…. is the metaphor NDP environment critic Sandy Shaw uses to describe Doug Ford’s appointment of Norm Sterling to head the Greenbelt Council in Ontario. Sterling, whose reputation as environment under Mike Harris was anything but, would seem to be an odd choice to head the Council only if one were
Continue readingTag: Ontario politics
Politics and its Discontents: Ineptitude Writ Large
H/t Patrick Corrigan Sometimes I feel embarrassed to be living in a province as benighted as Ontario. But then I realize that it is neither me nor my fellow citizens (for the most part) who are the clueless and the incompetent. That distinction is one the Doug Ford-led provincial government
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Magical Thinking And Misdirection
I don’t feel particularly inspired to write these days, but I am always on the lookout for aptly expressed sentiments by others. In the print edition of today’s Toronto Star, there are two letters of note pertaining to the Doug Ford government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ontario, or as
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Crisis Deferred, Not Ended
I recently wrote about a plan to bulldoze the Duffins Creek wetlands to make way for an Amazon distribution centre. Facilitated by an MZO (Ministerial Zoning Order), a heavy-handed tool designed to shortcut environmental assessment and speed development (“It’s all about jobs,” says Doug Ford); (“It’s all about promoting the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Developers’ Friend
Wetlands, or marshes, fens, bogs, and swamps, are the link between land and water. Wetlands include trees, grasses, shrubs, moss, and other plants that require at least some water coverage. Wetlands provide an abundance of essential ecosystem services, including: Water storage, storm protection, and flood mitigation Water purification through retention of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Political New Year’s fireworks go off as Alberta learns Tracy Allard, minister responsible for vaccine rollout, is just back from Hawaiian vacation
Happy New Year, Alberta! And welcome to the first United Conservative Party Government scandal of 2021: Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard has been caught vacationing in Hawaii, mid-pandemic. Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf shows a copy of today’s edition of his local newspaper in a video posted to Facebook this morning
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Social media abuzz with reports of UCP staffers, MLA vacationing abroad despite pandemic travel warnings
Social media is abuzz with reports of United Conservative Party staffers and at least one UCP MLA enjoying vacations abroad notwithstanding the federal government’s pleas for Canadians to cancel all travel during the coronavirus pandemic. Most mainstream media in Alberta, however, seem to be engaging in an anguished internal debate
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Ontario Liberal Party Leadership Delegates Selection Weekend
This is the weekend where OLP members are voting for delegates to help choose the next Ontario Liberal Party leader. This is what the leadership campaigns were doing the membership drives for – to try to get more people as members who would then theoretically turn up this weekend to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Former Speaker Bob Wanner’s portrait, unveiled yesterday, adds a 21st Century touch to a gloomy 19th Century collection
It’s not just Alberta’s premiers who get their portraits hung in the dingy halls of the provincial Legislature Building in Edmonton, but the Assembly’s Speakers too. Let it be said here first that the portrait of Bob Wanner, the most recent Speaker to depart that role, unveiled at the Legislature
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Things Fall Apart
The idea of entropy comes from a principle of thermodynamics dealing with energy. It usually refers to the idea that everything in the universe eventually moves from order to disorder, and entropy is the measurement of that change.–vocaulary.com The above is one definition of entropy. Here is another, perhaps more
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Looking Toward Liberation
I have regular telephone conversations with my friend Dave, who lives in Winnipeg. Like me, he has a very jaundiced view of those elected to ‘serve’ us, and part of our routine is to compare and bemoan the atrocities committed by our respective provincial governments. While things are bad under
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Sign Of The Times
This, from Chris Cowley on Twitter, is timely. Perhaps an Amber Alert is also in order? Ontario schools are in turmoil and we can’t find premier @fordnation! Please help us. If you have any information on Mr. Ford’s whereabouts, please encourage him to return to work immediately and give a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Call For Resistance
Here in Ontario Premier Doug Ford, not content to have a taxpayer-funded propaganda channel, has mandated that all gas stations must display stickers advancing the government’s attack on carbon-pricing. No doubt a constitutional issue, this compelled political speech is not going down well with everyone. May we all take inspiration
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: If You Follow Ontario Politics
… this requires no explanation: H/t Patrick Corrigan If you need a bit of a primer, however, allow me to introduce the chief sheep: We think it’s only fair that Ontarians can buy beer or wine at local stores like this one here in York-Simcoe and across Ontario. pic.twitter.com/Zt8IwCyNtq —
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Shameful Self-Abasement
The Toronto Star reports that there has been a furious social media backlash against shameful propaganda displays like the following, as the Ontario government seeks to break a 10-year-deal with the Beer Store: We think it’s only fair that Ontarians can buy beer or wine at local stores like this
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Still here! (Sorta)
Its been awhile since I posted something here.. so I felt the need to add a blog entry to indicate I’m still alive. (If you read my twitter account at the right sidebar, you’ll see I am indeed around still). Lots of things have happened in a couple of months.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: UPDATED: You’re A Mean One, Mr. Ford
In a move that will surely swell the tiny hearts beating within the breast of Ford Nation, the Ontario government is eliminating a benefit that helps children of the poor, especially those claiming refugee status: The cut, buried in April’s provincial budget, will end the Transition Child Benefit which provides
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Exile on Mainstreet
So, that Mainstreet poll. On the one hand, I like its founder and the people who work there. My firm has used them in the past. When the Lavscam scandal broke, however, Mainstreet’s boss took it upon himself to – for lack of a better word – troll each and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Kindest Cut Of All?
Given the butcher’s blade Doug Ford and his trained seals are taking to crucial services and programs in Ontario, perhaps the following best reflects the widespread disenchantment people are expressing with the government they helped elect. Recommend this Post
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