A public inquiry is clearly needed to establish how the Duffy payoff was orchestrated — which is essential for democratic accountability of the Harper government.
Instead, Harper is leaving the matter to be privately reviewed by Mary Dawson, whom he appointed ethics commissioner.
Harper is counting on Dawson being willing to believe — along with perhaps a handful of Canadians — that Nigel Wright acted entirely alone and purely out of generosity.
===============================
JEFFREY SIMPSON May 29, 2013
Conservatives have been sailing close to the wind
The reaction to the Senate affair is typical of the way Mr. Harper’s government does politics – indeed, government. Hunker down, deny, blame the media, give out as little information as possible, try to ride out the storm. But under no circumstances provide a full and fair accounting of what happened.
Canadians can see this attitude on display every day in the way the government spends money for partisan purposes through television advertisements at the public’s expense, the vicious attack ads levelled at leaders of other political parties, the use of MPs’ household mails for similar attacks, the constant spin-doctoring, the roundhouse swings at opponents in civic society, the attacks on “lickspittle” media.
Canada has moved over time from a friendly dictatorship (to borrow a phrase) to elements of a thugocracy.
Read more.
======================
Is Harper out of gas?
When I was a speech writer in Ottawa, part of my job was “stakeholder relations.”
If my boss was slated to speak to some constituency of Canadians — unionized workers, perhaps, or community health nurses, or farmers, or Jews — I was dispatched in advance to find out what his audience wanted to hear. My task was to listen, then to draft a speech for my boss that would make clear that I had.
Every political organization does this. Some do so successfully, as when the federal NDP wooed soft sovereigntist support in Quebec before the last election. Others try and fail — a recent Liberal habit.
But no political party in Canada has ever been so scrupulous, so systematic, in its relationships with stakeholders as Stephen Harper’s Conservatives...
Read more.
===============================================================
LAWRENCE MARTIN
Brains aren’t everything, but these PMs had them
So who were the big brains? Who among our prime ministers were the most cerebrally gifted?
In last week’s column, I raised a few eyebrows with my observation that Pierre Trudeau and Stephen Harper had the sharpest minds of the PMs of the past century. Some respondents agreed, while others took serious exception to the Harper ranking, asking how I could possibly say that someone who governed like an autocratic bully had such a smart mind. The two, of course, aren’t mutually exclusive.
Read More
====================================================
Listening to U.S. pundits and politicians talk about issues like climate change, you might think Americans are increasingly anti-science. But before we Canadians start feeling smug, we should consider that access to government scientific information is far more restricted here than in the States.
Canada’s government must approve all media and speaking requests for its scientists.
Canadians are just now awakening to the widespread implications of Stephen Harper’s omnibus Bill C-38. It may be too late to mobilize against it.
The Conservatives have buried major policy changes, none of which was in their election platform, in a 400-page piece of legislation.
Read More
========================================
Harper’s new enemy: conservatives
By Susan Riley, The Ottawa Citizen
Rally for Democracy in Oakville Towne Square
Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC), held a rally at the Oakville Towne Square Saturday to protest a federal budget bill.
About 60 people attended the rally against Budget Bill C-38, which RODC members said seeks to change too much too quickly and with not enough examination.
Read More
=======================================================
Lawrence Martin June 7 in iPolitics
The abuses pile up: the PM hunkers down At some point, the opposition message might get through. To wit: We live in a democratic system, Prime Minister. Would you care to treat it like one?
Not yet though. As evidence of abuses pile up, Stephen Harper hunkers down.
The current cause of high dudgeon is the government’s Trojan Horse omnibus budget bill, the 425-page extravaganza with 753 clauses.
=====================================
5 ways Canadians are protesting the budget bill
The fight to stop Stephen Harper’s slow and systematic unravelling of our democracy is lonely and frustrating.
Across Canada, individuals outraged by recent moves by Harper to stifle democracy have been writing letters, signing petitions and tweeting their friends and elected politicians demanding more accountability and respect for our parliamentary institutions.
They are outraged by the F-35 scandal in which the Conservatives lied to voters during the election about the true costs of the fighter jets, by the robocall affair, ethics breaches, slush funds, suppression of public reports, falsified documents, shutting twice of Parliament, dirty campaign tricks, attack ads. The list goes on.
Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki has stepped down from the board of his foundation over fears his political views could put its charitable status at risk as Ottawa cracks down on organizations deemed to be too politically active.
Read More
=====================================================
Bob Hepburn in the Star April 12
Harper’s cynical assault on democracy
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stubbornly refused to take any action in a series of emerging scandals that are fast branding his government as incompetent, arrogant, hypocritical and uncaring.
======================
Is Harper out of gas?
Except for the most serious Kool-Aid drinkers, it is getting painfully obvious to everyone that the current prime minister is getting past his best-before date.
Read More
==================================
Ontario needs online voting in wake of fading turnout: The Star, April 14, Martin Regg CohnIf Elections Ontario wants to restore democratic participation to a healthier level in the province, it needs to raise its game. That means doing what the banks do — serving customers in the way they want to be served, in their own time, on their own terms, without lineups.
That means online voting. If it’s safe to entrust our cash savings to the Internet — with all the security features now available — it’s long past time to promote democratic outreach in Ontario’s cyberspace. I can’t think of a better way to engage young people, and busy people, and distracted people, short of making voting mandatory.
Read the whole article here.
================================
Secrecy and ethics cast dark cloud on Stephen Harper’s government: poll
Two-thirds of Canadians believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is too secretive and has failed to govern with high ethical standards, a new poll has found.
==================================
Ontario needs online voting in wake of fading turnout: The Star, April 14, Martin Regg CohnIf Elections Ontario wants to restore democratic participation to a healthier level in the province, it needs to raise its game. That means doing what the banks do — serving customers in the way they want to be served, in their own time, on their own terms, without lineups.
That means online voting. If it’s safe to entrust our cash savings to the Internet — with all the security features now available — it’s long past time to promote democratic outreach in Ontario’s cyberspace. I can’t think of a better way to engage young people, and busy people, and distracted people, short of making voting mandatory.
Read the whole article here.
================================
Secrecy and ethics cast dark cloud on Stephen Harper’s government: poll
Two-thirds of Canadians believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is too secretive and has failed to govern with high ethical standards, a new poll has found.
Read More
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Read more.
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A vote for Liberal candidate Joyce Murray is a vote for party co-operation against Harper
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The Star March 23
Canadian voters may be experiencing seven-year itch with Tories: Chantal Hébert
Less than a hundred days from the half-way point in Stephen Harper’s third mandate, there are signs that the seven-year itch may be at play in the relationship between the Conservatives and the electorate.Read more.
===================================
A vote for Liberal candidate Joyce Murray is a vote for party co-operation against Harper
by Nick Fillmore
If you want to see the Harper Conservatives defeated in 2015 – or at least reduced to a minority government -- it's time you started paying attention to what Joyce Murray is saying.
Read More here.
====================================
GARY MASON Globe and Mail March 1, 2013
Native leadership for the 21st century
Read More here.
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GARY MASON Globe and Mail March 1, 2013
Native leadership for the 21st century
Despite the impression that may have been left by the Idle No More movement, not all native leaders in Canada are waiting for the federal government to solve their problems.
If anything, the protests that dotted the landscape earlier this year highlight the growing chasm that exists between aboriginal leaders solely intent on pursuing historical grievances and a new breed that has little time for old fights and is instead focused on improving the lives of their people the old-fashioned way: through boldness and creativity.
If anything, the protests that dotted the landscape earlier this year highlight the growing chasm that exists between aboriginal leaders solely intent on pursuing historical grievances and a new breed that has little time for old fights and is instead focused on improving the lives of their people the old-fashioned way: through boldness and creativity.
Read More
=====================================================
National Post January25
Andrew Coyne: No opposition party is going to beat the Tories until they unite behind electoral reform
Let us just take stock of where we are. There are three opposition parties represented in Parliament, not counting the Bloc: the NDP, the Liberals, and the Greens. Whatever else they disagree on, all three profess to believe the Harper government should be removed at the next election.
Read More.
==================================
JEFFREY SIMPSON in the Globe
So aboriginals are divided. Aren’t we all
It’s easy to lose count of the breathless recent commentaries portraying aboriginal peoples as “divided.” Just last week, they say, aboriginal leaders failed to agree on whether and where to see the Prime Minister, whether to demand that the Governor-General be present, whether to embrace the Idle No More movement, whether to defy the law by blockading streets and rail lines....
The last time anyone looked, the Canadian Parliament was divided, too.
=====================================================
National Post January25
Andrew Coyne: No opposition party is going to beat the Tories until they unite behind electoral reform
Let us just take stock of where we are. There are three opposition parties represented in Parliament, not counting the Bloc: the NDP, the Liberals, and the Greens. Whatever else they disagree on, all three profess to believe the Harper government should be removed at the next election.
Read More.
==================================
JEFFREY SIMPSON in the Globe
So aboriginals are divided. Aren’t we all
It’s easy to lose count of the breathless recent commentaries portraying aboriginal peoples as “divided.” Just last week, they say, aboriginal leaders failed to agree on whether and where to see the Prime Minister, whether to demand that the Governor-General be present, whether to embrace the Idle No More movement, whether to defy the law by blockading streets and rail lines....
The last time anyone looked, the Canadian Parliament was divided, too.
Read More.
=============================================
Idle No More needs to go over Harper’s head
BY ADAM GOLDENBERG, OTTAWA CITIZEN January 3, 2013
=============================================
Idle No More needs to go over Harper’s head
BY ADAM GOLDENBERG, OTTAWA CITIZEN January 3, 2013
When I was a speech writer in Ottawa, part of my job was “stakeholder relations.”
If my boss was slated to speak to some constituency of Canadians — unionized workers, perhaps, or community health nurses, or farmers, or Jews — I was dispatched in advance to find out what his audience wanted to hear. My task was to listen, then to draft a speech for my boss that would make clear that I had.
Every political organization does this. Some do so successfully, as when the federal NDP wooed soft sovereigntist support in Quebec before the last election. Others try and fail — a recent Liberal habit.
But no political party in Canada has ever been so scrupulous, so systematic, in its relationships with stakeholders as Stephen Harper’s Conservatives...
Read more.
===============================================================
 |
| Lawrence with Hart and Bonnie Brown at Symposium 2012 |
LAWRENCE MARTIN
Brains aren’t everything, but these PMs had them
So who were the big brains? Who among our prime ministers were the most cerebrally gifted?
In last week’s column, I raised a few eyebrows with my observation that Pierre Trudeau and Stephen Harper had the sharpest minds of the PMs of the past century. Some respondents agreed, while others took serious exception to the Harper ranking, asking how I could possibly say that someone who governed like an autocratic bully had such a smart mind. The two, of course, aren’t mutually exclusive.
Read More
====================================================
Will Canada’s war on science plunge us into a new Dark Age? David Suzuki, November 12
Listening to U.S. pundits and politicians talk about issues like climate change, you might think Americans are increasingly anti-science. But before we Canadians start feeling smug, we should consider that access to government scientific information is far more restricted here than in the States.
Canada’s government must approve all media and speaking requests for its scientists.
Read More
================================
Globe and Mail, November 13
LAWRENCE MARTIN
Stakes are high in vote-suppression case
This is a rather long, but well reasoned essay worth reading.
"And today, more and more, we see this same kind of misdirection and news speak in the behaviour of our legislators.
"A quick review of the some of the Bills passed or on the order paper of this session of Parliament gives you the sense that this government might have studied under Orwell."
================================
Globe and Mail, November 13
LAWRENCE MARTIN
Stakes are high in vote-suppression case
At issue here is the legitimacy of the Conservative government. If the allegations are substantiated, they would arguably be worse than the sponsorship scandal that crippled the Liberal Party. Sponsorship was about lower-level Quebec operatives running off with the cash from a government advertising program to promote unity. Vote suppression is a campaign to throttle the workings of democracy by disenfranchising voters. It strikes at the heart of the democratic system.
Read More
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Re: An affront to democracy, Editorial Oct. 19
It’s futile to think that Stephen Harper might notice opposition to his omnibus bill and change his ways. At the beginning of his reign we were right to fear a hidden agenda but now we seem to have forgotten that he might have one.
He played it safe in the beginning, before his majority, by lulling people into thinking that Conservatives weren’t as bad as everyone feared they might be.....
If you can’t see where Harper’s Conservatives are taking us then you are being willfully blind.
Letter to the editor by M. Schooff, Brampton
Read More
===============================
Governing in the dark: Ottawa’s dangerous unscientific revolution by C. Scott Findley
===============================================
The Star November 6, 2012
Federal, provincial and municipal: Canadian governments in the ditch: Heather Mallick
The Conservative omnibus bill is an anti-democratic way of governing a democracy.Shove everything into a coalsack and ask a freezing family if they want all the coal or none. They’ll take all.
====================================================
Omnibus II: PM’s hidden agenda becomes clear
It’s futile to think that Stephen Harper might notice opposition to his omnibus bill and change his ways. At the beginning of his reign we were right to fear a hidden agenda but now we seem to have forgotten that he might have one.
He played it safe in the beginning, before his majority, by lulling people into thinking that Conservatives weren’t as bad as everyone feared they might be.....
If you can’t see where Harper’s Conservatives are taking us then you are being willfully blind.
Letter to the editor by M. Schooff, Brampton
Read More
===============================
Governing in the dark: Ottawa’s dangerous unscientific revolution by C. Scott Findley
Most Canadians understand that our well-being depends on science. But Canadian science is under assault. And scientists, like Peter Finch in the film Network, are mad as hell. In July, more than 2,000 of them staged a mock funeral for scientific evidence on Parliament Hill to protest the Harper government’s dismantling of Canadian institutions that collect scientific evidence, the muzzling of government scientists, and the erosion of the role of scientific evidence in public debate and regulatory decisions.
Read More
=================================================
================================================
LAWRENCE MARTIN in the Globe and Mail, September 25
Our new normal: the mockery of democracy
Allan Gregg, the veteran pollster and commentator, caused a bit of a stir recently when, in a speech at Carleton University, he accused the Harper government of making an Orwellian assault on democracy and reason. (see below)
No sooner had that speech been delivered than the Conservatives, as if bent on buttressing the thesis, entered into all kinds of hyperbole and doublespeak in accusing the New Democrats of wanting a country-destroying carbon tax.
Read more
=================================== 1984 in 2012 – The Assault on Reason
=================================================
In defence of reason by Allan Gregg
On Sept. 5, I was invited by Carleton University to deliver a lecture marking the opening of their spectacular new Public Affairs building. Using George Orwell’s dystopian novel as a device to tie my arguments together, the talk was entitled, “1984 in 2012: The Assault on Reason.” I delivered the lecture, then dutifully posted the text on my website, announcing its existence to my meagre band of Twitter followers. Since then, the lecture has been shared on Twitter, posted on Facebook, aired on CPAC, linked to by numerous other news sharing sites, including iPolitics and The Huffington Post, cited in the House of Commons and read by hundreds of thousands.
================================================
LAWRENCE MARTIN in the Globe and Mail, September 25
Our new normal: the mockery of democracy
Allan Gregg, the veteran pollster and commentator, caused a bit of a stir recently when, in a speech at Carleton University, he accused the Harper government of making an Orwellian assault on democracy and reason. (see below)
No sooner had that speech been delivered than the Conservatives, as if bent on buttressing the thesis, entered into all kinds of hyperbole and doublespeak in accusing the New Democrats of wanting a country-destroying carbon tax.
Read more
=================================== 1984 in 2012 – The Assault on Reason
An essay by Allan Gregg
"And today, more and more, we see this same kind of misdirection and news speak in the behaviour of our legislators.
"A quick review of the some of the Bills passed or on the order paper of this session of Parliament gives you the sense that this government might have studied under Orwell."
====================================
With great fanfare, an international organization has announced it is honouring Stephen Harper as its World Statesman of the Year for his work as a “champion of democracy, freedom and human rights.”
Harper will accept the award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, which was created by a New York rabbi in 1965, at a reception on Sept. 27 in New York City.
Harper won the award largely because of his support for Israel and his criticism of Iran.
Clearly, though, the foundation either blatantly ignored or didn’t know that Harper is arguably the worst prime minister in history when it comes to defending democracy and human rights in Canada.
Toronto Star September 13, 2012
Stephen Harper’s democracy award a sad joke on Canadians By Bob Hepburn
With great fanfare, an international organization has announced it is honouring Stephen Harper as its World Statesman of the Year for his work as a “champion of democracy, freedom and human rights.”
Harper will accept the award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, which was created by a New York rabbi in 1965, at a reception on Sept. 27 in New York City.
Harper won the award largely because of his support for Israel and his criticism of Iran.
Clearly, though, the foundation either blatantly ignored or didn’t know that Harper is arguably the worst prime minister in history when it comes to defending democracy and human rights in Canada.
Read more.
Voters whose candidates lose often react that way. But what if the problem is elections, not democracy — because elections aren’t all there is to democracy. That may be hard to absorb, since we tend to equate them. But perhaps democracy isn’t just a political system; it’s a core part of being human.
=======================================
A Series of articles on democracy by Rick Salutin
#1 Democracy: Thinking outside the box by Rick Salutin
Voters whose candidates lose often react that way. But what if the problem is elections, not democracy — because elections aren’t all there is to democracy. That may be hard to absorb, since we tend to equate them. But perhaps democracy isn’t just a political system; it’s a core part of being human.
Read more
#2 Democracy Disconnect, Part 2:Correcting Canada’s democratic deficit
#3 to #6 All of these excellent articles are available on the Star's site. This link gets you there.
#2 Democracy Disconnect, Part 2:Correcting Canada’s democratic deficit
#3 to #6 All of these excellent articles are available on the Star's site. This link gets you there.
Read the article.
=========================================================
Ominous omnibus budget bill will impact millions
R. Michael Warren The Star June 13Canadians are just now awakening to the widespread implications of Stephen Harper’s omnibus Bill C-38. It may be too late to mobilize against it.
The Conservatives have buried major policy changes, none of which was in their election platform, in a 400-page piece of legislation.
Read More
========================================
Harper’s new enemy: conservatives
By Susan Riley, The Ottawa Citizen
There is a new front opening, as opposition to Stephen Harper’s budget — and his broader agenda — gathers strength. Increasingly, criticism is coming from dismayed conservatives offended by Harper’s hostility, or indifference, to the environment. And to democratic tradition.
Read more
===============================
Globe and Mail, June 6
John Turner: a great defender of Parliament
Mr. Turner is expected to expand on his brief remarks at a recent Public Policy Forum dinner where he was scathing about the state of Canada's Parliament.
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 ruler's will is not arbitrary, and that the privileges of parliamentarians need to be protected.
Read more
========================================
June 4 The Oakville Beaver
Read more
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Globe and Mail, June 6
John Turner: a great defender of Parliament
Mr. Turner is expected to expand on his brief remarks at a recent Public Policy Forum dinner where he was scathing about the state of Canada's Parliament.
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 ruler's will is not arbitrary, and that the privileges of parliamentarians need to be protected.
Read more
========================================
June 4 The Oakville Beaver
Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC), held a rally at the Oakville Towne Square Saturday to protest a federal budget bill.
About 60 people attended the rally against Budget Bill C-38, which RODC members said seeks to change too much too quickly and with not enough examination.
Read More
=======================================================
Lawrence Martin June 7 in iPolitics
The abuses pile up: the PM hunkers down At some point, the opposition message might get through. To wit: We live in a democratic system, Prime Minister. Would you care to treat it like one?
Not yet though. As evidence of abuses pile up, Stephen Harper hunkers down.
The current cause of high dudgeon is the government’s Trojan Horse omnibus budget bill, the 425-page extravaganza with 753 clauses.
=====================================
5 ways Canadians are protesting the budget bill
Monday's website blackout is only the latest campaign against C-38.Read this CBC article.
===================================
LAWRENCE MARTIN
The time has come for a progressive revival
===================================
LAWRENCE MARTIN
The time has come for a progressive revival
...
Until now, the blowback against the undoing of the old Canadian way has been held in check by several factors, among them Stephen Harper’s skill at not appearing radical in what he is doing, the ascendancy of Western conservatism, the weakness of the Liberal party and the power of the Harper team to frighten and intimidate critics.
But there are signs of change. The New Democrats, leading the Conservatives in a poll released this month, have reached historic highs. The issue of inequality is now ranked as the most pressing concern of Canadians. It being an issue that is a hallmark of a regressive society, it could spur a progressive revival.
But there are signs of change. The New Democrats, leading the Conservatives in a poll released this month, have reached historic highs. The issue of inequality is now ranked as the most pressing concern of Canadians. It being an issue that is a hallmark of a regressive society, it could spur a progressive revival.
Read More
====================================Nick Fillmore
Highly-regarded anti-nuke organization becomes first Harper charity victim
Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), a highly regarded Canadian NGO that has been campaigning to abolish nuclear weapons for 32 years, is losing its charitable tax status.
====================================Nick Fillmore
Highly-regarded anti-nuke organization becomes first Harper charity victim
Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), a highly regarded Canadian NGO that has been campaigning to abolish nuclear weapons for 32 years, is losing its charitable tax status.
Read More
===========================
National Post, April 30
Andrew Coyne: Bill C-38 shows us how far Parliament has fallen
===========================
National Post, April 30
Andrew Coyne: Bill C-38 shows us how far Parliament has fallen
...the increasing use of these omnibills extends Parliament’s powerlessness in all directions: it has become, if you will, omnimpotent — a ceremonial body, little more. What is worse, it cannot even seem to rouse itself to its own defence.
Once upon a time such insults could be relied upon to produce unruly scenes in the House, obstruction of government business and whatnot. The packaging of several pieces of legislation into one omnibus energy bill in 1982 provoked the opposition to refuse to enter the House to vote. The division bells rang for nearly three weeks until the government agreed to split the bill. The insertion of a single change to environmental legislation in the 2005 budget bill, a note from the Green Party reminds us, so enraged the then leader of the Opposition, Stephen Harper, that he threatened to bring down the government.
But today’s Parliament is so accustomed to these indignities that it barely registers. It has lost not only the power to resist, it seems, but the will.
Once upon a time such insults could be relied upon to produce unruly scenes in the House, obstruction of government business and whatnot. The packaging of several pieces of legislation into one omnibus energy bill in 1982 provoked the opposition to refuse to enter the House to vote. The division bells rang for nearly three weeks until the government agreed to split the bill. The insertion of a single change to environmental legislation in the 2005 budget bill, a note from the Green Party reminds us, so enraged the then leader of the Opposition, Stephen Harper, that he threatened to bring down the government.
But today’s Parliament is so accustomed to these indignities that it barely registers. It has lost not only the power to resist, it seems, but the will.
Opposition fumes as Tories limit debate on sweeping budget bill by Bill Curry
The Conservative government moved to limit House of Commons debate on its wide-ranging budget bill.
Opposition MPs reacted furiously Thursday to a government motion to limit second reading debate to six more days, at which point it will be voted on and sent to committee.
At more than 420 pages, nearly half of which involve major changes to Canada’s environmental laws, critics say the bill deserves special scrutiny.
Opposition MPs reacted furiously Thursday to a government motion to limit second reading debate to six more days, at which point it will be voted on and sent to committee.
At more than 420 pages, nearly half of which involve major changes to Canada’s environmental laws, critics say the bill deserves special scrutiny.
The uphill battle to save democracy in Canada
The fight to stop Stephen Harper’s slow and systematic unravelling of our democracy is lonely and frustrating.
Across Canada, individuals outraged by recent moves by Harper to stifle democracy have been writing letters, signing petitions and tweeting their friends and elected politicians demanding more accountability and respect for our parliamentary institutions.
They are outraged by the F-35 scandal in which the Conservatives lied to voters during the election about the true costs of the fighter jets, by the robocall affair, ethics breaches, slush funds, suppression of public reports, falsified documents, shutting twice of Parliament, dirty campaign tricks, attack ads. The list goes on.
Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki has stepped down from the board of his foundation over fears his political views could put its charitable status at risk as Ottawa cracks down on organizations deemed to be too politically active.
Read More
=====================================================
Bob Hepburn in the Star April 12
Harper’s cynical assault on democracy
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stubbornly refused to take any action in a series of emerging scandals that are fast branding his government as incompetent, arrogant, hypocritical and uncaring.
Read More
=====================================
Walkom: Budget aims to remake Canada in Stephen Harper's image in the Star March 29
Stephen Harper is remaking the country. That is the message of Thursday's federal budget. That is its meaning.
It is not a convulsive remake. Like the Prime Minister himself, it is slow, relentless and inexorable.
=====================================
Walkom: Budget aims to remake Canada in Stephen Harper's image in the Star March 29
Stephen Harper is remaking the country. That is the message of Thursday's federal budget. That is its meaning.
It is not a convulsive remake. Like the Prime Minister himself, it is slow, relentless and inexorable.
Read more.
============================
More than a budget, this a blueprint to make over Canada
Carol Goar in the Star March 29
His budget provides the first comprehensive look at the Harper government’s long-term agenda:
• Ottawa will no longer invest in scientific discovery. It will require government labs to switch to commercial research aimed at improving business productivity. Science and Technology Minister Gary Goodyear has hinted at this shift in priorities for some time. Now it is official.
• At the same time, the government will move from tax credits — popular but ineffective — to direct grants to business that invest in economically productive innovation.
• It will cut off environmental reviews of major resource projects after 24 months of hearings. This formalizes Energy Minister Joe Oliver’s vow not to let “radical groups” block crude from Canada’s oilsands.
• It will become much more selective about the immigrants it admits, picking newcomers who are young, adaptable and already have the skills to help transform Canada into an “energy superpower.” Those already in the backlog will be removed if they don’t qualify. Minister Jason Kenney has been telling Canadians that the “system is broken” for some time, without saying how far he intends to go to fix it. Now his objective is clear.
• The federal government will cap its share of health spending in 2017, forcing the provinces to either rein in costs or come up with more money themselves. Flaherty stunned his provincial counterparts in December when he announced Ottawa’s intention to reduce the growth of federal health transfers from 6 per cent to about 3 to 4 per cent (the new rate will be pegged to inflation and economic growth). Now he has locked it into Ottawa’s financial plan.
• And the role of government in people’s lives will continue to shrink. They’ll have to lower their expectations, save more, demand less and stop looking to Ottawa to shield them from the rigours of the marketplace.
Is this the realization of the Harper vision?
It certainly has elements of that, although it falls short of the hard-right agenda he articulated before he became Prime Minister.
============================
More than a budget, this a blueprint to make over Canada
Carol Goar in the Star March 29
His budget provides the first comprehensive look at the Harper government’s long-term agenda:
• Ottawa will no longer invest in scientific discovery. It will require government labs to switch to commercial research aimed at improving business productivity. Science and Technology Minister Gary Goodyear has hinted at this shift in priorities for some time. Now it is official.
• At the same time, the government will move from tax credits — popular but ineffective — to direct grants to business that invest in economically productive innovation.
• It will cut off environmental reviews of major resource projects after 24 months of hearings. This formalizes Energy Minister Joe Oliver’s vow not to let “radical groups” block crude from Canada’s oilsands.
• It will become much more selective about the immigrants it admits, picking newcomers who are young, adaptable and already have the skills to help transform Canada into an “energy superpower.” Those already in the backlog will be removed if they don’t qualify. Minister Jason Kenney has been telling Canadians that the “system is broken” for some time, without saying how far he intends to go to fix it. Now his objective is clear.
• The federal government will cap its share of health spending in 2017, forcing the provinces to either rein in costs or come up with more money themselves. Flaherty stunned his provincial counterparts in December when he announced Ottawa’s intention to reduce the growth of federal health transfers from 6 per cent to about 3 to 4 per cent (the new rate will be pegged to inflation and economic growth). Now he has locked it into Ottawa’s financial plan.
• And the role of government in people’s lives will continue to shrink. They’ll have to lower their expectations, save more, demand less and stop looking to Ottawa to shield them from the rigours of the marketplace.
Is this the realization of the Harper vision?
It certainly has elements of that, although it falls short of the hard-right agenda he articulated before he became Prime Minister.
Read More.
==================================
Globe and Mail March 29
Robo-call complaints received from about 200 ridings: Elections Canada by Daniel LeBlanc
==================================
Globe and Mail March 29
Robo-call complaints received from about 200 ridings: Elections Canada by Daniel LeBlanc
Canada’s chief electoral officer is rejecting any attempts to play down the extent of the voter-suppression tactics in the last election, expressing his outrage for the first time in public about fraudulent robo-calls made in the name of his impartial organization.
“It’s absolutely outrageous,” Marc Mayrand told a parliamentary committee. “It’s totally unacceptable in a modern democracy.”
Read More
=======================
CBC News March 27
Are Canada's federal scientists being 'muzzled'?
Kristi Miller would likely be able to help Canadians who don't have degrees in biology understand her groundbreaking — and complex —research into the Pacific salmon stock, which was published more than a year ago.
But so far, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist, who toils in a lab on Vancouver Island, has only spoken publicly at a formal inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River.Kristi Miller has spoken about her groundbreaking research at an inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon the Fraser River, but has otherwise not talked publicly about it.(Department of Fisheries and Oceans)
Media requests to speak to her have not resulted in interviews — and the decision to keep her off-limits to reporters has reached as high as officials in the Privy Council Office in Ottawa.
Read More.
==============================Linda McQuaig in the Toronto Star
Robocall affair vaults Canada into big leagues of political scandal
“It’s absolutely outrageous,” Marc Mayrand told a parliamentary committee. “It’s totally unacceptable in a modern democracy.”
Read More
=======================
CBC News March 27
Are Canada's federal scientists being 'muzzled'?
Kristi Miller would likely be able to help Canadians who don't have degrees in biology understand her groundbreaking — and complex —research into the Pacific salmon stock, which was published more than a year ago.
But so far, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist, who toils in a lab on Vancouver Island, has only spoken publicly at a formal inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River.Kristi Miller has spoken about her groundbreaking research at an inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon the Fraser River, but has otherwise not talked publicly about it.(Department of Fisheries and Oceans)
Media requests to speak to her have not resulted in interviews — and the decision to keep her off-limits to reporters has reached as high as officials in the Privy Council Office in Ottawa.
Read More.
==============================Linda McQuaig in the Toronto Star
Robocall affair vaults Canada into big leagues of political scandal
When it comes to democracy, nothing is more basic than the citizen’s right to vote. So the deliberate attempt to prevent voters from casting their ballots amounts to a stake through the faintly beating heart of democracy as surely as attempting to wiretap the headquarters of a rival political party.
Read More
====================================
Opposition parties raise doubts over Elections Canada’s ability to prosecute vote suppression investigation
Read more.
==================================
March 2 Globe and Mail
Exactly how dangerous is Stephen Harper?
GERALD CAPLAN
Robo-gate, considered by many to be a concerted (if so far unproven) assault on democracy, has opened wide the simmering debate about Stephen Harper and his cronies. Are they reformers or revolutionaries? Are they simply a somewhat more ambitious form of the conservatism Canadians have known since John A., just a further notch or three along the traditional Canadian ideological continuum?
====================================
Opposition parties raise doubts over Elections Canada’s ability to prosecute vote suppression investigation
Opposition MPs are beginning to raise doubts over Elections Canada’s ability to investigate allegations of phone-based vote suppression in the last federal election, but former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley says he believes that the elections monitor will expose the culprits of any electoral fraud.
Read more.
==================================
March 2 Globe and Mail
Exactly how dangerous is Stephen Harper?
GERALD CAPLAN
Robo-gate, considered by many to be a concerted (if so far unproven) assault on democracy, has opened wide the simmering debate about Stephen Harper and his cronies. Are they reformers or revolutionaries? Are they simply a somewhat more ambitious form of the conservatism Canadians have known since John A., just a further notch or three along the traditional Canadian ideological continuum?
Read more
=====================================
February 24Globe and Mail
LAWRENCE MARTIN
The ‘freedom’ show on the Rideau
Conservatism has contradictory impulses. The pursuit of freedom and the pursuit of order run at cross-purposes.
Moderates push neither button too strongly. But in both Canada and the United States, the conservative parties are now controlled by virulent wings that are prepared go to aggressive lengths to achieve their ambitions. The danger is that in the name of freedom, they bring forth the contrary.
Read More
======================================
February 19: Canadian Scientists Told By Ottawa Which Findings Make Press, Panel Tells Global Research Community by Tamsyn Burgmann
VANCOUVER - For almost three weeks after David Tarasick published findings about one of the largest ozone holes ever discovered above the Arctic, the federal scientist was barred from breathing a word about it to the media....
"Despite promises that your majority government would follow principles of accountability and transparency, federal scientists in Canada are still not allowed to speak to reporters without the 'consent' of media relations officers," the letter says.
Read More
February 24Globe and Mail
LAWRENCE MARTIN
The ‘freedom’ show on the Rideau
Conservatism has contradictory impulses. The pursuit of freedom and the pursuit of order run at cross-purposes.
Moderates push neither button too strongly. But in both Canada and the United States, the conservative parties are now controlled by virulent wings that are prepared go to aggressive lengths to achieve their ambitions. The danger is that in the name of freedom, they bring forth the contrary.
Read More
======================================
February 19: Canadian Scientists Told By Ottawa Which Findings Make Press, Panel Tells Global Research Community by Tamsyn Burgmann
VANCOUVER - For almost three weeks after David Tarasick published findings about one of the largest ozone holes ever discovered above the Arctic, the federal scientist was barred from breathing a word about it to the media....
"Despite promises that your majority government would follow principles of accountability and transparency, federal scientists in Canada are still not allowed to speak to reporters without the 'consent' of media relations officers," the letter says.
Read More
===============================
February 3: The Star -Carol Goar
Harper's pension reform moves breed needless resentmentMost Canadians would be willing to discuss the retirement age, if they were asked.
But they weren’t....
Across jurisdictions, political leaders seem to have forgotten their authority comes from the people. They don’t bother to listen, explain, persuade or look for a consensus. They simply pronounce.
February 3: The Star -Carol Goar
Harper's pension reform moves breed needless resentmentMost Canadians would be willing to discuss the retirement age, if they were asked.
But they weren’t....
Across jurisdictions, political leaders seem to have forgotten their authority comes from the people. They don’t bother to listen, explain, persuade or look for a consensus. They simply pronounce.
Read the whole article.
============================
February 2 The Globe and Mail
Canadians are finally getting the message that crime rates are falling.
New poll results show the public is abandoning a stubborn belief that crime is on the rise, bringing public opinion into alignment with a 20-year trend of declining crime rates.
The long-standing disconnect between public fears and reality has confounded criminologists and fuelled federal get-tough policies. Read more.
================================
January 29 Star
For 20 years there’s been a troubling disconnect between the reality of crime in Canada and people’s fear of it. The persistent — though mistaken — view that crime is on the rise has allowed governments to push through ever more “tough-on-crime” laws.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have taken this to extremes. The omnibus Bill C-10 before the Senate right now will foist enormous and unnecessary costs on taxpayers.
Yet in reality violent crime is down. Property crime is down. Other crimes are down. Crime is at its lowest since 1973.
Read More
================================================================
And the cost of a new prison is about $900 million and operating the facility would be another $60 million a year, she said, adding Ontario can’t afford to pay for the federal Conservative crime bill.
“Let’s be very clear,” she told the Star. “My government believes in community safety and crime prevention. But it is just unacceptable that Ontarians are expected to bear the costs of federal anti-crime initiatives. They are tough on crime but aren’t willing to pay for their tough talk.”
To read the whole article, click here.
==================================================
January 24, 2012 11:51 ET
Whistleblower Claims Prime Minister's Office Tried to Silence Enbridge Gateway Pipeline Critic
.
"Canadian citizens will be shocked to learn that their own government is labelling critics of the Enbridge oil tanker/pipeline project, 'Enemies of the Government of Canada'," says Mr. Frank. "When a government starts labelling its own citizens 'enemies', it has lost its moral authority to govern."
============================
February 2 The Globe and Mail
Canadians finally getting it: crime is on the decline
by Kirk Makin
Canadians are finally getting the message that crime rates are falling.
New poll results show the public is abandoning a stubborn belief that crime is on the rise, bringing public opinion into alignment with a 20-year trend of declining crime rates.
The long-standing disconnect between public fears and reality has confounded criminologists and fuelled federal get-tough policies. Read more.
================================
January 29 Star
Stephen Harper’s ‘tough-on-crime’ laws are more misguided than ever
For 20 years there’s been a troubling disconnect between the reality of crime in Canada and people’s fear of it. The persistent — though mistaken — view that crime is on the rise has allowed governments to push through ever more “tough-on-crime” laws.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have taken this to extremes. The omnibus Bill C-10 before the Senate right now will foist enormous and unnecessary costs on taxpayers.
Yet in reality violent crime is down. Property crime is down. Other crimes are down. Crime is at its lowest since 1973.
Read More
================================================================
January 24: Federal omnibus crime bill to cost Ontario $1 billion, province says
.
Prisons are already crowded and operating at 95 per cent capacity with 8,500 inmates, said Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur.And the cost of a new prison is about $900 million and operating the facility would be another $60 million a year, she said, adding Ontario can’t afford to pay for the federal Conservative crime bill.
“Let’s be very clear,” she told the Star. “My government believes in community safety and crime prevention. But it is just unacceptable that Ontarians are expected to bear the costs of federal anti-crime initiatives. They are tough on crime but aren’t willing to pay for their tough talk.”
To read the whole article, click here.
==================================================
January 24, 2012 11:51 ET
Whistleblower Claims Prime Minister's Office Tried to Silence Enbridge Gateway Pipeline Critic
.
"Canadian citizens will be shocked to learn that their own government is labelling critics of the Enbridge oil tanker/pipeline project, 'Enemies of the Government of Canada'," says Mr. Frank. "When a government starts labelling its own citizens 'enemies', it has lost its moral authority to govern."
To read the whole article, click here.
========================================================
It is vital for G20 countries to upgrade their environmental policies, because they have the biggest ecological footprints: using 95 per cent of the Earth’s total biocapacity to generate their economic output.
========================================
December 20 The Star's Linda McQuaig says that the World’s poor pay for PM’s policies
McAskie notes that, in our earlier incarnation as an admired and skilful middle power, we truly did “punch above our weight.”
Sadly, we’re now using our considerable power to destroy any hope of heading off climate disaster. It turns out that we’re just as effective at undermining attempts to solve the world’s problems as we once were at attempting to find solutions.
Canada is still punching above its weight. But, under the animus of the Harper government, those punches are now low blows, landing on some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
To read the whole column, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------
CTV News December 18
A Conservative senator is speaking out against his own government's omnibus crime bill.
Quebec Senator Pierre Claude Nolin says he can't support the massive Bill C-10 mainly because of a section that deals with growing marijuana plants.
The proposed legislation has just passed second reading in the upper chamber, and will land in a Senate committee.....
Read more here.
=======================================
Toronto Star Editorial December 9
Respect mah authoritah!
Like Eric Cartman, the obnoxious 8-year-old traffic cop on a tricycle in the classic South Parkcartoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives seem to be hollering Respect mah authoritah! at every turn and hauling out the billy club to make their point.
In the past few days alone they’ve clubbed a Cree community in crisis, dissed the Federal Court of Canada and shrugged off a dirty tricks campaign. This arrogance may come back to bite them.
To read the entire editorial, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
December 1: North Oakville Today
Susan Berry makes a point about the crime bill to Terence Young, Conservative MP for Oakville.
To read the article, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 22 Toronto Star
Linda McQuaig: Occupy moves us into a new era
Rather than hanging out at malls or zoning out on Facebook, these young people have endured real hardship in the Canadian near-winter to fight for a more inclusive society. Any inconvenience they’ve caused through their peaceful occupation seems minor in comparison to their contribution to the public good.
As lawyers from the Law Union of Ontario point out: “Some inconveniences to local park users is a small price to pay for the larger price being paid by the 99 per cent worldwide in the face of an economic system that privileges the few over the many.”
Are occupations really necessary to draw attention to their cause? Perhaps not. But I’d trust their judgment over mine. After all, they’ve managed to change the public discourse, putting inequality front and centre — something activists and writers, myself included, have failed to accomplish despite decades of trying.
To read the whole article, click here.
--------------------------------------------------
November 18 The Star
David Olive: The Occupy movement isn’t going away, it’s going online
You say how did it happen / And you say how did it start /…But the hands of the have-nots / Keep falling out of reach.
--Gordon Lightfoot, Black Day in July (1968)
Evictions of Occupy encampments across North America swung into high gear this week. It is a moment that denialists have long awaited....
It’s a worldwide movement, of course. Occupy branches have sprung up in scores of countries and more than 1,000 Canadian and U.S. cities since the first protest Sept. 17.
And it’s not going away. It’s going online, as the Arab Spring organizers did. Occupy has boundless opportunities to keep making its point, with rallies, marches, petitions, demos and sit-ins.
The Occupier grievances are real and widely felt. An intolerable 1.3 million Canadians are without work. Twenty-six million Americans are unemployed, under-employed, or have given up looking for work. In both countries, middle-class incomes have stagnated even as living costs – for rent, tuition, fuel – have skyrocketed.
And the current, gross disparity in wealth matches that of gilded ages past.
To read all of David Olive’s column, click here.
------------------------------------------------------------
November 18: The Star
Occupy Toronto: They can’t evict a conversation by Catherine Porter
Last time I checked in with the occupiers of St. James Park, word was they were going to fight for their ground. If Superior Court Judge David Brown rules to evict them on Monday, they plan to reoccupy, they told me.
That would be a mistake....
Occupiers should be spreading their conversation all over the city – to old age homes, on the subway (like they did in New York this week), to Dundas Square and high school classrooms.
They could change their venue every week. They’ve proven they have the organizational skills for that, and their web savvy media team could spread the word every week. That would not only draw different people into the conversation, but would expose them to different perspectives.
To read all of Porter's advice, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
October 28: Andrew Coyne in the National Post
If our leaders were corrupt, would we know it?
In other countries executive power is subject to various checks and balances. Who or what prevents a prime minister of Canada from doing as he pleases? The governor general? But he is his appointee. The Senate? He appoints all the senators. The courts? He appoints every member of the Supreme Court, and all the federal court judges, too. The bureaucracy? He appoints the clerk of the privy council, every deputy minister, the heads of all the major Crown corporations, even the ambassadors. The police? He appoints the chief of the RCMP. And so on, hundreds and hundreds of posts, great and small, and nearly all without any independent oversight.
To read the whole article, click here.
---------------------------------------------------
October 21: Rick Salutin
Occupiers call for changing the agenda
I think I know what the Occupy (Wall Street, Toronto, etc.) movements mean to say ...
What they’re saying is: Change the agenda/change the channel. Saying anything less is inadequate because you could find a small piece mistaken for the whole. But saying that much is tricky precisely because there already is an agenda in place that keeps blocking and obscuring the demand to change it!
To read the rest of this insightful column, click here.
----------------------------------------------------
October 20: Jack Quarter in the Star
Confessions of a 2 percenter
I am looking at the Occupy Wall Street and copycat demonstrations and feeling some guilt....
The gap between rich and poor is less extreme in Canada, but still is troubling, as a growing number of studies have indicated. Ten years of Harperism might draw us into a dead heat with the U.S...
I feel that the Occupy Wall Street movement and its facsimiles could be worthwhile, as they are creating awareness of a serious social problem.
To read the whole article, click here.
Suddenly, the politicians and bankers are listening
The main criticism of Occupy Toronto has been its disorganized message. But what the group has been able to organize practically in just three days is brilliant.
To read her whole column, click here.
So what is democracy? Here’s my working definition: Democracy is the possibility of joint decision making for collective action in the common good. Let me unpack that a bit. It is not just individuals deciding for themselves, it is individuals as members of a body engaging in a joint decision making process with others. That involves dialogue with others and voting on what they agree to do. And what they agree to do then becomes a collective action by the whole. The agreement seeks to promote a common good, not just that of a part of the body. Of course, that does not mean that some may not benefit more than others. But that is allowed only if it is believed to contribute to a larger common good. So democracy is the possibility of that taking place – the possibility of joint decision making for collective action in the common good.
June 9: Article by Brigette DePape
Lawrence Martin
Canada was once defined by the schism between English and French. Today, our divide is increasingly ideological. Can it be bridged?
Jim Travers has left us, but he has left us with food for thought. Check out this column of June 19, 2010.
During the interview by Anna Maria Tremonte, Claude Poirier, head of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, says that this government “makes decisions based not on facts, not on science, not on evidence, but on ideology.”
To read more or to listen to the broadcast, click here.
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Toronto Star February 16, 2011
To read the whole column, click here.
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Toronto Star February 1, 2011
Globe and Mail February 1, 2011
LAWRENCE MARTINWhat direction our own democracy?
An Excerpt:
Most everywhere it turns, it can see which way our democracy is headed. On the question of openness and access to information – our very own glasnost – Canada finished last in a recent survey of five parliamentary democracies. On the question of political morality, the governing Conservatives have made personal attack ads, as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May lamented Monday, the new normal.
The Conservatives had a plan – a good one – to replace our rancid system of patronage appointments with a public appointments commission. But it was scuttled. They had hopes our Senate could be democratized. A good idea, too. But instead, it’s been filled with Conservative cronies.
Owing to brutal partisanship, Parliament’s committee system has become increasingly dysfunctional. Watchdog groups such as the Integrity Commissioner’s Office have been turned into lap dogs. The public service’s policy development function, once significant, has been blunted. An unprecedented government-wide vetting system instituted by the Tories has stifled free speech.
To read the whole article, click here. Read some of the 232 comments on this article.-----------------------------------------------------------------Globe and Mail January 27, 2011Coalition of churches condemns Ottawa’s justice planGLORIA GALLOWAY
Congregations of Christian churches across Canada are being asked to tell the federal Conservative government they don’t want to pay for its justice agenda.
The Church Council on Justice and Corrections, a 39-year-old coalition for justice reform that represents 11 of the largest Christian denominations, has written a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemning legislation that is expected to increase the number of convicts dramatically and require billions of dollars worth of prison construction.
Now the group is trying to convince its congregations that laws to end conditional sentencing, impose mandatory minimum prison terms for non-violent offences, and prevent early parole will actually make streets more dangerous while draining tax dollars.
To read the whole article, click here. -------------------------------------------------Globe and Mail January 25LAWRENCE MARTINFive years later, Harper has made Canada more conservative
Stephen Harper, some opine, lacks a major meaningful accomplishment in his first five years in power. Not true. If you consider an obvious corollary, that the main purpose of a conservative prime minister is to make the country more conservative, his record is weighty.
Ask Liberals or those of a leftish persuasion. They recoil from the new dynamics the 22nd Prime Minister has wrought. The country is of a different texture than in the leafy Liberal days of Jean Chrétien or Pierre Trudeau. Its rightward shift is recognizable across a range of indices.
Traditional progressives are driven to despair, for example, at the workings of a Justice Department where a throwback law-and-order agenda is promulgated not on the basis of research or empirical data, but on base instincts and preformed bias.
To read the whole article, click here.--------------------------------------------------------
Globe and Mail January 20The five-year shadow of Stephen Harperby John Ibbitson
On the big things, on the things that really count, Stephen Harper has governed well. But that doesn’t mean he deserves your vote.
The daily noise of politics can drown perspective. But when taking stock at an anniversary, or as a possible election approaches – or both – it’s best to focus on what really matters.
To read the whole article, click here.
Note: There is a poll on the page where you can vote on the question “How would you rate Stephen Harper as Prime Minister?”-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Toronto Star January 19Tax cuts drive Harper’s right-wing agenda
Les WhittingtonOttawa Bureau
OTTAWA—In the spring of 1987, at a conference of western Canadian activists in Vancouver, Stephen Harper showed up with an 11-point “Taxpayers Reform Agenda” that attacked the traditional political class in Ottawa and called for the implementation of a “new economics” of smaller, leaner government.
More than two decades later, Harper is still pursuing the goal of transforming Canada into a more right-wing nation along the lines envisioned by the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
During five years in power, the Prime Minister and his colleagues have relentlessly anchored their economic strategy on this goal. They have done so by shedding government programs, shifting cash resources to the provinces and, above all, hamstringing Ottawa’s ability to act in future by reducing its financial clout through personal and corporate income tax cuts.
To read the whole article, click here.-------------------------------------------------Toronto Star January 16, 2011Haroon Siddiqui: Harper’s temper tantrums costly for Canada
When you question Stephen Harper’s foreign policy, he attacks your patriotism. When he makes a mistake, he won’t acknowledge it. When he’s losing a debate, he recasts it as cultural warfare between good and evil, and lashes out at critics with little or no regard for facts.
All these traits are on full display in his nasty row with the United Arab Emirates...
Canada’s response cannot be crass protectionism and holding Canadian consumers hostage, but rather a confident foray into the bigger world, as suggested by Ottawa’s own Competition Policy Review Panel.
What we have instead from Harper is petulance and demagoguery that will cost Canada dearly.To read the whole column, click here.-----------------------------------------------------------------Three Columns On Elections: The Star January 12, 2011Fear and loathing in Ottawaby Linda Diebel
An excerpt from this article.
It's no secret Harper runs a tight ship with little room for dissension. In the months leading up to his first minority government's five-year anniversary on Feb. 6, I interviewed about 30 politicians, public servants, consultants and academics about his style and brand on Parliament. Some requested anonymity because they fear repercussions,.For the most part, what emerged is a portrait of a highly intelligent, skilled and super-partisan politician whose style has created a mood of fear and loathing on Parliament Hill. He hasn't shied away from stoking an “us versus them” dynamic in the country. Critics use words like “control freak” and “mean-spirited.”
To read the whole article, click here.--------------------------------------------Bob Hepburn: Liberals see a way to beat Harper
For many Liberal supporters, their party’s fortunes look bleak as they prepare for a federal election as early as this spring......
But as silly as it may seem, some party loyalists aren’t giving up on the idea of being able to defeat the Harper-led Conservatives......
First, despite the fact that most polls show the Conservatives solidly ahead of the Liberals in public support, Harper is unloved and seen as too conservative, too authoritarian and too controlling for many Canadians’ liking. As proof, they note that 65 per cent of voters don’t support the Tories.
At the same time, Harper is considered vulnerable on several key issues, especially those dealing with abuse of power.
To read the article, click here.-------------------------------------------------JimTravers: Leaders racing through red election lights
Accidents kill minority governments. Federal leaders are now speeding into a crowded intersection with no confidence anyone will hit the brakes.
Casualties are expected. Even with Stephen Harper securely in the driver’s seat, there are looming dangers for national leaders in a campaign no one says they want.....
To read the whole article, click here.--------------------------------------------This column by Lawrence Martin in the January 12 Globe and Mail supports the thesis that "Reclaim Our Democratic Canada" upholds.
Majority! Who Needs It?
If That Isn’t Stephen Harper’s Motto, it Should Be.
Mr. Harper Celebrates His Fifth Anniversary in Office next Month – and If There’s a Lesson, It’s That Majority Governments Are Overrated. Mr. Harper Has Run His Minority as If He Won a Landslide. He’s Overrun the Checks and Balances in the System to the Point Where He Has the System Pretty Much under Heel.
To Read More, click in here.
========================================================
January 19, 2012 Poverty lingers in prosperous G20, Oxfam says
Olivia Ward reports on an Oxfam study here.
Excerpts:
“This report shows why anger about income inequality sparked protests that have swept the world, from Tahrir Square to Wall Street,” says Oxfam Canada’s executive director Robert Fox. “More than half of the world’s poorest people live in G20 countries, making them a key battleground in the fight against global poverty.”It is vital for G20 countries to upgrade their environmental policies, because they have the biggest ecological footprints: using 95 per cent of the Earth’s total biocapacity to generate their economic output.
========================================
December 20 The Star's Linda McQuaig says that the World’s poor pay for PM’s policies
McAskie notes that, in our earlier incarnation as an admired and skilful middle power, we truly did “punch above our weight.”
Sadly, we’re now using our considerable power to destroy any hope of heading off climate disaster. It turns out that we’re just as effective at undermining attempts to solve the world’s problems as we once were at attempting to find solutions.
Canada is still punching above its weight. But, under the animus of the Harper government, those punches are now low blows, landing on some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
To read the whole column, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------
A Conservative senator is speaking out against his own government's omnibus crime bill.
Quebec Senator Pierre Claude Nolin says he can't support the massive Bill C-10 mainly because of a section that deals with growing marijuana plants.
The proposed legislation has just passed second reading in the upper chamber, and will land in a Senate committee.....
Read more here.
=======================================
Toronto Star Editorial December 9
Respect mah authoritah!
Like Eric Cartman, the obnoxious 8-year-old traffic cop on a tricycle in the classic South Parkcartoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives seem to be hollering Respect mah authoritah! at every turn and hauling out the billy club to make their point.In the past few days alone they’ve clubbed a Cree community in crisis, dissed the Federal Court of Canada and shrugged off a dirty tricks campaign. This arrogance may come back to bite them.
To read the entire editorial, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
December 1: North Oakville Today
Susan Berry makes a point about the crime bill to Terence Young, Conservative MP for Oakville.
To read the article, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 22 Toronto Star
Rather than hanging out at malls or zoning out on Facebook, these young people have endured real hardship in the Canadian near-winter to fight for a more inclusive society. Any inconvenience they’ve caused through their peaceful occupation seems minor in comparison to their contribution to the public good.
As lawyers from the Law Union of Ontario point out: “Some inconveniences to local park users is a small price to pay for the larger price being paid by the 99 per cent worldwide in the face of an economic system that privileges the few over the many.”
Are occupations really necessary to draw attention to their cause? Perhaps not. But I’d trust their judgment over mine. After all, they’ve managed to change the public discourse, putting inequality front and centre — something activists and writers, myself included, have failed to accomplish despite decades of trying.
To read the whole article, click here.
--------------------------------------------------
November 18 The Star
You say how did it happen / And you say how did it start /…But the hands of the have-nots / Keep falling out of reach.
--Gordon Lightfoot, Black Day in July (1968)
Evictions of Occupy encampments across North America swung into high gear this week. It is a moment that denialists have long awaited....
It’s a worldwide movement, of course. Occupy branches have sprung up in scores of countries and more than 1,000 Canadian and U.S. cities since the first protest Sept. 17.
And it’s not going away. It’s going online, as the Arab Spring organizers did. Occupy has boundless opportunities to keep making its point, with rallies, marches, petitions, demos and sit-ins.
The Occupier grievances are real and widely felt. An intolerable 1.3 million Canadians are without work. Twenty-six million Americans are unemployed, under-employed, or have given up looking for work. In both countries, middle-class incomes have stagnated even as living costs – for rent, tuition, fuel – have skyrocketed.
And the current, gross disparity in wealth matches that of gilded ages past.
To read all of David Olive’s column, click here.
------------------------------------------------------------
November 18: The Star
Occupy Toronto: They can’t evict a conversation by Catherine Porter
That would be a mistake....
Occupiers should be spreading their conversation all over the city – to old age homes, on the subway (like they did in New York this week), to Dundas Square and high school classrooms.
They could change their venue every week. They’ve proven they have the organizational skills for that, and their web savvy media team could spread the word every week. That would not only draw different people into the conversation, but would expose them to different perspectives.
To read all of Porter's advice, click here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
October 28: Andrew Coyne in the National Post
If our leaders were corrupt, would we know it?
In other countries executive power is subject to various checks and balances. Who or what prevents a prime minister of Canada from doing as he pleases? The governor general? But he is his appointee. The Senate? He appoints all the senators. The courts? He appoints every member of the Supreme Court, and all the federal court judges, too. The bureaucracy? He appoints the clerk of the privy council, every deputy minister, the heads of all the major Crown corporations, even the ambassadors. The police? He appoints the chief of the RCMP. And so on, hundreds and hundreds of posts, great and small, and nearly all without any independent oversight.
To read the whole article, click here.
---------------------------------------------------
October 21: Rick Salutin
Occupiers call for changing the agenda
I think I know what the Occupy (Wall Street, Toronto, etc.) movements mean to say ...
What they’re saying is: Change the agenda/change the channel. Saying anything less is inadequate because you could find a small piece mistaken for the whole. But saying that much is tricky precisely because there already is an agenda in place that keeps blocking and obscuring the demand to change it!
To read the rest of this insightful column, click here.
----------------------------------------------------
October 20: Jack Quarter in the Star
Confessions of a 2 percenter
I am looking at the Occupy Wall Street and copycat demonstrations and feeling some guilt....
The gap between rich and poor is less extreme in Canada, but still is troubling, as a growing number of studies have indicated. Ten years of Harperism might draw us into a dead heat with the U.S...
I feel that the Occupy Wall Street movement and its facsimiles could be worthwhile, as they are creating awareness of a serious social problem.
To read the whole article, click here.
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October 19: Carol Goar in the Star
Cynics dismiss the youth-led movement as leaderless, unfocused, badly organized and unlikely to have any impact. But it already has changed the conversation in Ottawa.
There are always jeers, sneers and predictions of failure when a disfavoured group challenges the status quo. The union movement, the women’s women, the environmental movement and the gay and lesbian movement all faced disdain. But they changed history.
To read the whole column, click here.
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October 18: Catherine Porter in the Star
Activist scene in St. James Park both infuriating and refreshingThe main criticism of Occupy Toronto has been its disorganized message. But what the group has been able to organize practically in just three days is brilliant.
To read her whole column, click here.
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September 22: Bob Hepburn in The Star
If you hate how we vote in Ontario, try this
Are you fed up with thinking your vote never counts or your party never wins as many seats as you think it deserves?
If you do, then you’re not alone because that’s how many Ontario voters feel as they prepare to cast their ballots in the Oct. 6 election.
For decades, critics of Ontario’s first-past-the-post electoral system, in which the candidate receiving the most votes wins the riding, have complained that it shuts out small parties, hurts voter turnout and generally is an offence against modern democracy.
To read the whole article and to try the three forms of voting for the candidates in your riding, click here.
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September 17: The Star
Pollsters take aim at the media by Jim Coyle
“Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to figure out if the polls were right?”
— Robert Orben, comedy writer and one-time speech writer to U.S. President Gerald Ford.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is said to have been the first, more than 250 years ago, to utter the phrase “public opinion.” If so, the man has a lot to answer for.
As Ontario's Oct. 6 election looms daily larger on the horizon, there's a bull market in the industry that followed from Rousseau's coinage — polling, tracking, aggregating, seat forecasting, all of it aimed at bagging the skittish prey of public opinion.
In a rare measure this week, and in palpable frustration at the “confusing cacophony of polls” released during the campaign's second week, two of Canada's leading pollsters sent an open letter to Ontario journalists pleading that they hold polling firms to closer scrutiny.
“We are distorting our democracy, confusing voters and destroying what should be a source of truth in election campaigns — the unbiased, truly scientific public-opinion polls,” wrote Darrell Bricker and John Wright of Ipsos Reid.
If there is one thing news media abhor, it's a vacuum. If there's anything that's fun and easy to cover, it's — forgive the cliché — a horse-race. Ergo, the media's poll promiscuity of which Bricker and Wright complain.
Two weeks in, platforms have been released. Rhetoric has grown repetitive. So, until the debate, polls become the story.
To read the whole article, click here.
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August 31, 2011 Here we go again with the polls!
Provincial election to be a tight 3-way race, poll suggests
Ontario is on the cusp of a lively provincial election that any major party leader could win, a newToronto Star-Angus Reid Public Opinion poll suggests.
With the Oct. 6 campaign officially kicking off next Wednesday, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is at 38 per cent, Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty is at 31 per cent and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is at 24 per cent. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner trails with 6 per cent.
To read more of this story and to assess the value of this poll, click here.
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July 25, 2011 Policy Not Polls
RODC is focusing on the upcoming Ontario election on October 6, drawing attention to the use of poll results to back up argument and to substantiate opinions. How did we arrive at this sorry state? Is it because the media report on polls as if they are facts? If so, that is an easy out leaving us with false impressions and without real substance.
Here is a news article that casually mentions that the Tories are ahead with a reference to the margin of error in polls, but without any detail so the reader can judge --just as if this were general knowledge like the weather or who is winning a Jays game.
Toronto Star: July 25
A feisty Dalton McGuinty has committed to serving a full four-year term if re-elected and signalled his governing Liberals are finally fired up for Oct. 6.
In a half-hour speech to 800 energized partisans — who repeatedly punctuated his address with standing ovations and chants of “four more years” — the premier was uncharacteristically ebullient.
“This weekend is about winning the election,” he told the party faithful Sunday at the conclusion of the final Liberal conference before the fall vote.
Dismissing Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, who is ahead in the polls, and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, nipping at the Liberals’ heels in third, McGuinty said: “They only see as far as the election.”
“They don’t see the big challenges before us. They don’t see the pressing need, the urgency for us to meet those challenges. They lack foresight, they lack vision, they lack leadership,” the premier said.
“The PCs have a $14 billion hole in their plan and that means cuts to our schools and hospitals just as sure as night follows day,” he said.
“The NDP are threatening our economic recovery with a crushing $9 billion in new taxes on our job creators (and) . . . both of them want to put the brakes on our green energy plan and the thousands of jobs we’re creating.”
McGuinty belittled signature promises in both parties’ platforms — the $20 million Conservative scheme to force provincial inmates onto chain gangs and the NDP’s $500 million to reduce the harmonized sales tax on gasoline.
“We’re not proposing prisoners in parks or pretending we can control international oil and gas prices,” he said, emphasizing the Liberals are about “better schools, better health care, and a stronger economy.”
Speaking with reporters afterward, McGuinty, who had sounded lukewarm last year about serving out a full term if re-elected a third time, stressed he still has the fire in his belly despite being in office since 2003.
“When it comes to seeking re-election, you’ve got to dig deep and ask yourself why is that we are in this and what is it we seek to do together. The message, beyond any other, that I wanted to convey to our membership is we need to do more than just win the election, we need to win the future for Ontarians.”
Vic Gupta, the PC candidate in Liberal-held Richmond Hill, countered that the Liberals are “tired and out of gas and they’re out of touch with the priorities of Ontario families.”
“What we’re hearing is Ontario families want change, they want real positive change, they want more money back in their pocket,” said Gupta.
Paul Ferreira, the NDP candidate in Liberal-held York South-Weston, said it’s rich for McGuinty to be chiding the opposition parties for their platforms when the Liberals won’t unveil theirs until September.
“For a premier who likes to pretend he’s this happy-go-lucky, positive fellow we’re seeing an awful lot of negativity from him and his party,” said Ferreira.
“This is a government that’s made life much more expensive over the last eight years with the decisions they’ve made.”
Behind the scenes, veteran Liberals are not sweating a current second-place standing in the polls.
“I’ve been in an election where we were at 50 per cent and then lost,” said one staffer, recalling the 1995 vote when then Liberal leader Lyn McLeod went down to a stunning defeat by the Tories led by Mike Harris, which had been a third-party rump during the ill-fated NDP government of Bob Rae.
“I’d rather be a little bit behind and work our way back, because when you’re at the top the only way is down.”
Another party insider said voters could now expect to see more Liberal ads “contrasting” the Grit message of hope versus the Conservative “message of fear.”
He candidly noted recent Liberal attack ads appear to have been “slapped together quickly” to appease elements of the party frustrated at getting knocked around by Hudak’s aggressive advertising blitz.
“Yeah, the Tories have a lead but it’s not that hard to push that back far enough to make this race a statistical dead heat,” he said, referring to the typical four- or five-point margin of error in most polls.
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Democracy Matters 2011 by Cliff DuRand
Almost all of the US public used to believe that their country was a democracy. Most of the world’s peoples saw it that way too. That is no longer the case. It has become increasingly obvious that the US political elite is unresponsive to the views and interests of the majority of the people they claim to represent. Instead they represent the interests of the wealthy and their corporations who they claim are too big to fail. The popular classes are finding themselves unrepresented.
So what is democracy? Here’s my working definition: Democracy is the possibility of joint decision making for collective action in the common good. Let me unpack that a bit. It is not just individuals deciding for themselves, it is individuals as members of a body engaging in a joint decision making process with others. That involves dialogue with others and voting on what they agree to do. And what they agree to do then becomes a collective action by the whole. The agreement seeks to promote a common good, not just that of a part of the body. Of course, that does not mean that some may not benefit more than others. But that is allowed only if it is believed to contribute to a larger common good. So democracy is the possibility of that taking place – the possibility of joint decision making for collective action in the common good.
To read the entire article, click here.
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Hudak Tories roaring toward a majority: Poll
Robert Benzie
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is roaring toward a majority win in the Oct. 6 provincial election thanks to a platform that is enticing voters, a new poll suggests.
The Forum Research survey found Hudak’s Tories at 41 per cent compared with 26 per cent for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals, 22 per cent for NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, and 8 per cent for Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
To read more reporting on the polls (and not the policies), click here.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is roaring toward a majority win in the Oct. 6 provincial election thanks to a platform that is enticing voters, a new poll suggests.
The Forum Research survey found Hudak’s Tories at 41 per cent compared with 26 per cent for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals, 22 per cent for NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, and 8 per cent for Green Leader Mike Schreiner.
To read more reporting on the polls (and not the policies), click here.
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June 9: Article by Brigette DePape
One person alone cannot accomplish much, but they must at least do what they can. So I held out my “Stop Harper” sign during the throne speech because I felt I had a responsibility to use my position to oppose a government whose values go against the majority of Canadians.
The thousands of positive comments shared online, the printing of “Stop Harper” buttons and stickers and lawn signs, and the many calls for further action convinced me that this is not merely a country of people dissatisfied with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s vision for Canada.
It is a country of people burning with desire for change.
If I was able to do what I did, I know that there are thousands of others capable of equal, or far more courageous, acts.
I think those who reacted with excitement realize that politics should not be left to the politicians, and that democracy is not just about marking a ballot every few years. It is about ensuring, with daily engagement and resistance, that the vision we have for our society is reflected in the decision-making of our government.
Our views are not represented by our political system. How else could we have a government that 60 per cent of the people voted against? A broken system is what has left us with a Conservative government ready to spend billions on fighter jets we don’t need, to pollute the environment we want protected, to degrade a health-care system we want improved, and to cut social programs and public sector jobs we value. As a page, I witnessed one irresponsible bill after another pass through the Senate, and wanted to scream “Stop.”
Such a system leads us to feel isolated, powerless and hopeless — thousands of Canadians made that clear in their responses to my action. We need a reminder that there are alternatives. We need a reminder that we have both the capacity to create change, and an obligation to. If my action has been that reminder, it was a success.
Media and politicians have argued that I tarnished the throne speech, a solemn Canadian tradition. I now believe more in another tradition — the tradition of ordinary people in this country fighting to create a more just and sustainable world, using peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.
On occasion, that tradition has found an inspiring home within Parliament: In 1970, for instance, a group of young women chained themselves to the parliamentary gallery seats to protest the Canadian law that criminalized abortion. Their action won national attention, and helped propel a movement that eventually achieved abortion’s legalization.
Was such an action “appropriate”? Not in the conventional sense. But those women were driven by insights known to every social movement in history: that the ending of injustices or the winning of human rights are never gifts from rulers or from parliaments, but the fruit of struggle and of people power in the streets.
Actions like these provide the answer to the Harper government. When Harper tries to push through policies and legislation that hurt our communities and country, we all need to find our inner activist, and flow into the streets. And what is a stop sign after all, but a nod to the symbol of the street where a people amassed can put the brakes on the Harper government?
I’ve been inspired by Canadians taking action, and inspired too by my peers rising up in North Africa and the Middle East. I am honoured to have since received a message from young activists there, saying that we need not just an Arab spring but a “world spring,” using people power to combat whatever ills exists in each country.
I have been inspired most of all by Asmaa Mahfouz, the 26-year-old woman who issued a videocalling for Egyptians to join her in Tahrir Square. People did, and they together made the Egyptian revolution. Her words will always stay with me: “As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go and take a stand, then there will be hope.”
Brigette DePape is a recent graduate of the University of Ottawa. She has started a fund to support peaceful direct action and civil disobedience against the Harper agenda:www.stopharperfund.com
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June 7: Letter to the Star
Re: Page’s throne speech protest sparks heated debate, June 5
When a broad swath of the media is having large families of kittens over a news event, you can be assured that something trivial is being overblown or that something pivotal is being trivialized to protect the vested interests.
The near hysterical howls of derision from former political scientist C.E.S. (Ned) Franks in theStar, Robert Silver in the Globe and Mail and Jonathan Kay in the National Post — to mention a few — strongly suggest that Brigette DePape is touching the right nerve.
In fact, the criticism of her demonstration actually boils down to a wilful blindness to the scope and the profound nature of the democratic deficit that increasingly characterizes Canadian politics and has as its exemplar the reign of Stephen Harper.
Democracy in Canada is broken. Canadians know this and they know that it is up to them to fix it. And if the struggle to repair an existing, dysfunctional democracy is not on quite the same order as overthrowing a dictatorship to establish a new one, it doesn’t mean that we here in Canada shouldn’t make the effort necessary to get it done.
And if the inspiration for creating the Arab Spring was the heart-rending and tragic death of Mohamed Bouazizi, this doesn’t mean that we need another death or violence in the streets to effect meaningful change here. DePape made a considered and well-calculated statement commensurate with the context of a Canadian Democratic Spring. Well done, Brigette.
And if she is not a Gandhi or a King, her message still demands a positive response from us all. Now. So let’s sign Fair Vote’s Declaration of Voters’ Rights and participate in Leadnow’s grassroots articulation of a people’s mandate. Let’s work together to obtain the “right relationship” between the governed and those who would govern us in a true and fair representative democracy.
Mark Henschel, Toronto
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May 27: Letter to the Star Editors from Paul Hellyer
Time is right for Liberal-NDP merger
It is with a heavy heart that I have come to the conclusion that the Liberal and New Democratic Parties should merge and become one entity known as the Liberal Democratic Party of Canada. I am convinced that it would be in the best long-term interests of both parties but, far more important, it would be in the best interests of Canada. Canadians deserve a clear choice when they next vote.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a majority on May 2 with only 40 per cent of the votes cast. He has the right to show what he can do. It is possible that he might govern well enough to earn a second majority. But what if he implements unpopular socially conservative policies? And, what if he allows the Americanization of Canada with its ultimate goal of a North American Union? In that case, after nine years of Conservative rule, Canadians might be desperate for change.
Should the Liberals and NDP not merge, one can forecast a scenario where the two parties spend far more time and energy fighting each other than concentrating on the weaknesses in the Conservative armour. Each opposition party might think it was the best alternative, but in reality the progressive vote would be badly split. We would inevitably see the opposite of the days when first the Reform and then the Alliance Party split the conservative vote with the Liberals laughing all the way to the voting booths. The majority of Canadians would not be laughing if there were no unified, progressive, pro-Canadian alternative waiting in the wings.
I can understand Liberal reverence for the traditions of Laurier, St. Laurent, Pearson and Trudeau, and NDP nostalgia toward Coldwell, Douglas, Lewis and Broadbent. But no party can live on memories alone, it must be relevant in the face of unprecedented world turbulence.
The Liberal Party has been in decline for some years since winning became more important than the desire to serve. Liberals have lost their zeal for radical policies essential to the public welfare.
The flip side of the Liberal decline has been a spectacular rise of the NDP — now clearly in the driver’s seat. Consequently it would have to be understood that Jack Layton would lead the new party through the next election. I got to know him well in 2003 when there was a move afoot to create a new progressive, pro-Canada party at a time when the Progressive Conservatives were feeling the pinch and many of its more progressive members were up for grabs. Stephen Harper’s seduction of Peter MacKay effectively put an end to that idea.
Meanwhile any reservations I might have had about Layton becoming prime minister were allayed. He is not as far left as Pierre Trudeau was when he became leader of the Liberal Party, and he has mellowed considerably since. Furthermore, Layton has several advantages in addition to momentum. He is the first party leader since Mackenzie King to have a reasonable grasp of monetary theory. He hasn’t talked about it publicly, but I have no doubt that he will because the issue is the most urgent one facing Canada and the world today.
Another strong point is the fact that Jack is well liked in Quebec, and could be a convincing voice for federalism in the event of another referendum which appears to be increasingly inevitable. Layton will be well positioned to argue that a strong Quebec within a strong Canada is the best and happiest solution for all concerned.
Finally, timing is everything in politics. It would be irresponsible for the two parties to spend precious time and millions of dollars trying to build up strength in the other’s territory. The numbers tell the story and ignoring them would bring a stark reminder that neither hubris nor bravado can substitute for vision.
Negotiations should begin at once with the objective of having the deal sealed by the time Parliament meets in the fall. A marriage of two such proud traditions may be less than total bliss, but the differences will have to be ironed out in a spirit of good will because the stakes are so tremendously high that failure is not an option.
Paul T. Hellyer, Former Liberal defence minister, Toronto
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May 17 Globe and Mail
The left has the dreams. Harper has the cards
Lawrence Martin
There are many reasons – until you look at certain realities – for the blossoming of hope among Canada’s political left.
The New Democratic Party has always had a smaller magnetic field than its two main federal opponents, but with the surge to second place, the party appears in position to expand its reach.
To read the whole article, click here.
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May 13 The coming conservative court:
There are many reasons – until you look at certain realities – for the blossoming of hope among Canada’s political left.
The New Democratic Party has always had a smaller magnetic field than its two main federal opponents, but with the surge to second place, the party appears in position to expand its reach.
To read the whole article, click here.
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May 13 The coming conservative court:
Harper to reshape judiciary
by Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail
The sudden retirement of two Supreme Court judges has handed Prime Minister Stephen Harper the chance to remake the high court along conservative lines, opening a debate over how to select their successors.
Mr. Justice Ian Binnie is leaving the court just three years short of his mandatory retirement age of 72. But Madam Justice Louise Charron’s decision to exit at 60 has accelerated a process that will see Mr. Harper fundamentally reshape the court by 2015.
To read the whole article, click here.
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May 10 Anti-abortion protesters take to the Hill
by Elizabeth Church, Globe and Mail
Thousands of anti-abortion protesters are taking their case to Parliament Hill, but many long-time MP supporters will be missing from the crowd, thanks to turnover at the ballot box and the election break.
Organizers of Thursday’s National March for Life say it is too soon to say how many new members will back their cause, or if their numbers will make up for some high-profile departures, including retiring cabinet ministers Stockwell Day and Chuck Strahl and fellow B.C. Tory MP John Cummins.
To read the whole article, click here.
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April 24 Violence Against Women and Girls in Canada
Canada urgently needs a national strategy to end violence against women and girls. Male violence affects all women and girls in Canada, but racialized women, Aboriginal women, women living with disabilities, and recent immigrant women are more vulnerable, as a result of poverty, marginalization and discrimination.
To visit the web site, click here.
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April 23 Margaret Atwood in The Globe and Mail
Election 2011, a dark fiction
I am a fiction writer. So here’s a fiction.
A vacuum cleaner salesman comes to your door. “You must buy this vacuum cleaner,” he says. “Why?” you say. “Because I know what’s good for you,” he says. “I know things you don’t know.” “What are they?” you say. “I can’t tell you,” he says, “because they’re secret. You are required to trust me. The vacuum cleaner will create jobs.”
To read the rest of Atwood's satire, click here.
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Give Harper a majority and you won’t recognize Canada
What would a Stephen Harper majority government look like?
It’s not an idle question. We’re now in the second half of the 2011 national election campaign, and the Conservative Party remains comfortably ahead of the Liberal Party — and, according to some pollsters, is in (or very near) majority government territory.
Harper’s campaign team has done surprisingly poorly, while Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals have turned in a more solid performance. But poll after poll have shown that Team Harper’s many missteps haven’t really affected voter intention.
To read Kinsella's whole article, click here.
Please Note: There is another article by Kinsella and pronted in the Sun below. Scroll downto read it.
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April Day for Democracy was not a day to remember for Young
“There is evidence that our caring and open society and our democracy are at risk.” - Carol Brayman, of Oakville-based Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC)
Oakville Conservative MP Terence Young found himself in unfriendly territory during Wednesday night’s Day for Democracy event with nearly every speaker railing against, what they see as the Harper government’s erosion of the democratic process.
Around 200 people packed the Operating Engineers Banquet Hall to attend the event, which was hosted by the Oakville-based Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC) group.
To read the whole news item, click here.
And then, read Sherry Ardell's letter in The Beaver that explains why Terence Young's claim that "my crowd was not invited" is untrue. She begins, "The Day for Democracy was part of a national forum for Canadians to speak about their concerns regarding democracy and offer solutions in an atmosphere of mutual respect. This was not a political debate. No questions, no jeers, no cheers were allowed during the speeches".
To read her whole letter, click here.
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April 11
To see (and read) the whole article, click here.
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April 10 Toronto Star
April 10 Toronto Star
Mulroney shows his unease with Harper's Tories
Brian Mulroney, the most successful Conservative prime minister since Sir John A. Macdonald, was sitting down for a rare television interview the other day in Montreal.
........
“Popularity is meaningless unless you use it to do big and good things for your country and for the people of Canada.”
To read the whole interview, click here.
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April 9: Toronto Sun
Are these conservative values?
You guys on the right love freedom and hands-off government. Can someone explain this rally thuggery?
This being a country currently run by Conservatives, I figured I’d write this one for them. I’m a liberal, and a Liberal, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Here goes.
I define a liberal as someone who believes in protection of citizens by government. A conservative, on the other hand, is someone who wants citizens to be protected from government.
Conservatives believe in liberty and in freedom. They don’t believe those things come from governments. They believe those things are taken away by governments.
To read this article, which ends with this sentence, "This sure as hell isn’t John Diefenbaker’s Canada anymore", click here.
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April 6: A Day for Democracy!
Conservatives are only party not to take democracy pledge: advocates
OTTAWA - A coalition of groups says all major political parties except the Conservatives have committed to renewing and strengthening democracy.
Voices Voix wrote to the leaders of the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Greens and Bloc Quebecois, asking them to commit to eight pledges about democracy and human rights.
Alex Neve of Amnesty International says despite repeated requests they have not received a response from the Conservatives.
The other four parties agree with the coalition about renewing democratic principles.
To read the whole article, click here.
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April 2 The Big Chill
Basic freedoms of speech and advocacy are now under siege
Heather Mallick: What if Harper's dream of a majority comes true?
What if the Harper Government were to win a majority?
...A Harper majority government would be dishonest. That's an easy one, they're Dodgy Inc. now, with their in-and-out campaign financing, lying to Parliament, allegations of illegally blocking freedom of information, killing the long-form census to cater to invented online outrage, wildly underestimating the cost of those Lockheed Martin jets, padding the Senate they previously vowed to reform, accepting fat MP pensions they once decried . . . I could go on but lack the space and sometimes the will to live, frankly
To read more, click here.
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March 17 The Star
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| Carol Goar |
Carol Goar: Need help? Don't look to Ottawa
They call her Diane the Dinosaur. They remember every judgmental remark the human resources minister has made about the poor, the unemployed and parents desperate for child care.
But community workers still harboured a slim hope that Diane Finley would show some humanity in her response to the poverty reduction plan produced by Parliament's all-party committee on human resources.
She quickly snuffed that out, rejecting all 58 of its recommendations. “Our Conservative government believes that the best way to fight poverty is to grow our economy and get Canadians working,” she told MPs.
When pressed by New Democrats about the shortage of child care that prevents single mothers from working, she responded: “Few governments have ever done as much as we have to support families.”
To read more, click here.
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March 16 The Star
Goar: Harper’s shadow public service
Everyone knew it was happening, but no one knew how prevalent it was or how much it cost.
Economist David Macdonald decided to find out how many consultants, contractors and temporary workers the federal government was hiring and how much Canadians were paying for them.
It took him about a year. What he discovered was a burgeoning “shadow public service.” Last year it cost taxpayers $1.2 billion. That was 79 per cent higher than when Prime Minister Stephen Harper took power in 2006.
To read more, click here.
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Everyone knew it was happening, but no one knew how prevalent it was or how much it cost.
Economist David Macdonald decided to find out how many consultants, contractors and temporary workers the federal government was hiring and how much Canadians were paying for them.
It took him about a year. What he discovered was a burgeoning “shadow public service.” Last year it cost taxpayers $1.2 billion. That was 79 per cent higher than when Prime Minister Stephen Harper took power in 2006.
To read more, click here.
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March 2011 Edition of The Walrus
The New Solitudes by Erna Paris
IT WAS NOVEMBER 26, 2009, and I happened to be in Ottawa with a few hours to spare; so, on a citizen’s whim, I decided to drop in on Question Period in Canada’s House of Commons....
In retrospect, I’m glad I visited the House that day, although I didn’t feel that way afterward. I thought I knew enough about our dysfunctional Parliament, but I wasn’t prepared for the dismay I felt as I watched Canada’s elected members challenge one another over one of the most critical issues to confront the country in a generation.
The debate centred on the scandalous detainee transfer affair, which had once again exploded into public view. Richard Colvin, formerly a high-ranking diplomat in Afghanistan, had revealed that for seventeen months, starting in May 2006, he had informed his superiors in Ottawa that prisoners detained by the Canadian military, then transferred to Afghan security forces, were being tortured. His reports were consistently ignored, he charged. Worse still, he was ordered to stop putting his intelligence gathering into writing.
To read the rest of this very thoughtful article, click here.
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March 7 The Toronto Star
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| James Travers |
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/stephenharper/article/825809--travers-changing-canada-one-backward-step-at-a-time
Imagine a country where Parliament is padlocked twice in 13 months to frustrate the democratic will of the elected majority. That country is now this country.
Imagine a country that slyly relaxes environmental regulations even as its neighbour reels from a catastrophic oil leak blamed on slack controls. That country is now this country.
Imagine a country that boasts about prudent financial management while blowing through a $13-billion surplus on the way to a $47-billion deficit. That country is now this country.
Imagine a country where a political operative puts fork-tongued words in a top general’s mouth. 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 according to the plan Conservative thinker, strategist and Stephen Harper mentor Tom Flanagan infuriated the Prime Minister by making public.
Imagine that.
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March 5. 2011
Here is the letter from the Jason Kennie staffer with the Conservative Party document attached that outlines the party's strategies for gaining the ethnic votes by targeting the "Very Ethnic" ridings. To read the letter and to view the document, click here.
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Toronto Star March 2
End the silence on aid
David Eaves
For the past two weeks, Canadians have slowly watched the minister of international development, Bev Oda, implode. Caught in a slowly escalating scandal, it’s become clear that the minister misled Parliament — and the public — about how the government chooses whom it funds to do international development work.
The scandal around Oda, however, is a metaphor for a much larger problem in Canada’s foreign aid. The world is dividing itself into donors who hold forth an open model of evidence, accountability and, above all, transparency, and those who cling to a model of patronage, ideology and opacity.
To read more, click here.
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CBC The Current Wednesday February 16, 2011
Civil Servants
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda has admitted that she directed someone to insert the word "not" into a recommendation from top officials in her department to approve funding for Kairos, a church-backed development charity. She made the admission after previously saying she did not know who inserted the word. And critics say the case underscores the government's willingness to undermine and misrepresent civil servants.During the interview by Anna Maria Tremonte, Claude Poirier, head of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, says that this government “makes decisions based not on facts, not on science, not on evidence, but on ideology.”
To read more or to listen to the broadcast, click here.
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Toronto Star February 16, 2011
Thomas Walkom: Oda's attempt to mislead is part of Tory strategy
From crime to KAIROS, Canada’s Conservative government has developed a novel method for dealing with inconvenient reality: If the facts don’t fit, invent new ones.To read the whole column, click here.
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Toronto Star February 1, 2011
James Travers: When Canada speaks, the world yawns.
Canada should look long in the mirror before advising Egypt on democracy or demanding accountability from the developing world. A sorry record defending one and delivering the other strips credibility and exposes hypocrisy.
Actions do speak louder than words. International expediency and domestic secrecy reduce Ottawa’s voice to a whisper when Prime Minister Stephen Harper promotes political freedoms for Egyptians and demands more maternal aid transparency from the rest of the world.
Rarely has the mismatch between behaviour and principles been so obvious.
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LAWRENCE MARTINWhat direction our own democracy?
An Excerpt:
Most everywhere it turns, it can see which way our democracy is headed. On the question of openness and access to information – our very own glasnost – Canada finished last in a recent survey of five parliamentary democracies. On the question of political morality, the governing Conservatives have made personal attack ads, as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May lamented Monday, the new normal.
The Conservatives had a plan – a good one – to replace our rancid system of patronage appointments with a public appointments commission. But it was scuttled. They had hopes our Senate could be democratized. A good idea, too. But instead, it’s been filled with Conservative cronies.
Owing to brutal partisanship, Parliament’s committee system has become increasingly dysfunctional. Watchdog groups such as the Integrity Commissioner’s Office have been turned into lap dogs. The public service’s policy development function, once significant, has been blunted. An unprecedented government-wide vetting system instituted by the Tories has stifled free speech.
To read the whole article, click here. Read some of the 232 comments on this article.-----------------------------------------------------------------Globe and Mail January 27, 2011Coalition of churches condemns Ottawa’s justice planGLORIA GALLOWAY
Congregations of Christian churches across Canada are being asked to tell the federal Conservative government they don’t want to pay for its justice agenda.
The Church Council on Justice and Corrections, a 39-year-old coalition for justice reform that represents 11 of the largest Christian denominations, has written a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemning legislation that is expected to increase the number of convicts dramatically and require billions of dollars worth of prison construction.
Now the group is trying to convince its congregations that laws to end conditional sentencing, impose mandatory minimum prison terms for non-violent offences, and prevent early parole will actually make streets more dangerous while draining tax dollars.
To read the whole article, click here. -------------------------------------------------Globe and Mail January 25LAWRENCE MARTINFive years later, Harper has made Canada more conservative
Stephen Harper, some opine, lacks a major meaningful accomplishment in his first five years in power. Not true. If you consider an obvious corollary, that the main purpose of a conservative prime minister is to make the country more conservative, his record is weighty.
Ask Liberals or those of a leftish persuasion. They recoil from the new dynamics the 22nd Prime Minister has wrought. The country is of a different texture than in the leafy Liberal days of Jean Chrétien or Pierre Trudeau. Its rightward shift is recognizable across a range of indices.
Traditional progressives are driven to despair, for example, at the workings of a Justice Department where a throwback law-and-order agenda is promulgated not on the basis of research or empirical data, but on base instincts and preformed bias.
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On the big things, on the things that really count, Stephen Harper has governed well. But that doesn’t mean he deserves your vote.
The daily noise of politics can drown perspective. But when taking stock at an anniversary, or as a possible election approaches – or both – it’s best to focus on what really matters.
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Note: There is a poll on the page where you can vote on the question “How would you rate Stephen Harper as Prime Minister?”-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Toronto Star January 19Tax cuts drive Harper’s right-wing agenda
Les WhittingtonOttawa Bureau
OTTAWA—In the spring of 1987, at a conference of western Canadian activists in Vancouver, Stephen Harper showed up with an 11-point “Taxpayers Reform Agenda” that attacked the traditional political class in Ottawa and called for the implementation of a “new economics” of smaller, leaner government.
More than two decades later, Harper is still pursuing the goal of transforming Canada into a more right-wing nation along the lines envisioned by the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
During five years in power, the Prime Minister and his colleagues have relentlessly anchored their economic strategy on this goal. They have done so by shedding government programs, shifting cash resources to the provinces and, above all, hamstringing Ottawa’s ability to act in future by reducing its financial clout through personal and corporate income tax cuts.
To read the whole article, click here.-------------------------------------------------Toronto Star January 16, 2011Haroon Siddiqui: Harper’s temper tantrums costly for Canada
When you question Stephen Harper’s foreign policy, he attacks your patriotism. When he makes a mistake, he won’t acknowledge it. When he’s losing a debate, he recasts it as cultural warfare between good and evil, and lashes out at critics with little or no regard for facts.
All these traits are on full display in his nasty row with the United Arab Emirates...
Canada’s response cannot be crass protectionism and holding Canadian consumers hostage, but rather a confident foray into the bigger world, as suggested by Ottawa’s own Competition Policy Review Panel.
What we have instead from Harper is petulance and demagoguery that will cost Canada dearly.To read the whole column, click here.-----------------------------------------------------------------Three Columns On Elections: The Star January 12, 2011Fear and loathing in Ottawaby Linda Diebel
An excerpt from this article.
It's no secret Harper runs a tight ship with little room for dissension. In the months leading up to his first minority government's five-year anniversary on Feb. 6, I interviewed about 30 politicians, public servants, consultants and academics about his style and brand on Parliament. Some requested anonymity because they fear repercussions,.For the most part, what emerged is a portrait of a highly intelligent, skilled and super-partisan politician whose style has created a mood of fear and loathing on Parliament Hill. He hasn't shied away from stoking an “us versus them” dynamic in the country. Critics use words like “control freak” and “mean-spirited.”
To read the whole article, click here.--------------------------------------------Bob Hepburn: Liberals see a way to beat Harper
For many Liberal supporters, their party’s fortunes look bleak as they prepare for a federal election as early as this spring......
But as silly as it may seem, some party loyalists aren’t giving up on the idea of being able to defeat the Harper-led Conservatives......
First, despite the fact that most polls show the Conservatives solidly ahead of the Liberals in public support, Harper is unloved and seen as too conservative, too authoritarian and too controlling for many Canadians’ liking. As proof, they note that 65 per cent of voters don’t support the Tories.
At the same time, Harper is considered vulnerable on several key issues, especially those dealing with abuse of power.
To read the article, click here.-------------------------------------------------JimTravers: Leaders racing through red election lights
Accidents kill minority governments. Federal leaders are now speeding into a crowded intersection with no confidence anyone will hit the brakes.
Casualties are expected. Even with Stephen Harper securely in the driver’s seat, there are looming dangers for national leaders in a campaign no one says they want.....
To read the whole article, click here.--------------------------------------------This column by Lawrence Martin in the January 12 Globe and Mail supports the thesis that "Reclaim Our Democratic Canada" upholds.
Majority! Who Needs It?
If That Isn’t Stephen Harper’s Motto, it Should Be.
Mr. Harper Celebrates His Fifth Anniversary in Office next Month – and If There’s a Lesson, It’s That Majority Governments Are Overrated. Mr. Harper Has Run His Minority as If He Won a Landslide. He’s Overrun the Checks and Balances in the System to the Point Where He Has the System Pretty Much under Heel.
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