Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Marc Lee presents an alternative economic vision to the capital-first-and-only approach that currently serves as conventional wisdom. – Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson suggests five…
public services
Challenging capitalism: a 12-step program
Over a year ago, I posted “What are the Game Changers?“, an attempt at sparking some strategic thinking for the broader left. Now that we’ve had a month of Occupation,…
The Privatization of Social Housing
Last weekend, I spoke on a panel at the Annual Conference of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association. The panel was inspired in large part by the recent debate in Toronto…
One Way the Richest 1% Can Help the Other 99%
It’s often said that there aren’t enough rich people in Canada to make a real difference to fiscal policy and, in consequence, the rest of us. Yesterday Canadian Business’s annual…
Ontario NDP Platform: The Full Monty
Today, the Ontario NDP presented its comprehensive platform costing, including all policies announced during the election campaign. A popular theme among commentators has been that platform costings are unrealistic given…
The Ontario NDP Platform
Pollsters tell us that Ontario’s New Democrats may double their seat total in next month’s provincial election. It’s also entirely conceivable that they could be part of a coalition government…
On the Green Party platform.
Finally -- for now, at least, until the Tories and NDP release the rest of their platforms, and the Libs release anything at all -- I'm going to take a…
Mayor Ford: Lies, Stupidity and Statistics
I suppose that few people are in danger of suggesting that Rob Ford is the sharpest knife in the drawer, which makes it all the more unfortunate that he's swinging…
On the Ontario PCs’ platform
So, here we go with the Ontario PC Platform, the Changebook (warning: PDF). Or is that the Change Book? ChangeBook? I don't know, and I don't think they do, either.According...
On the Ontario PCs’ platform.
So, here we go with the Ontario PC Platform, the Changebook. Or is that the Change Book? ChangeBook? I don't know, and I don't think they do, either.According to this,…
On the Ontario NDP’s 2011 platform.
Okay. The Ontario NDP's platform. The Plan for Affordable Change (warning: PDF). Jeez, focus-group that name much? I'm splitting this into the four areas that the ONDP did in the…
Deconstructing BC’s carbon neutral government
Besides the carbon tax, one of the most important BC government climate action initiatives has been the adoption of Carbon Neutral Government. That is, count emissions from public buildings and…
Navigating challenging economic waters
Down south, the Obama administration is in a dangerous game of chicken with Republican congressional leaders, who are cynically holding the US economy hostage in order to impose a radical…
Federal Budget Refried
Was it worth the wait? Hardly. Today’s federal budget is about as appetizing as two month-old pizza warmed up in the microwave. I guess they deserve high marks for consistency,…
On Rob Ford.
IntroductionI'm not worried about Rob Ford becoming mayor of Toronto. And you shouldn't be either. Given what he's presented right now as part of his platform, over at his website,…
On cooperatives and housing.
I'll get back to my electoral series eventually, I swear. But I had this weird idea today and I wanted to spell it out. It's not an argument; more just…
On the new feudalism.
I was going to blog something about the CMA’s recent report on Canadian healthcare. But there’s really not much there that anyone could reasonably disagree with. More access to prescription…