On the TSX-LSE Affair: A Modest Proposal
London: Canadians have received countless assurances that the deal to conjoin the TSX with the London Stock Exchange in a 45-55 deal will bestow only positive results on Toronto and…
James Laxer
Republicans Read the U.S. Constitution Aloud: A Pack of Tricks on the Dead
The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives began its control of that august body by reading aloud the Constitution of the United States. Democrats jointed them in the…
James Laxer Lecture: The Crash and After—Economic Choices for Canada
I will be delivering a lecture on Wednesday, January 5 from 4.00-6.00 p.m. in the Senior Common Room at Vanier College (Room 010 Vanier), York University. The lecture will deal…
Thanks Rob Ford: For Putting Toronto in touch with its Inner Detroit
Thanks to Rob, we’re an internal combustion city again, a city of the Great Lakes, up there with Buffalo and Cleveland, humming on the wheels of motor town, twinned with…
Harper’s Christmas Special: The Myth of How Fortress North America will boost Canadian Exports to the U.S.
Over the past quarter century, it has been a commonplace for right-wing continentalists to insist that without binding agreements between Canada and the United States, Canadian exports will be shut…
Guns: What the Proponents of Fortress North America Want You to Forget
The Canadian proponents of Fortress North America want you to think about the prospect of speedier passage across the Canada-U.S. border for goods and people. They propose that we “thin”…
MEET ROBMAN: TORONTO’S MAYOR IS A SUPERHERO
(This is the first in an occasional series on Robman, Toronto’s mayor, who dons a pink cape and flies into combat on behalf of taxpayers.) On the morning when he…
Stop Fortress North America: Don’t Let the Harper Government Make a Secret Deal with Washington
The Harper government is engaged in secret talks with the U.S. government to negotiate a sweeping Fortress North America security deal with Washington. For over a decade, Fortress North America…
Greed is Good: The Canadian Right Comes Into Its Own
Much though I hate to admit it, Canada’s right-wing has achieved a new maturity, self-confidence and ebullience. Gone are the days when right-wingers were little more than liberal wannabes who…
Korea: How Wars Can Start Between Countries Whose Leaders Don’t Want War
It is generally assumed that when a great war breaks out, at least one of the parties to the conflict wanted it. That assumption can be wildly wrong. None of…
Wake Up: Arbitrary Rule is All Around Us
We live in a dangerous, disordered time. The flashing signs are there to warn us that, both at home and abroad, those who are at the helm of the socio-political…
On Afghanistan: How about a Little Reality from the Opposition Parties?
The other day, in separate interviews, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar and Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae spoke to CBC News about the future of Canada’s mission in…
On Afghanistan: Harper’s Casual Betrayal of Canadians
Far away from home, while Parliament is not sitting, the Prime Minister of Canada announces that Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan will be extended beyond July 2011, the date when…
The Demagogic Right Plays a Tough Game in Tough Times
Two years after the great crash of 2008, an economic meltdown that exposed the forces of greed for what they are, the political right is more ferocious than ever. Having…
What should be on the Wider Agenda as Parliament meets?
Canadian politics has been reduced to a series of small battles in a static war as the parties jockey for position for the next federal election. As the politicians skirmish…