Along the base of Emeishan in Sichuan Province, a network of forest trails connect temples, pavilions, and spots of tranquil contemplation (despite the heaving crowds!). This solitary figure continues to stand tall – though the tree has died, it’s a home to lots of other new life.
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Polygonic: Alert: Rex Murphy disgruntled!
It’s been a while, folks! But on the eve of the NDP’s big conference, I had to just make a somewhat-related comment on Rex Murphy’s latest pontification on Tom Mulcair’s popularity conundrum. Which isn’t as much of a conundrum, or a crisis, as people will make out in the midst
Continue readingPolygonic: The saddest days of Peter Van Loan
As a skateboard trick, it’s pretty rudimentary. As a perspective on democracy, though, Peter Van Loan’s 180 is downright sad. It was seven years ago that the Liberals shut down debate on a budget bill and adjourned for the summer, forcing a forlorn Van Loan to his keyboard where he
Continue readingPolygonic: Omnishambles: the Brits dump the F35s
It’s contagious The Brits have made just as big a dog’s dinner out of the F35 file as the Harperites have. Whereas Canadians are fond of the word “boondoggle” to describe the government’s hopeless mismanagement of money and priority, the term in the UK right now is “omnishambles.” Both are
Continue readingPolygonic: The case for an NPD-Q
A year, now, since Québec first crested the Big Orange Wave, and still, the NDP continue to thrive. It prompts a brand-new big idea: isn’t it time to build a provincial New Democratic Party in Québec? Will six be enough for the thirsty masses? There used to be one, though
Continue readingPolygonic: The emperor’s new clothes: North Korea keeps on marching
Sometimes, you just want to give them a hug. Pyongyang put on this earnest show of transparency around its rocket launch, inviting foreign journalists into the heart of their futuristic Space Control Centres (SCCs). Witness the marvels of our microcomputers and our, umm, extraordinarily large antennae! It was one part
Continue readingPolygonic: The Coyne chrysalis
”This isn’t about the planes, in other words, or costs, or accounting. This is about accountability. This is is about whether departments are answerable to their ministers, and whether ministers are answerable to Parliament — or whether billions of public dollars can be appropriated without the informed consent of either
Continue readingPolygonic: MacKay: We’re just as dodgy with our accounting as Sponsorship-era Liberals
Duhhhhr! Ooonnggg… errrrggg…. Out of the mouths of babes. It’s been an awkward delight watching Conservative spinmeisters trot out Plan A through Plan W in their Catalogue of Flimsy Excuses over the F-35 affair. Blaming bureaucrats didn’t cut it, even blaming the other parties hasn’t cut it. One waits with
Continue readingPolygonic: A vote for reality – a congratulations to the NDP
Quel jour! Quel nuit! And, for most New Democrats, thank god it didn’t take two jours and two nuits to finally sort the question out. Indeed, poor me – UK clocks leaped ahead one hour into summer time yesterday, leaving me drowsy-eyed in front of the CBC live feed at
Continue readingPolygonic: La France Forte, or Why You Desperately Need Sarko Standing On the Beach
The French presidential campaign is kicking into high gear, and Nicolas Sarkozy has one key message for his ungrateful people: vote him back in, and he promises to spend his second term standing on the beach, like a magnificant granite Colossus, liquifying overseas demons with the sheer power of his
Continue readingPolygonic: Some summit perspective
G8 times are here again! And France gets its day in the sun as host, which clearly heralds the ascent of a new French Order in Europe and the world. It will inevitably send their newspapers and TV chat hosts into a month-long tizzy of neurotic self-congratulation and overblown patriotism. Nicolas Sarkozy will almost certainly […]
Continue readingPolygonic: A future Liberal Party may want to consider…
There’s a lot of personal tragedy in elections, and it couldn’t get any worse for Michael Ignatieff. He’s finally succumbed to wounds meted out by the most vile, relentless attack ad machinery Canada’s ever seen. Shamefully, a huge hunk of the electorate swallowed it all hook, line and sinker – so much for our compassionate […]
Continue readingPolygonic: Québec’s NDP revolution: the new normal, or a BQ holiday?
Québec doesn’t do things by halves, does it? Some of us have begged and implored the NDP to focus its energies on Québec: to play to its social democratic credentials, and to take the Bloc to task as arrogant, single-minded, comfortable and lazy, and prone to taking its voters for granted. The idea being that […]
Continue readingPolygonic: If this isn’t bittersweet…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – welcome to Dickensian Canada. The best of times, in some ways – a social democratic party’s never had a bigger share of the Parliamentary pie. And Quebec sovereigntists have never had less. The worst of times, clearly, in that years of fear-mongering […]
Continue readingPolygonic: Oops, they did it again
Is there any surprise that the Globe and Mail has endorsed the Conservatives? In small ways, yes. I had expected at least a modicum of restraint on their behalf, and was prepared to bet serious money that they’d declare for a Conservative minority, and against a majority, given, well, everything we’ve seen for five years. […]
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