On monstrous effects
One of my personal favourite villains in political theory is the "utility monster". In response to the utilitarian theory that we can simply sum up citizens' preferences to determine what…
Greg Fingas
On unwanted assistance
Shorter Harper PCO response to anybody requesting information it would prefer to pre-emptively classify as unavailable:Are you sure you want us to comply with the law on access to information?…
Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- John Crocker points out that the need for secure and sufficient pensions is only made all the more obvious by the abject failure of…
Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your long weekend.- Sixth Estate's evisceration of the Fraser Institute continues, this time with a response in substance to the claim that private-sector rent-seekers will somehow…
Hoarders: Corporate Cash Edition
One of the main issues of contention in the debate over continued corporate tax slashing has been the question of what the business sector will do with more free money.…
Sunday Morning ‘Rider Blogging
The start of the 'Riders' season is just around the corner, and there doesn't seem to be much doubt about the main areas of uncertainty for the team. But while…
Parliament In Review: June 16, 2011
While June 16 was a shortened day due to the NDP's weekend convention, it wasn't lacking for a few notes of interest.Issue of the DayWhile the Cons took the opportunity…
Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading.- Janice Kennedy highlights the consequences of turning back the clock 80 years when it comes to collective bargaining rights:In the world of Stephen Harper…
Musical interlude
Heatbeat - Trash
Juxtaposition
Stephen Harper describes his party's view of the type of environment needed for any industry to plan for the future and create jobs:“Protecting and creating jobs and ensuring economic growth…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Canada Day reading.- Oh, how nice it would be to be able to take pride in Dan Gardner's message about Canada's true identity:The level of civility…
On foreseeable futures
In posting about the DND's "First Look" at where Canada is headed, Mike DeSouza focuses on a seemingly throwaway sentence mentioning the Green Party. But the more striking part of…
Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Andrew Jackson points out and sums up a Statistics Canada study showing how much possible revenue is lost to the underground economy:Statscan have…
On needless aggression
While I wrote today's column before word came out about the Harper Cons' meddling in the negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW, it looks like the Cons' desire to provoke…
On political investments
Yes, there's plenty of reason for snark in response to the news that the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce will be (a) pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into this fall's…
New column day
Here, expanding on the hostile labour environment that's developing as federal and provincial governments alike use back-to-work legislation as a pre-emptive attack on workers. For further reading (which should be…
On selloffs
Sure, it takes some effort to pull a sweetheart deal out of the wreckage of AECL. But we probably shouldn't be surprised that the Cons seem to have pulled off…
Fund-Raising Review By Province – NDP
Following up on my previous post, let's take a look at the NDP's partial fund-raising numbers from 2007 to 2010. (I've kept the 2010 data in the chart as an…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Yes, plenty of attention is being paid to Canada's weak ranking when it comes to innovation. But it's well worth noting that the failure…