Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell writes that NAFTA and subsequent trade agreements are designed to make it difficult for democratic governments to exercise any meaningful authority.…
Privatization
Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It's FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete…
Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete…
Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It's FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete…
Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete…
How to Excuse Your Child from the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)
Well, it’s that time again: Foundation Skills Assessment in BC. There are so many things wrong with the FSA tests. I won’t go into them here, but you can read…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Sam Pizzigati interviews Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett about the fight against inequality and the next piece of the puzzle to be…
On limited victories
Truly, I wish Andrew Coyne’s latest actually described policy-making in Canada, and not merely the state of theoretical political debate. But in fact, we live in a country where “let’s…
Beyond social democracy: new institutions, new subjects
So many of the debates on the contemporary left come back to the legacy of social democracy. The Swedish experience came closest to fulfilling social democratic ideals in the post-war…
No to pipelines, yes to Site C?
Peace River Valley No to pipelines, yes to Site C? Here’s a piece I wrote for Ricochet after getting riled up by *some* of the arguments against Site C. The…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mariana Mazzucato comments on the role of the innovative state – and the unfortunate reality that we currently lack anything of the sort…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Kevin Page points out a few of the issues which should be on the table when Canada’s finance ministers meet next week:…
The Ontario Auditor’s damning report on P3s
The Ontario Auditor General’s 2014 Report includes a chapter on Infrastructure Ontario’s P3 program that is particularly damning–and corresponds with many of the criticisms made on this blog and elsewhere…
Some thoughts starting from a Fraser Institute graph
I’ve been meaning to post something on a chart from a Fraser Institute report for a while but slept on it. The chart comes from Fraser’s annual Consumer Tax Report…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Wray Herbert examines Lukasz Walasek and Gordon Brown’s work on the psychological links between inequality, status-seeking and reduced well-being. And Linda McQuaig…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Scott Clark and Peter DeVries remind us that any fiscal problems Canada has faced under the Cons have been entirely of Stephen Harper’s…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Will Hutton compares the alternative goals of either shrinking government to the point where it does nothing or harnessing it to meet everybody’s…
Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Walden Bello discusses the need for our political system to include constant citizen engagement, not merely periodic elections to determine who will be…
Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Reviewing Darrell West’s Billionaires, Michael Lewis discusses how extreme wealth doesn’t make anybody better off – including the people fighting for position…