Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Ian Urquhart writes that while it's well and good to insist that the oil and gas industry stop attempting to greenwash its contribution to…
fraser institute
Minimum wage increases, job destroyers or job creators?
AAccording to MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu, a bountiful supply of good jobs is the best way to generate shared prosperity and also to cultivate civic and political participation from…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Francesco Pierri et al. study the roots of COVID-19 vaccine denialism, with misinformation becoming more and more prevalent as the pandemic continues. And…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Julia Doubleday writes that we shouldn’t accept spin from any party which attempts to minimize the unacceptable dangers of exposing children to a…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Stephen Long writes that one of the key economic symptoms of the coronavirus pandemic has been to push people into underemployment. And CBC…
That rumble you hear is the sound of the Shock Doctrine artillery softening up Alberta for austerity on steroids
In trench warfare, before the shock troops go over the top, the artillery softens up the defenders with a barrage at the point of the attack. In the midst of…
Corporate welfare
Despite newspapers being longtime supporters of Fraser Institute teachings that call for reduced public spending, they are now more than happy to get in line for corporate welfare. That’s not…
Appointment of conservative economist Jack Mintz to head Jason Kenney’s latest economic panel is not a good augury for Alberta
Come into my office, Alberta, and sit down. I’m sorry to have to tell you that your prognosis is not good. I’m not talking about coronavirus. That will be painful,…
The ‘War Room’ finally launches: $30-million and all we got was this lousy website?
The mighty voice of Alberta’s beleaguered oil industry, the long promised and much-touted $30-million “Energy War Room,” stumbled out of the starting gate yesterday after a news conference in Calgary…
Regardless of Tyler Shandro’s promises, private clinics won’t shorten surgical wait times — they’ll make them longer
Using private medical clinics to remedy long wait times for surgeries in Alberta’s public health care system, as the United Conservative Party Government says it expects to do, is about…
What’s with the United Conservative Party’s emerging fury at nurses, of all people?
What’s with the sudden hate on for nurses by United Conservative Party supporters? It comes from somewhere. Your average UCP internet troll doesn’t just come up with this stuff on…
‘How can we help you bust your union?’ Alberta Government launches ‘employee support program’
The Government of Alberta launched its promised “Employee Labour Relations Support Program” yesterday. Apparently they’ll not only tell you how to certify a union, they’ll tell you how to decertify…
Where’s the crisis austerity is supposed to fix? Not necessarily in the numbers the government’s consultant crunched
In the decade between 2008 and last year, the number of civil servants in Alberta on a per capita basis fell by 5 per cent. In the same period, Alberta’s…
‘Blue-Ribbon Panel’ report sets stage for full-blown austerity, private health care, soaring tuition and much more
The recommendations of the Kenney Government’s “blue-ribbon panel” on Alberta’s finances yesterday went further over the top than you’d even have expected from a report ginned up by a couple…
Why Canadian media won’t call post-Brexit protests ‘pro-democracy demonstrations’
If there are riots in Britain after the hard Brexit Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party cronies have scheduled for Halloween, will mainstream media in Canada describe them…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Larry Elliott writes that a corporate-centred model of globalization is unlikely to survive the Trump regime. And Jeff Spross proposes an alternative…
Taxes buy civilization
Neoliberalism has brought us extreme concentrations of wealth and power and a society governed by and for the rich. The Guardian reports America’s three wealthiest billionaires—Bezos, Gates and Buffett—have as…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Steven Greenhouse discusses how the U.S.’ economy is rigged against workers. And Eric Levitz writes that Donald Trump’s giveaway to the rich worked…
Regardless of Jason Kenney’s tweets, the Corporate Mapping Project is uncovering data of value to citizens
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has a well-known propensity to blame Justin Trudeau for things that were done by Stephen Harper, as the debate over who is responsible for the time…
Right-wing news outlet “True North” posts misleading vaccination statistics
True North, a conservative-leaning news site, has published a highly misleading article that seems to attempt to undermine vaccine effectiveness. It’s actually kind of shocking how bad it is. Putting…