Enbridge under fire as opponents of controversial pipeline projects worry the Canadian energy giant will be ill-prepared to handle potential ruptures throughout Southern Ontario and on B.C.’s rugged coast. Opponents of Enbridge’s Line 9B pipeline in Southern Ontario are scrambling in the wake of its tentative approval earlier this month by the
Continue readingTag: Ontario politics
Scott's DiaTribes: Disappointment with the Ontario Liberal Party lack of social media communication
The OLP has a convention next week, if you weren’t aware. It’s their annual general meeting – the one that was originally going to be held in London, but got moved to Toronto due to speculated Spring Election concerns. Several bloggers (myself included) of the Liberal persuasion (Ontario or Federal)
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Extreme Of Capitalism?
Anyone who reads my blog regularly and has drawn the conclusion that I am anti-capitalism would be completely wrong. I have nothing against business, entrepreneurship, nor corporations, per se. And I do believe that those who take risks should be appropriately rewarded. What I am against, however, is extreme imbalance.
Continue readingthe reeves report: Ontario strengthens tools to combat invasives
MNR Minister David Orazietti introduces the Invasives Species Act at Queen’s Park. Groundbreaking legislation a first of its kind in Canada – aims to fill in legislative gaps in combatting invasive species in Ontario. Ontario is attempting to clear away some of the regulatory red tape and overlap that keeps
Continue readingthe reeves report: Ontario Court backs Gilead Power at Ostrander Point
South Shore of Ostrander Point (Image from CountyLive.com) Seven months after learning a contentious wind project at Ostrander Point had been halted by the Environmental Review Tribunal, an Ontario divisional court overturned that decision Thursday, paving the way for development to begin later this year. In July 2013, the Tribunal
Continue readingthe reeves report: Federal court knocks Ottawa for failing to protect endangered species — Ontario could be next
Woodland caribou listed in Canada as a species-at-risk. (Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller is warning Queen’s Park could face sharp reprimands by the courts for its failure to uphold wildlife protections under the Endangered Species Act. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a federal court confirmed last week the Government of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrea Again
Sorry for the provincialism of some of my recent posts, but I can’t quite ignore political hypocrisy on any level. Three recent entries have attempted to chronicle the sad devolution of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Howath from that of principled politician to political opportunist; with the tantalizing prospect of power,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Invitation To The Dance Party
What dance party is that, you ask? Why, the one being hosted by the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party whose name, it is rumoured, is in the process of being rejigged into the New Dance Party. At least, that is how it appears to this political observer. As
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrea Horwath: Labour’s Fair-Weather Friend?
In light of her refusal to say much about anything, a political disease she may have caught from her federal cousins, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is being viewed increasingly as little more than a political opportunist. Probably the most recent example of this sad state is her reticence to
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Tough night for the Ontario Libs & Wynne
Last night, there were 2 byelections in Ontario, which were seen as a test of what the political winds are like in Ontario these days. The Ontario Liberals and Premier Kathleen Wynne was hoping to wrest away Thornhill from the PC’s, while Niagara Falls, in Tim Hudak’s backyard, it was
Continue readingthe reeves report: Indirect Impacts of Pipelines Should Be Included in Assessments
If oil and gas pipeline proponents can talk about indirect economic benefits stemming from new pipeline infrastructure, opponents should be able to consider the environmental impacts of those indirect actions when arguing against them, according to the Pembina Institute’s federal policy director. Fair is fair, according to Clare Demerse, and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrea’s Dilemma: Whither Blowest The Wind?
Were I a gifted artist (or any kind of artist, for that matter) I would draw Andrea Horwath in a two-panel caricature. In the first panel, index finger raised, she would be turning to her left, and in the second, to her right, testing the prevailing winds. That would, I
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On The Minimum Wage
There has been very much a predictable reaction from business to the Wynne government’s decision to raise the Ontario minimum wage to $11 per hour as of June 1. Even though this modest increase will do little to lift the working poor out of poverty, the commercial sector is running
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: No gays in Sochi, and apparently no one on minimum wage in Thornhill
The statement yesterday by Sochi’s mayor that there were no gay people in Sochi was idiotic. The statement today by Thornhill Progressive Conservative candidate, Gila Martow, is nearly as idiotic: Thornhill provincial Progressive Conservative byelection candidate Gila Martow called the move to raise the minimum wage this week “a vote-buying,
Continue readingthe reeves report: Green neighbours collide over wind power project
It’s dispiriting when newly rival factions of the environmental movement clash over what has become a touchy subject in green circles. Worse when disagreements end up in the justice system. Yet that’s exactly what played out this week in a Toronto appeals court. In an issue the media have dubbed
Continue readingthe reeves report: Europe looks to coal to reduce electricity prices
One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in a big way. Lignite, a low-quality form of coal that contains less units of energy and greater volumes of carbon than
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Like A Scab: Tim Hudak
Like a scab (not the metaphorical kind so beloved of the extreme right) that I can’t resist picking away at, once more Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak looms large. Although I wrote about him again very recently, the magnitude of either his ineptitude or his arrogance, depending on one’s
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Not good times for Tim Hudak/Ontario PC’s
Yesterday won’t count as one of Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak’s better days. First came this snippet from the Windsor Star that the party had “fired” their candidate in Essex from last election over a dispute on “right to work” legislation: Dave Brister was fired today as the Ontario PC
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Thoughts On The Minimum Wage
Although I have written several previous posts on the need to substantially increase the minimum wage so that it becomes a living wage, I have been planning an update. However, I doubt that today will be the day for that update since, once again over my morning coffee, I have
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Good Tim, Bad Tim
Tim’s Contemplative Face Anyone who reads this blog regularly is probably aware that I am no fan of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak. A callow lad at best, a duplicitous mini-demagogue at worst, the lad who would be premier has always struck me as one with limited imagination and
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