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Harper is right: Foreign radicals are after the oil sands
Monday, May 28th, 2012
May. 26, 2012
The perfect archetypes of the 1 per cent, the Kochs now fund everything from the government-hating Tea Party to the far right wing of the Republican Party, to a vast labyrinth of think tanks, foundations, not-for-profits and political front groups. All are designed with two related objectives: to oppose any government regulation that limits the unrestricted operations of the oil industry, the basis of their fortune, and to discredit climate science and clean energy while denying global warming… Since the Canadian Revenue Agency is busy hunting down non-profits who are abusing their charitable status, it will no doubt be interested in the $1.7-million the Fraser Institute received from “sources outside Canada,” nearly 16 per cent of its funding.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Update on the class war: 1% winning, 99% regrouping
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
May. 12, 2012
… there’s far more wealth in Canada today than ever before. Per capita GDP is 50 per cent higher (adjusting for inflation) than 30 years ago. Yet most of that wealth has been transferred to the richest Canadians through tax cuts and government subsidies. Since 1980, the ultra-rich have increased their share of the national income from 8.1 per cent to 13 per cent, a shift of $67-billion. Here’s a strange coincidence. The combined federal and provincial deficits now run at about $65-billion annually.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Be very afraid: Stephen Harper is inventing a new Canada
Sunday, January 1st, 2012
Dec. 16, 2011
It’s in the nature of true believers and ideologues to believe that any means to their sacred ends are justified. This makes them extremely dangerous people. It’s also typical of such people that they’re often motivated by unfathomable resentment and anger, a compulsion not just to better but to destroy their adversaries. These are good descriptions of Stephen Harper and those closest to him… A central tenet of the new reality is the repudiation of the need for anything as irrelevant as evidence, facts or rationality whenever they are inconvenient.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The world after 9/11: Naomi Klein prevails again
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Sep. 09, 2011
The objective of the economic class war has always been simplicity itself: inequality, the greater the better. And it’s working like a charm. In the United States, and to a growing extent in Canada, it is now politically impossible ever to discuss the need to raise taxes, even on the filthy rich, in order to sustain any kind of positive government… While the middle class shrinks, the working class slips backwards and social mobility erodes, the rich buy themselves politicians, lobbyists, legal beagles, slick accountants, “trained economists,” television networks, “think” tanks and whatever other apparatus is needed to make them even richer.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Stephen Harper’s worst enemy
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Feb. 18, 2011
Look at Stephen Harper’s record. He silences whistle-blowers and punishes dissenters. He treats Parliament with open contempt and brazenly lies when found out. He suspends Parliament at the first sign of political risk. He makes a mockery of the accountability and transparency he loudly demands of everyone else. He makes lying to parliament just another tactical device. He fakes his budgets by refusing to cost new initiatives…
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Daycare: the plot to steal your child’s mind
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Feb. 11, 2011
How do we account for this weird conservative antipathy to something as sensible, practical and non-ideological as ECE? … Many Conservatives… simply have an irrational hatred of ECE, a delusional certainty that its purpose is evil, and a paranoid fear of its impact on their children… The consequences of this blind conviction is to severely penalize millions of Canadians desperate for assistance with childcare…
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Some pigs are more equal than others
Sunday, December 12th, 2010
Dec. 10, 2010
The Spirit Level… makes a good case for the “pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness and encouraging excessive consumption.” For each of eleven different health and social issues – physical and mental well-being, education, imprisonment, obesity, social mobility, trust and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies and child well-being – greater inequality is a substantial risk factor.
Tags: featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
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