If the Doug Ford government has any credibility left (a big IF), it has taken yet another hit, thanks to a Star investigation. Uncovered is yet another example of the cronyism that should be anathema in any healthy democracy: the weighting of The Species at Risk Program Advisory Committee with Ford’s
Continue readingTag: environmental degradation
Politics and its Discontents: No Friend To The Environment
Readers will know that Ontario premier Ford cares little for environmental matters. One remembers his rash act upon assuming power of enthusiastically tearing up 750 green energy contracts, costing Ontario taxpayers over $230 million. “I’m so proud of that,” Ford said of his decision. “I’m proud that we actually
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Timely And Relevant
A nice follow-up to yesterday’s post: H/t Theo Moudakis As well, Bob Coupland of Oakville expresses some timely sentiments: Ford government’s planning entrenches sprawl at expense of environment I just heard the term “The Big Sprawl,” and it alarmed me to hear that between now and July 1, 2022, the Doug
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Putting The Fox In Charge Of The Henhouse
…. is the metaphor NDP environment critic Sandy Shaw uses to describe Doug Ford’s appointment of Norm Sterling to head the Greenbelt Council in Ontario. Sterling, whose reputation as environment under Mike Harris was anything but, would seem to be an odd choice to head the Council only if one were
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Pay To Slay
That’s what critics are calling Bill 108, the “More Homes, More Choice Act,” introduced stealthily, as the cowardly are wont to do, by the Ford regime in Ontario. Buried in an omnibus bill, the favoured vehicle of the dishonest, (including both Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper), the bill promises to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Unkindest Cut Of All
Devolution. Debasement. Depraved Indifference. Apply whatever term you like, but the cuts coming furiously from the Ford government in Ontario surely bespeak a state that no ruling body, and by extension, its citizens, should promote or countenance. While I hesitate to speculate on what pathology drives Doug Ford to dismantle
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Things We Don’t Know
One of the things I have always used this blog for is to bring to readers’ notice things they might be unaware of. For example, although most of us know something about the environmental and fiscal impact of rapidly filling landfills, how many of us are aware that almost 85%
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Way We Were
At the risk of being accused of “old-fartism,” I offer the following which a Facebook friend posted. While I don’t agree with the implicit and explicit denigration of the young in the post, it does serve as a reminder of certain advantages Western lifestyles of yore possessed. Checking out at
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Truth In Parody
Last year, the Parody Project produced a stinging rebuke of Donald Trump and his acolytes through a song entitled Confounds the Science. If you haven’t yet seen it, please click on the link. The following is a sequel to that effort, a sobering meditation on the mad heedlessness of our
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: This About Sums It Up
And it begs the question: Is our species really worth saving? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Distemper Of Our Times
For one who naturally inclines toward dark brooding, these are not good times. But then, if people follow the news and keep themselves reasonably well-informed about our headlong plunge toward environmental and climate disaster, I cannot imagine too many being in a celebratory mood. Except perhaps in Ontario, where the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Days Like This
There are many days when I think that words no longer fork any lightning, and this blog would be more useful if I simply aggregated, without commentary, news items that seem important to me. This is one of those days. Should you wish to read about this dreadful desecration, please
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Curbing An Addiction
A recent post outlined the terrible toll plastic pollution is exacting on the world’s oceans and wildlife. We pay a very high price for personal convenience, but our addiction to plastic runs very, very deep, as you will see in just a moment. But first, Tim Gray makes a plea
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Species Under Indictment
The species: the human race. The charge: depraved indifference. Watch the following to see for yourself whether conviction is a forgone conclusion: If you would like to learn more about this ubiquitous problem, click here for a good primer. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Losing Our Hubris, Or The Truth, According To George Carlin
Religious belief can be a marvelous thing, It can give strength in times of trouble, comfort in times of grief, and direction in times of confusion. It can also be the source of unspeakable hubris. My own beliefs do not hew to the traditional, although I am convinced that what
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Sickness Unto Death
Cognitive dissonance might be one way to describe how we conduct our lives in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. Willful ignorance might be another. Or, perhaps most damning of all, willful self-indulgence, in which we exult our passion for convenience and comfort over their cost to the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Ugly And Growing Reality
Although I have written before about the terrible problem of plastic pollution that is strangling the world in general, and our oceans and marine life in particular, it seems that we can never be reminded too often about the terrible toll our self-indulgent lifestyles exact. While it is true to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: He Takes A Nice Selfie, But Secrecy Is His Real Forté
Those of us who follow politics fairly closely know that there is frequently less than meets the eye in the Trudeau government. Certainly, the Prime Minister talks a reasonably good game, and his selfies are world-renowned, but scratch the surface and you will find increasing evidence that the emperor is,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What A Mess
I suspect that most people in the West realize to some extent the self-indulgence of drinking bottled water, not to mention the many other liquids that are conveyed to the consumer in just the same manner. The next time we reach for one, we should all feel suitably ashamed of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: But Are They Listening?
Unless we live in complete and willful ignorance, all of us are aware, on at least a minimal level, of the perils currently confronting and engulfing our world. Those perils, which some refer to as the sixth extinction, are real, and their magnitude is such that few seem willing or
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