Oil, Premiers, and Coming Soon #nlpoli
Impact of Hebron flat royalty at prices below US$50click to go to 2015 post West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude were both trading below US$50 last week. Oil from the…
2020
Can Canada’s Conservatives resist temptation to try to sabotage the accord with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs?
It will be interesting to see how the Conservative Opposition in Ottawa and Alberta’s Conservative government react to yesterday’s announcement the federal and British Columbia governments have reached an accord…
Bill 1 and Freedom of Assembly
What do the Wet’suwet’en First Nations blockades have to do with Alberta’s Budget 2020? Everything. The blockades are the rationale (flimsy as it is) for Bill 1, Critical Infrastructure Defence…
Confusion, suspicion reign in early stages of public consultation for North Cowichan Municipal Forest Reserve
North Cowichan’s launch of its much-anticipated public engagement on the future of the 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve stumbled badly out of the blocks this week, leaving citizens understandably confused and…
Pete Buttigieg, first openly gay presidential candidate to win a state caucus, drops out of the race
Former Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg I have mixed feelings about tonight’s news that Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and upstart Democratic presidential candidate, is…
Bottom-Up Strategizing for Social Change
New Zealand children join a protest against nuclear power in 1982. Photo by John Miller/ABC News. Increasingly, activists and organizers are discussing the question, “What’s your theory of change?” For…
What "American Dream"?
In Canada, Conservatives extol the United States as a land of virtually limitless opportunity and prosperity. Not so much. Business Insider shows how deeply America’s middle class is being hollowed…
Covid-19. It’s the Economy, Stupid.
There’s more to this virus than health problems. As the New York Times explains, Covid-19 could easily become a global economy wrecker. The globalism spawned by the neoliberal order has…
How Canada’s patronage-driven defence lobby is abetting US arms manufacturers
In this July 7, 2006 file photo, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is shown after it was unveiled in a ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by LM…
Covid-19, Best and Worst Case
I have no medical education. I’ll bet you don’t either. That leaves both of us ill-equipped to reach informed opinions about this corona virus, Covid-19. Is it just a passing…
My 25 Years of Ed Tech
Martin Weller has released his book 25 Years of Ed Tech today. It’s a nice read; you are encouraged to check it out. But I have to confess, on having…
Demystifying Economics – Or, Rescuing Humanity From Death By Shared Delusion, Part One
To start with, it should be made clear that it is unwise, to say the least, to disparage mysticism. Mysticism, in the true sense, means to dive into, and deeply…
Feb. 29: No. It’s not getting better.
(I apoligize for being late with this edition. My computer was attacked by evil spirits.)_____________________________________________________________https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/28/greta-thunberg-bristol-schools-shut-students-join-climate-strike_________________________________________________________________ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/what-is-coronavirus-what-should-i-do-symptoms https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/worse-than-flu-busting-coronavirus-myths https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-donald-This is the kind of news we should all be getting from our…
"Canada is Broken"
69 per cent of Canadians polled say that Canada is broken. In a time of widespread disagreement and ever-increasing polarization, there remains a bitter solidarity among Canadians in the belief…
Once Upon a Time, Chapters 9 (Viet Nam) to 14 (Afghanistan)
I was listening to the BBC World Service podcast this morning. They had a brief interview with some anodyne retired US Army general who had done a stint commanding American…
things i heard at the library: an occasional series: #31
One of the most frustrating and sad things we encounter at the library are people we can’t help, who don’t understand why we can’t help them — and who blame…
Macdonald’s Strategy Won’t Work
Robin Sears writes that what is going on in Northern British Columbia is not a new phenomenon. It is the culmination of a decades-long refusal to deal with the intersection…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Heather Scoffield points out that the Trudeau Libs’ definition of poverty (for the purposes of claiming credit for having reduced it) excludes…
The Final Eight
With all the attention that’s rightfully been elsewhere in Canadian politics, less attention has been getting paid to the Conservative Leadership Race, beyond the random words of Peter MacKay and…
Team Alberta update
NOTICE TO PRO-ALBERTA FOLKS: Back from Calgary. Met with many smart Albertans. Got ideas for our non-partisan, citizen-led group. Next steps: a name. Membership. And a launch party at @DaisyGrp.…