Some surprising results in an Angus Reid survey of Albertans this week. The UCP and the NDP are tied in voter support, each at 38 percent. This is quite a collapse for the UCP who won the election, only a year and a half ago, with 55 percent support. But
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Don Pittis discusses how the spread of modern monetary theory is challenging some stale assumptions about government budgeting. And Sarath Peiris highlights how the Saskatchewan Party’s plans for severe austerity are utterly unworkable without the federal government riding to the rescue of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On policy bubbles
While Justin Trudeau is putting any economic planning in the hands of somebody with a vested interest in privatizing profits, it’s also worth noting how his government is deliberately avoiding any of the type of consultation needed to make a minority Parliament work at a time when cooperation should be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Kim Siever writes about the consistent choice of right-wing governments to use anti-tax rhetoric to goose corporate profits at the expense of the public. Jeff Rubin rightly questions why Canada’s tax system is set up to favour passive and inherited wealth over productive
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Steven Greenhouse writes that COVID-19 may produce a wave of unionization as workers see how little they’re valued, and how cavalierly they lives are put at risk. And Ed Yong follows up on the plight of coronavirus “long-haulers” who have faced a constantly-changing
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin’s ‘Turn to Bow’.
Yesterday’s show from Ottawa reminded me of a small book produced by Maclean’s magazine for the 1972 federal election: Their turn to curtsy – Your turn to bow. It told you all the magazine thought you needed to know to be a knowledgeable voter. Maybe that was the intent of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Liberals whistle past the graveyard.
While it might be foolish to buy stock in Trudeau and Company in Ottawa, you have to ask who is going to gain in an election? It is a serious question. It would be necessary for the opposition to get together and bring down the minority liberal government in late
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Edward Xie and Danyaal Raza make the case for a basic services model to ensure people’s needs are met as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic: Meeting universal basic needs for participation, health and independence is not a simple consumer choice. Rather,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Longing for leadership.
Sometime, after August 21, the conservative party hopes to announce the winner of the party’s national leadership. The big question though is does anybody care? What possible difference would it make if Erin O’Toole beat Peter MacKay? It is the same old, same old conservative dogma. It would mean promising
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pick your battles better Mr. Singh.
As leader of a political party, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh needs to learn to pick his battles with more care. When he says that the person who broke through the gates to Rideau Hall with his truck early this month was treated differently because he is white, Singh is making
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And a sneer from Scheer.
It was difficult to assess all sides of the discussion last week to the finance minister’s snapshot of Canada’s financial position. To be fair, minister Morneau is not a dynamic speaker. You needed time as he droned on to grasp the dimension of the how far this pandemic has taken
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sylvia Fuller and Yue Qian weigh in on how working mothers are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic (and a policy response which has included no effort to ensure the availability of child care). – Peter Weber discusses how Sweden’s insistence
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ms. May must be mishegus.
Did you hear former green leader Elizabeth May’s latest? After giving up the leadership of her green party, she wants the greens to join up with other losers in the new democratic party. She tops this by then suggesting that the person to lead this gong show is former liberal
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lessons in Leadership.
New democrat leader Jagmeet Singh got himself thrown out of our socially separated house of commons the other day. He called a fellow parliamentarian a racist. That is not leadership. That is desperation. Jagmeet’s explanation of his obduracy on the subject was also wrong. How can he insist on saying
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: What’s Going On?
YouTuber David Doel was saying all the cops had to do to win mass public support was to come out and do nothing. They couldn’t even do nothing. They threatened charities, faked being poisoned, all while slashing tires, shooting eyes, gassing people, clubbing them, breaking old men’s heads, and playing
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Please Justin, get a haircut.
We hear through the grapevine that Justin Trudeau and his liberals are thinking election. Since I am supposed to have an opinion on this proposal, I will need to reach deep into my conscience to see if I could support such foolishness at this time. The one thing that is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – George Monbiot opines that the UK has ceased to be a functioning democracy as unelected people exercise unchecked power. And Bruce Livesey wonders whether the U.S. is tearing itself apart as the racial divisions used to undermine class cohesion become untenable, while Rebecca
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Laird Cronk and Sussanne Skidmore offer their take as to how to ensure everybody benefits from British Columbia’s recovery plan. And Trish Hennessy discusses the need to build a more empathetic and inclusive society: COVID-19 has exposed what many of us already
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Martin Birt writes that we can never again ignore the importance and value of the people performing essential work. And Jennifer Keesmat argues that the patterns of life made necessary by the coronavirus point the way toward a far greater focus on building
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Yves Engler discusses how Canadian corporations have shown a consistent pattern of pursuing profit with no consideration of the public good. – Marco Chown Oved, Kenyon Wallace and Brendan Kennedy analyze how corporate care homes have paid out massive executive compensation and
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