Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Katie McDonough reports on new research showing the devastating effects of poverty on an individual’s ability to plan and function: According to researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia, people living in poverty experience reduced cognitive functioning as a result
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Accidental Deliberations: On efficiencies
Nick Falvo offers one response to Tom Mulcair’s latest comments on taxes. And I certainly won’t argue with the position that it’s utterly bizarre to see the leader of a progressive party declare that he’s perfectly happy with the restrictive revenue streams (and associated lack of social programs) set up
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Making a list, checking it twice
Not surprisingly, the revelation that the Cons have assembled official enemies lists has given rise to some call for those lists to be made public. But I’ll take a quick look at why that process is bound to take at least some time – as well as the considerations involved
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Chris Lehmann discusses the destructive impetus behind the ever-present austerity scolds: In their new book The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills, Stuckler and Basu show distressingly consistent increases in such key public-health indicators as suicides, heart disease, alcoholism and HIV infection in societies
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Thomas Walkom, Dan Leger and Michael Harris write about the sketchy surveillance programs in place on both sides of the 49th parallel. But there may be an opportunity to make common cause with the 1% in criticizing constant intrusion on personal privacy, as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The road to abolition
Ian Peach’s guest post at Pundits’ Guide is well worth a read in setting out a feasible path to Senate abolition. But I’ll note that the exact wording of an abolition resolution would need to be somewhat more complex than that proposed by Peach – while the political push might
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Thomas McDonagh discusses how the combination of concentrated corporate wealth and ill-advised trade agreements has allowed business interests to override the will of even strong citizens’ movements: In 2009, when the government of El Salvador refused to issue an environmental permit to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Murray Dobbin contrasts the B.C. NDP’s recent election loss against the type of popular focus which helped Saskatchewan’s CCF to earn a twenty-year stay in office in the face of far more hysterical opposition: You can design a campaign that projects a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how a narrow focus on pursuing a seemingly safe path to a bare majority government may have contributed to the B.C. NDP’s stunning election defeat this week. Needless to say, there’s no lack of other commentary on the election, with Alice Funke, Sixth Estate, Michael Stewart, Paul Ramsey
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Daniel Cohn theorizes that the only real problem with RBC’s outsourcing of Canadian jobs is that they called attention to the government policies which facilitated that outcome. But for those of us who think there’s actually a problem with an economy designed around
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The first move
Following up on this morning’s post on the federal political scene, I’ll offer a few observations on the Cons’ immediate attack ad against Justin Trudeau: Now, I’ve pointed out before that the Cons’ previous attack ads against Lib leaders succeeded precisely because they made claims which were so vague as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Stephen’s Choice
Karl Nerenberg offers one comparative look at how the NDP and the Libs are positioned for the next few years after this weekend’s conventions which saw Tom Mulcair resoundingly confirmed as the NDP’s leader and Justin Trudeau anointed as the Libs’. But I’ll take a bit of time to discuss
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Carol Goar discusses how the Cons’ latest attacks on Employment Insurance add just one burden to the backs of workers who have already borne the brunt of decades of corporatist policy: (L)ast Sunday, employment insurance benefits in two-thirds of the country were quietly
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Brendan Haley explains why the Cons’ let-them-build-pipelines economic approach is doomed to fail from the standpoint of prosperity as well as that of sustainability: There is a certain spirit of defensiveness and vulnerability behind the Conservatives’ economic choices. Ideologically incapable of admitting that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On first steps
I’m skeptical about Paul Adams’ argument that some type of electoral non-compete agreement between the NDP and the Libs is inevitable an election cycle or two down the road. But he does hint at something close to the type of cooperation that I could see as useful in the meantime:
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Real Problem For BC Liberals
It’s not the low poll numbers or the ethnic voter outreach controversy, the real problem for the BC Liberals is that there are BC Liberals who want a problem. Considering it was just 2011 when the federal Conservatives’ ethnic voter strategy made headlines it’s more than obvious that the current
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Carol Goar discusses Canada’s broken fiscal stabilizers – as unemployment insurance and social programs intended to assure citizens of at least a reasonable standard of living have been cut to well below that level: Canada’s economic shock absorbers are badly worn. Employment insurance,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #skndpldr – Battlefords Debate Notes
With Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership candidates figuring to be thoroughly familiar with each other and the party’s debate format, one might have expected little new to emerge from the Battlefords leadership debate. But instead, it offered some novel subject matter for the candidates to discuss – and the candidates’ reactions to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On trade-offs
Dan Tan has put together a noteworthy series of posts comparing the NDP’s actual position on trade to its portrayal in the media, then discussing the effect of the gap between the two on party members. But while Dan seems to show some sympathy for an attempt to cultivate a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On second choices
The next week should be a relatively quiet one for the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership candidates: the membership deadline has passed, while the finalized list of members won’t necessarily be available until the end of the week ahead (per the leadership rules). But I’ll use the opportunity to note one point
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