While most Albertans are enjoying the last few weeks of summer, here are some of the more interesting and bizarre news stories from the federal election campaign trail in our province.
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Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Chris Mooney takes a look at the positive side of social influences on behaviour, as new research shows a correlation between spending time with neighbours and an interest in the environmental issues which affect us all. But Adam Stoneman documents how another form
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how we should expect our leaders to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report on residential schools – and what we’ve seen from the Cons instead. For further reading…– PressProgress offers the video of Bernard Valcourt sticking out like a sore thumb in his refusal to consider
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the rise of Rachel Notley’s NDP serves largely to bring Alberta’s political system into step with those of its regional neighbours. For further reading…– Murray Mandryk had previously pointed out why we should be cautious about reading too much into the Alberta results. But the most important
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Oil Spills And The Harper Brand
Time for a brief follow-up to Elizabeth May’s fine dissection of how Harper environmental cuts contributed to the slow response to Vancouver’s English Bay oil spill. In today’s Star, Tim Harper repeats and reflects upon the facts May addressed. Denunciations are flying fast and furiously from the likes of May,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Both Edward Keenan and the Star’s editorial board take note of Thomas Mulcair’s plan for urban renewal, with particular emphasis on its appeal across party lines: Speaking directly to Toronto city council and Mayor John Tory, who won election largely on the basis
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On prospects for change
The latest round of discussion about the possibility of a coalition to offer something better than the Harper Cons seems to have taken an noteworthy turn. At this point, everybody but the Libs seems to have settled on the position that there’s no real obstacle to a coalition government –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Carol Graham discusses the high financial and personal costs of poverty: Reported stress levels are higher on average in the U.S. than in Latin America. Importantly, the gap between the levels of the rich and poor is also much greater, with the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Lee-Anne Goodman reports on studies from both the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PDF) and the Broadbent Institute (PDF) showing that enlarged tax-free savings accounts stand to blow a massive hole in the federal budget while exacerbating inequality. And PressProgress documents and refutes the pitiful
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Gregory Beatty reports on Saskatchewan’s options now that it can’t count on high oil prices to prop up the provincial budget. And Dennis Howlett writes about the need for a far more progressive tax system both as a matter of fairness, and as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Elizabeth Stoker Bruening discusses the effect of poverty at the family level, particularly when coupled with policies designed to force workers to chase jobs far away from home and family: If you want to see the right-wing denuded of its usual bluster
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jeff Begley criticizes the Cons and the Quebec Libs for their refusal to even recognize inequality as an issue – which of course results in their only exacerbating the gap between the rich and the rest of us: While Couillard and Harper find
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chris Alexander’s Faustian Pact
By all accounts, before he entered politics, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander was a competent and respected member of Canada’s foreign service; his resume includes the fact that he was Canada’s first resident Ambassador to Afghanistan. The lustre attending his career, however, has vanished since he become a member of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jenny Uechi and Warren Bell expose Canada’s embarrassing place as the only government participating in a climate-denial group pushing for a dirty war against the planet. But despite the Harper Cons’ worst efforts, there’s some good news on the climate front – as
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Harper War Against Unions Continues
So what else is new? In today’s Star, Tim Harper tells a tale of the ongoing indefatigable contempt Canada’s putative prime minister has for unions. Like another Conservative entity, C-377 refuses to remain dead. The bill, proposed by a private member, Russ Hiebert, who is actually a front for Harper
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Sarah Lazare reports on UNICEF’s research showing an appalling increase in child poverty in many of the world’s richest countries: “Many affluent countries have suffered a ‘great leap backwards’ in terms of household income, and the impact on children will have long-lasting repercussions
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Stephanie Levitz reports on the Broadbent Institute’s study showing that Con-friendly charities haven’t been facing any of the strict scrutiny being used to silence anybody who dares to speak up for environmental or social causes. And Jeremy Nuttall notes that the problem is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Eugene Lang discusses the importance of fiscal choice in the lead up to the 2015 federal election. And Don Cayo reminds us that the Cons’ determination to hand free money to the wealthy – most recently through income-splitting and increased TFSA limits –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how leaders who stand up to hysterical calls to abandon peace and human rights in the name of fleeting threats tend to be vindicated by history – and how Thomas Mulcair is carrying on the NDP’s legacy on that front even in the face of criticism from Very
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Word On The Street – Chantal Hebert and Tim Harper
Although it started out quite ominously with heavy downpours, yesterday turned out to be a good day. As the clouds cleared, we hopped on the GO bus to attend Toronto’s Word on the Street, an annual celebration of literacy. I always take heart when I see a strong cross-generational presence
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