The Letters section in today’s Globe and Mail is filled with readers’ thoughts on climate change. One such reader is me. Please see the fifth letter from the top for my response to the “What about China?” excuse for Canadian climate inaction.
Continue readingTag: Letters to the Editor
Politics and its Discontents: Scheer’s Climate-Change Plan – A Reality Check
While the Trudeau government engages in public double-think exercises (expansion of pipelines AND climate-change mitigation!), those hoping for climate salvation from the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer would be well-advised to watch the following. It is part of an ongoing Global News series evaluating the plans of our federal parties as
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Crazed Autocrat
Bleed, bleed, poor country!Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,For goodness dare not check thee. – Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3 H/t Patrick Corrigan The above quote from Macbeth, along with Patrick Corrigan’s editorial cartoon, serve as pungent reminders of the carnage taking place in Ontario under the ‘leadership’ of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Day Of Reckoning
H/t Theo Moudakis Here in propaganda central (a.k.a., Doug Ford’s Ontario), it would appear that few are being fooled by the outrageous campaign the Ford regime is conducting against the carbon tax imposed by the feds after Doug the Thug axed our cap-and-trade program. I believe the following letter-writer speaks
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: And Now, A Word From Kermit
H/t Greg Perry Still not convinced? Perhaps these letter-writers can help: Local governments all over the world are declaring a climate emergency, so stop using the neutral term “climate change” in your coverage. There’s nothing neutral about the looming disaster for our “life support system” (aka the environment). Let’s call
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Speaking of Doug Ford And His Ilk ….
H/t Patrick Corrigan Paul Rapoport of Ancaster, Ontario, has some advice well worth the consideration of Canada’s Conservative premiers: Keep your Enemies List current. Cut their funding. If you want to remove 50 per cent, make it 100 per cent. In three years, give back 10 per cent and you’ll
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Call For Leadership
Jason Kenney’s UCP has achieved a majority in Alberta. Proclaiming that Alberta is open for business and that “[h]ope is on the horizon,” he joins Ontario’s Doug Ford both in identical sloganeering and rabid contempt for all measures related to carbon taxes or anything else that would discourage the consumption
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An All-Out Attack
On the surface, the ructions in education occurring in Ontario may hold little interest to those living in other jurisdictions. However, those residing elsewhere would be well-advised to keep an eye on this province, watching us carefully to see whether the Ford government succeeds in dealing a lethal blow to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More About Bread And Circuses
I expressed concerns in yesterday’s post about the cheap, diversionary tactics being employed by Doug Ford to distract the masses as he goes about systematically gutting the programs that make life livable and functional in Ontario. I see I am not the only one with such concerns. In today’s Star,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Fair Taxation Could Achieve
From the print edition of the Toronto Star comes this response to a recent column by Linda McQuaig, a response that strikes me as eminently reasonable: Re Debunking billionaire claims of heroic capitalism, McQuaig, March 14 Linda McQuaig is right on the money. Since1980, the top federal tax rate has
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Following The Trail Home
Letter-writers in today’s Star ask questions that demand to be answered. The first makes a point that occurred to me early on when SNC-Lavalin averred that bribery and fraud charges were the result of rogue employees, an oft-used disclaimer by those seeking to evade criminal responsibility: Re PM loses top
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
H/t Theo Moudakis Meanwhile, Martin Regg Cohn reminds us why Doug Ford is not fit to lead the province: Never mind, for now, the potential misdirection of law enforcement and miscarriage of justice as the premier’s office rammed the appointment through, potentially skewing or shielding him (if not others) from
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Vancouver Sun Letter
I have a letter in today’s Vancouver Sun, not so much supporting proportional representation (although I do support proportional representation) as addressing what I consider to be baseless objections to the current electoral reform referendum. My letter is second from the top, under the (perhaps regrettable) heading “Complexity isn’t a
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Vancouver Sun Letter
I have a letter in today’s Vancouver Sun, not so much supporting proportional representation (although I do support proportional representation) as addressing what I consider to be baseless objections to the current electoral reform referendum. My letter is second from the top, under the (perhaps regrettable) heading “Complexity isn’t a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Pattern We Cannot Ignore
As I write this on the morning of Labour Day, it is already 38 degrees Celsius with the humidex in Southern Ontario, another day of oppressive heat and humidity in a long line of them this summer. Scientific consensus points to the ever-increasing effects of climate change as the chief
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Amerika’s Formula For Success
As noted the other day, the United States or, as I like to call it, Trump’s Amerika, no longer even bothers to conceal its contempt for the rest of the world. It’s disgraceful threats at the the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly against Ecuador for sponsoring a resolution to encourage
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Truth About Carbon Pricing
The taxation levels for carbon set by the federal government will likely prove wholly inadequate in getting people to modify their behaviour to combat climate change. However, given the exit of Ontario from its cap-and-trade program by the incoming populist and reactionary Doug Ford, the truth is, it’s better than
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: First-Past-The-Post: An Ontario Horror Story
Has Justin Trudeau not betrayed his promise of electoral reform, perhaps all provinces would be seriously considering it for their own jurisdictions, not just British Columbia and Quebec. And now Ontario is about to reap the full horror of the first-past-the-post system: a clown (no doubt accompanied by seltzer bottle
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Vox Populi
While many will be fixated on the latest soap-opera installments that politics now regularly yields, such as the outrageous behaviour of Trump at the G6+1, or the strange elevation to power of Doug Ford in Ontario, others are not so easily diverted, as these letter-writers demonstrate: As an atmospheric physicist
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Justin Trudeau: A Reality Check
While Canadians are rightfully applauding the retaliatory tariffs the Trudeau government will be imposing on the United States, my concern is that distraction will diminish the outrage that same government’s nationalization of the Kinder Morgan pipeline has engendered. Far too many people, it seems, are incapable or unwilling to hold
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