A few observations about the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race in advance of tonight’s first debate… The main news over the past week has involved the release of the candidates’ October donation and expense numbers – which have been documented by Alic…
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell discusses how the Cons have corporatized Canadian politics: In fact, elevating corporate rights over the rights of citizens and their democractic institutions seems to be the Harper government’s core agenda. Its aggressive “free trade” stance has led to agreements with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – The Toronto Star’s Public Editor Kathy English discusses the wall being built around information by the Harper Cons. But at least as interesting to me is the Cons’ determination to put up roadblocks in the way of information which can obviously be obtained
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – Jonathan Bernstein comments on how the U.S.’ right-wing echo chamber may be preventing Mitt Romney and other Republicans from recognizing when their spin has no hope of convincing voters: As Romney rolled out yet another of these insipid, implausible campaign talking points, however,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Alice interviews Allan Gregg about his sharp criticism of anti-evidence politics, and finds some optimism on Gregg’s part that clear falsehoods will eventually be treated with due disdain: Q. So, one of your early mentors, [US pollster] Richard Wirthlin, he’s arguing that values
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jessica Bruno reports on Tom Mulcair’s first six months as leader of the NDP. But while it’s certainly a plus for pundits to recognize the NDP as a viable government in waiting, perhaps the most significant development is Mulcair’s ability to persuade Canadians
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Evening Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – George Monbiot discusses the effect of inegalitarian and austerian policies imposed by the UK Conservatives: (T)he neoliberal programme has closed down political choice. If the market, as the doctrine insists, is the only valid determinant of how societies evolve, and the market
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Janet Bagnall neatly dissects the Cons’ plan for dismantling public services: The Harper government is nothing if not predictable in how it goes about dismantling a program or service. It starts by denigrating the program and the program’s beneficiaries, and telling Canadians that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On timeless recipes
Alice offers a thorough discussion of the ingredients behind the NDP’s Quebec gains in 2011. But the most important part of the story may be that one of the key factors had in fact been in place all along – and may only help the NDP all the more in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
This and that to end your week. – Jeffrey Simpson discusses how the Cons have diminished Canada’s place on the world stage: For those who care about Canada’s international reputation and Canada’s ability to influence others in the pursuit of Canada’s self-interest, these are discouraging days. Everywhere, there is penny-pinching
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Michael Harris lists ten things the Harper Cons want Canadians to forget before the 2015 election. But it’s worth keeping in mind that their expectations for mind-wiping are surely shaped by their own willingness to completely forget what they were repeating incessantly before
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Cross and Glen McGregor point out how “Pierre Poutine” covered his tracks in the course of sending out fraudulent robocalls to direct voters away from the correct polls. And it’s particularly worth noting how blatantly the entire scheme was planned to conceal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Susan Delacourt notes that while the NDP’s leadership convention points out some of the risks of online voting, the real problem lies in the people working to block democracy through any available means: While those who use computers have become accustomed to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Another day, another set of NDP leadership campaign stories. – Niki Ashton won the support of the NDP’s Socialist Caucus. – Nathan Cullen expanded on his joint nomination proposal with a far more appealing discussion of co-operation in general: Cullen isn’t shy about what he has in mind. “If the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
A quick look at the latest news as the NDP’s leadership convention approaches. – Alice’s latest Power Play appearance saw her discuss Nathan Cullen’s campaign: Meanwhile, Cullen received an endorsement from Murray Dobbin – which is particularly noteworthy since Dobbin had previously lined up behind Peggy Nash. – Paul Dewar’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
A few days worth of news from the NDP’s leadership campaign… – Niki Ashton appealed to NDP members to consider the need to build among younger voters. – Co-campaign manager Jamey Heath took to the opinion pages in defence of Nathan Cullen’s joint nomination proposal. But I seem to recall
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
I haven’t done a roundup post in quite some time (having focused instead on candidate analysis and preliminary endorsement posts over the past week). But in advance of today’s Montreal debate, let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy developments from the week. – Niki Ashton spoke to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the open questions as to whether Nathan Cullen’s plan for pre-electoral cooperation would serve any useful purpose. For further reading expanding on the points in the column:– I’ve previously posted on some of the practical considerations involved in Cullen’s proposal, while also questioning whether we should write off
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On universal growth
Alice has weighed in on the final membership numbers for the NDP’s leadership campaign, pointing out that B.C. and Ontario between them will go into next month with a combined majority of the party’s membership. But I’ll add one more observation as to the provincial membership numbers which speaks well
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, featuring an overview of the NDP’s leadership race from a Saskatchewan perspective. For further reading:– The per capita membership numbers cited in the column are from Alice. And of course her general coverage of the leadership campaign is well worth a look.– For those who haven’t seen it yet,
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