inequality is primarily the result of political choices: If it seems ridiculous that 1,000 people work harder or offer more value than 40 per cent of the population, that’s because it is. This level of inequality isn’t natural
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta finally moves, cautiously, toward reforming labour laws, more boldly to ban cash-for-blood transactions
PHOTOS: Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray at her news conference yesterday morning. Below: Labour lawyer and respected labour relations specialist Andrew Sims and Health Minister Sarah Hoffman at her news conference yesterday afternoon (Twitter). No sooner asked than answered, Alberta’s NDP government announced a plan yesterday morning to consult with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Star’s editorial board calls for an end to regressive federal tax breaks. And Dennis Howlett asks why the tax evaders who used KPMG’s illegal offshoring schemes are being offered secrecy and amnesty for their attempts to siphon revenue away from the Canadian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Star’s editorial board calls for an end to regressive federal tax breaks. And Dennis Howlett asks why the tax evaders who used KPMG’s illegal offshoring schemes are being offered secrecy and amnesty for their attempts to siphon revenue away from the Canadian
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shoreline, True Grit, photo-bombing, certainty and the Deity: random observations from Alberta’s Throne Speech
PHOTOS: Alberta Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell, clad in a purple official gown, reads the NDP Government’s third Speech from the Throne in the Legislature in Edmonton yesterday afternoon. Below: Party crasher Jason Kenney, Labour Minister Christina Gray (Dave Cournoyer photo) and Opposition Leader Brian Jean. Alberta’s New Democratic Party Government
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Dietrich Vollrath discusses both what’s included in our societal capital, and how best to think of redistributive policies as means of fairly dealing with it: (T)axes are a way of collecting the royalties on trust and scale that we inherited and/or create
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Dietrich Vollrath discusses both what’s included in our societal capital, and how best to think of redistributive policies as means of fairly dealing with it: (T)axes are a way of collecting the royalties on trust and scale that we inherited and/or create
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Wells discusses how the Justin Trudeau Libs have been reduced to bluster and reannouncements as a substitute for their promise of improved equality. And Michael Harris notes that some of the people who were crucial to Trudeau’s election in B.C. are seeing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Wells discusses how the Justin Trudeau Libs have been reduced to bluster and reannouncements as a substitute for their promise of improved equality. And Michael Harris notes that some of the people who were crucial to Trudeau’s election in B.C. are seeing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Buchheit comments on the continued spread of global inequality – as a combination of top-heavy gains and lost wealth among all but the privileged few has reduced to 6 the number of billionaires with as much wealth as half of humanity.
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