The empty chair of Tom Mulcair.
In a much condemned political schtick by actor-director Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention in 2012, he talked to an empty chair. The chair was supposed to represent President…
NDP
Stuff Still Happens, week 49: On the ‘lock her up’ chant, and the woman they DID lock up.
Last Saturday, the right-wing rabble rouser, Ezra Levant, roused the rabble just enough to host an anti-carbon tax rally at the Alberta legislature. The crowd of probably a few hundred…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Citizens for Public Justice laments the Libs’ and Cons’ joint effort to vote down the NDP’s push for a national anti-poverty strategy.…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – David MacDonald examines how Canada’s tax expenditures systematically favour higher-income individuals over the people who actually have a reasonable claim to public support:…
Tommy Douglas was a “macroeconomist”, not a “provincialist”!
A guest blog post from Mario Seccareccia, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa The NDP went through a roller coaster ride in 2015. It would seem that the party still…
Stuff Still Happens, week 48: Why we (sigh) need pipelines
This week, the Trudeau government approved two pipelines, and rejected one other. Trudeau is winning lavish praise for his bold, statesmanlike decision in some quarters, hyperbolic, end-of-the-world scorn from others.…
Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Frank writes that a progressive party can only expect to succeed if it places principles of equality and workers’ interests at the…
Does Wynne cry for liberalism?
Did you hear that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne got all teary at the Liberal Party gathering this past weekend? Not being there, are we to assume these were crocodile tears…
On decision points
Needless to say, it’s disappointing that there now doesn’t seem to be any prospect of a shift to a more proportional federal electoral system without a referendum. But the NDP’s…
New column day
Here, comparing the Conservative Party’s leadership race based on fear and division to the NDP’s which looks set to bring a progressive coalition together. For further reading…– Bob Hepburn also…
This shouldn’t be a surprise: Trudeaumania 2.0 fails to deliver in Medicine Hat
PHOTOS: Trudeaumania 1.0, the real thing, in 1968. Below: Trudeaumania 2.0, not nearly as effective, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, on Oct. 13, 2016. Below: Conservative by-election winner Glen Motz, Rudyard…
Stuff Still Happens, week 40: OK, now he CAN’T win
Even the Teflon Don can’t get out of this one. Everyone except his most fanatical supporters knows Trump is a pig, a boor, a crass, classless thug. Now we have…
Stuff Still Happens, week 38: Bulletin – Liberals like to $pend money
The Trudeau government, less than a year old, has certainly adopted well to governing. Like most governments, the Trudeau Liberals have found that there is a surprising amount of money…
How far Bill Davis’ party has fallen.
We can admit it now but could not when he was Premier of Ontario, Bill Davis is a decent guy. As much as he likes to pose as the bastion…
#ERRE Electoral Reform Committee in Regina
First Expert guests I watched presenting to the committee were unable to understand French question fired at them because they were not equipped with translation headphones. Nathan Cullen leaped up…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Andrew Jackson discusses how the rise of right-wing, prejudiced populism can be traced to the failures of global corporate governance. And Dani Rodrik…
Who should govern in times of significant disruption?
Chris Kutarna says this is the best time in history to be alive. We’re healthier, wealthier and better educated than at any other time in history…so why are we so…
Labouring against logic.
Pundits are asking if the New Democratic Party is a labour party? Frankly folks, if you do not know the answer, nobody in the party is ready to answer it…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Saqib Bhatti and Stephen Lerner point out that the struggle for power between labour and capital is far from over, and that the…