Competing priorities
March 7, 2012 | No Comments
Regular readers of this blog might have picked up on my penchant for writing about the importance of voting. It’s boring or irrelevant to most people, I know, but I continue to be convinced of the need to increase turnout at the polls. So naturally, the robocall scandal has captured my attention. Whether it is [...]
Robocalls robbing our right to vote?
March 5, 2012 | 2 Comments
Imagine that every morning, you buy a double double at Tim Hortons. You purchase it with a pre-loaded card so you can conduct the transaction with speed and without hassles. This has been the way for as long as you can remember. But lately, there’s a guy outside the door when you arrive. He heckles [...]
Votes and voices suppressed
February 26, 2012 | 3 Comments
At last year’s Canadian Association of Journalists’ Annual Conference, one of the panels was a post-mortem on the recently held federal election. The panelists (Chantal Hebert, Elly Alboim and Jeff Sallott and Paul Adams of the Globe and Mail) debated the question of whether it could be called “the Twitter election”. The panelists addressed this [...]
Smears? Meaner political discourse in Ottawa?
February 20, 2012 | No Comments
When messages appeared on Twitter about details of the divorce of Canada’s minister of public safety, I thought nothing of it. Unlike most of my friends and acquaintances, I have not signed up. Then, thestar.com published this column and Calgary Herald published this column. I prefer the tenor of Kris Kotarski to Tim Harper. Politicians [...]
Trudeau-mania, 2012 edition
February 16, 2012 | 2 Comments
Several things are true about the latest episode of Canadian political drama involving MP Justin Trudeau and his comments on Quebec separatism. (He said the following: “I always say, if at a certain point, I believe that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper — that we were going against abortion, and we were going [...]
Canada’s World
February 8, 2012 | 5 Comments
On Tuesday, the New York Times published an article on the declining influence of the United States Constitution. The article chronicled how, once upon a time, constitutional designers looked to the United States Constitution as a model for their own. As a citadel of democracy and home to world’s oldest written constitution, the United States [...]
A newfound appreciation for Rob Ford
February 1, 2012 | 5 Comments
Ottawa’s former mayor, Larry O’Brien, got into a bit of trouble. How ’bout we let him tell the story: Anyone who knows me understands that being politically incorrect (PI) has been a special strength all my life. Unfortunately being so blessed is not good for my relations with the chattering class and other such [...]
The human cost of manufacturing our iPhones
January 26, 2012 | 10 Comments
Canada has fared relatively well during the current economic crisis. There are many reasons why, as many as why the U.S. has suffered so much. One factor shielding Canada is also something that people lament: a lack of a substantial manufacturing base. This extends to an innovation or productivity gap. So while Canada has definitely [...]
Election Results and 21st Century Civil Society
January 20, 2012 | 3 Comments
Last week, the Government of Canada announced that it will be doing away with an archaic law that bans the release of federal election results before the closing of polls. In regards to the decision, Minister for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal noted: This ban, which was enacted in 1938, is out of place and unenforceable[.] [...]
What Were the Republican Presidential Candidates Like in High School?
January 19, 2012 | No Comments
Tonight is the most important Republican presidential debate yet. Two days ahead of the South Carolina primary, this evening’s showdown among the last four standing Republican candidates could help consolidate Newt Gingrich’s recent surge or catapult Mitt Romney back into what was once a seemingly insurmountable lead. It will also be interesting to see how [...]