The following is an excerpt from Dr. Ryan Meili’s new book, A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy. There’s a family that comes frequently to the West Side Clinic; we’ll call them Lucas and Annie. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t see them
Continue readingTag: Saskatchewan
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Engage
Last night I was having several parallel conversations online, all pertaining to civic engagement (or the lack of it, more precisely). What comes first, the politicians willing to interact with “commoners”, or an engaged electorate that participates in our democratic systems? I think citizens have to make the decision first,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Electoral Boundaries Commission Submission
For those interested, here’s the text of my submission to the Saskatchewan Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission. I’ve added to and tweaked the analysis from my earlier column on the subject, but the themes should be familiar. Dear Commissioners: I write in response to your call for preliminary comments on Saskatchewan’s
Continue readingLeDaro: Saskatchewan has much bigger problems than ghosts
Saskatchewan’s environment minister is fuming about a report from the David Suzuki Foundation that says the province isn’t taking climate change seriously. (CP) From The Huffington Post. “REGINA – Saskatchewan’s environment minister is fuming about a report that says the province isn’t taking climate change seriously.Dustin Duncan said Thursday that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Lawrence Martin comments on the growing resonance of inequality as an issue for Canadian voters. But the most telling sign may be less the Ontario NDP’s steps to highlight the need for more progressive taxation (as Martin recognizes), but the McGuinty Libs’
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the distinction between healthy optimism and dangerous boosterism – and how both the Harper and Wall governments are dragging Saskatchewan toward the latter.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: SK Budget: Where’s the Inter-governmental Love?
A hallmark of Brad Wall’s premiership has been cosy relations with municipal governments and the two westernmost provincial governments. Since taking office, the Sask. Party has been throwing money at municipalities. It pledged not to sign the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement with Alberta and BC, but then did
Continue readingThe cost of Conservative Government Getting Out of Healthcare: An Election
The Quebec Minister of Finance today warned that the Conservative government would lose an election if they didn’t recommit to their fair share of healthcare costs, citing Prime Minister Pearson’s commitment to 50/50 sharing of a National Healthcare program. There is going to be another federal election…We have time to
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Girl in Saskatoon
Cash was truly great. I hadn’t heard this song until Tuesday, but it even has caragana bush mentioned in it. Not sure why someone would bed down in it though, it’s really prickly if not the mature branches that would provide little shelter. – Hat tip to OminoCity and SaskNews
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: RoboCop speaks out about RoboCon
Don’t worry everyone, MP RoboCop is on the job! Fantino, the former Toronto police chief who is Tory MP for Vaughan, said he, too, is trying to get answers after his name turned up in court documents […] “From my personal experience over 40 years of law enforcement I think
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskboy’s Hairy Fun-Razor for Telemiracle
I ended up with some facial hair in the aftermath of the Movember fundraising blitz that swept the nation. It then turned into Decembeard, then Januhairy, now Februhairy is over and I don’t have a pun for March. I was noticing I’d get at least a couple of comments a
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: McGuinty’s Business Tax Breaks
An interesting nugget in last week’s Drummond report is Table 11.1, an updated version of Table 2 from “Ontario’s Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth” (2009). It provides a sectoral breakdown of the McGuinty government’s recent business tax breaks: providing HST input tax credits, cutting the corporate income tax, and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Don’t get CASTRATED or PCA
I’m really shocked this other Saskatchewan video (from TV a few years ago) hasn’t gone viral yet. I guess all of the couch potatoes don’t have a sense of humour? Couch Attachment Syndrome Troubling Rarely Active Teens Everywhere Daily – I really like the latest Saskatchewan In Motion billboards that
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Why Offbeat?
Why would CBC post a story about a major census mistake, likely indicative of a widespread counting problem, as “offbeat” news? This is potentially big news, with no fewer than two SK communities claiming the census as very inaccurate for their locations. This casts doubt on the rest of the
Continue readingAlberta and Saskatchewan vie for pollution title
Alberta is generally considered to be Canada’s pollution champion. And it deserves the honour. With 11 per cent of the country’s population it contributes 34 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Nonetheless, Saskatchewan can also make the claim. It only produces 7 per cent of the country’s emissions,
Continue readingFor Two Saskatchewan Fetus Fetishist MPs
For Brad Trost and Maurice Vellacott, two MPs who are disgrace to Saskatchewan, Politics’n’Poetry gives you this:
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Letter to SaskPower President Regarding Solar Power
Here’s a letter going to the SaskPower President soon. If anyone has any suggestions for it, you have short time to make them. rwatson at ]saskpower.com[ Dear Mr. Watson, I’ve found some troubling information on the SaskPower website. The first link is troubling because of what it leaves out. Solar
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Job Vacancies vs. Unemployment
Progressive economists have advocated expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to boost demand and create jobs, given the high rate of unemployment. By contrast, employers and conservative commentators complain of unfilled vacancies and labour shortages, emphasizing policies to increase labour supply and labour mobility. Today’s new Statistics Canada survey of job
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Wall Strikes Out on Fiscal Federalism
Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall recently issued a statement exhorting his fellow Premiers to blaze largely unspecified new trails on healthcare, Employment Insurance and Equalization. Unfortunately, he misses the ball on all three issues. Greg Fingas and Verda Petry have already refuted Wall’s call for further healthcare privatization. On Employment Insurance, Wall
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Get Mad At SaskPower
I don’t know why I’m mad today at SaskPower. It’s not like they’ve gone out of their way to piss me off lately. I simply started thinking about how unjust it is that there are unscientific smear campaigns against wind power, but there aren’t as many well funded groups of
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