In his quest to become the top scorer in the Harper admiration society and ensure a much-coveted seat in the Red Chamber, John Ibbiston scores another home run in yet one more of his sycophantic endorsements of dear leader in today’s Globe. Recommend this Post
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Politics and its Discontents: Ethical Transgression Be Damned
One of the few journalists today holding the Harper regime to public account, Lawrence Martin, has a very interesting assessment of yesterday’s minimalist cabinet shuffle, and offers a rather damning indictment of the Conservatives’ ethical myopia at ipolitics.ca. The piece also offers the reader a sharp contrast to the Harper
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom criticizes the Cons’ war on labour at the federal level – though John Ivison notes that the Cons’ habit of interfering in every federal labour dispute looks to help the NDP all the more. And Pat Atkinson worries that the Sask
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Kayle Hatt’s blog looks to be a must-read from here on in. And his post on what to draw from the latest polls is particularly worth a read: Every poll that has been released since Thomas Mulcair was elected leader of the NDP
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Cons’ attacks on the environment and its defenders are starting to attract plenty of unwanted attention, with the Globe and Mail editorial board weighing in as the NDP, the other opposition parties and the environmental movement join forces to reject the utter
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Going, Going, Gone: Dismantling the Progressive State
“An Auction”. William Pyne and William Combe (1808). Now that some time has passed since the federal budget it might be useful to step back and assess what it says about where the government is taking us. Reaction has been pretty muted. The “centrist punditry” generally see this as an
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell comments on the Canada which the Harper Cons are determined to destroy. But the more important point looks to me to be less any theory of constitutionalism than the desire to have governments be as ineffective as possible at all levels:
Continue readingThe wisdom of John Ibbitson: "NDP opts for a power broker over a protest leader"
Let’s face it, to the stuffed shirts at the Globe & Mail, ‘protest leaders’ = ‘hippies’ = ‘socialists’ = NDP. Glad to see Ibbitson is happy a ‘power broker’ has defeated the dirty fucking hippie element of Canada’s most progressive party. Don’t expect this bit of relief washing over Ibbitson
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
With the NDP’s leadership campaign entering its final week, it’s no great surprise to see plenty more punditry than usual surrounding the race. But what might influence the ballots cast this week (which may end up making all the difference)? – The most attention over the last day or so
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Latest Drivel From John Ibbitson
But they went a long way to containing the damage when Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in the House, and the election campaign chair Guy Giorno, on television, declared emphatically that the central campaign did not authorize or know of any deceptions, including alleged harassing calls from people purporting to speak
Continue reading"Robo-calls? Get a grip. We’re Canadian"
So says Globe & Mail scold Margaret Wente. We expect our elections to be squeaky clean, and that’s a good thing. Obviously, there were election irregularities in Guelph, and maybe elsewhere, and Elections Canada needs to find out what happened and who did it. But it’s ridiculous to think there
Continue readingJohn Ibbitson shames himself in the Conservative daily Globe & Mail
Itchy and Scratchy The Globe & Mail is a terrible newspaper. It was once highly regarded but has fallen into disrepute. Only if you are a Conservative or a right-wing operative would you even consider the Globe to be the ‘newspaper of record’. In fact, the newspaper has become the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Canada’s ‘Newspaper of Record" Continues Its Defense Of Harper
The Globe’s John Ibbitson says the Harper regime wasn’t behind the voter suppression crimes because, well, because Guy Giorno and Stephen Harper say they didn’t do it. Seems like it isn’t just the Conservative Party that has contempt for the intelligence of Canadians. Recommend this Post
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: The big robo-calling question: will anyone go to jail?
Two important questions arise concerning the robo-calling scandal: Good investigative journalism could break this affair wide open, but will the owners of the Harper-friendly corporate media allow their journalists to go beyond normal reporting and do the hard work necessary to get to the very bottom of this dark story?
Continue readingImpolitical: In the robo-call affair, the law will work as intended
Oh for the love of…“In the robo-call affair, time and the law favour the Tories.” It’s not like it’s a mission or anything around here to blog about John Ibbitson columns, but if we must, a quick response. This column is mal-titled, for starters. Is that a word? Anyway, while
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 readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Friday reading. – Jim Stanford points out that free trade hasn’t delivered any productivity gains as promised – and has in fact moved Canada further away from the model that’s working elsewhere: The famous Macdonald Commission, influenced heavily by market-oriented economic analysis, made two core
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to end your week. – Sure, it’s a plus to know that Canada’s military is ready and willing to leap into action to protect what matters most to the government of the day. Now if only that meant something other than serving as political operatives to protect the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Heather Scoffield gives far too much credence to the Cons’ spin on what their focus group results mean. But her report offers what may be the most definitive indication yet that the Cons’ ideology bears absolutely no resemblance to what Canadians actually want:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Apparently there have been a few developments in the NDP’s leadership race – and indeed enough that I’ll likely need to apply a bit more a filter on what I catalogue in my roundup posts. (In particular, I’ll generally stop pointing out survey or event-based coverage which doesn’t add much
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