Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Krugman explains how one’s political values figure to affect one’s view of evidence as to the success or failure of a policy: (T)he liberal and conservative movements are not at all symmetric in their goals. Conservatives want smaller government as an end
Continue readingTag: Linda McQuaig
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Linda McQuaig responds to the CCCE’s tax spin by pointing out what’s likely motivating the false attempt to be seen to contribute to society at large: Seemingly out of the blue this week, the head honchos of Canada’s biggest companies, the Canadian Council
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Macdonald studies Canada’s massive (and growing) wealth gap, and proposes some thoughtful solutions to ensure that growth in wealth results in at least some shared benefits: Attempting to limit inequality through traditional measures like restricting RRSP contributions or introducing new tax
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Linda McQuaig’s cognitive dissonance on negative campaigning
The recent byelection in Toronto center – won handily by the Liberals’ Chrystia Freeland in a race against the NDP’s Linda McQuaig – ruffled quite a bit of feathers. Justin Trudeau’s victory speech in particular gained a lot of attention, in part because of the controversy it drummed up of quoting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Alison chronicles how the definition of “accountability” has changed since the Cons’ own actions started to come under the microscope, while Paul Wells writes about the three different interests at play in the Cons’ scandal. And Tonda MacCharles explores how the Senate bribery
Continue readingChris Tindal: Some quick thoughts on Toronto Centre by-election results
Overall, Wells’s first rule — that “for any given situation, Canadian politics will tend toward the least exciting possible outcome” — held up. This is the result you might have predicted, and that most of us did predict. Folks in Toronto Centre are used to voting Liberal, and changing habits
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Wheat Kings
Trudeau was so confident in the wake of the Forum poll, that he started waving “Vote PC” signs on the campaign trail. On the surface, nothing really happened last night. The Liberals held two safe seats and the Conservatives held two safe seats. Yes, they were counting ballots until late
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Wells and Dan Lett offer roundups of today’s federal by-elections, while Chantal Hebert offers some advice to the candidates (whether or not they’re elected to Parliament today). And Murray Dobbin explains why there’s only one true progressive choice in Toronto Centre in
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: "Stephen Harper’s climate-change record can’t be ignored anymore" – because it’s putting Canadian jobs and our economy at risk
Worthwhile article from Chantal Hebert here. She’s not the first to link Harper’s gutting of environmental regulations, skeptical attitude towards climate change and attacks on the environmental movement to other countries (particularly our major trading partner south of the border) reluctance to embrace Canada’s natural resources, but in just two
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Murray Dobbin recognizes that there’s more at stake on the federal political scene than merely replacing the Harper Cons – and that the most important debate may be found within the NDP. Meanwhile, Tim Harper is concern trolling on that front, demanding that
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Why not a McQuaig vs. Mulcair debate on natural resource development?
As I predicted back in September, the Mulcair NDP has wasted no time in demonstrating that the “Love is better than anger” NDP is long gone, as Mulcair candidates in the by-elections (particularly Toronto Centre) have spared no opportunity in launching angry attacks on the third-party Liberals. Mulcair’s candidate in
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Toronto Centre By-election: Could Be A Tight Race With Support For Linda McQuaig, NDP, Rising
In the latest poll, Liberal candidate Crystia Freeland leads with 46% support, and the NDP candidate Linda McQuaig is second with 35% support. Looking at only those numbers, it seems like the election is a sure thing for the Liberals. However, when we look at the way the numbers are
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Toronto Centre By-election: Could Be A Tight Race With Support For Linda McQuaig, NDP, Rising
In the latest poll, Liberal candidate Crystia Freeland leads with 46% support, and the NDP candidate Linda McQuaig is second with 35% support.Looking at only those numbers, it seems like the election is a sure thing for the Liberals. However, when we l…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Toronto Centre By-election: Could Be A Tight Race With Support For Linda McQuaig, NDP, Rising
In the latest poll, Liberal candidate Crystia Freeland leads with 46% support, and the NDP candidate Linda McQuaig is second with 35% support. Looking at only those numbers, it seems like the election is a sure thing for the Liberals. However, when we look at the way the numbers are
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Coming soon, perhaps, a legitimate reason for Canadians to thank Conrad Black!
Linda McQuaig addresses the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees annual convention in 2008. (AUPE photo taken by Daryl Dyck.) Below: Conrad Black in the uniform of the Governor General’s Foot Guard, and not, as you may have thought, that of a security guard. It occurs to me that we Canadians
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: What would Jack Layton say about Linda McQuaig’s push for a two-person debate?
Four federal by-elections have been called for Nov. 25th, including in Toronto Centre. While a new poll shows the Liberals comfortably ahead, I think it’s going to be a real battle. And so does NDP candidate Linda McQuaig, judging by the gambit she launched this weekend. McQuaig is challenging Liberal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Nadir Khan interviews Linda McQuaig about her choice to run for the NDP in Toronto Centre – and confirms that McQuaig’s commitment to progressive politics fits neatly with her participation in a caucus: NK : You mention that you’ve been outspoken and taken
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On independent thought
It’s for the best that the idle speculation and gossip about a single point of policy difference between Thomas Mulcair and Linda McQuaig have been put to rest. But let’s make clear just how pernicious the “ZOMG!!! Candidate X occasionally thinks for herself!!! Clearly she must be muzzled!!!” line of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Dechene interviews Maude Barlow about the downside of privatizing public infrastructure: Somebody asked me to point blank explain the difference between private and public and I said, profit. That’s the difference. In a public system, it’s the same amount of money; you’re
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Christopher Ragan writes about the lessons we should be drawing from the 2008 financial meltdown – as well as so many similar bubbles before it: Contrary to what many people seem to believe, financial crises like the one that began five years
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