Contrary to what our self-described economist Prime Minister would have us believe, the jobs that are being created in Canada today are but a pale echo of what once existed. Responding to a January report about the creation of 29,000 new jobs, Star readers have this to say: Jump in
Continue readingTag: harper government ineptitude
Politics and its Discontents: About Upper-Class Twits and Peter MacKay
Yesterday, over at Northern Reflections, Owen had a trenchant post on Justice Minister Peter MacKay, a man who has always struck me as one of the most profoundly incompetent members of the Harper cabinet. After reading the post, I couldn’t help but think of one of the classic skits by
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Guest Commentary From The Salamander
In response to a post I wrote yesterday, The Salamander left one of his trenchant and masterful commentaries on the myriad deficiencies of the Harper regime. So that it has a wider readership than a comment would usually garner, I am featuring it as a guest post. I hope you
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Dishonourable Minister of Duplicity
Yesterday I write a brief post expressing my disdain for the fact that Peter MacKay and his family are on the cover of the ‘celebrity’ magazine Hello! Canada. That disdain springs not only from his incompetent and dishonest performance on more than one occasion as a long-standing cabinet minister in
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: My, My, My
The web blurb for Hello Canada! magazine states the following: HELLO! Canada brings you the latest celebrity & royal news from around the world. This is what graces its current cover: Impoverished indeed are we as a nation* if a minister as consistently and profoundly incompetent as Peter MacKay and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: They Still Walk Among Us
I have always felt a deep, abiding respect and affection for people of integrity. During my career as an English teacher, I took special delight in teaching plays like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Robert Bolt’s Man For All Seasons, which told sories of real-life people who made the ultimate
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: I’ll Have a Veggie Burger, Please
In light of the widespread dissemination of tainted beef by XL Foods, one has to ask the role changes made by the Harper regime in Canada’s food inspection process played. According to a Globe report, The list of stores and products affected by the recall is now so long that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper’s Lack of Vision and Corporate Timidity
Canada is cursed with a Prime Minister who pretends to be an economist, one apparently intent on returning us to an era when the country was primarily a hewer of wood and drawer of water thanks to his enthusiastic endorsement of a shortsighted prosperity achieved through oil and gas exports.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Government’s Three Wise Men?
I thought you might enjoy this editorial cartoon courtesy of The Hamilton Spectator: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Fabrications from MacKay
The Indefensible Defense Minister, Peter MacKay, continues to insult the intelligence of all thinking Canadians. As one who has followed the F-35 jet issue somewhat closely for the past year, I am astounded by his latest contemptible ‘explanation‘ that he says proves there was no intention on the part of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Latest On The F-35
While the militaristic Canadian Conservative regime, led by flyboy fan Steve and aggressively supported by his Defence Minister, the dishonourable member from Central Nova, continue to champion the acquisition of the F-35 as Canada’s next big toy, it is apparent to almost all who keep themselves informed that the plane
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Confess Now, Before He Finds Out
Tell Vic Everything. You’ll feel better for it. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Musical Chairs Belong At Children’s Parties, Not In The Senate
I really have nothing to add here. The absolute puerility of the Conservatives speaks for itself: OTTAWA—The so-called house of sober second thought witnessed the kind of contest normally associated with first-grade birthday parties, as a showdown erupted over seating arrangements this week. The newly elected chair of the Senate
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tim Harper on Caterpillar’s Betrayal of Canadian Workers
As it hauls its billions in profits south of the border, Caterpillar executives should make a detour and stop in Ottawa to drop off the money they owe Canadian taxpayers. Failing that, the Conservative government should be waiting for them at the border demanding the tax break and handout cash
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Martin Regg Cohn On The Wider Implications of the Electro-Motive Debacle
So the first lesson of the London massacre: Ottawa must be vigilant about vetting foreign investment and retaining jobs, but also mindful of valuing — and anchoring — our homegrown intellectual property. Why underwrite our companies if we willingly sell off our embedded brainpower to foreign bidders who leave Canada
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Educate, Educate, Resist
I have to admit that nowadays I am feeling the pessimism of old strongly reemerging, not to the point of giving up my blog and whatever value it might serve in the fight against the extremists who now control the Canadian government, but to the point where I realize that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Voice of Labour Roars
Although those in the embrace of neo-liberalism would have us believe that unions and worker solidarity are but a quaint historical artifact, the size of yesterday’s rally in London, Ontario protesting the predatory practices of Catterpillar Inc. suggests otherwise. In response to the company’s attempt to halve the wages of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Joy in Heaven
The above title, taken from both The Bible and the title of a Morley Callaghan novel, suggests the possibility of redemption. There was a report in yesterday’s Star amply demonstrating that potential. When 37-year-old Maxwell Beech was facing sentencing for gun and drug-related charges seven years ago, he expected the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Star’s Gloomy Assessment of Corporate Depradations
Today’s Star editorial offers a gloomy but apparently realistic assessment of the direction Canada’s manufacturing is headed in. Abetted by the federal and Ontario McGuinty provincial governments’ seeming indifference to the corporate depredations underway, the most recent occurring at Electro-Motive Canada, and unions that are hamstrung by the refusal of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sunday Insight From A Star Reader
I’m reproducing another insightful letter from a Star reader, this time from Edward Carson of Toronto, who writes about how ideology reigns supreme over reality in the Harper government: The Harper government’s “tough on crime” agenda through Bill C-10 is a policy and fiscal disaster in the making. A government
Continue reading