When Should a Candidate Withdraw?
September 26, 2010 | 3 Comments
In a recent column, Toronto Star columnist Bob Hepburn urged Rocco Rossi to drop out of Toronto’s mayoral election. According to Hepburn, Rossi is “delusional” to think he can win. With all due respect to Hepburn, whose writing I enjoy, I think he is wrong to try to bully Rossi out of the race. If [...]
Settlements are Probably Returning to the West Bank
September 26, 2010 | 10 Comments
As many of you probably know, the building freeze for Israeli settlements is set to expire. The word is that peace talks will continue even if the moratorium isn’t renewed by Israel. I won’t pretend to be an expert on the Middle East, but it seems to me that it would be wise for Israel [...]
Eat your vegetables
September 25, 2010 | 1 Comment
Social engineering exercises are usually met with skepticism, and for good reason. Do we really need to be told that an apple is better for us than a deep-fried piece of bacon? But governments, regardless of political stripe, are ceaseless in their attempt to steer the populace in a certain direction, whether to improve the [...]
Getting Some Perspective
September 24, 2010 | No Comments
I’m not feeling very politicky today, as happens from time to time. It occurred to me earlier that I hadn’t really gotten a good grasp of the situation in Newfoundland with regards to Hurricane Igor. It can really easy with these sorts of things to just gloss over the details. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Newfoundland hit [...]
With a Little Help from Your Friends
September 24, 2010 | 9 Comments
Writing in yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen, Dan Gardner has a good run-down of just how much the drug laws of the the U.S. and Canada have impacted other, poorer nations. Our wretched ‘War’ on drugs has ruined countless lives of innocent citizens; it has also led to the thousands of deaths in Mexico and other supplier [...]
Obama, Vander Zalm, and the Politics of Populism
September 23, 2010 | 1 Comment
There is a good discussion going on inside one of Jon’s posts looking at Dr. Dawg’s post on “populist barbarism” in France. Both Jon and the good Dr. have expressed a general distaste for populist movements, characterizing such efforts as “lazy politics”. They, of course, have a point. My own fascination with the Tea Party [...]
The sudden importance of paternal political relations
September 23, 2010 | 4 Comments
The Globe and Mail ponders the potential sexism or, at the very least, patriarchal politics that public safety minister Vic Toews directed towards NDP MP Niki Ashton. Aaron Wherry adds that he has observed Liberal MP Justin Trudeau suffering heckles thanks to his famous father. An interjection that should also be noted during this discussion [...]
I’m No Fan of George Soros’ Politics, but that’s no Reason to Call Him a Nazi
September 23, 2010 | 7 Comments
One slightly odd offshoot to the Sun TV News – Avaaz controversy was an op-ed written by Ezra Levant, published in The Sun and at his site, ezralevant.com. In it, Mr. Levant stated that Mr. Soros, a Jew, collaborated with the Nazis while a teenager in Hungary in the late ’30s. (Mr. Soros was dragged [...]
Doctors will No Longer be Raping Their Patients
September 23, 2010 | 2 Comments
At The Unnecesarean, Jill informs us that the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) and the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada (APOG) have taken the bold stand of being against the practice of raping patients. From a SOCG press release, dated September 15: “Most patients are willing to participate in medical education. What [...]
Defining Populism
September 22, 2010 | 13 Comments
In an otherwise decent post discussing the expulsion of the Roma from France, friend of the Commons Dr. Dawg ponders the nature of populism: This definition works, up to a point: “an ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or [...]