It is most unlikely that Maude Barlow and the membership of the Council of Canadians see Canada’s future as being a pastoral society. It just appears by the collective’s recent policy consensus that this is what they want. What it might be telling us is that Maude’s days as curator
Continue readingTag: NAFTA
Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Yves Engler discusses how Justin Trudeau is now the face of the exploitation of poor countries and workers by the Canadian mining industry. And Penny Collenette writes that governments and business should both bear responsibility for human rights – though it’s worth
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Jim Hightower writes that the risk of technology displacing workers is ultimately just one instance of the wider problem of corporate greed. And the New York Times is examining how the principle of total corporate control is the basis for the Trump administration’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matt Bruenig explores the U.S.’ wealth inequality and finds a similarly skewed distribution of wealth among all kinds of demographic subgroups. And Robert Reich discusses why the attempt to sell a tax cut for billionaires as doing anything but making that problem worse
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump stands steadfast, Justin.
Prime Minister Trudeau dropped in to the White House to see President Trump the other day. It is likely that two minutes after Trudeau left the Oval Office, Donald Trump had forgotten what they had said. It is not just that the man has a short attention span but he
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Scary Unravelling of Donald Trump
I don't know how Justin Trudeau managed to look so cool yesterday, when confronted with the madness of Donald Trump.And the threat that could cost Canadians hundreds of thousands of jobs, and maybe even bring down the global economy.Or what he must have thought when he heard this: But then
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Trudeau, Trump, and the Ghastly Margaret Wente
As you may know, Justin Trudeau is going to meet with Donald Trump this week to fight for the future of NAFTA. And try to hold back a tidal wave of protectionism. And since hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country hang in the balance, you might expect that most Canadians
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Stephen Clarkson: An Introduction to a special blog series
Stephen Clarkson: Political Economist with a Global Vision (1937 – 2016) Marjorie Griffin Cohen and Daniel Drache Stephen Clarkson died early in 2016 in Freiburg, Germany and Canada lost someone very special. Stephen was a Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto and engaged in teaching, research and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Paarlberg discusses how the ratchet effect is making American health care far more durable than Republicans may have realized – while recognizing that there’s a lesson to be drawn for the design of other social programs as to the value of a
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Pushes Back Against U.S. Copyright Demands in NAFTA
The third round of negotiations over the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) kicked off in Ottawa on last week. Jeremy Malcolm, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s expert on the international dimensions of issues such as intellectual property, network neutrality, Internet governance, and trade, explains how Canada is
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Pushes Back Against U.S. Copyright Demands in NAFTA
The third round of negotiations over the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) kicked off in Ottawa on last week. Jeremy Malcolm, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s expert on the international dimensions of issues such as intellectual property, network neutrality, Internet governance, and trade, explains how Canada is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Stephanie Blankenburg and Richard Kozul-Wright comment on the rise of rent-seeking as a driver of stagnation and inequality. And George Monbiot argues that we shouldn’t let our common wealth be used for the sole benefit of a privileged few: A true commons is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Oxford Martin School has published a new report on the spread of inequality. And Noah Smith discusses the role of offshoring along with automation in stacking the economic deck against workers. – Meanwhile, Mike Blanchfield reports on the U.S.’ refusal to allow
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matt Bruenig examines who is living in poverty in the U.S. – and how policy choices result in many people who can’t feasibly earn wages being stuck below the poverty line: (C)hildren, elderly, disabled people, and students make up around 70 percent
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Phillip Inman reports on a new UN study (PDF) showing that the inequality caused by austerity results in particular harm to women who are forced to take on more unpaid labour. – David Sloan Wilson interviews Sigrun Aasland about the mix and balance
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ben Steverman examines the unfairness of the U.S.’ tax system – which, like Canada’s, offers gratuitous giveaways to wealthy investors which force workers to pay more: Politicians have intentionally set tax rates on wages much higher than those on long-term investment returns. The
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – George Monbiot offers his suggestion for a new political narrative to build a better world than the one currently dominated by neoliberalism: (B)y coming together to revive community life we, the heroes of this story, can break the vicious circle. Through invoking our
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How’s the kitchen coming Chrystia?
Though not sure if the analogy of NAFTA negotiations being like renovating a kitchen comes from Canada’s foreign minister, by now she would disown the quote anyway. After meetings in Washington and in Mexico City, it is obvious that the discussions of North America’s trade agreements are going nowhere. By
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Andrew Scheer and the Religious Extremists
It's hard to believe, it's so bizarre it boggles the mind. It's like Andrew Scheer is getting his marching orders straight from Donald Trump or his Godzilla.For it has only been a couple of weeks since him and his Cons tried to sabotage the NAFTA talks by taking the Khadr
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Matthew Hoffmann discusses the reality that addressing climate change will require substantial changes to how we currently live – but that we don’t have a reasonable choice but to put in the work to make the transition. – Michael Wolfson writes that
Continue reading