Naomi Klein and Maude Barlow weigh in on the need not to let sideshows distract us from what should be the most important issue of the federal election campaign. And as referred to here, the Pembina Institute reminds us where the major parties stand in advance of the Paris summit
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robyn Benson rightly argues that it’s long past time for the Harper Cons to be booted from office. Stuart Trew sets out just five of the worst ways in which the Cons have changed Canada, while Murray Dobbin offers his take on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On expert opinions
Following up on this week’s column, let’s highlight exactly how the NDP compares to its major national competitors, the Libs and Cons, in the eyes of the experts and civil society groups who know what matters most in assessing progressive policies. I’ll include all of the analyses I’ve linked in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Steven Chase notes that the Cons’ promise to let Canadian know the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before they vote was broken with unusual speed and publicity. Michael Geist points out that we do know enough about the TPP to be sure it
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Alex Himelfarb writes about the urgent need to reverse the vicious cycle of austerity. And Toby Sanger takes a look at the economic records of Canada’s political parties, and finds that the NDP ranks at the top of the class not only for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, making the case that Canadians should vote less based on perceptions of momentum (in terms of both policy and political positioning), and more based on where our parties and leaders actually stand. For further reading…– The platform comparisons referenced in the column include Keith Stewart’s on climate change, the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Robyn Benson offers her take on the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as an election issue. Peter Mazereeuw notes that the nominal labour protections in the TPP – which were of course negotiated without workers having a seat at the table –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jim Stanford points out that the Harper Cons’ already-dismal economic track record is only getting worse. And Nora Loreto notes that even on the Cons’ own estimates, the Trans-Pacific Partnership looks to result in Canada paying more in compensation to industries hurt by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Noah Smith weighs in on the effect of cash transfers in improving all aspects of life for people living in poverty. But Angus Deaton recognizes that individual income will only go so far if it isn’t matched by the development of effective
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Review – Liberals
Finally, let’s take a look at the Liberals’ platform. Leaving aside the question of whether the Libs can plausibly live up to their campaign messaging of simultaneously being more progressive than the NDP, more business-friendly than the Conservatives, more devoted to the revolution than the Marxist-Leninists and more subcutaneous esplanade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Review – NDP
I’ve pointed out before that Tom Mulcair’s practice – both in pursuing the NDP’s leadership and in leading the party – has been to continue largely with the party’s existing policy base. In keeping with that principle, the NDP’s platform doesn’t contain many surprises for anybody who’s kept a reasonably
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #elxn42 Platform Reviews – Overview
The combination of a majority government and an extra-long campaign period has left Canada’s major political parties with ample time to refine their election platforms. And regardless of what your disingenuous neighbourhood Wildrose MLA might tell you, those platforms represent the best indication as to what policies you can expect
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Edward Keenan writes that a lack of affordable child care is the crucial financial pressure facing families across the income spectrum. And Michael Wolfson discusses the dangers of talking about taxes in a vacuum without recognizing what we lose by failing to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On conversation pieces
Following up on this post, the stretch run of the election campaign (particularly a holiday weekend with advance polling already underway) is exactly the time when our messages in talking to unpersuaded voters will matter most in shaping the results. And I’ll offer a few suggestions as to how to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Armine Yalnizyan highlights how Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal is just one more compelling piece of evidence against trusting the corporate sector to regulate itself: The trend is towards asking industries to monitor themselves (at their own suggestion), which they quite happily will do,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Cons’ multi-billion dollar price tag for Trans-Pacific Partnership compensation makes clear that every party is planning to spend large amounts of public money reshaping Canada – leaving us to choose which we value most out of the NDP’s social programs, Libs’ temporary infrastructure spending or Cons’
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On power dynamics
Paul Wells offers his thoughts on what might happen if the Cons lead in the seat count in a minority Parliament. But I’d think it’s worth noting two other considerations to counter Wells’ take that the Cons could hold on with substantially less than half the seats in the House
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On campaign reflections
There’s been a flurry of discussion elsewhere about the NDP’s campaign over the past couple of weeks, and I’ll chime in quickly with my own take on how the campaign has developed so far – and what we should hope for as it reaches its conclusion. To start with, I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Theroux comments on the gall of corporations who move jobs to the cheapest, least-safe jurisdictions possible while trumpeting their own supposed contributions to the countries they leave behind. And Wilma Liebman sees more progressive labour legislation as one of the keys to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On uncosted liabilities
So even from the sketchy details made public so far, and even leaving aside the more general harm done by limiting government action and entrenching corporate monopolies, the Trans-Pacific Partnership will cost Canada: $4.3 billion in compensation to dairy, chicken and egg farmers Up to 20,000 lost jobs in the
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