Archive for the ‘Governance History’ Category
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Thursday, January 23rd, 2014
He was lauded for being part of the Liberal government that, 50 years ago, worked to build and expand the great social programs of the 20th century. These included federally funded welfare, medicare and what is now called employment insurance. Then he was lauded for decimating these same social programs when, as prime minister during the 1990s, he slashed spending in order to eliminate the federal deficit… As current party leader Justin Trudeau joked — quoting Chrétien — Liberals keep their wallets in their right-hand pockets and their hearts on the left.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, tax
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Sunday, December 29th, 2013
… it is often assumed that our identity rests upon a higher tax burden vis-à-vis the United States. Actually, the historical record is that Canada’s identity was originally found in an attachment to limited government, moderate taxes, and more robust desire for British liberty in contrast to the United States… Theirs was a classic liberal world, in which the role of the state was to protect the citizen from government and to provide basic services, albeit defined rather narrowly.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
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Monday, October 7th, 2013
The book begins with social history: the emergence of a prosperous Canada in the 1950s, which signalled the decline of the citizen-voter and the rise of the consumer-taxpayer — a very different kind of political animal… A series of pollsters and ad men became critical to both parties’ election strategies; each had its own increasingly sophisticated approach… Then the ad men began to shape the parties themselves, tuning them to appeal to tightly-defined segments rather than remain big-tent organizations.
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
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Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
The idealism of Harper’s words foreshadowed how he would seek to change Canada a quarter-century later. But it also stood in partial contrast to the politics Harper eventually practised – defined at times by compromise, secrecy and hardedged partisanship… he is basically a smallgovernment conservative. Free enterprise, free markets, personal freedom. A classical liberal in that sense.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, rights, tax
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Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
July 21, 2012
… referendums aren’t just an aspect of Swiss democracy, they’re its most distinctive, beloved element. On a national level they’re usually held four times a year, with multiple items each time. On cantonal (provincial) or local levels, they’re even more common… there, voting happens constantly. Not just voting, but weighing and debating. “The whole society is in a constant state of discussion… The process has a moderating rather than radicalizing influence, leading to what’s called a negotiation or consensus democracy
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
Jun. 05 2012
He lamented the centralization of power in the Prime Minister’s Office, and the erosion of the importance and independence of standing committees “that used to be a real element of democracy in the House of Commons.” He condemned the Conservative’s omnibus budget bill, reminding the audience that “the budget used to be related to taxation,” and arguing the government’s strategy is to hamper debate. He also cited the inheritance of Magna Carta, the charter of liberties, that a rulers’ will is not arbitrary, and that the privileges of parliamentarians need to be protected.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance History | 4 Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2012
May 31 2012
Viewers can make character judgments with relative ease, but most don’t have the time to wade through a 65-page Conservative platform and compare details with the other two major parties. Nightly newscasts should set aside time each day during the campaign period to compare various policy planks, displacing the gladiatorial contest between party leaders… Instead of daily national popularity tracking, news organizations could commission “deliberative polling,” where a large representative sample of the population is informed about a subject and then questioned about their opinion… Media organizations must adopt a democratic ethic or falter as a crucial civic link in this geographically vast and ideationally sonorous country.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
Apr. 16, 2012
Many things contributed to the Charter’s central role in our constitutional democracy. At least three were counterintuitive: The notwithstanding clause… The three-year moratorium on equality rights… [and] The Court Challenges Program… Led by the Supreme Court, the Canadian judiciary has defined its proper place in constitutional governance. First assertive and willing to undertake substantive review of legislation, it has set a predictable framework for acceptable limitations on rights and avoided an adversarial relationship with Parliament, preferring dialogue to confrontation.
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living
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Sunday, January 29th, 2012
Jan. 28, 2012
Mr. Rae is one of the people “driving this vision” of the party as an engaged, open network that reaches out across all kinds of channels to build community and draw young people into a real discussion about ideas. “The party needs a leader who understands this generation, their culture, their modus operandi… as a self-defined “recovering politician,” he developed a reputation for taking on difficult issues: the Air India bombing, the restructuring of the Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the crisis at Burnt Church and nation-building in the Forum of Federations.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living, youth
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Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
16 Jan. 2012
Canadian governments pre-Harper actually balanced their promotion of corporate interests… That practice, where no budget was ever presented to Parliament before being vetted by the most powerful CEOs in the country, effectively ended when Stephen Harper became prime minister… It might have something to do with the fact that they can’t buy favours anymore, with the new election financing rules. But actually, it goes back 20 years to the formation of the Reform Party… Not only was Alberta the most “free market” province of all, it was the one that resisted most vigorously the social democratic state that evolved in the 1960s.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Governance History | 2 Comments »
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