This and that for your Thursday reading. – Iglika Ivanova discusses how British Columbia can move toward eliminating poverty in its next budget. – Patrick Maze points out the need for Saskatchewan’s education system to be able to rely on stable and sufficient funding. But Alex MacPherson notes that Scott
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Both Eric Levitz and Brian Beutler write that U.S. Democrats need to highlight and fight the class war being waged by the rich, rather than shying away from the real and justified anger it provokes among insecure workers. And Robert Benzie reports on
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The dynamics are different.
When talking about dynamics in politics, we are talking about what will influence the political outcome. And in looking at the upcoming by-elections in three federal electoral districts on February 25, we have to deal with each district as a separate entity. Reading the tea leaves for the three by-elections
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Singing Singh a sad song.
It is understandable to hear that Canadian new democrat supporters are being told to “Singh or swim.” If they have not thought about it before now, time is running out on them. And when a left-wing apologist such as Thomas Walkom writes about Singh in a despondent tone, as though
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dennis Gruending writes about the difference between genuine populism focused on the interests of the public at large, and the discriminatory politics of the right which are often given the same label: The Oxford English Dictionary defines a populist as someone who is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “We’re off to see the Wizard”
Canadians will face many adventures as they whistle their way down the Yellow Brick Road in 2019. They can travel hand in paw with Dorothy, Toto and their companions. It will not be the predictable adventures with witches and wizards as in L Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Down the Yellow Brick Road in 2019.
We have a long journey before we arrive at the Land of Oz. We have much to ask of just one small wizard. When L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (published in 1900), he had no idea how appropriate it is to the Canadian election slated for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Luke Savage highlights the distinction between photo-op liberalism and any genuine commitment to social progress: This may be the reason liberal thought endlessly obsesses over the language used in political debate and often seems to place a higher value on its tone
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Hold your bets on the 2019 election.
Got a call from a call centre the other day looking for funds for prime minister Trudeau’s liberals. It is likely that they have to push harder these days. It is also unlikely that the conservatives are having it all that easy to get money to support ‘Chuckles’ Scheer’s conservatives.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten considerations for the next Alberta budget
Over at the Behind The Numbers website, I’ve written a blog post titled “Ten considerations for the next Alberta budget.” The blog post is a summary of a recent workshop organized by the Alberta Alternative Budget Working Group. The link to the blog post is here.
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: Jagmeet Singh’s Reply to the Monarchist League of Canada
Photo Credit: Yvonne Bambrick Recently, while doing an interview on the topic of the spending of theformer Governor General AdrienneClarkson, Mr. Singh stated that hedid not see the relevancy of themonarchy and that he was arepublican. Various members of theMonarchist League of Canadasought clarification (and probably totry and convince him
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Singing a sad song for Singh.
What is the world coming to? Here we have a die-hard conservative such as Jaime Watt in Toronto commiserating with the new democrats over the bad choices of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Watt was telling us in a Toronto Star opinion piece that he was expecting liberal MP Rag Grewal
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Complacency is Justin Trudeau’s enemy.
With a federal election ten months away, we can ignore all polls. They tell us little. It reminds me of the first party campaign in which I was involved. It was in 1964. My friend Charles Templeton was working for the Toronto Star and agreed when I and others asked
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Roger Eatwell writes that the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment can be traced back largely to the sense that elite-dominated governments have failed to take care of citizens generally, while David Leonhardt likewise notes that inequality can all too easily lead to easily-exploitable resentment.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Singh sings a sorrowful song.
New democrat leader Jagmeet Singh is not getting too much respect these days. And when he is not getting much respect from his own party; there is no reason for him to expect more from Justin Trudeau. The liberal prime minister had to call a by-election in Ontario the other
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The sinking ship Singh.
Taking a positive stance when your chief of staff quits, can be delaying the inevitable. It happened to federal new democrat leader Jagmeet Singh the other day and all he could do was gain a little time. The truth was that the federal NDP needed to keep his chief-of-staff and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “What fools these mortals be…”
Just to show how consistent we humans are, we can use the words of William Shakespeare to describe more recent events. What brings this to mind was a recent Ryerson University democracy forum. Chaired by Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star, the debaters were campaign heads for the three
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Once more unto the breach, my friends…”
The Hordes are at the gates of Castle Liberal on the Rideau and William Shakespeare, once more has appropriate words at the ready. With a year left of his tattered mandate, prime minister Justin Trudeau had best take the advice of Henry V and plug the breach with his dead
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On second thought Mr. Singh.
He has no other to blame than himself. Jagmeet Singh sought to lead the federal new democrats and where has he taken them? Has the party advanced during his tenure of the past year? Are more Canadians offering dues, fealty, funds and support to the party? What new programs, policies,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Left is the lonely lane.
I have never felt so alone in politics. The left, the progressive, the social democrat is a dying breed. Even the federal New Democratic Party is struggling with fund raising and direction as it sluggishly moves to the right. All political parties have felt the shifting of the sands. But,
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