This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Adam Kleczkowski examines the effectiveness of COVID-19 interventions two years into the pandemic, while noting the importance of applying the precautionary principle in the face of uncertain but severe risks. Jillian Horton discusses how our aversion to thinking about danger has been
Continue readingTag: Vladimir Putin
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Associated Press reports on the continued disparity in COVID-19 vaccinations between countries which is exacerbating the risk of new and more severe variants for everybody. – David Moore and Donald Shaw report on the threat of industrial chemicals at risk of being
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – C Raina MacIntyre offers five reasons to keep wearing a mask even after mandates are removed – and the arguments are even more compelling in areas where waves of infections are still in progress. And Elizabeth Yuko reports on the victims of
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What has become clear is that Canadian and American media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. The act of invasion is 100% Vladimir Putin’s decision, and the invasion was not justified. At the same time, the conditions that led to this
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Carly Weeks examines why so many Canadian children still haven’t been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. John Loeppky asks that we not eliminate the digital solutions which have allowed people with disabilities to participate on somewhat more equal ground. Zak Vescera reports on Saskatchewan’s ballooning waitlists
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta chases multi-billion-dollar deal with Saudis, never mind what Jason Kenney used to say about them
Now that Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party is desperately trying to a do a deal with a Saudi Arabian company to build a petrochemical plant in Alberta, I wonder how long it will take before some clever environmentalist in Quebec or British Columbia says they don’t want no stinkin’ “dictator
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thatcher brouhaha: When your slippery opponent’s on the ropes, maybe you should focus on keeping him there!
When you’ve got a slippery political opponent on the ropes with a completely legitimate issue, what’s it profit a New Democrat to stand up in the Legislature and create a massive distraction from the fight the party’s winning with one that has no advantage for it? This is what NDP
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The likely future history of the Keystone XL Pipeline: Yes, Alberta! The answer is still No!
Who can forget Nov. 6, 2015, the day that will live in infamy? Just about everybody, as it turned out. Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper (Photo: Facebook). That was the day that U.S. President Barack Obama decided to pull the plug on the Keystone XL Pipeline, declaring that it was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What Jinping, Putin, Trump have in common.
Why are we surprised if American president Trump wants to be named president for life? The man hardly wants less than his counterparts, Xi Jinping, president for life of China, Vladimir Putin, president for life of Russia. They are men of enormous egos. They live in make-believe worlds, where all
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Remember when Canada was about to become ‘a global energy powerhouse’? So how’d that work out?
Anybody remember Stephen Harper’s plan to turn Canada into “an energy superpower”? That was in July 2006, a dream articulated in Mr. Harper’s first speech abroad as Canada’s prime minister. Canada was not only about to become “a new energy superpower,” Mr. Harper told the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Sarcasm does not become a premier — especially as our placid boreal Dominion grows less gelid by the day
Methinks the premier doth protest too much! What else can we say about Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s bizarre 2,330-word public letter yesterday to Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada, attacking Mr. Neve, the organization he leads, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, the Soviet Union, the Saudi royal family, the Qatari
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s Jason Kenney, not Amnesty International, who’s poking holes in Alberta’s claim we produce the most ‘ethical oil’
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s petulant response yesterday to Amnesty International’s scorching letter about the dangers represented by his United Conservative Party Government’s approach to defending the fossil fuel industry exposes a surprising lack of judgment for a former senior federal cabinet minister. Rather than reassuring people elsewhere in Canada and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta’s foreign-funded-fossil-fuel defamation inquisition: Stand by for an expensive gong show
Here are three predictions about Jason Kenney’s inquiry into that “foreign-funded defamation campaign” against Alberta’s fossil fuel industry. It will be a gong show It will cost far more than $2.5 million It will end up harming the industry, and Alberta The roots of this likely debacle are found in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Parades! Bands! Singers! Tanks! Some thoughts on Independence Day, Donald Trump, and the state of the neighbourhood this July 4
Today is Independence Day, the 4th of July, best known in Canada as the setting for the country gothic hit of the same name but, of course, also our cacophonous cousins’ national holiday. The occasion nominally marks the 243rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by the citizens of the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: A timely reminder on this historic day: The hammer of D-Day crushed Hitler on the anvil of Russia
FREDERICTON, N.B. – It’s now been 75 years since our magnificent Canadian soldiers went ashore at Juno Beach in Normandy to play their part the grim and deadly task of sweeping Hitler and his odious empire from Europe. Canadians need to remember, though, that the landings on June 6, 1944,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Fielding questions about Jason Kenney’s apparent effort to channel Vladimir Putin, B.C. premier sounded like the grownup
CALGARY – For those of us used to listening to Alberta politicians on the topic of pipelines, British Columbia Premier John Horgan made for a refreshing change yesterday, sounding remarkably like the grownup as he responded to Premier Jason Kenney’s proclamation into law of the NDP’s unconstitutional bill to shut
Continue readingAlberta Politics: An election’s coming and the PM’s treading water – where’s a Russian to blame now that we need one?
It was a year ago Friday that the government of Canada declared Kirill Kalinin and three other Russian diplomats persona non grata and sent them packing for using, in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “their diplomatic status to undermine Canada’s security or interfere in our democracy.” Nobody bothered
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Do we need a Canadian version of the Logan Act to put a stop to dangerous freelance diplomacy?
Most observers of Canada-U.S. politics and the two countries’ unexpectedly fraught trade relationship would agree former prime minister Stephen Harper’s no-longer-secret visit to the White House on Tuesday is unlikely to do much good and has the potential to do harm. What Mr. Harper, now just another private citizen in
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Who loves ya, baby? Canada’s conservatives urgently need to reassess their dalliance with Donald Trump
A photograph of last weekend’s G7 conclave in Quebec showing several national leaders apparently trying to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to act like a grownup was doing the rounds on social media in the aftermath of the post-summit trainwreck. With the G7 gathering in La Malbaie already nearly universally
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shark Jumping in Alberta: NDP and UCP strive to outdo each other with ridiculous statements
As the Alberta Government’s fight with British Columbia over the Trans Mountain Pipeline takes on comic opera proportions, Premier Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party and Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party Opposition appear to be struggling to see which one can come up with the most ridiculous things to say about
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