Assorted content to end your week. – Matt Gurney writes that the COVID pandemic has exposed – without ameliorating – our political leaders’ inability to respond to any real crisis. And in case anybody was under the illusion that we’re past the worst of COVID itself, Michael James and Christine
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Alberta Politics: Unifor uses Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney to target ‘the new 2021 O’Toole’
With election fever running high throughout the land, Unifor’s new third-party political advertisement started showing up on social media yesterday and it was too good not to share in the final hours of this August long weekend. It’s an attack ad that mimics the cliches of automotive advertising, and Erin
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk calls for us to learn from over a year’s worth of experience with COVID-19 and guard against aerosol spread to limit the development and transmission of variants. And Ian Sample reports on new findings showing that children are at risk
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Nazeem Muhajarine discusses the importance of a response to the coronavirus which recognizes how a virus can change course and pose new threats. But Scott Schmidt notes that Alberta – like Saskatchewan and Ontario – is insistent on staying the course even
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paula Ethans points out how anti-maskers and other COVID cranks have cynically drawn on the language of progressive protest movements to exacerbate the dangers of a deadly pandemic. And Umair Haque argues that the upcoming U.S. election may determine whether or not the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Labour Day reading. – Gregory Beatty discusses the class struggle as it’s playing out in the time of COVID. Jim Stanford offers a reminder as to how collective action is more important than ever, while Jerry Dias discusses how the labour movement is exercising its strength.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Owen Jones writes that the coronavirus is offering a stark lesson in how inequality kills: The coronavirus pandemic is about to collide with this engine of inequality. The super-rich are fleeing on private jets to luxury boltholes in foreign climes, while the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Martin Regg Cohn discusses how workers are bearing the brunt of Doug Ford’s budget. Joe Light offers a reminder that Donald Trump’s populist rhetoric predictably gave way to a tax scheme designed to further enrich CEOs at the expense of everybody else. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jerry Dias writes that the holiday season will be a difficult one for far too many Canadian workers facing precarious employment and hostile governments. And the Economist discusses the long hours expected of workers in the U.S. and the UK. – PressProgress highlights
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thoughts from the road: General Motors, China and Alberta, a new landscape emerges from Monday’s dust
OTTAWA Now that the dust is settling from Monday’s announcement General Motors Corp.’s last auto assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., will soon be closed, the emerging landscape is not promising for Alberta. Leastways, it’s not hopeful from the perspective of an Alberta that has no plan to transition from a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Tiffany Crawford interviews Kirsten Zickfeld about the contradiction between new fossil fuel infrastructure and any serious attempt to reverse our climate breakdown. Murray Mandryk offers a reminder of the local costs of climate change. Fatima Syed highlights how Doug Ford’s supposed climate plan
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Christo Aivalis discusses the future of organized labour and the need for workplace democracy in an era of increased automation: New organizing models and shorter workdays are both viable solutions to address the struggles of encroaching automation, but neither strike to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Vanmala Subramaniam reports on the move by real estate developers to push tenants out of desperately-needed housing in Canada’s largest cities to chase after short-term profits. – David Wallace Wells asks how the rapidly-materializing worst-case climate change scenarios are being met with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canadian labour movement abuzz in wake of Unifor decision to quit Canadian Labour Congress
PHOTOS: Unifor President Jerry Dias (Photo: Unifor Local 591-G). Below: Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff and former Ontario Federation of Labour President Sid Ryan. The Canadian labour movement is abuzz debating and speculating on the potential ramifications of the decision of Canada’s largest private-sector union to quit the Canadian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jerry Dias writes that a new year has already seen far too many examples of corporate greed rampaging out of control. Elizabeth Bruenig highlights the contrasting treatment of poor people who face increasingly stringent requirements to access even meager benefits, and the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Thomas Frank asks how we’ve allowed billionaires to escape any responsibility for the maintenance of civilization by moving their wealth offshore: I know that what the billionaires and the celebrities have done is legal. They merely took advantage of the system. It’s the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Kevin McKean discusses how inequality undermines the goal of ensuring a healthy population. Matt Bruenig examines new data showing that the concentration of wealth in the U.S. is getting more extreme by the year. Steven Pearlstein writes about new polling showing that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sarah Anderson studies how corporate tax cuts enrich CEOs, but don’t do anything to help workers. And she then follows up with this op-ed: If claims about the job-creation benefits of lower tax rates had any validity, these 92 consistently profitable firms
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Abigail McKnight and Richard Reeves write about the gilded floor that prevents the wealthy from facing the realities lived by most people. Eric Levitz discusses how the Trump economy is producing plenty for the ultra-rich, but little but mediocrity for everybody else. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jerry Dias writes that corporate greed is the common thread in numerous stories about Canadian workers being left without jobs or support. And Yves Engler points out that trade agreements have ultimately served little purpose but to entrench corporate power. – Chris
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