Is Orange the New Blue in Alberta? My Nerd Nite talk on Sept 17.
Join me on Thursday, September 17, as I dive headfirst into my first talk at Nerd Nite Edmonton. Here is what I will be talking about: Is Orange really the…
2015
KCCCC Day 29: last day of August, but where’s the winning narrative?
It’s the last day of August…and survey says the electorate don’t really want anyone to be government. Check out that Abacus slide – all three parties are within three points…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Branko Milanovic answers Harry Frankfurt’s attempt to treat inequality as merely an issue of absolute deprivation by reminding us how needs are inherently…
140 Law – Legal Headlines for the Week of August 31, 2015
Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter: Uber facing a gamut of legal challenges Christian law school fights B.C. law society’s refusal to call grads to…
Fighting Fanaticism
“Fanaticism is bred by hopelessness and despair. It is not the product of religion, although religion often becomes the sacral veneer for violence. The more desperate people become, the more…
Singing From The Same The Same Songbook
Last week, Tony Turner — who wrote the protest song Harperman — was suspended from his job. Turner is a federalist scientist, whose job is to track migratory bird species.…
Go home Paul Martin.
Nothing grates a left-leaning liberal more than Paul Martin that skinflint former finance minister and briefly prime minister. Once a friend, Paul became a non-person when Prime Minister Jean Chrétien…
The King of Mean and the Bullying of Harperman’s Tony Turner
It has been several days since the Harper regime suspended the federal scientist Tony Turner for writing and singing the song Harperman.And as expected it has triggered a debate over…
Ferry Tales #nlpoli
There are times when you have to wonder if provincial cabinet ministers actually realise how moronic they sound to everyone else. David Brazil is the transportation minister. By his own…
Give It a Try
Some times our views aren’t really compatible with the political party we choose to support. If you want to see how your views line up, check out the CBC’s Vote…
‘Event logisticians’? Give us a break! They’re bouncers! What’s that tell you about the Tories?
PHOTOS: Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets a group of foreign event logistics consultants while travelling abroad (Government of Canada photo). Below: Pierre Trudeau does suppressed fury the right way; Mr.…
Energy East: “Treaty and Aboriginal rights must be respected”
Energy East must respect treaty and Aboriginal rights, says the Ontario Energy Board in its just-released review of TransCanada’s proposed pipeline. The post Energy East: “Treaty and Aboriginal rights must…
Stop the Endless Whining. It’s the Deal You Made. Live With It.
It’s like stepping into a next of vipers. Point out the obvious, that NDP leader Tom Mulcair, like his rivals, embraces neoliberalism (his support for CETA alone puts that beyond…
The Duffy Trial: Not Unexpected Consequences
Can we expect this soon? For those Conservative spokespersons who don’t believe that the sorry tale of a Prime Minister’s Office scrambling to come up with the very best way…
Malahat LNG: When “Getting Things Right” Goes Wrong.
Steelhead LNG officials said all the right things during the press conference announcing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at Bamberton in the Saanich Inlet. Their intention is to build…
Victoria Times Colonist ‘Confused Editorial’ On Steelhead-Malahat Nation-LNG
This is a surprisingly out of touch editorial from the Times Colonist regarding the unorthodox staged LNG announcement driven by Steelhead LNG. Surprising in that most often the TC editorials…
Team Assessment
Following my last piece on the relevance of Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, to Collingwood Council, I felt I should explore some of Lencioni’s ideas, as…
Does Stephen Harper Agree With the Republican Loon Scott Walker?
Scott Walker is one of the most reactionary Republican candidates, a union basher, an anti-gay bigot, and a fascist if ever there was one.And now he's trying to out trump…
Canada should put the brakes on misleading, ineffective fuel economy standards
Photo: Flickr/Scott Molineaux CC licence For the last several decades, the fuel consumption requirements imposed on vehicle manufacturers in Canada were the same as those applied in the US. The…
Dialectics, Contradictions, and the California Prisoners’ Hunger Strikes: An Interview with Chad Landrum
The following interview with California revolutionary prisoner Chad Landrum, a participant in the hunger strikes against isolation, and author of The Road Ahead and the Dialectics of Change, ws conducted…