Assorted news and notes from the NDP’s leadership campaign as we approach today’s final debate… – Niki Ashton pointed out how the NDP should be able to tap into the desire for democratic decision-making that once motivated the Reform Party before it was turned into a top-down organization under the
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – On the Robocon front, Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher’s latest good work investigating the Cons’ electoral fraud got Maher expelled from the Manning Centre’s hive-mind-building exercise. And the robocalling firms themselves are being similarly aggressive in trying to shut down any discussion of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Frank Graves notes that for all the spin from the Cons and their enablers about public acquescience in program slashing, there’s actually another issue taking centre stage among Canadian voters: (I)f people prefer spending cuts to increased taxes and debt, they prefer “investment”
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: BC isn’t broke: putting teacher bargaining in perspective
Last Monday, BC teachers held a Day of Action in communities across the province to protest the BC government’s decision to legislate a contract and put an end to their collective bargaining process. I was invited to speak to teachers at the Surrey rally, where I had the opportunity to
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Affordability of Post-Secondary Education
Carleton University’s Ted Jackson teaches a graduate seminar course on post-secondary education in Carleton’s School of Public Policy and Administration. Earlier this month, I was invited to give a guest presentation to Professor Jackson’s class. I focused the presentation on affordability challenges faced by students wanting to pursue post-secondary education.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Erin notes that the revenue gap being used as an excuse to demand massive cuts in Ontario is nearly entirely closed with a more plausible set of underlying assumptions and projections – and that’s without taking the look at revenue which was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – In the surest sign yet that the Robocon scandal involved a calculated decision by political operatives rather than having anything to do with mere overzealous volunteers, the Star reports that call centre staff hired by the Cons to perform live calling actually tried
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: New Generation of Thinkers Link Inequality, Innovation and Prosperity
<em>This guest blog was written by Mike Marin and Anouk Dey. It originally appeared in the Toronto Star on February 24. The authors are part of a team that produced the report Prospering Together (in English http://bit.ly/z4GQx5 and in French http://bit.ly/yabiK2) </em> <em></em>What do the Occupy Movement and Canadian software
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Why taxing food staples should not be considered a policy option in Canada
Here’s an excellent piece by Sam Boshra, about the recent proposal by Michael Smart and Jack Mintz to apply the GST to food, from Sam’s blog at Economic Justice: Low-income households can’t buy food today with a larger HST rebate they hope to get sometime in the future. A key objective
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – There’s been plenty of followup on Robocon, with columns from Andrew Coyne and Thomas Walkom on the Cons’ increasingly unethical culture, along with followup reporting from Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor on live voter fraud and Steve Rennie and Bruce Cheadle on Elections
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Revitalizing COPE Vancouver, Right Now.
Today is the first day of the rest of COPE Vancouver’s life. Today is the day where the new executive needs to make its first priority revitalizing the party by building unity around progressive principles and policies, and moving past pettiness. If it cannot get past the factionism, it simply
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – No, it isn’t much surprise that poll respondents may think we’ve moved to the right as a country: after all, Con propaganda (largely echoed by the media) has been declaring that for years. But as Warren Kinsella notes, that perception bears no resemblance
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Susan Riley brilliantly slams the message that austerity is necessary for everybody but those who already have the most: Is anyone else getting tired of being lectured about austerity by wealthy consultants in expensive suits who charge $1,500 a day for their advice
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 9, 2011
Friday, December 9 saw the final day of debate at second reading on the Cons’ seat allocation bill. And as usual, plenty of valid questions went entirely unanswered. The Big Issue Marc-Andre Morin rightly questioned the Cons’ trumped-up sense of urgency in dealing with seat allocations while they do nothing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 5, 2011
Monday, December 5 saw the House of Commons debate the NDP’s motion on climate change. And while the Cons tried to put up a relatively brave facade on an issue where they’ve been fighting progress at any turn, they inevitably ended up showing their true colours. The Big Issue At
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: December 1, 2011
In the midst of a week of acrimonious debate over both the substance of the Cons’ dumb-on-crime legislation and the government’s procedural maneuvers to prevent even improvements which it recognized as necessary, December 1 served as a comparative beacon of cooperation (as noted specifically by Don Davies). The Big Issue
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Yes, the fraudulent collaboration between the Harper Cons and Sun TV should offer nothing but reason for suspicion about both portions of the right-wing noise machine – and Dr. Dawg, Heather Mallick, Simon Houpt and the Star have all had plenty to say.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Wells points out that despite the Cons’ best efforts to get Canadians to panic over the state of our retirement system, the truth is that we’re actually better positioned now than was projected 20 years ago. (And for those looking inexplicably for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Kady points out that the Cons are back to their old tricks in trying to push as much committee work as possible behind closed doors. – Susan Delacourt theorizes that the Cons are likely to use anger rather than fear as their
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unequalization
As usual, the Cons’ latest attack on social programs – this time the Old Age Security which has played a key role in lifting Canadian seniors out of poverty – is supposedly based on some inescapable lack of fiscal capacity to provide a reasonable standard of living. But the truth
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