Regular readers will know that I’ve spent plenty of time discussing all kinds of plans for multi-party pre-electoral cooperation – and that I’ve been highly skeptical about whether the ones we’ve seen in Canadian politics can be either justified in principle, or made effective in practice. And I’ll readily acknowledge
Continue readingTag: strategy
Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Alex Hunsberger argues that the Good Jobs Summit reflected a gap between labour strategies aimed merely at trying to take a slightly larger cut of a corporate-owned system, and those which actually propose and fight for something better: The most useful and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On political calculations
I haven’t seen anybody else question the most self-congratulatory aspect of Stephen Harper’s position on a new Iraq war, and at least a few commentators seem to have been willing to swallow it whole. So let’s address the question of which leader has the most obvious political reason to position
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On advance notice
Between Joan Bryden’s report, Paul Wells’ interview and Murray Dobbin’s column among other coverage, there isn’t much room for doubt that the federal NDP’s economic focus – including a national minimum wage alongside a restored retirement age of 65 and reversal of corporate tax cuts – is earning some media
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Trish Hennessy’s latest numbers focus on the skills gap myth in Canada. And PressProgress documents a few of the Cons’ damaging public service cuts which kicked in yesterday, while Theresa Boyle reports on the end of Canada’s health care accords (featuring the observations
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On lasting influence
Murray Dobbin continues his quest to push for more big ideas from the federal NDP here. But it’s worth dividing his take into one theory well worth applying, and one which would be entirely counterproductive. At the outset, I’ll agree with Dobbin’s take that a number of the NDP’s current
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Ukraine: Some Commensense on Dealing with Russia
Putin’s Push: Reality versus Rhetoric Congratulations to Thomas Graham, a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute, who was the senior director for Russia on the US National Security Council staff 2004-2007. He has shrewdly analyzed the Russian push under Putin, in its historical context, and outlined the steps that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Matthew O’Brien is the latest to pick up on the connection between pre-transfer income equality, redistribution and sustainable economic growth: Redistribution overall helps, and at least doesn’t harm, growth spells. That’s because the positive effects of less inequality add to or offset the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – David Atkins emphasizes the need for progressive parties and activists to discuss big ideas rather than settling for the path of least short-term resistance: Both the poor and the middle class feel threatened and increasingly pessimistic. Opinions of elite institutions across the board
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On top priorities
If there’s anything to question in the latest reporting about possible post-election cooperation between the NDP and the Libs, it’s the impression that Thomas Mulcair’s willingness to pursue a coalition to replace the Harper Cons with a better government somehow comes entirely out of the blue. But while the story
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On testing principles
It’s obviously tempting for opposition parties to turn the recent spate of stories about difference of opinion within the Cons into a simple matter of “they’re not united”. But it’s well worth emphasizing the substance of the issues – and particularly questioning whether the MPs who are challenging their partymates
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Strategy, or escape from the privatization matrix (Canada Post, Part 2)
The endgame of the current rounds of cuts at Canada Post is some form of privatization. In the previous post, I argued that privatization proceeds differently depending on context. Many factors – I focused on whether a public service provider is exposed to competition and is profitable – can have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Justin Fox questions whether traditional studies tracking the distribution of wealth by quintiles do much good when the most obvious economic faultline is between the (give or take) 1% and everybody else: Something really dramatic is going on up there in the top
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Diagnosis, or into the privatization matrix (Canada Post, Part 1)
There is little doubt that Canada Post’s recently-announced plan to eliminate home delivery, raise prices and lay off thousands of workers is not aimed solely at streamlining operations, but is likely a prelude to future privatization of postal delivery in Canada. Canada Post is ripe for the picking: it is
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The political aspects of the minimum wage
Discussion of the minimum wage can easily slide into a technocratic back-and-forth that ignores the vital political aspect at play. We can see this in much of the response to the report just released by the Ontario government’s Minimum Wage Advisory Panel (MWAP). Andrew Coyne, for example, once again argues
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On consensus positions
I won’t break down in detail the bevy of reviews of the current position of Tom Mulcair and the federal NDP – including pieces by Bruce Stewart, John Ibbitson and John Geddes. But it’s worth highlighting the areas where I’d see no need to challenge the consensus reflected in those
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On voter friendliness
Others have been quick to give Chantal Hebert’s take on the NDP more credence than it deserves. But while Hebert is right to note that there’s more to the NDP’s path forward than merely challenging Justin Trudeau, she falls into a familiar trap in assessing the party’s public appeal –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On core products
It may not come as much surprise that I thoroughly disagree with Murray Mandryk’s paean to corporate protection agreements. But his take on the CETA does signal one point worth highlighting. Last week, my column dealt with the shift toward seeing politics as a matter of marketing and microtargeting, rather
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On legacies
Obviously last night’s Nova Scotia election results represent a huge disappointment for the NDP. But they also offer some reason to discuss the brand being developed at both the provincial and federal levels. The working assumption for both the federal party and most of the provincial parties close to forming
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On decisive choices
Nanos’ latest poll on the parties under consideration by voters has received plenty of attention. But the discussion so far seems to miss the most plausible explanation for the poll results. Compared to previous polling, the latest survey shows:– little change in the actual support levels of Canada’s federal parties;
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