|
It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s who’s getting rich
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Jan 20 2011
… Conservatives and Liberals are arguing about the wrong thing. Instead of shouting about relatively minor economic variations, they could be demonstrating their seminal difference by detailing how they would respond to the growing income gap… Conservatives would more closely resemble what they are: a party that tilts toward trickle-down economics, provincial autonomy and libertarian values… Liberals still cling to an image of themselves as what they were: a party steeped in the belief government is a necessary catalyst for financial prosperity, national unity and social progress.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Voters have every right to punish politicians
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Oct 28 201
Public anger at politicians is driven more by disillusionment than ideology… the great political divide is no longer between right-leaning conservatives and left-leaning liberals. What now separates elites from the madding crowd is optimism and pessimism, secure pensions and vanishing jobs and, most of all, privileged access to a system that can be so profitably gamed… Growing in the vacuum created by lies, fraud and countless broken promises is the acidic judgment that parties are guided by self-interest and the powerful few who whisper in their ear.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Fear and loathing keeps voters tossing and turning
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Sep 30 2010
Destroying a public asset is political vandalism. But it’s even more destructive to pit belief against science in charting the nation’s course.
Pollsters find that Canadians, particularly the highly educated, increasingly grasp that dynamic and spot its danger. But many still miss that gutting the census is not a singular act. Largely lost in the shouting is that Conservatives are strangling the public’s right to know.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Forget the beaver, dumber Canada needs the ostrich
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Jul 22 2010
Reliable information opens the decision-making conduit that carries us safely from present to future… [The voluntary census decision] raises new questions about Conservative commitment to applying intellectual rigour to public policy. Expertise, the prime minister once publicly reminded his party, is as suspect as elites. Intuition and the nodding wisdom of next-door neighbours are to be trusted… Instead of protecting privacy, Conservatives are pandering to ignorance while cynically limiting the capacity of Canadians to follow facts to a logical conclusion.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Changing Canada, one backward step at a time
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
Jun 19 2010
Imagine a country that puts higher priority on building super-prisons than keeping people out of them… Imagine a country where parties that win the most federal seats are dismissed as “losers”… Imagine a country where party apparatchiks decide who in a nominally free press is allowed to ask the Prime Minister questions… Imagine a country where charities mute constructive criticism of public policy for fear of losing federal funding. That country is now this country… Conservatives came to power knowing reluctant Canadians could only be shifted to the political right incrementally. That movement is now advancing…
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Recent Comments