An all-to-familiar juxtaposition has arisen with the recent arrests of Indigenous land defenders and journalists by the RCMP. On the one hand, we have politicians like Justin Trudeau and John Horgan insisting on the importance of climate change and that we must act now. On the other, these same politicians
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Northern Currents : Reconciliation is a sham to our political leaders
Our political leaders have a deficient understanding of reconciliation. What they want to reconcile are the contradictory interests between Capital and Indigenous self-determination. Ultimately, our political leaders, embodied by the Canadian state, side with Capital. There is a much more radical, transformative understanding of reconciliation available.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Umair Haque discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has been turned into a cash cow to be extended for profit, rather than a public health emergency to be ended for the sake of people’s safety. And Jay S. Kaufman notes that science alone can’t
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your year. – Shawn Micallef highlights how the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the refusal by far too many people to follow a social contract – including anti-social leaders elected to shape and apply it. – Owen Jones writes about the dangerous disinformation – spread with far
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Derrick O’Keefe writes about the possibilities raised by the B.C. NDP’s majority election win – as well as a need for far more ambition to achieve them. – Elise von Scheel reports on new polling results showing that no matter how desperately
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Randy Robinson writes that Doug Ford’s gratuitous austerity will have severe costs in both jobs and lives. And James Downie comments on the desperate need for a Biden administration to make major investments in an equitable and sustainable U.S. economy. – Justin
Continue readingAlberta Politics: COVID-19? Forget about it! Alberta restaurants to stay open, Premier Jason Kenney vows
“Alberta restaurants to stay open, barring ‘catastrophe,’ premier says,” the CBC’s online headline writer summarized yesterday. Here, as they say on social media, let me fix your headline: “Alberta restaurants to stay open, sparking ‘catastrophe,’ premier says.” Premier Kenney visits an Alberta Restaurant that presumably will be staying open no
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Second COVID-19 wave rolls into Alberta as Premier Jason Kenney continues to emphasize ‘personal responsibility’
Alberta has now passed a significant milestone — more COVID-19 cases than at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, 3,138 compared to 3,022 on April 30. There were 898 new cases over the weekend if you count Friday, as Alberta Health Services does, and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Math is hard, but not so hard you can’t spot the holes in Tyler Shandro’s cost-saving shell game
Math, apparently, remains hard. Except, perhaps, calculus of a political sort. The real Mr. Shandro (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). On its face, Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s claim that firing 11,000 low-paid public sector health care employees will save about $600 million makes little sense. Others have done the same calculation and
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 60: Explaining the BC election to Albertans
There is an election happening on the other side of the Rockies. Ian Bushfield and Scott de Lange Boom from the Politicoast Podcast join Dave in this episode of the Daveberta Podcast to help Albertans understand what is happening in British Columbia’s provincial election. Thank you to Ian and Scott
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fossil fuels may be fading, but Alberta stands ready to supply bad economic ideas to Canada and the world
VICTORIA — We Albertans can be enormously proud, I guess, of our continuing influence on the Dominion. We surely must be the leading exporter of ridiculous, potentially destructive ideas in Canada. B.C. Premier John Horgan (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). Consider Andrew Wilkinson, hapless leader of British Columbia’s Liberals (who are
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Riding high in the polls, B.C.’s New Democrat premier calls a snap election — the right, predictably, whinges
VICTORIA — Strangely, all those conservatives who are anxious to get us back to school and business as soon as possible didn’t seem to be very happy yesterday when B.C. Premier John Horgan called a snap election for Oct. 24. Supporters of B.C. political parties other than Mr. Horgan’s New
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta takes over as Canada’s political Crazytown; privatized health care suffers a setback
VICTORIA — When I was growing up here in Lotusland, British Columbia had the reputation of being the Crazytown of Canadian politics. The late Allan Fotheringham, the Vancouver Sun columnist we all read religiously, famously summed up Canadian politics like this: “In the Maritimes, politics is a disease; in Quebec
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Order saying Alberta schools won’t have to enforce social distancing lands like a sucker punch
Whoever it was in the Alberta Government that decided it would be a good idea to risk springing the news on the public that COVID-19 social distancing rules won’t apply to classrooms just hours before schools reopen was seriously mistaken. The United Conservative Party government’s “near-normal” back-to-school scheme was already
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney’s bloviations about medical matters may have found a friendly audience south of the Medicine Line
Stuff UCPers Say! Epidemiologists and other scientific types may not like it very much when Alberta Premier Jason Kenney equates COVID-19 with influenza, but at least Fox News seems to be on side. Last Wednesday in the Legislature in a prepared speech arguing for the government’s understandable desire to get
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Jason Kenney’s Miniscule Pandemic Bump
He’s tried everything from rolling up his shirtsleeves and pointing at graphs to quoting Franklin Roosevelt (“we have nothing to fear but fear itself”), but still Albertans refuse to give him his due. Jason Kenney’s pandemic performance gave him a one point bump in approval ratings (from 47 to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ryan Hayes and Edward Hon-Sing Wong discuss both the importance of collective action to protect workers’ rights, and the strategies which are proving most effective. Hamilton Nolan writes about the increasingly strong case for sectoral bargaining. And Chelsea Nash examines the gig-worker unionization
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney is Canada’s least popular premier
Jason Kenney is Canada’s least popular premier. When you add in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he’s also Canada’s least popular first minister. Chart showing Jason Kenney is Canada’s least popular premier (Image: Screenshot of Campaign Research Inc. slide show). I’m not going to belabour this point, but Jason Kenney is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jane McDonald writes about the lessons we should learn for future crisis management from the coronavirus pandemic. And Jim Stanford discusses both the importance of social trust in response to an emergency situation, and the reason for optimism that Canadians can count on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Miller takes note of the corporate media’s bias against Wet’suwet’en land defenders and others engaged in demonstrations in solidarity. Stuart Trew comments that we shouldn’t let demands for convenience override the ongoing need for reconciliation. Paige Raibmon writes about the obvious error
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