There is a good case to be made that Parliament should not have been prorogued. Lots of smart people who call themselves constitutional experts have already explained why. And they’ve done so in the clearest of terms, referring to our prime minister as a “not-so-benign dictator” and his actions as “extraordinary” and “very dangerous“.
Popular opposition to the prorogation is also growing. Today’s big debate in the blogotwittersphere is about the importance and/or meaning of a Facebook group with 20,000 25,000 30,000 members (and growing).
But not all of the opposition is grounded in absolute fact. Continue reading ‘Lessons in how to weaken a debate about democracy’
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Tags: coalition madness, Liberal Party, prorogation party
HST: one argument against
The Ottawa Citizen did its due diligence on Friday, when it gave a whack of space to the debate about the benefits and pitfalls of a harmonized sales tax. Robin Boadway argued in favour of the tax, while Susan Eng (the vice-president, advocacy for CARP, which is Canada’s largest national advocacy group for older Canadians) opposed it.
It looks like this debate’s chief proponents and opponents have appealed to two arguments:
- Economists are framing the issue as one of economic efficiency
- Populists are appealing to widespread popular opposition Continue reading ‘HST: one argument against’
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Tags: HST, Susan Eng
HST: One argument in favour
Robin Boadway, the David Chadwick Smith Chair in Economics at Queen’s University, gave his best effort at explaining the benefits of a harmonized sales tax to readers of the Ottawa Citizen. His answer was unequivocal: the revamped tax is good for Ontario. Most of the way down, Boadway points to the perceived flaws of the tax: Continue reading ‘HST: One argument in favour’
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Tags: HST, Robin Boadway, Ross Prusakowski
For longer than anyone can remember, these artists of prose have transformed their bosses from bumbling wonks into statesmen and orators. They humble crowds. Their words are transformative, their speeches timeless. Delivered perfectly, their masterpieces should, to quote a fictional scribe, “blow the doors off the place.” Continue reading ‘Oratory should blow doors off the place’
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Tags: Arthur Schlesinger, Gemma Collins, John F. Kennedy, Meredith McDonald, Nigel Hannaford, Paul Bunner, Robert Schlesinger, Ted Sorensen
I wrote a post a few weeks ago that looked way back at a Globe and Mail article from 1995. It hinted at the massive cuts to social programs planned by the then-governing Liberals who were, of course, in deficit-slaying mode. Continue reading ‘Just over two weeks later, some answers’
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Tags: Jim Flaherty, Stephen Harper, The Deficit Slashers
I was just browsing through old editions of the Globe and Mail — April 11, 1995, to be exact — and I came upon this passage from a story by then-Ottawa reporter Edward Greenspon. Its headline read: “Time bombs in budget mostly still ticking”. Here are the opening paragraphs…
After six weeks orbiting in the stratosphere, Finance Minister Paul Martin’s budget came back down to Earth last week in the vicinity of Toronto’s lakeshore.
The announcement by the board of the Harbourfront Centre that it will shut down the cultural and recreational centre due to federal cutbacks is the most obvious sign yet of how the budget is beginning to impact on communities and groups across the country.
But it certainly is not the only one. The Public Service Alliance of Canada tried during the week to arouse public concern about air safety by charging the federal government with skimping on firefighters at a number of smaller airports. And groups as disparate as the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Canadian Weightlifting Federation have had their grants eliminated.
Over the next year, hundreds of such announcements will trickle out of ministerial offices—some of them perhaps reinforcing the notion that the government is truly serious about its war on the deficit, but others reducing services or imposing user fees in areas Canadians never contemplated.
Some questions:
1. Was this the last time a federal finance minister was described as “orbiting in the stratosphere”?
2. How long will it be before these kinds of stories resurface in Canadian media?
3. Can any government of any political stripe avoid this outcome (assuming they do want to avoid it)?
(Note: Both Greenspon and John Stackhouse share bylines on the front page of this edition of the Globe. Two future — one of them now former — editors-in-chief while they were on the rise. Neat.)
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Tags: Paul Martin, The Deficit Slashers
Vanderbilt Stadium (photo by Frank Appleyard)
Memorial Gym (photo by Frank Appleyard)
This is what sports looks like to American college kids. Frank and I found our way into the gymnasium. After marvelling at the 14,000+ capacity of the place, we walked back through a few hallways, out a door and through a gate, and all of a sudden were standing on the football field. Now we find ourselves watching the Vanderbilt baseball team in the middle of batting practice.
Three major sports facilities beside eacher other, all on a university campus.
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Tags: Nashville
Five Days reaches Vanderbilt
Frank and I left the hostel this morning and, after a couple of left turns, made it to the campus of Vanderbilt University. We spoke to Robert Barsky, the multi-disciplinary heart and soul of the school’s ever-expanding Canadian Studies Program.
We stopped in at the office of the Vanderbilt Hustler — no, not that Hustler. This one. Also of note, there are “progressive” and “conservative and libertarian” student papers here, too.
We are currently sitting in a courtyard outside of the student centre, and nearby is the famous Parthenon. Before we head that way, though, Frank and I are going to check out the football field. Which is mere minutes from campus. What a dream, sports fans.
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Tags: Nashville
Five Days: Waking up to warmth
The Music City Hostel is our home for the next three nights. When we arrived last night, we were met by a whole lot of young people from all over the States — North Carolina, Alabama, Delaware, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania…
It feels quite bizarre to be back here after just about a year. Not much has changed, although the office in the main building has been “re-organized” (read: the desk was moved to the other side of the door).
Today, Frank and I will head to Vanderbilt University. Or somewhere near there, at least.
Oh, the title of the post serves only to brag about how warm it will be down here.
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Tags: Nashville
Five Days to Nashville and back
The trip is off to a sunny start. Frank is currently on a train to Buffalo, and I am on a bus with a wireless connection that left an hour earlier than I had planned, and which goes straight to Buffalo’s airport. Not a bad opening act.
On the way downtown this morning, it took exactly five minutes on the GO Train to hear a story worth telling. I was sitting there, reading about a boy who died from H1N1, when all of a sudden: Continue reading ‘Five Days to Nashville and back’
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Tags: anti-vaccine hordes, H1Ni
Recent Entries
- Lessons in how to weaken a debate about democracy
- HST: one argument against
- HST: One argument in favour
- Oratory should blow doors off the place
- Just over two weeks later, some answers
- What was so special about April 11, 1995?
- Five Days: Where the Commodores come to play
- Five Days reaches Vanderbilt
- Five Days: Waking up to warmth
- Five Days to Nashville and back
- Making friends with enemies
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