This post is co-authored with Brian Foster “Is the EI system making it more attractive to not work?” That’s the (attempt at) thought-provoking (or fire-stoking) title of a recent National Post piece, written in the aftermath of Jim Flaherty’s …

Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading.- Lana Payne tears into the Cons for being interested solely in developing a junk labour market where both work safety and income security are sorely lacking. And Chris Selley offers his own rebuttal to t…

Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne tears into the Cons for being interested solely in developing a junk labour market where both work safety and income security are sorely lacking. And Chris Selley offers his own rebuttal to …

Assorted content to end your week.- No, there was never any doubt that any statement which could possibly be interpreted as insufficiently jingoistic in favour of the oil industry was going to give rise to a backlash from the Cons’ oilpatch base. But i…

The government’s plans for Canadian workers, for Employment Insurance (EI) and for the tens of thousands of migrant workers who come here annually are murky and unclear.
Commenting on changes in EI announced, but not specified, in the Budget Omnibus Bi…

The root of good, democratic government is the idea that the public are best served by having input into decisions that affect them. In a diverse, pluralistic society like Canada, with so many different regions, cultures, and industries, it’s even mo…

There has recently been a renewed interest in the question of whether the ecological crisis means we need to see (or plan for) a stabilization or even a decline in economic growth. This week there is a major conference on degrowth in Montreal. York Uni…

Here, on how the Cons’ imposition of an economic policy which benefits a few at the expense of people who get no say in the matter is just the latest (if worst) example of their becoming everything they once claimed to loathe. For more on the economic …

Here, on how the Cons’ imposition of an economic policy which benefits a few at the expense of people who get no say in the matter is just the latest (if worst) example of their becoming everything they once claimed to loathe. For more on the ec…

Canada certainly has some serious economic problems, but I don’t think dutch disease is one of them. Blaming the problems we’re experiencing on dutch disease is over-simplistic to a fault. Canada is regionally quite vast with many geog…

This twelve year old girl has more savvy and brains in her little finger than all the CON MPs, including Cabinet Ministers like idiot Peter Kent.It’s unlikely that you’ll see Victoria being exploited by Harper’s Politburo for a photo op with PMSHithead…

Ohhhh, she memorized that speech, you say? Every child should memorize her speech, The Mayor says.

Two weeks after he made a diagnosis of Dutch disease, Thomas Mulcair is dismissing …

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Andrew Jackson raises an absolutely devastating point to refute anybody trying to use “it’s all about growth!!!” as an excuse for slashing social supports and handing free money to the rich:In this age…

Every year as April 24th approaches, there is a feeling of anticipation, that the once inevitable recognition will finally be acknowledged. Presidents upon Presidents and the same speech after speech. We all know it was a tragedy, but our fight i…

The significant changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) program which are to be quickly implemented through Budget 2012 with very little consultation have not received enough critical attention.
First, a word on what is not in the budget. It is disapp…

The other day I was asked a question on twitter which for the life of me I could not fit an answer in to 140 characters. The question was in relation to the current and coming unrest. Time waits for no one. But what will come first? True reform and ret…

EPA Kills Jobs Facebook Ad.jpg

FreedomWorks, the sister organization to the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP), has launched a new website and advertising campaign to convince American vo…

Back here, I discussed how ridiculous the Cons’ “tough on crime” model would look if applied to any other area of policy – and used that comparison to question why we’d handle criminal justice any differently. But after a minority government period whe…

This weekend, the runner-up party in the recent Greek election, Syriza, seemed to rule out joining with New Democracy and PASOK to give them a majority in parliament. Instead, Syriza cheekily invited a smaller rival left-wing party, Democratic Left, to…