With a federal election taking place in Canada on September 20, the NDP has released its platform, which includes important housing-related measures. I’ve written a ‘top 10’ overview of the housing components of the platform. My overview is available here: https://nickfalvo.ca/ten-things-to-know-about-the-federal-ndps-housing-platform/.
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Views from the Beltline: Voting strategically in an election we don’t need
So we are to have an unnecessary election. Didn’t we make our views clear enough in 2019? We didn’t give one of the parties a majority because we didn’t buy into any of their platforms sufficiently. So we elected a minority government. And it seems to be working well enough.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Doug Cuthand calls out the Kenney and Moe governments for prematurely and irresponsibly declaring victory over COVID rather than paying any attention to how they’ve put their citizens at risk. And Nesrine Malik highlights how decades of anti-government rhetoric have laid the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Which you can do by one-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-thirds
Peter Julian highlights exactly how little the Liberals have done with the promise of Pharmacare in the course of two terms in government before precipitating an election: Undoubtedly the most deceitful thing he could have written. In terms of progress on funding #public #universal #Pharmacare – this represents 3/100 of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Aaron D’Andrea reports on Dr. Theresa Tam’s recognition that most of Canada is now firmly trapped in a fourth wave of COVID. Alexander Quon reports on research confirming that the people avoiding vaccines are also the least likely to take other protective measures.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Biggest Political News of the Day
We are having a baby!!!! @gurkirankaur_ and I are so excited for this new adventure! pic.twitter.com/ULyw8EfQnO — Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) August 12, 2021 Congrats to Jagmeet Singh and his wife. Oh, and there’s an expected election call for Sept. 20th. Twitter Top Trends, (not edited):"Is it safe? What's the ballot
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Greg Jericho writes that the latest IPCC report confirms that we’re running out of time to avert climate breakdown, but still have a narrow window in which to do so. Damian Carrington reminds us that the cost of climate negligence is far
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Canada’s progressive tilt—mitigating first-past-the-post
From 2006 to 2015 we endured a decade of Conservative rule even though the Conservatives never won the support of even 40 percent of Canadian voters. Such are the idiosyncrasies of the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral system. Since 2015 we have been governed by the Liberals, but not with much more
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Jonathan Howard writes that the recognition of higher COVID-19 risks in adults has been used as a means of misleadingly minimizing the risks of death and long-term effects in children. And Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz offers the receipts as to how the dangers of COVID
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Whither the Greens?
I have been a supporter of social democracy since the days of the CCF and Tommy Douglas. I have, however, often offered support to the Liberals and occasionally to the Green Party. I even voted Conservative once—for Joe Clark when the incumbent in my federal riding was a Reformer. (Joe
Continue reading52 Ideas: Alberta’s Dilemma: When do we recognize that the world is changing?
Back in 2015, I started asking a simple question: is Alberta ready? Whenever I talked to politicians or entrepreneurs or thought leaders, I asked that same simple question. I asked that question for one reason: History told me that Alberta’s politicians didn’t understand that the rest of the world was
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – John Michael McGrath makes the case for optimism about our potential to avoid further waves of COVID as long as COVID-19 vaccinations overtake the risk of community spread. Brian Platt reports on Nova Scotia’s use of rapid testing to catch a substantial number
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Religion, Politics and Leadership.
The admonition to never bring religion and politics into a conversation is a lot of B.S. They are two very interesting subjects and they are ever present in our daily lives—not only in Canada but around the world. In some countries, the subjects of religion and politics are the same
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A liberal performance.
According to Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star, Justin Trudeau was invoking the ghosts of liberal past at the weekend policy conference. While I rarely disagree with Ms. Delacourt, those were not spirits to whom Justin was appealing. He needs the living, breathing liberals of past years to come back
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unconventional circumstances
Like 2,000+ other members across the country, I’ve been participating in the NDP’s convention over the course of the weekend. And with one day in the books, I’ll take note of a few of the differences between this and traditional in-person conventions – as well as the effects they’ve had
Continue readingThe Maple Monarchists - Blog: All three policy proposals concerning the monarchy that were submitted to the NDP policy convention
The NDP is having a policy convention this weekend (so are the Liberals in what must have been a scheduling snafu). The NDP membership has once again put forward policies concerning the Canadian Monarchy to be debated. The following is a summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Good And no,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: O’Toole sings of solidarity.
Some political pundits seemed surprised the other day that conservative leader Erin O’Toole was trying to build bridges to unions. Not all union members vote for new democratic party politicians. If there has been any drift over the years, it has been to both conservatives and liberals. It is all
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pick your battles.
If you want to win, in war or in politics, you pick the battles you can win. Losers fight any battle that comes along. It is the problem facing the major opposition parties in the coming election. It is a special problem for conservative leader Erin O’Toole. He is between
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The upcoming battle for the GTA.
Some pundits are under the impression that the key battle in the coming federal election is in the greater Toronto area (GTA). They might be able to give logical support for their assumptions but I would not suggest that it is all a done deal. Some things have changed and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Guyton, Patrick Langetieg, Daniel Reck, Max Risch and Gabriel Zucman examine (PDF) the massive amounts of money which people at the very top of the income distribution hide from revenue authorities. And Nancy Cook reports on Joe Biden’s plan to at least somewhat
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