Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading.- Jacqueline Davidson offers a personal account of the experience of living in poverty, including the need to rely on charity to make up…
public participation
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Mariana Mazzucato discusses the futility of slashing government without paying attention to what it's intended to accomplish. And Sheila Block and Kaylie Tiessen are…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robert Reich writes about the growing disconnect between the few well-connected people who have warped our political and economic systems for their…
New column day
Here, on the opportunity posed by the change in Canada’s federal government – as well as the risks involved in letting the moment pass without an activist push for meaningful…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your election day reading. – Ed Finn discusses how neoliberalism is damaging Canada, and what we need to do to reverse its influence: Corporate influence on federal…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Branko Milanovic answers Harry Frankfurt’s attempt to treat inequality as merely an issue of absolute deprivation by reminding us how needs are inherently…
On governing alternatives
As David Climenhaga points out, Brad Wall has positioned himself as the heir to Stephen Harper’s throne as the voice of the anti-democratic corporate elite. But let’s note that Wall…
On closed-door decisions
Memo to Don Lenihan: It’s well and good to point to past backroom policy debacles such as utterly unwanted Crown corporation giveaways as examples of a complete lack of public…
On first steps
Dru Oja Jay, David Bush and Doug Nesbitt, Graham Steele and Karl Nerenberg have already offered their suggestions on the first steps for Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP government (and the…
New column day
Here, on how the massive shift in public opinion against the Conservatives’ terror bill should remind us that people are more than willing to reconsider their initial position on a…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – George Monbiot opines that curbing corporate power is the most fundamental political issue we need to address in order to make progress possible…
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…
New column day
Here, on how personal and institutional stress make it more difficult for people to defend their interests – and on the need to respond to political strategies increasingly aimed at…
On inspiring action
The NDP’s first National Day of Action last weekend looks to have received virtually no media attention despite involving numbers of participants comfortably within the range of similarly-timed conventions and…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Justin Fox questions whether traditional studies tracking the distribution of wealth by quintiles do much good when the most obvious economic faultline is…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David MacDonald studies the effect of the Cons’ income-splitting scheme, and finds that it’s oriented purely toward funnelling money toward the top…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – George Monbiot criticizes the UK Cons’ latest effort to outlaw any form of individual action or expression which might intrude upon the…
Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Polly Toynbee discusses how the public shares in the responsibility for a political class oriented toward easily-discarded talking points rather than honest discussion:…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Diane Coyle offers a preview of Thomas Piketty’s upcoming book on inequality – featuring a prediction that absent some significant public policy intervention,…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Susan FitzGerald reports on new research that growing up in poverty has a significantly more damaging effect on a child’s development than…