“We’d like to know why we have not heard from you. Surely the suffering of our children merits more communication than a single tweet.” – Open letter to Danielle Smith from the parents and supporters of children infected in the E. Coli public health crisis The only thing worse
Continue readingTag: political leadership
Politics and its Discontents: About Freedom
Although I read and write a fair amount, I clearly am not an expert in the affairs of the world. I can merely observe, report and comment on the things that interest, hearten or outrage me. An armchair (or is it keyboard?) pundit am I. Nonetheless, there are certain realities
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Our Unhealthy State
I am not one of those who chortles when political parties fall into embarrassments or controversy; such events only serve as fodder for opposing parties eagerly driven to earn more political street cred. Those antics do not benefit democracy. I speak first as an Ontario voter, despondent at the meagre
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Leadership Under The Microscope
I need ammunition, not a ride – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky With those six words, the Ukrainian President has put leadership under the microscope. His is the kind of courageous example that most people would long for in their politicians, but have likely long ago dismissed as a fond notion
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Short Term Politics
Robert Asselin writes that we have been cursed by what he calls “short term politics:” It’s my belief that the professionalization of partisan politics — by which I refer to the increasingly sophisticated means used by political parties and apparatchiks to gain or keep power in the modern era —
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Real Adult In The Room
These days, it is hard to see the call to public office as an honourable one. The following letter sets things into their proper perspective, I think, while the video that follows shows who the real adult in the room is: Former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne remarks that every child
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Is the Trudeau government unconstitutional?
Canada demanded that Saudi Arabia release persons jailed there and a storm erupted, with Saudia Arabia cutting off most interactions with Canada. It would be very ironic if the current Trudeau government was determined by our Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, as I believe it is, would it not? Justin
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not Ready For Prime Time?
Given the current dearth of leadership within both the Trudeau government and the rudderless Conservative Party of Canada, this one really hurts: Recommend this Post
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Trudeau’s Government is screwing up the Trump Steel Tariff issue
And why is this happening? Because the Canadian government has not done its homework. It has been obvious for more than 18 months that a Trump presidency would pose special problems for the small Canadian economy, but you would never have guessed this from the activities and statements of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: If The Shoe Fits
For some strange reason, this resonates with me: Recommend this Post
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Good news coming on electoral reform says Andrew Coyne
In a thoughtful article Coyne ranges over the positive news springing up at levels below the federal level, regarding changes to our undemocratic first past the post electoral system (the one that PM Trudeau favours, given his decision to walk away from his campaign promise to end it). Ontario is
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Is this why Trump won?
Here’s one analysis of why Trump won and the Clinton Democrats lost: Why? Because Trump’s brand of populism — and more importantly, that of working-class whites — differs in important ways from the populism of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. While the populism espoused by Sanders and Warren is economic,
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Upset for PM May in UK June 8 election?
Prime Minister May might find her apple cart upturned next week when voters send in a hung Parliament, if a new opinion-polling method by YouGov actually works, as this article explains: Robert Barnes, the U.S. lawyer who made hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory,
Continue readingCuriosityCat: How Globalization hammers France
Worth reading is this article: Guilluy doubts that any place exists in France’s new economy for working people as we’ve previously understood them. Paris offers the most striking case. As it has prospered, the City of Light has stratified, resembling, in this regard, London or American cities such as New
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Canada’s Trudeau about to make a colossal mistake re Trump Inauguration
False compass? Trudeau and his advisors have decided to snub the most powerful nation in the world by staying away from the inauguration of its next president on January 20. Despite the fact that Americans voted in a free vote for their next president, and Donald Trump won the presidency
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Canada’s Trudeau about to make a colossal mistake re Trump Inauguration
False compass? Trudeau and his advisors have decided to snub the most powerful nation in the world by staying away from the inauguration of its next president on January 20. Despite the fact that Americans voted in a free vote for their next president, and Donald Trump won the presidency
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Conrad Who? on why Trump is a genius
Here’s that voice from the past on Trump’s perception by Canadian commentators, and on his ability to change the contours of politics in American within six months: What mad national egotism, propelled by “arm-flapping moralism” (in the words of half-Canadian U.S. secretary of State Dean Acheson 60 years ago) propels Lawrence
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Conrad Who? on why Trump is a genius
Here’s that voice from the past on Trump’s perception by Canadian commentators, and on his ability to change the contours of politics in American within six months: What mad national egotism, propelled by “arm-flapping moralism” (in the words of half-Canadian U.S. secretary of State Dean Acheson 60 years ago) propels Lawrence
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Andrew Coyne on Justin Trudeau and discussing Uganda
The political uproar in Canada over the questionable (Read more…) used by the newish Trudeau Liberal government to raise funds though what seems to many to be a Cash for Access method, has not died down. Now Andre Coyne, one of Canada’s most astute journalists, has put this mess in
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Andrew Coyne on Justin Trudeau and discussing Uganda
The political uproar in Canada over the questionable (Read more…) used by the newish Trudeau Liberal government to raise funds though what seems to many to be a Cash for Access method, has not died down. Now Andre Coyne, one of Canada’s most astute journalists, has put this mess in
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