From Astroturf To Corporate Shill (The Ontario Proud Story)
“No massive donors. It’s not like one group or another. Small businesses, a lot of people giving $100, $200, or $300, that kind of thing,” Jeff Ballingall on Ontario Proud’s…
Doug Ford
When compromise is the problem.
Nobody should celebrate too soon about the compromise solution to paying Ontario’s doctors. After more than four years of arguments, back-stabbing and threats, nobody is particularly happy. The three-member arbitration…
‘Free votes’ on ‘matters of conscience’ may seem incongruous for a guy like Jason Kenney, but then again, maybe not …
Last Thursday, presumably hoping to distract from the NDP’s launch of an advertising campaign illuminating the dark side of Jason Kenney, the United Conservative Party leader announced a passel of…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Marshall Shepherd writes that the U.S. is facing a true national emergency in the form of climate breakdown. And Michelle Goldberg theorizes…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Chris Jackson presents a new Ipsos survey showing that the majority of American workers face stress issues at work. And Arthur White-Crumley…
Ford Follies.
This entertainment is settling in for a long run. Ontario premier Doug Ford and his ensemble are enjoying their reviews. You cannot help but compare the show to the old…
‘Super-agencies,’ been there; done that.
Health care in Ontario is a machine of many parts. It seems the Ford government wants to start collecting those parts into one super agency. The only problem with this…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Eric Holthaus writes that the Green New Deal which looks to be at the centre of Democratic policy development offers an important opportunity…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Iglika Ivanova discusses how British Columbia can move toward eliminating poverty in its next budget. – Patrick Maze points out the need…
‘Dirty Thirties’ solutions for Ford.
Ontario premier Doug Ford must admire the past. His government keeps reaching back in time to the solutions of the 1930s. The latest is to return to those times when…
Election 2019 and the Con Carbon Tax Deniers
As everybody knows Andrew Scheer and his climate change denying Cons are on a crusade to try to destroy the Liberal government's carbon tax plan.A tax Scheer blames for everything,…
The Long Con And The Overton Window
I have been thinking a lot lately about the Overton window. I am beginning to apply it to long term strategy being employed by Conservative thinkers/politicians in Canada, what I…
Doug Ford and the Whack-A-Mole Farce
He's only been in office for just over seven months, but already Doug Ford is the worst Premier Ontario has ever known.He clearly doesn't know what he's doing, and to…
Who Is Andrew Scheer? Lesson #1
I was having a conversation with a good friend that I worked with in politics (names are hidden to protect the innocent) years ago, he is still fairly plugged in…
Lies, hyperbole and alt truths.
What has happened to politics? And what has happened to the decency that it used to have? We all know that U.S. president Donald Trump creates his own truths but…
Brown bounces back.
This is not a contrite political Patrick Brown bragging about his comeback from being a nobody. This is a brazen Brown bragging that he has bested the best. Comfortably ensconced…
Doug Ford backs down on attacking Greenbelt protections.
It appears that there was a lot of blowback to this plan over the Christmas holidays to Conservative MPP’s. Good – it was a terrible idea: The Ford government is…
Ford follows Forrest.
Remember the famous line from the blockbuster film: Forrest Gump? It was “Stupid is as stupid does.” The point was that stupid people keep on doing stupid things because that…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Christo Aivalis discusses the lessons the Canadian progressive movement should take from the emergence of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders in shaping the…
Jason Kenney’s domestic arrangements: A wonkish look at how MPs identify their primary and secondary residences
Members of the Canadian Parliament like Jason Kenney in the days he was MP for Calgary Midnapore are permitted to charge expenses for a secondary residence, either in the National…