No, I don’t think Peter Van Loan’s finger-wagging merits the response it received – as talk of nearly every other issue ground to a halt yesterday in response to an incident of little substantive importance. But I do think it’s worth making a couple of points as to how we
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Susan Delacourt comments on what’s often lacking from Canadian political coverage – and the challenge facing journalists looking to stop relying excessively on horse-race numbers which may miss what ultimately moti…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading.- Michael Geist notes that even as the Harper Cons have done nothing but hand more free money to big pharma through ever more generous patent giveaways, the Supreme Court of Canada has offered a reminder of the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Yves Engler thoroughly discusses how the Harper Cons’ foreign policy has included bullying countries around the world into placing the profits Canadian mining interests over the needs of their own citizens – …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andrew Potter highlights the difficulties in practicing and encouraging truth-based politics at a time when entire parties make a deliberate strategy of lying – as well as the one technique that seems to be wor…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading.- Haroon Siddiqui highlights the similarities between the Harper Cons and the U.S. Republicans – who lost last week’s election, and are even less popular outside their country’s own borders (including in Canada)…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On executive decisions
My post yesterday on the Senate’s choice to remind Canadians of its existence by blocking a bill passed by the House of Commons has sparked plenty of discussion. But I’ll highlight one of the more stunning arguments being made in favour of the Senate’s…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On full information
I’ll put together another Saskatchewan NDP leadership roundup post later today. But first, I’ll point out one development which calls for some attention of its own. Erin Weir has put together a policy comparison page – showing all of the policies announced by each contender, along with the other candidates’
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Timothy Noah writes that since Republicans haven’t been able to convince the American public that inequality is desirable or acceptable, they’re taking another angle: engaging in inequality denialism to try to pretend a growing problem doesn’t exist. – Tim Harper discusses the importance
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the increasing attempts of executive government at all levels to declare democracy irrelevant – and how strong grassroots party structures may be the key to reversing the tide. For further reading…– Again, Andrew Coyne’s column remains the definitive discussion of the issue at the federal and provincial levels.–
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jim Coyle wonders whether or democracy is in decline, and cites as evidence the utter disconnect between the primary functions of elected representatives and the way politics are covered in the media: (R)eal influence and authority has left the precincts — drifting
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – In writing recently about employer efforts to intimidate workers into backing corporate-friendly candidates, I figured that the best examples we’d see would come from individual corporate magnates – as the candidates themselves would surely be smart enough not to state publicly that they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2013 Roundup
While all has been relatively quiet from two of Saskatchewan’s NDP leadership camps, there’s still been some activity worth highlighting over the last few days. – First, Scott Stelmaschuk has made another massive contribution to coverage of the race with a thorough candidate questionnaire. And Erin Weir’s response tells us
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – No, the aftershocks of an e. coli outbreak which has unfortunately given both Canadians and export markets reason for concern about the safety of some of our major food sources aren’t about to end simply because the Cons are again pretending everything’s fine.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ed Broadbent and the Broadbent Institute are putting together a strong public push on the problem of growing inequality – featuring a video, op-ed and research paper (PDF). For more, see coverage from Rachel Mendleson, Natalie Stechyson, and CBC News. – Today’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Murray Mandryk and Bruce Johnstone both thoroughly slam Gerry Ritz and the Cons for their food-safety negligence. But Johnstone hints at the larger issue: Ritz, for all his faults, is not the cause of this latest debacle. He’s merely a symptom of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Don Lenihan responds to Allan Gregg’s recent critique of Canadian politics, featuring this on the connection that ought to exist between ideology and policy: First, the fact that a policy is based on ideological conviction does not mean it is opposed to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the tendency for political parties to try to glorify past leaders by plastering their names and faces on the map – and the potential for Jack Layton’s legacy to be based on a far more direct connection to citizens. For further reading…– Politico documents some of the Republicans’
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Moira Herbst is the latest to comment on the connection between the lack of good jobs and an excess of corporate cash hoarding: (I)t would be refreshing if the pundit-political class considered a radical but obvious idea: tapping the multitrillion-dollar stockpiles of corporate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day. – For those wondering what might become of Nathan Cullen’s leadership campaign plan to work with progressives of all party stripes, we now have part of the answer: in advance of the Calgary Centre by-election, Cullen will be reaching out to discuss how to
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