Shorter Donald Johnson: My preferred cure for poverty and inequality is…tax breaks for rich people! (And if anybody’s asking, I’ll be happy to prescribe the same course of treatment for such conditions as gingivitis, economic sluggishness, economic vibrancy, spontaneous combustion syndrome, seasonal affective disorder, out-of-seasonal affective disorder, general malaise, and
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Accidental Deliberations: Reconciliation fail
Shorter Joe Oliver: We Conservatives are so committed to building trust and relationships with First Nations, we feel we can safely ignore a report saying we’re failing miserably on all fronts and instead claim all the necessary work is done. So who wants to partner up with us?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On status quo proposals
Shorter Doug Saunders: I’m suspicious of the role of mere members in shaping party policy. And also of the role rogue MPs might play in shaping decision-making. In fact, what we need is a completely centralized system of government where the prime minister can implement his preferred policies on a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On selective endpoints
Shorter Andrew Coyne: If you ignore the actual recent rail disaster that blew up a town, there’s little apparent risk of rail disasters. So let’s keep assuming the likelihood of future disasters is trivial. Now, some observers might ask how consistent a particular event is with a set of assumptions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On revolting logic
Shorter Terence Corcoran: A Spanish-style tax revolt to defund government is the only way for Ontario and Quebec residents to avoid the fiscal disaster caused by the Spanish tax revolt.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On measured responses
Shorter Enbridge, responding to the revelation that a tidy 94% of its Canadian pumping stations are missing required backup generators and/or shut-off buttons: So the question is whether we’ll take steps to comply with environmental laws if nobody’s bothering to enforce them? Let’s consider that for a moment. In summary,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Juxtaposition
Shorter tar sands shills trying to get the general public to do their PR work: Our oil industry affects every single Canadian from coast to coast to coast. Speak up in defence of your corporate masters – it’s your patriotic duty! Shorter tar sands shills when it comes to assessing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On sick strategies
Shorter Harper Cons: The public-service beatings will continue until employee wellness improves.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Selling the lie
Shorter Brad Wall: Of course neither Stephen Harper nor any of his provincial mini-petro-states has any interest in actually dealing with climate change. But as long as we rev up our PR machine to claim otherwise, surely Barack Obama will be none the wiser.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On misdirection
Shorter Konrad Yakabuski: If only unions had let themselves be brow-beaten into accepting less wages and security for their members, then surely our corporate overlords would have granted greater wages and security to everybody!
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On clarifications
Shorter Fred DeLorey: Silly media, wasting its time asking whether we Cons were polling over gerrymandering Saskatchewan riding boundaries. That would involve caring about respondents’ opinions. The word you’re looking for is “propagandizing”.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On predetermination
Shorter Brent Rathgeber: What government backbencher would dare consider asking the Parliamentary Budget Officer for information if he can’t suppress any inconvenient findings? I’d rather stay ignorant, thank you very much.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: It takes a Village
Shorter John Ivison: I consider it a sign of profound unseriousness that Romeo Saganash and the NDP want to give effect to an international treaty which might result in indigenous people having some influence over policy. Veto power for multinational corporate conglomerates, that’s fine. But *people*? Outrageous, says I.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tim Harper writes about Tom Mulcair’s success in building the NDP up as the leading alternative to the Cons for Canadian voters: Two-thirds of his questions since becoming leader have dealt with the economy as he attempts to build the case that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On abdications of duty
Shorter Gerry Ritz:If unscrupulous businesses want to fleece Canadian suckers consumers, far be it from we Conservatives to stand in their way.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On questionable advice
Shorter Zach Paikin:In order to avoid the fate of the Ignatieff Libs, the NDP should totally abandon any principles and re-run Ignatieff’s “we stand for nothing, but at least we’re not that guy!” campaign.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On special treatment
Shorter Brad Wall: Based on my close personal connection to Stephen Harper developed through years of shameless toadyism, I alone can assure you that he won’t be playing favourites among the provinces.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – I’ll follow up with one extra note from Mark Carney’s address to the CAW – as the headlines seem to have missed a rather important point about the relative effect of the Canadian dollar and even the widest possible definition of labour
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Dan Gardner rightly notes that we should be encouraging more public advocacy from charities and other groups with useful input to offer into policy debates – not shutting it down as the Cons are doing: “Many charities have acquired a wealth of knowledge
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Best days behind them
Shorter Stephane Dion: How I long for the days when my party could win dozens of Quebec seats by default simply by picking fights with sovereigntists. Can’t we all agree to make it 2000 again?
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