Blast Furnace Canada Blog 2013-05-27 20:00:00
I often don’t change my mind on a lot of issues unless I can be convinced. But this is one of them: LRT is a stupid idea for the City…
BlastFurnace
NDP — socialist now a dirty word?
Barring a huge shock, it’s almost certain Justin “Not Ready for Prime Time” Trudeau will become the leader of the federal Liberal Party, tomorrow. But the one I’m watching this…
Gay marriage getting closer in States — hopefully
After two days of hearings at the US Supreme Court it’s not for certain whether gays and lesbians will finally win their hard fought for right to marriage equality across…
Let the "muzzled" speak
As disgusting the comments are from several MPs from the far right of the already right-wing and ruling Conservative party, I think they have a point about being muzzled by…
Gender identity wins, and Justin proves he`s a loser
What a pleasant surprise to hear that the House of Commons gave third reading to an opposition bill, C-279, that would include gender identity as an aggravating circumstance in determining…
Weekly roundup (ending Mar 16 / 13)
First and biggest news of the week was the upset election of 76 year old Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who interestingly has taken the name Francis I.…
Devolution for NWT — a start
I cannot agree too much with PMS’ agenda, but today he took a huge step forward in signing a tentative devolution agreement with the Northwest Territories and five of the…
Métis wuz robbed sez Supremes
Finally, one of the three pillars of Canada’s aboriginal peoples — the Métis — have won justice. They are owed a lot of money — perhaps ten billion or even…
Arkansas: Crossing the line of decency
Arkansas has finally gone too far when it comes to women. Really. This is a new forward advance in the war against women and it’s awful. And it’s on abortion.…
Free choice in communications? (Competition Tribunal says no)
To my surprise and dismay, the Competition Tribunal has approved Bell Canada’s takeover of most of Astral Media’s assets. This comes some time after a similar buyout attempt was rejected.…
Charles McVety vs sex ed
I really have to hand it to some social conservatives who are so sexually repressed they recoil at the word sex. I don’t know if Charles McVety of the Canada…
Ratinzger quits
As suprising (not) as Joe Ratzinger’s resignation today as Pope Benedict XVI may have been, he did the right thing. The Catholic Church is so dysfunctional that it’ll take years…
Stuff from Duff ™ (with apologies to Hilary and Hailey)
Mike Duffy, a supposedly neutral journalist and Ottawa pundit for nearly 30 years for both CBC and CTV before he became transparently neo-con and did everything he could on air…
Is it too much to demand a REAL Parliament?
As the House of Commons is now back in session, I have the following questions: Is it too much to ask that titles of bills and acts are as neutral…
Guest post: The Trudeau Paradox (Part Three)
In Part I of this essay, we discussed the origins of Quebec nationalism and how it developed into a desire by Francophone Quebecers to have their province recognized as a…
Guest post: The Trudeau Paradox (Part Two)
Part I of this essay discussed the origins of Quebec nationalism and the desire of Francophone Quebecers to have their province recognized as a “distinct society” within Canada. This desire…
Guest post: The Trudeau Paradox (Part One)
Once again I am happy to give over this space to Jared Milne, this time writing about the Trudeau factor. This article is in three posts. **** The results of…
Who’s the jack booted thug?
This new commercial from Wayne LaPierre of the NRA sets an all-time low. You can be absolutely sure that this ad would not have been made if Obama and his…
"Free to Be" — 40 years on
For what I think will be my last post of the year, I wanted to reflect on something I heard about a couple of weeks ago — the 40th anniversary…
Now we finally know the real price of milk, thanks to the teabags
We’re all familiar with the concept of a loss leader — a store will deliberately price key products to a price below cost, often way below cost. This is to…