While I can of course see the rationale for strategic voting, there is much to be said for voting with one’s conscience. When we consistently choose the lesser of two…
The ongoing attacks on net neutrality constitute a new round of enclosures of the modern commons. If the original enclosure movements during 16th and 17th centuries in England signified the…
Yesterday I lifted my head from some work to watch the Ottawa journalists in Twitter filling us all in on John Baird’s first press conference as the majority Conservative government’s…
Harper has appointed three senate seats from among his party. Here is the kicker: these people just lost their election campaigns to be MP's. Opposed to supporting democratic influences it…
I’ve already written about how much I’m looking forward to COPE’s Re:Imagine Schools event tonight. I’ll be live-blogging the event as well. You can scroll down to watch or participate…
I know what’s in a name. Soon, everyone will. We’ll have a long time with this new Harper Government. Bets are now on in terms of what he’ll name the…
As long as I have been involved in the Liberal Party, it has been my conviction that for all its strengths, its one fundamental weakness has been an unhealthy obsession…
Before Parliament even resumes Cabinet Ministers are issuing decrees to Parliamentary committees:"Industry Minister Tony Clement said Thursday he will ask oil industry refiners, distributors and retailers to appear before a…
Well, the first thing we can do is carve out some time to ponder, imagine, dream, inhale, exhale, chat, brainstorm, breathe some more, and forget for a minute that we’ve…
The Center for Urban Pedagogy's latest issue of Making Policy Public takes you behind the scenes of the largely invisible redistricting process in which politicians often get to choose their…
A word association test: If handed a federal election ballot that displays a candidate's name beside the "PC Party" label - what do you make of that? Some may mistakenly…
We have just witness an election which while historic in many ways was not one of any significance in terms of a discussion of actual issues or policies. The political…
After its crushing defeat on May 2nd, the Liberal party has some considerable soul searching to do. Not least among its problems is the task that has recently proved most…
I initially had a vague plan for this post but have decided to go with whatever comes to mind to create an election commentary medley of sorts. Actually, it more…
The Canadian federal general election has come and gone and from what I can gather most Canadians are pretty well satisfied with the results: a majority government, the centre left…
In his new job as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, Jack Layton has pledged to “fix Ottawa.” I’ve taken this to mean he will lead by example in hope…
Dear Wise Races of the United Kingdom of Middle Earth, Please forgive a humble Hobbit for bothering you but I just wanted to write about an urgent matter of democracy.…
While NDP supporters might be celebrating last night’s election results, the reality is that it was an umitigated disaster for Canada. The Tory majority will mean more tax breaks for…
Leaving all policy discussion aside, one of the most disheartening aspects of the last five years of minority government under Harper has been a consistent erosion of the adversarial process…
