Ontario’s ongoing provincial election is presenting some interesting echoes from previous campaigns – particularly the 2015 federal election which similarly involved a seemingly vulnerable Conservative majority, an NDP official opposition and a Lib attempt to jump back into default-government status. At the outset, I’ll reiterate my longtime view that contrary
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Crawford Kilian draws from Alex de Waal’s New Pandemics, Old Politics to make the case that plagues and the associated responses are invariably political. Adam Miller writes that there’s an opportunity for Canadian governments to build off of low COVID-19 case counts and keep
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Noah Smith writes that public resentment toward the U.S.’ wealthiest few is based on a genuine (and justified) concern about an economic system rigged to exacerbate inequality across generations, not mere envy toward the people who have more: (R)esentment of the super-rich is
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Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Costanza reviews Mariana Mazzucato’s The Value of Everything, and highlights its focus on attaching proper importance to priorities that aren’t reflected in prices: (T)he current mainstream ‘marginalist’ concept bases value on market exchanges: price, as revealed by the interaction of supply and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – James Wallace calls out the Ontario Libs’ track record of consistent cuts to health care and other vital public services (with the exception of election-year promotional items). And Tom Parkin contrasts that pattern against Rachel Notley’s protection of public services from the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Canadians for Tax Fairness discusses the appallingly small tax contributions made by Canada’s largest companies, the vast majority of whom have foreign subsidiaries to avoid paying their fair share. – Meanwhile, Robert de Vries and Aaron Reeves point out the unfortunate reality
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how several other provinces are setting new (and necessary standards) for worker protections while Saskatchewan falls further behind. For further reading…– Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review is here (in full), and here (in summary form). CBC reports on Kathleen Wynne’s subsequent minimum wage announcement, while Sheila Block crunches the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman criticizes the use of non-compete agreements to trap workers at low wage levels with no opportunity to pursue comparable employment – as well as the Republicans’ insistence on pushing employer-based health care which further limits workers’ options: At this point, in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Maureen Conway and Mark Popovich argue that something has gone severely wrong if (as seems to be the case) Wall Street is treating higher wages as bad news: In 2017, America has a jobs problem: It’s not that we don’t have enough jobs,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Derrick O’Keefe makes the case for much-needed regime change in British Columbia, while Nancy MacDonald notes that such a result is far from guaranteed despite the Christy Clark Libs’ gross abuses of the public trust. And Christopher Pollon examines the close link between
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Gillian White highlights Peter Temin’s work on poverty and inequality – including the standard which a person trapped in poverty needs to meet in order to have any meaningful hope of escaping: Temin then divides workers into groups that can trace their family
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Eva Schaherl offers her take on how to fight against climate change: Stop being distracted by the “Sad!” theatre of the Greatest Show on Earth across our southern border. In Canada our leadership debates should be focused on how to save the world’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – David Olive offers his take on what a basic income should look like – and is optimistic that Ontario’s ongoing experiment should hit the mark: A UBI would be pointless in the absence of existing supports. In the Ontario pilot projects, the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne questions whether Justin Trudeau’s brief nod to precarious work and burgeoning inequality will be reflected in any action. But Sheila Malcolmson notes that Trudeau’s say-anything approach includes turning himself into a human shield for Donald Trump, while PressProgress reports on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne questions whether Justin Trudeau’s brief nod to precarious work and burgeoning inequality will be reflected in any action. But Sheila Malcolmson notes that Trudeau’s say-anything approach includes turning himself into a human shield for Donald Trump, while PressProgress reports on the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Olivia Loveridge-Greene comments on new research showing how many workers may be forced to keep working into their 70s or beyond in order to be able to stay afloat. And Don Pittis explains why tax-free savings accounts and other giveaways to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Olivia Loveridge-Greene comments on new research showing how many workers may be forced to keep working into their 70s or beyond in order to be able to stay afloat. And Don Pittis explains why tax-free savings accounts and other giveaways to the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – CBC reports on Nav Persaud’s research showing how universal prescription drug coverage could produce improved health outcomes for a lower cost. But Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew note that the Libs are instead taking us in the opposite direction with a combination of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – CBC reports on Nav Persaud’s research showing how universal prescription drug coverage could produce improved health outcomes for a lower cost. But Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew note that the Libs are instead taking us in the opposite direction with a combination of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Linda McQuaig writes about the dangerous spread of privatized health care which threatens to undermine our universal system: Privatization advocates want us to believe public health care is no longer affordable. But in fact, it’s private, for-profit medicine that’s unaffordable. The publicly
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