Replace “driver” with Translink cop. I had a hard time reading all the way through this article, the one about Translink cops terrorizing bus passengers on Friday night. I also had a hard time reading about the two Translink cops found guilty of assault on Friday. I’m sure it was
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In-Sights: Farrell and Jessop on CFAX1070
The audio file below is a recording of my time with Ian Jessop May 26. We talk about credit rating agencies, provincial debt, contractual obligations, resource taxation and transit funding but we don’t deliver BC Liberal talking points like many others in media. Your browser does not support this audio
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne writes that the great Canadian revenue debate is well underway, with far more leaders willing to push for needed taxes than in recent years: There is new political space to talk corporate taxes again, to talk about raising them. Rachel Notley,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Branko Milanovic discusses how rent theory fits into the glaring gap between productivity and wages: Bob Solow explored a couple of days ago another possibility. Going back to his own initial work on the theory of growth, some 60 years ago, Solow
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lynne Fernandez properly labels the Cons’ federal budget as the “inequality budget”. Andrew Jackson discusses how we’ve ended up in a new Gilded Age in Canada, and what we can do to extricate ourselves from it. And BC BookLook reviews Andrew MacLeod’s new
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: The moderating effect of moderation
RossK writes about the Pro-Media Club and its implicit rulebook, which includes a requirement that no one reprove a colleague, even if overstatements and misrepresentations morph into purposeful lies. The blog world doesn’t follow those guidelines so we can point at any load of old codswallop encountered. In coverage of
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Transit referendum and Pandora’s box
When financial numbers involve billions, many of us struggle to gain understanding and perspective. Usually, the beneficiaries of large scale spending are the worst sources of information. Here’s an example. A “fact-check” statement from the paid-for-by-taxpayers Mayors council website says: A “Yes” to Transit vote would cost average households $125
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Sales tax war resumed
The good doctor at The Gazetteer diagnoses a similarity between issues underlying the now debated transit sales tax and the late and unlamented HST. RossK is focused on the tax ‘shiftyness’ involved in both. Quite right. BC Liberals have slowly shifted away from progressive taxation, preferring revenues from fees and
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: With Ian Jessop, CFAX1070, Mar 3
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Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Spending billions without evidence?
[View the story “New Story” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Who is being served by TransLink?
[View the story “Circles of Spin” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Political football – winners and losers
Senior governments download responsibility for delivering services but seldom include taxing authorities adequate to match spending demands. The download trend is demonstrated in a report by The Columbia Institute: British Columbia’s government prefers to raise revenues from individuals through consumption taxes and user fees rather than by progressive income taxes,
Continue readingOn Last Night’s News: My thoughts on the TTC fare increase
I appeared on Global News Toronto last night on behalf of TTC Riders to offer a few comments on the TTC fare increase coming into effect this weekend. Even though they spelled my name wrong, I was happy to have some good quotes make it into the online and broadcast
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Poking through transit costs
[View the story “Some TransLink numbers” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: A camel is a horse…
Voters in Metro Vancouver are asked to approve a regional increase in provincial sales tax to generate an estimated $250 million a year for TransLink. The vote is an advisory one, not binding on the province but it fits the Liberal preference for regressive taxation so the province won’t be
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The So-Called Transit Referendum: Don’t Be Duped!
By Emily Griffiths The Transit referendum “Yes” campaign has been asserting itself all over Facebook, Twitter, neighbourhood news boxes, and I can’t help but ask myself, Since when is increasing a flat tax a leftist thing to do? Oh! The word “transit” has been attached to the newest proposed consumer
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Mississauga Ward 4 by-election had been called for April 27th! Check out Joe Horneck’s campaign website and support a strong voice for transit!TodayT
Last month,
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Mississauga Ward 4 by-election had been called for April 27th! Check out Joe Horneck’s campaign website and support a strong voice for transit!TodayT
Last month, I wrote about how I thought Joe Horneck would be a strong addition to Mississauga city council with an upcoming by-election for Ward 4 in downtown Mississauga.With Mississauga Council calling the by-election today for April 27th, …
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Mississauga Ward 4 by-election had been called for April 27th! Check out Joe Horneck’s campaign website and support a strong voice for transit!TodayT
Last month,
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: No thanks Uber, I’m not signing your petition
So the ride-sharing app Uber is urging Vancouverites to sign a petition on its site to put pressure on the City to allow Uber to operate. An ad for the petition invaded my Twitter feed and I decided to take a closer look. Here’s the petition with my commentary. Spoiler:
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