Rather amusingly, the Better Together Collingwood website is still online. The latest event noted on the site is a rally for Monday March 25, 2013. Its Facebook page also remains intact, although the most recent post there is dated Jan. 15, 2015. But what are stale-dated entries about non-existent activities
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Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matt Bruenig writes that the concentration of wealth and power which is largely being attributed to crony capitalism is a natural byproduct of laissez-faire economics as well: An economy that distributes the national income based solely on the marginal productivity of each
Continue readingScripturient: EPCOR and The Block’s Big Lie
For all their evils and its wrongs, the Soviets did some things very well: propaganda and disinformation. As one writer commented in the Spectator, “Communist ideology dismissed the idea of truth as a bourgeois construct. What mattered was power; and you baptised as truth those doctrines which provided it.” Stalin
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Steve Burgess points out that we shouldn’t be the least bit surprise by the latest news of politically-connected billionaires managing to tilt the tax system in their favour. Ed Broadbent calls for a much-needed end to tax policy that favours the wealthy in
Continue readingScripturient: Open vs secret at Collingwood Council part 2
In the previous part of this story, I provided dates of meetings and events in the terms of the previous council (on which I sat) and the current council. I documented how last term, the sale of one half the share of our electrical utility (Collus) was sold to the
Continue readingScripturient: In camera, closed door meetings in Collingwood, 2015-17
Using the agendas posted on the town’s website, I tallied up the number of Council’s in-camera meetings for three specific topics this term: Collus-PowerStream (including the share sale, shared services agreement, advice from Mark Rodger and board appointments); the hospital redevelopment, and the airport (including the request for a letter
Continue readingScripturient: Open vs secret at Collingwood Council
How two Collingwood councils handled the utility sale process very differently Last term, Collingwood Council went through a lengthy, open and public process to sell a portion of its electrical utility, Collus. That open process – with full discussion, community involvement, consultation and public input, and local media coverage –
Continue readingScripturient: The secrecy and deception behind Collingwood’s utility sale
Meetings held behind closed doors late into the night. Personal vendettas. Kickbacks. Conspiracy theories. Scams and phony reports. Backroom deals. Unethical politicians conniving. Dubious legality. Shady characters pulling strings from the shadows. Scheming. Minions acting like thugs. Cowardice. Hidden contracts. Lies and deception. A deal they can’t refuse. A financial
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Wells writes about Justin Trudeau’s natural affinity for the rich and privileged, while the Star remains unduly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fulfilling promises of Indigenous reconciliation and tax fairness. And Chantal Hebert discusses
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Nathaniel Lewis and Matt Bruenig discuss the relationship between massive inheritances and ongoing wealth inequality. Nick Hanauer makes the case for much higher taxes on the wealthy as part of a plan for improved economic development, while a new Ipsos poll finds
Continue readingScripturient: The Block are privatizing our public assets
So Brian and his Block minions want to sell our airport. Our publicly-owned asset. And they’re doing it without even the pretence of the courtesy to tell us why. No public input, no public engagement, no open discussion over it. In the flaccid Connection story, it notes, In November, 2016,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Mike Savage and John Hills write about the respective takes on the sources of inequality provided by Tony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty and Joseph Stiglitz. And Michael Spence discusses how economic development needs to be inclusive and based on trust in order to be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the corporate sector’s expectation that it will be able to write laws and set public policy for its own benefit – and the disturbing number of examples of it being allowed to do just that. For further reading…– Jenny Uechl reported on both the secret CAPP meetings which
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Rachel Bunker writes that Equifax represents the worst of an out-of-control capitalist system, as a poorly-regulated and unreliable credit reporting operation is making profits for itself by reinforcing existing discrimination among other businesses. – Naomi Klein discusses this summer’s spate of wildfires
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Stefan Stern writes that our current corporate culture needs to be changed in ways going far beyond reining in excessive executive compensation: Wage inequality is also a symbol of something more fundamentally wrong in the business world. Too many corporations are competing to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – George Monbiot examines the history of James McGill Buchanan, Charles Koch and others who have used massive amounts of time and money to ensure that wealth wins out over democracy in shaping U.S. policy – and how their influence will sounds familiar elsewhere
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Michael Rozworski discusses the importance of workers exercising power over how our economy functions. Robert Booth reports on a forthcoming UK study showing the desperate need for improved quality of work and life among low-income individuals. And Lana Payne writes that a strong
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Claire Provost writes about the spread of the private security industry – which now exceeds the size of public police forces in Canada among other countries – as a means of privileging the protection of wealth over public interests. – Meanwhile, Lana Payne
Continue readingScripturient: Collingwood deserves answers
The Most Secretive Council Ever has never told the public why it has been so intent on damaging this community. We have never had an explanation why they are so inflexible, so hostile to other ideas, so adversarial to opinions other than their own. We have never been told why
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Dani Rodrik argues that it’s too late to try to compensate the people being deliberately left behind by trade deals – and that instead, we need to make sure their interests are actually taken into account in how trade is structured: Today’s consensus
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