|
Modest country, ambitious leader [John A. Macdonald]
Monday, October 31st, 2011
Oct 22 2011
Macdonald didn’t believe in progress — in this sense he wasn’t a Victorian… Whether Conservative or Liberal, no government enacted any social legislation in Ottawa until a half-century later, in 1927. Macdonald believed that human nature did not change; by logical extension, there was therefore no point in trying to make the world a better place.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
The centre cannot hold
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
May 03 2011
A core truth about contemporary politics is that a good many Canadians are fully prepared to see the welfare state significantly reduced. So we are back to old-style, left-right politics. Our debates are going to be a lot more impassioned, and angrier, than they’ve been in years. It’ll be less nice, even less Canadian. But it will be more real.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Economic woes a sign of decline
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
Oct 22 2010
… almost overnight, government is being seen as a potential source of national bankruptcy rather than the source of national prosperity… [due to] huge budget deficits… the solution of deep spending cuts, even if correct, itself creates a whole new problem. Less government spending means less economic activity and, as a consequence, less tax revenue and so a larger deficit… the Japan Syndrome… it responded to hard times by cutting back and got itself locked into a straitjacket of slow growth, high unemployment, low tax revenues and, as a consequence of all that, a high debt.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Recent Comments