This and that for your Sunday reading. – Bill Blaikie discusses how our growing inequality and precarity is the direct result of harmful policy choices: By 1985 we were five years into the neo-liberal era brought on by the election of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in
Continue readingTag: Jason Kenney
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board laments the choice of far too many provincial governments to sacrifice tens of thousands of lives rather than treating a pandemic with the seriousness and focus it deserves. Philip Pizzo, David Spiegel and Michelle Mello examine how
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Andrew Nikiforuk takes a look at two proposals to get to COVID Zero – including one from Canada and one from Germany. – Mickey Djuric reports on Saskatchewan’s deceptive COVID-19 reporting – which results in a public announcement that people have “recovered” no
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t believe it can’t happen here.
There seems to be some arguments these days about whether Canadians have to suffer through the same political mistakes made by Americans. We hardly seem to have to wait long to have our own version of Donald Trump. It is a toss-up whether Doug Ford of Ontario or Jason Kenney
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conspiracy theories are for losers: What does this tell us about Jason Kenney’s UCP?
Are Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party nuts? I mean, are they actually nuts, going down the rabbit hole of bizarre and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories like some of their Republican brethren in the United States? Former Alberta premier Rachel Notley, now leader of the Opposition in the provincial Legislature
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Gabrielle Drolet discusses how essential workers have been left to bear the physical and emotional burdens of workplaces designed to prioritize the interests of bosses and customers first. And Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld study (PDF) the effect unions have in pushing
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney’s Coal Facts and Myths
The Economist considered a number of cover illustrations for its Making Coal History edition before settling on a lump of coal on display under a bell jar like an artifact in a museum. While The Economist was chronicling the demise of coal the Kenney government was busy cancelling Lougheed’s Coal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jerusalem Demsas discusses the strong popular support for affordable social housing even as governments continually fail to provide it. Daphne Bramham rightly asks why we haven’t seen far more of a move toward the Housing First models (including both secure housing and the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: With infectious new COVID-19 strains on the march, Alberta Premier caves to business and eases health restrictions
With more infectious new variants of the novel coronavirus now spreading in Western Canada, Premier Jason Kenney chose yesterday to advise Albertans that next Friday the province will ease the restrictions that appear to have been slowing the spread of COVID-19. Alberta’s new-infection numbers have been a little better lately
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ciara Nugent writes about Amsterdam’s embrace of doughnut economics focused on finding the sweet spot which accounts for human well-being and environmental sustainability. – Ross Belot discusses why the world doesn’t need Keystone XL, while Angus Reid notes that only the prairie
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Energy in Depth’s report to the ‘anti-Alberta’ campaigns inquiry is slick, expensive, tendentious, and unpersuasive
There’s nothing outright bonkers about the report by Energy in Depth, the U.S. fossil fuel advocacy organization paid $64,000 by the “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns” to come up with justification for the conspiracy theories pushed by the United Conservative Party Government during and after the 2019 election campaign.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Canadians are on to O’Toole.
Every time I look at conservative leader Erin O’Toole, he reminds me of cartoons of the bloated English capitalist. What makes me laugh though are his on-going attempts to create a conservative party more acceptable to the mainstream of Canadian voters. And I hardly think tossing Derek Sloan out of
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Kenney’s (Bombastic) Response to Biden Cancelling KXL’s Permit
On January 20 when the rest of the world was congratulating President Biden on his inauguration, Jason Kenney was attacking Biden’s character and threatening trade wars because Biden revoked Trump’s executive order approving KXL. Not satisfied that he’d made his point, Kenney appeared on Fox TV and other media outlets
Continue readingAlberta Politics: How much of the pipe that was supposedly ready to build Keystone XL is fit only for scrap?
Alberta is unlikely to recoup much of its $1.5-billion loss on the Keystone XL Pipeline by selling off unused pipe now that the Biden Administration has pulled the plug on the megaproject. At any rate, it’s hard to believe much of the pipe will be good for anything but scrap
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Grace Blakeley comments on the connection between neoliberal ideology, and the replacement of even the possibility of collective action with an assumption that we’re only in it for ourselves. – Aditya Chakrabortty writes about the need to eliminate poverty in all of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Anna McMillan reports on the disproportionate effect COVID-19 has (predictably) had on First Nations reserves in Saskatchewan. And Maan Ahmidi reports on the appearances and realities arising out of the Libs’ continued appeals against orders to stop withholding equal access to services from
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tells Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make the U.S. pay off his gambling debts
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wants the United States government to pay off his gambling debts! I kid you not. In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent yesterday and published this morning on social media, Mr. Kenney demanded the Canadian Government press the new U.S. Administration of President Joseph
Continue readingAlberta Politics: When U.S. President Joe Biden killed KXL yesterday, Jason Kenney lost the largest cash bet in Canadian history
U.S. President Joseph R. Biden’s swift action yesterday to revoke the permit to build the Keystone XL Pipeline has exposed Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to the world as a hopeless prat. Mr. Kenney gave away $1.5 billion on a dumb bet that he’d look like a hero if Donald Trump
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses the reality that even from the standpoint of GDP and economic activity, we’re better off implementing strong enough measures to control (or better yet, eradicate) the spread of COVID-19 rather than allowing the virus to run wild. But in
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney Reverses Peter Lougheed’s Coal Policy
Remember 2017 when Jason Kenney continually invoked Peter Lougheed’s name in his quest for the UCP leadership? Well, it’s 2021 and Mr Kenney isn’t wrapping himself in Mr Lougheed’s mantle any longer. He’s ripping it to shreds. Next week the Kenney government is going to court to defend
Continue reading