Progressives and Regressives
Yesterday, in a short blogpost, Robert Reich put American politics and our own politics in perspective. The real battle, he wrote, is not between Liberal and Conservative. It is between…
Owen Gray
Taking The Harper Road
The NDP released its first real attack ad yesterday. It could have been produced in the Conservative war room — at least it looked a lot like what has come…
Has Justin Got "It?"
“It” can be defined a number of ways — intelligence, the common touch, gravitas. The main knock against Justin Trudeau is that he doesn’t have what “it” takes to be…
They Don’t Get It
David Olive wrote last week that there are three things this generation of world leaders doesn’t get: The first point is that this is no run-of-the-mill industrial recession. This is…
A Mean Place Gets Meaner
Tondra MacCharles reports this morning that, in Canada’s prisons, the number of violent assaults is on the rise: Over the past three years, ending March 31, 2012, the total number…
Stiglitz on Inequality
In Canada, there has not been much comment on an op-ed piece which Joseph Stiglitz published in The Washington Post two weeks ago. Stiglitz examines American economic policy over the…
Confidence Men
On July 4th, while the Americans were setting off fire works and putting out forest fires, Jeffrey Simpson reports that Conservative cabinet ministers were crisscrossing the country, making spending announcements:…
Too Smart To Stick Around
Pundits of all political stripes were expecting Stephen Harper to shuffle his cabinet this summer. Bev Oda left the cabinet yesterday and Julian Fantino replaced her. The shuffle was a…
A Cold Lay Up
Micheal Harris continues to chronicle the demise of the Experimental Lakes Area. A poll conducted by Forum Research has revealed that “a whopping 50 percent of Canadians disagreed with the…
Economic Royalists
In today’s Toronto Star, Linda McQuaig takes on the debt-mongers — provincial and federal. They argue that we can’t afford Ontario Place: Dalton McGuinty’s government tries to convince us we…
Who Speaks For Canadians?
Over the weekend, Conrad Black ventured the opinion that Canada’s “almost slavish veneration” of the UN was coming to an end. Calling the recent Human Rights Council criticism of Quebec’s…
Canada Day 2012
Back when I taught high school students — it seems like such a long time ago — I used to proclaim that, were I king, I would make a cross…
Something To Celebrate
Robert Reich called it right — although he was one vote short. The day before the Supreme Court found the Affordable Care Act constitutional, he predicted that John Roberts would…
A Convocation of Dunces
Peter Mackay — or rather his spokesman — crowed yesterday, after the Military Police Complaints Commission released its report: “ one more investigation demonstrating that no credible evidence was found…
Killing The ELA
Forty-four years ago, the federal government established the Experimental Lakes Area. Peter Kent has announced that his ministry is eliminating the agency. Michael Harris reports that the ELA has a…
Appealing To Our Better Angels
It is hard to predict the future of the Liberal Party of Canada. Richard Gwyn wrote yesterday that Bob Rae’s decision to not seek the party leadership has made it…
The Problem With Cheerleaders
Yesterday, Tim Harper speculated about who would stay in and who would be tossedout of Stephen Harper’s cabinet. To qualify for Harper’s cabinet, you have to be a cheerleader. But…
Power and Stupidity
Yesterday, Dan Gardiner repeated Lord Acton’s famous maxim: Power corrupts. But power does more than that, he wrote. It encourages stupidity. The Harper government’s omnibus budget bill is a case…
Something Rotten
It goes without saying that a lot hangs on the Supreme Court’s review of Justice Lederer’s decision to rerun the election in Etobicoke-Centre. Some claim that it’s only a matter…
The World Is Watching
Philip Jennings has Stephen Harper’s number. Jennings, the General Secretary of the Switzerland based UNI Global Union, recently told the Huffington Post that: Stephen Harper is a male version of…