Liberal Leadership Races Through History: Prologue
George Brown helped found both the Liberal Party and the Globe & Mail. Brown may very well have been the first-ever “anonymous Liberal insider”. Between now and the Liberal leadership…
history
rest in peace: jack layton after passage of historic 2008 motion on iraq war resisters
In a few days, on August 22, it will be the one-year anniversary of Jack Layton’s untimely death. I want to share one my most enduring memories of Jack. It…
Dis-honouring Our Homemade Monsters
Here’s a headline from CBC online today, talking about a sticker campaign to point out the hypocrisy of naming things after history’s deviates. In this case, the target is former…
What To Expect When You’re Electing: Representative Paul Ryan
Ryan Romney.jpg With the selection of Wisconsin Republican Representative Paul Ryan has his running mate, Mitt Romney has effectively pushed his campaign into the climate change denying fringe. While Romney…
marxism 2012 program notes: the 1965 postal workers strike
One of the best talks I attended at this year’s Marxism Conference was given by my friend Pam Johnson. I know little about Canadian labour history; my knowledge of labour…
Harper Determined to Erase Pierre Trudeau From Public Consciousness
No doubt, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are determined to create a Canadian nationalism that is both socially conservative and loyal to the British Empire. Their key strategy is to…
what i’m reading: invisible man meets the zombies of zone one
I’m in the middle of reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, now removed from the Famous Books I Haven’t Read Yet list. The novel is an exploration of African-American identity in…
wmtc 2012-07-24 10:00:00
Happy Birthday, Amelia.
rtod: a town without poverty. it happened in canada.
Revolutionary thought of the day: Initially, the Mincome program was conceived as a labour market experiment. The government wanted to know what would happen if everybody in town received a…
rtod
Revolutionary thought of the day: There are limits to how far a people can be pushed. And if violence continues to be the preferred mechanism for control, if the state…
Google Street View Circa 1907
It seems Google didn’t invent Street View The idea was 100 years old when it first started to become popular on the Internet! Behold Vancouver, street view from 1907 Barcelona,…
rotd
Revolutionary thought of the day: Pick up Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front or James Jones’s From Here to Eternity. Read Henry IV. Turn to the Iliad.…
happy 100th, woody guthrie
Thank you, Woody Guthrie. Wish you were here.
Wisconsin v. Yoder Redux? MN Amish Citizens Revolt Against Frac Sand Mining
shutterstock_83010019.jpg "History," the old adage goes, "repeats itself." And this is precisely the reason why we learn it. read more
jason kenney gets his wish: the anglicising of canadian citizenship
In some of the best work I’ve ever done for this blog, I compared “Discover Canada,” the Harper Government’s new Citizenship Guide, to its predecessor, “A Look at Canada,” which…
Canada Day – The Weekend That Was
So, as we all know (unless you’re not from Canada, in which case, learn about other countries already!) this past weekend we celebrated the 145th birthday of our great nation.…
Has Centralization of Power to the PMO Put Canadian Democracy on Life Support?
Don Lenihan has a must-read column up today, on how centralization of power to the Prime Minister’s office over the past several decades has atrophied the connection Canadians — especially…
Random Links
Here are some links sitting in the drafts that I never got around to writing background for. Enjoy them, out of context. Fantino dox get no comment from UBS. Speaking…
Follow Friday – Old Toronto Beer Tour – #FF
Mmmmm…frothy Beer! So, last weekend our esteemed Movie Monday videographer and I got to do something super awesome: we went on the “Old Toronto Beer Tour“. Now, I should start…
every war in history has had resisters, even the war of 1812
It’s the 200th anniversary of The War of 1812, and the government would like us to remember that. Here’s something you might not find in the official story: not everyone…