The latest from Canada’s federal election campaign. – PressProgress offers some background on the agitators disrupting Justin Trudeau’s campaign events, while Max Fawcett points out why there’s no reason for us to lend any undeserved credence to anti-vaxxers. But Meshall Awan notes that we also shouldn’t allow posturing over fringe
Continue readingTag: Voter turnout
Accidental Deliberations: #Elxn44 Roundup
The latest from Canada’s federal election campaign. – The Maple examines how the timing and format of the campaign chosen by Justin Trudeau could hardly have been designed for lower expected turnout. – PressProgress looks into the background of Lib candidate Mary-Jane Bennett as both a cheerleader for privatization, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: #Elxn44 Roundup
The latest from Canada’s federal election. – Alex Ballingall writes about the NDP’s task in translating the general popularity of Jagmeet Singh into votes and seats. And Gary Mason highlights how Singh’s strong campaign is complicating the Libs’ expectation of waltzing into a majority. – PressProgress examines the superficiality of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Louis-Philippe Rochon writes that while American voters had to know what they’d get in casting their most recent ballots, far too many Canadians may have believed the Libs’ promises of something else: On this side of the 49th parallel, however, when Canadians elected
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Claudia Chwalisz points out that in addition to relying on a distortionary electoral system, the Trudeau Libs’ majority was built on a bubble which now seems likely to pop. Michael Harris wagers that Canadians will remember the broken core promise when they
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: How Young Voters are accessing information about elections, from the National Youth Voter Survey
“Young people don’t vote,” is a common refrain heard in Canadian politics and until recently, low voter turnout by younger voters supported that claim. The recently released National Youth Voter Survey conducted by Elections Canada following th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Nick Dearden discusses how the latest wave of corporate power agreements – including the CETA – stands to undermine democracy in participating countries:Like the US deal, Ceta contains a new legal system, ope…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Fred Dews highlights Alice Rivkin’s suggestions as to consensus policies which can reduce inequality while facilitating economic development. And Sheila Regehr looks at how a basic income can work in p…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Thomas Piketty writes that regardless of the end result, Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign may mark the start of a fundamental change in U.S. politics: Sanders’ success today shows that much of A…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On turnout
Daniel Schwartz reports on the final vote count from last month’s federal election. And given the record vote total and unusually high turnout based on the percentage of eligible voters, it’s particularly worth noting what’s changed since previous, lower-turnout elections. Since 2011, the Conservatives eliminated the per-vote subsidy, which provided
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Roheena Saxena points out that personal privilege tends to correlate to selfishness in distributing scarce resources. And that in turn may explain in part why extreme top-end wealth isn’t even mentioned in a new inequality target under development by the UN. – Or,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Michael Hurley and Sam Gindin discuss the need for workers to organize to reverse the trend of precarious work, while the Star recognizes that the work is already well underway. PressProgress highlights the benefits of joining a union, while Tom Sandborn offers
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Martha Friendly examines what a “national child care program” actually means. And Jim Stanford makes a compelling economic case as to why Canada needs one: In the case of early childhood education, however, this standard claim of government “poverty” is exactly backwards. Because
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Clark and Peter De Vries discuss the need for a Canadian economic plan which involves investment in the long term rather than politically-oriented payoffs only within a single election cycle. And Joseph Stiglitz points out the obvious need for a global
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Scott Santens argues that a basic income represents the best way to ensure that the gains from technological advancement are shared by everybody. And Thom Hartmann makes the case for a guaranteed income based on its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, while Mark Sarner
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Citizens for Public Justice provides a useful set of fact sheets on the importance of tax revenues in funding a civilized society. And Daphne Bramham follows up with a look at what we’ve lost from tax cuts – and the public demand for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On youth outreach
David Akin claims that Canada’s political parties should ignore youth turnout in an election year and focus on older citizens who are more likely to vote. But it’s worth taking some time to examine the issue in a bit more detail. At the outset, I’d think there’s little doubt Canada’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Joe Gunn reminds us that ignoring the issue of poverty won’t make it go away. And Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports on a national campaign demanding a plan to deal with poverty at the federal level. – Roderick Benns discusses the prospect of a
Continue readingEh Types: Splitting Our Differences
Imagine your kid’s school has 100 kids. It’s a good school, and all the parents pay for a lunch program so everyone gets a sandwich. Economically, it’s in a fairly diverse neighborhood so the school charges the parents for the lunch program in proportion to their income. Sounds good right?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – The Economist discusses how a tiny elite group is taking a startling share of the U.S.’ total wealth: The ratio of household wealth to national income has risen back toward the level of the 1920s, but the share in the hands of
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