On last night’s Lang and O’Leary Exchange, given that the odds were 3 to 1/2, Armine Yalnizyan held her own against Kevin O’Leary, Canada’s poster boy for capitalism, a bank economist, and a corporate CEO. Amanda Lang did her best to make sure that Armine was heard in the din
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Politics and Entertainment: Envy and Resentment about DB Pensions: Do Something About It
Pension envy grows as boomers retire
Here we go again. Instead of acknowledging how unfairly to varying degrees workers in the private sector are frequently treated by their employers, how exploited they are in the name of profit since they are the mo…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 18, 2011
There hasn’t been as much reporting on the Cons’ re-introduction of copyright legislation as there was at some other points when previous incarnations were up for discussion. But Tuesday, October 18 saw second-reading debate in Parliament on the bill -…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The financial wealth of Canada’s top 1%
Eric Pineault wrote to add some data on financial wealth distribution for Canada. He had a research assistant comb through microdata from Statcan’s Survey of Financial Security from 2005, and notes: “the 1% richest (all households are classed according to net worth rather then income) hold 22% of mutual fund assets, 27% of stocks and bonds, […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your weekend.- Doug Cuthand makes the case for First Nations resource ownership as a matter of historical right:When the numbered treaties were negotiated in Saskatchewan in the 1870s, the resources under the ground were n…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 5, 2011
After the previous day’s relatively non-partisan and specific focus, October 5 saw a return to broad debate on the economy – thanks to both a day of debate on the Cons’ budget bill and a number of queries in question period.The Big IssueUnder the econo…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 3, 2011
Monday, October 3 saw another day dedicated largely to debate of the Cons’ anti-refugee bill. The Big IssueAs might be expected after several days of debate, the Cons’ single set of poorly-reasoned talking points was beginning to get stale. And Kevin L…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: September 26, 2011
Monday’s session in the House of Commons was dominated by the debate over another military extension in Libya. The Big IssueOnce again, the Cons were able to win a vote for perpetual military action with the support of the Libs and Bloc. But it wasn’t …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: September 23, 2011
Friday’s session in the House of Commons saw a few themes discussed which figure to be hot topics of discussion for the next little while – with the continued focus on the Cons’ anti-refugee bill partially giving way to economic and foreign-policy issu…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On public goods
New Brunswick’s PC government is the latest to launch an all-out attack on public pensions. And the usual reasons look to apply, with the official press release hinting at a combination of eagerness to foment resentment against the civil service in ord…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading.- As I’d suspected, the Cons are making clear that the kind of behaviour that would get any mere civil servant fired on the spot will be treated as entirely unobjectionable in a parliamentary secretary like Bob De…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
– Marc Lee tears into the “unfunded liabilities” spin on public benefits which is now making an appearance in Canada:
(W)hat’s missing from this horror movie is that this is an artifact of CPP being …
The Progressive Economics Forum: About those “unfunded liabilities”
When it comes to the Canada Pension Plan, a major talking point from the right is that the CPP has “unfunded liabilities”, with the implication that is not affordable and financially unsustainable. This is nonsense, a scare tactic based on an accounting fiction that counts only future expenditures but does not count future revenues. For […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.
– On the Nycole Turmel front: Christopher Majka cheers the fact that the NDP has managed to encourage so many more Quebeckers to see a place for themselves in Canadian federal politics. Michael Taube doesn’t see an…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Trish Hennessy crunches the numbers on vacation time for Canadians:47Percentage of Canadian workers who say they need a vacation more today than they’ve needed in four years. 10Number of statutory holidays Canadian…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Such An Eloquent Letter
I have several times made reference to the enjoyment we derive in subscribing to The Toronto Star, a progressive paper with an official agenda that includes issues of social justice. Like the journalists in their employ, The Star’s letter-writers tend …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- As quickly as the Fraser Institute churns out corporate propaganda, Sixth Estate responds – this time nicely debunking a report encouraging yet more giveaways to big pharma:(T)here’s a glaring lie by omission in th…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Expanding the Canada Pension Plan
The case for expanding benefits under the CPP as a needed response to the crisis of private pensions continues to win expert support – even as the financial industry and small business lobbies continue to fight real pension reform tooth and nail. The centre-right Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) have published interesting and useful […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Jeffrey Simpson has a bit of trouble recognizing that inequality applies at all rungs of the income ladder, not merely as a matter of resolving poverty. But otherwise his latest is well worth a read:Th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 21, 2011
Issue of the DayMuch of the day’s debate was taken up with the final debate on the Cons’ budget legislation, with the NDP particularly highlighting provisions to subsidize private mortgage insurance – while the Cons responded at times by insisting that…
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