Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nathalie Schwab et al. study the results of autopsies, and find that COVID-19 appears to be the actual cause of death even for…
Mandatory Voting
Electoral Reform Committee Launches Cross-Canada Public Consultation Tour
On Monday September 19, 2016, the Special Committee on Electoral Reform launched its cross-Canada tour to consult Canadians on the best alternative to replace the current anti-democratic first-past-the-post system. The…
10 ways to Renew Democracy in Alberta
The first law created by Alberta’s New Democratic Party government’s after its election win in 2015 was Bill 1: An Act to Renew Democracy in Alberta, which banned corporate and…
Should America Make Voting Mandatory?
So US President Obama recently suggested that making voting mandatory. There are multiple reasons for this, one being that the people who don’t vote are more likely to be low…
Star Readers And Mandatory Voting
In response to a recent column by Susan Delacourt discussing mandatory voting, Star readers weigh in with their usual perspicacious observations, the majority in favour of a less radical solution…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Gerald Caplan suggests that Rogers and Bell might be ripe for nationalization – though it’s also worth pointing out that we don’t have…
Time To Revisit The Question Of Mandatory Voting?
In her column today, Susan Delacourt suggests that it is. While my own opposition to mandatory voting, the reasons for which I outlined in an earlier post, remains unchanged, she…
Mandatory Voting Works, That’s the Problem
After election night concessions and congratulations are done, the news inevitably reports on the low voter turnout. Ontario’s recent election actually featured an increase in voter turnout for the first…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Globe and Mail joins the chorus calling for Canada to welcome more citizens, rather than exploiting cheap and disposable workers. But…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot writes that contrary to the theory that wealth is a precondition to environmental standards, increased consumption tends to correlate to…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom writes that the Cons’ economic prescriptions are doomed to fail because they’re based on a fundamental misdiagnosis: (T)hat half of…
Mandatory Voting And Social Cohesion
The Toronto Star recently featured the 2013 Atkinson Series: Me, You, Us, journalist and author Michael Valpy’s investigation into social cohesion in Canada — what binds us together, what pulls…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Michael Katz looks back at how the U.S. abandoned its poor – and how that choice continues to affect people across the income…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – As we approach the anniversary of Jack Layton’s death, Tom Mulcair discusses some of the lessons he learned from his predecessor as…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Toby Sanger discusses how wealthy Canadians – especially in the financial sector – are making more and more use of offshore tax havens…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Pamela Palmater discusses how the Cons’ push to monetize First Nations reserves ultimately looks to be little more than another giveaway to the…
Let’s Take a Page from Australia and Demand Voter Participation
I was nudged into writing this via an article written by Bill Tieleman who, as his Tyee bio reports is a regular Tyee contributor who writes a column on B.C.…