Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Norman Farrell highlights how following the reversal of the HST transition, B.C. businesses haven’t given up on their goal of making sure that only individuals pay consumption taxes. – Jordan Press and…
Continue readingTag: Alberta PCs
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Brad Wall looks to face plenty of new political challenges now that he can’t rely on an Alberta PC dynasty to do much of his dirty work for him. For further reading…– I briefly addressed the same issue with a particular focus on privatized MRIs in this
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On rebuilding projects
I’ll have plenty more to say about last night’s resounding Alberta NDP election victory in posts to come. But for now, here’s a quick take on what comes next for the PCs. I had earlier wondered whether the PCs might effectively take a majority-or-bust position in contrast to the other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lynne Fernandez properly labels the Cons’ federal budget as the “inequality budget”. Andrew Jackson discusses how we’ve ended up in a new Gilded Age in Canada, and what we can do to extricate ourselves from it. And BC BookLook reviews Andrew MacLeod’s new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On relative popularity
Jim Prentice is warning Albertans that they should vote for him lest they be governed by somebody like Tom Mulcair. Jim Prentice’s approval rating in Alberta is 22%. Tom Mulcair’s approval rating in Alberta is 42%. Which means, shorter Jim Prentice: You may think you’re getting an exquisitely prepared filet
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Failures of imagination and arithmetic
Colby Cosh’s latest includes this explanation as to why he wants to write off the party which holds a strong lead in Alberta’s polls: The province-wide NDP numbers, whichever set you prefer, are conceptually hard to translate into large numbers of seats outside Edmonton. Former Calgary alderman Joe Ceci, running
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Hegemony or bust
Earlier this week, I mused thusly: And I’m particularly curious as to whether the PCAA will bet heavily on a high-variance strategy, preferring to exhaust every hope of maintaining hegemony over Alberta politics rather than making any substantial effort to rebuild from the opposition benches. Suffice it to say that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Swing batta swing
Needless to say, the range of potential outcomes in the Alberta election (along with the continued flow of news battering the Prentice PCs as they try to regain some type of footing) has made for a fascinating campaign. But it’s worth pointing out that single polls and seat projections may
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the sudden disappearance of Danielle Smith and her fellow Wildrose Party defectors offers a case in point of the dangers of forgetting that politicians ultimately answer to the public. For further reading…– CBC reported on the actual deal between Smith and Jim Prentice here, while Darren Krause
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jordan Brennan examines the close links between strong organized labour and improved wages for all types of workers: U.S. scholars have found that higher rates of state-level unionization help reduce working poverty in unionized and non-unionized households and that the effects of unionization
Continue readingCalgary Grit: In the Record Books
These are not happy days for the party which has ruled Alberta since before Happy Days ever aired, but the PCs had something to celebrate this weekend as they passed Ontario’s Big Blue Machine to become the longest serving government in Canadian history. There are many reasons for their longevity.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert write that an effective solution to wealth inequality shouldn’t be limited to redistributing individual income or assets, but should also include the development of a commonwealth which benefits everybody: Instead of just giving people more purchasing power,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Linda McQuaig discusses how a burgeoning wealth gap is particularly obvious when it comes to retirement security: Quaint as it now seems, not long ago this was considered a good basic plan: Work hard all your life and then retire with a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Stuart Trew fleshes out the Cons’ new(-ly explicit) Corporate Cronies Action Plan – and it goes even further in entrenching corporate control over policy than one might have expected at first glance: – The makeup of the advisory panel that consulted with Trade
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell rightly asks whose freedom is supposed to be protected by free trade agreements such as CETA: Once Canada signs CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) with Europe, federal, provincial and municipal governments will suddenly find their hands and feet
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Debbie Chachra discusses why an effective government is a necessary element of civilization – and why charity can’t fill in the gap: Taxes aren’t the only way to pay for civilization, of course: community groups, charities, and churches also contribute. But I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – David Olive writes that the dangerous effects of long-term unemployment (caused in no small part by gratuitous austerity) are just as much a problem in Canada as in the U.S.: With our persistent high levels of long-term unemployment, Canada is at risk of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Timothy Noah writes that since Republicans haven’t been able to convince the American public that inequality is desirable or acceptable, they’re taking another angle: engaging in inequality denialism to try to pretend a growing problem doesn’t exist. – Tim Harper discusses the importance
Continue readingCalgary Grit: Fat Katz
“I’m sorry little boy. This is an Oilers-only campaign.” It appears Daryl Katz has a thing for crumbling dynasties: Billionaire Oilers owner Katz gave $430,000 to Alberta PCs Billionaire entrepreneur and Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz gave Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives nearly half a million dollars – almost one-third of the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Yesterday’s Alberta election certainly proved somewhat of a shocker – producing about the best possible result short of a minority scenario that would have allowed the NDP to exercise the balance of power, as the slightly-less-right party won even as its most
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