By Montreal Simon Well it must have been a grim scene in the PMO bunker this week. For years the Con propaganda machine has tried to brainwash Canadians into believing that Stephen Harper is a Great Economist Leader. The steady hand on the wheel, steering us to prosperity, the only leader who knows ANYTHING about economics. […]
Harperism, from Hayek to Koch and Coyne
By Alison@Creekside Neo-liberalism: trickle-down, deregulating, deunionizing, globalizing free market privatization of government. When Stephen Harper was studying under the “Calgary school” in the 80’s, he became so enamored with the neo-liberalism of Austrian philosopher Friedrich von Hayek — guru to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the Chicago boys, the IMF, and the WTO — it formed the basis […]
Why the Scottish referendum is Canada’s, too
By Montreal Simon It’s been hard trying to explain that what’s going on in Scotland is a bigger story than many progressives in this country can imagine. And that they should rejoice at the last-minute surge of the YES side, because they are fighting for our kind of values, and we can use some of […]
Job stats baffle easily baffled media
By David@Sixthestate.net As usual, the moment StatsCan’s monthly jobs survey numbers go even slightly squirrelly, the media proves utterly unable to handle it. Last week, Canadians were variously told that the employment rate was unchanged, that the job market was in bad shape, and that the job market was doing unexpectedly well. Incidentally, we were […]
A Modest Opinion – A penny … er … a nickel for my thoughts
By Nathaniel Moher I am outraged! Are you guys outraged?! That’s a stupid question, of course you are, because I’m outraged and, because I form your opinions for you based on my opinions, that means you guys are outraged too! And that’s good, because I’m going to do something I don’t often do – vent! […]
The Occupy the World message couldn’t be simpler
By Montreal Simon I missed the Occupy the World march to St. James Park in Toronto. But when I saw the pictures on TV at work, and I saw how the Occupy movement is spreading. I knew that I was right when I said the other day that this is a movement that could change […]
On Sun TV and Margie Gillis
On June 1, 2011, the Sun News Network broadcast an interview with veteran Canadian dancer and choreographer Margie Gillis (see link below), which quickly turned abusive towards the guest. In a message on his facebook page, Canadian dancer Louis Laberge-Côté, currently a teacher at Nationaltheatre Manheim in Germany, offered this assessment. […]
Rumours of its death . . .
By Alison@Creekside Just three months shy of 2010 — the date by which the Canadian Council of Chief Executives originally projected the goals of the SPP would be completed — some people have been mourning and others celebrating for years already. The SPP is dead (a short history): Oct. 10, 2007 “The Security and Prosperity […]
Stephen Harper, panicked child
Stephen Harper reminds me of a panicked child, surrounded and overwhelmed in the schoolyard, red-faced and flailing at every perceived enemy and striking not a one. It would be nice if our issues could be solved with quick fixes, but they can’t. For instance, more people in jail does not reduce crime — just glance […]
Will Canada become bank bait too?
I still haven’t made up my mind how to vote. But I do think that if any leader is going to beat Harper, who is still doing astonishingly well in the polls despite ample evidence that his party is populated by boorish ignoramuses, he or she has got to quit reacting and start providing a […]