Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nathalie Schwab et al. study the results of autopsies, and find that COVID-19 appears to be the actual cause of death even for many patients treated as having died of other causes. Eva Hejbol et al. examine COVID’s wide range of effects on muscles as
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The Canadian Progressive: Electoral Reform Committee Launches Cross-Canada Public Consultation Tour
On Monday September 19, 2016, the Special Committee on Electoral Reform launched its cross-Canada tour to consult Canadians on the best alternative to replace the current anti-democratic first-past-the-post system.
The post Electoral Reform Committee …
daveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: 10 ways to Renew Democracy in Alberta
The first law created by Alberta’s New Democratic Party government’s after its election win in 2015 was Bill 1: An Act to Renew Democracy in Alberta, which banned corporate and union donations to provincial political parties. Following the …
Continue readingPop The Stack: Should America Make Voting Mandatory?
So US President Obama recently suggested that making voting mandatory. There are multiple reasons for this, one being that the people who don’t vote are more likely to be low income and democrat so it would favour his party. But he also suggested it would reduce the influence of money
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Star Readers And Mandatory Voting
In response to a recent column by Susan Delacourt discussing mandatory voting, Star readers weigh in with their usual perspicacious observations, the majority in favour of a less radical solution to the problem of low voter turnout. Here is a small sampling of the responses: Re: It’s time for mandatory
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Gerald Caplan suggests that Rogers and Bell might be ripe for nationalization – though it’s also worth pointing out that we don’t have to guess what happens when a Crown delivers telecommunications services: The British Labour Party has begun to make the case
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Time To Revisit The Question Of Mandatory Voting?
In her column today, Susan Delacourt suggests that it is. While my own opposition to mandatory voting, the reasons for which I outlined in an earlier post, remains unchanged, she does offer a rather tantalizing reason for its consideration: Some of the dumbing-down of discourse, in particular, has taken place
Continue readingEh Types: Mandatory Voting Works, That’s the Problem
After election night concessions and congratulations are done, the news inevitably reports on the low voter turnout. Ontario’s recent election actually featured an increase in voter turnout for the first time in two decades. That’s the good news. The bad news is turnout was still only 52%. While any democracy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Globe and Mail joins the chorus calling for Canada to welcome more citizens, rather than exploiting cheap and disposable workers. But Bill Curry reports on yet another corporate lobby group demanding that the Cons actually expand the flow of temporary labour
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot writes that contrary to the theory that wealth is a precondition to environmental standards, increased consumption tends to correlate to disregard for the our impact on the environment: For years we’ve been told that people cannot afford to care about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom writes that the Cons’ economic prescriptions are doomed to fail because they’re based on a fundamental misdiagnosis: (T)hat half of the Conservative theory is correct. There is still persistently high unemployment. But the other half, the study found, does not
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Mandatory Voting And Social Cohesion
The Toronto Star recently featured the 2013 Atkinson Series: Me, You, Us, journalist and author Michael Valpy’s investigation into social cohesion in Canada — what binds us together, what pulls us apart. In its final installment, given the decline in voter turnout, one of the suggestions put forth to advance
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Michael Katz looks back at how the U.S. abandoned its poor – and how that choice continues to affect people across the income spectrum today. And Michael Valpy discusses how Canada can and should avoid travelling any further down the same path –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – As we approach the anniversary of Jack Layton’s death, Tom Mulcair discusses some of the lessons he learned from his predecessor as NDP leader: (W)hen Mulcair first joined the NDP caucus in 2007, he was sometimes frustrated by the ‘go-around’ sessions —
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Toby Sanger discusses how wealthy Canadians – especially in the financial sector – are making more and more use of offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share: The latest Statistics Canada figures show 24% of Canadian direct investment overseas in 2011
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Pamela Palmater discusses how the Cons’ push to monetize First Nations reserves ultimately looks to be little more than another giveaway to the oil industry: By now most of you have heard about the Harper government’s intention to introduce legislation that will turn
Continue readingLet’s Take a Page from Australia and Demand Voter Participation
I was nudged into writing this via an article written by Bill Tieleman who, as his Tyee bio reports is a regular Tyee contributor who writes a column on B.C. politics every Tuesday in 24 Hours newspaper He was also instrumental in working to have the HST brought before a referendum thanks
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