It's one of Canada's pre-eminent economists, Professor @trevortombe. As a person who was formerly involved in politics, I regularly relied on his reasoned research and revelatory insight.
Also, it was always good to see a public intellectual hold court and press for a fullness of dialogue in our shared democratic discourse.
So today was the big anti-trans protest across the country, which stole the name of a Black event (whatever, colonizer) to make their hate of trans kids known. They also called themselves Hands Off Our Kids, or HOOK, which was very funny to me, as he's the villain in that children's story.
We had, I believe, the edge in numbers on them. Tactically, we outmanoeuvred them - they'd planned to have people on the street honking in support, but we filled the space between the fountain and the street (and much of the fountain, to be honest). So passing motorists only saw a wall of queers, and the honks were for us.
The chalking team had been out last night and done an amazing job of chalking all over the plaza. Messages of trans love and joy were everywhere.
A lot of city councillors were there - I didn't see any MPs or MPPs, but doesn't mean they weren't there. Media people were there too, I saw Craig Norris and Joe Pavia from CBC, and reporters from CTV, CityTV, and the Record, that I was able to recognize.
All in all, it was a good counter-protest. No one got arrested from our side, so safety team did well.
"As first reported in the Globe and Mail, Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper have volunteered to lead a campaign to raise the money required to restore the official prime minister’s residence, each of them calling upon their wide network to do so."
Wonderful news. It's crazy that PMs have been too afraid of the optics to have 24 Sussex fixed up while in office...
Today in 1963, Lester B. Pearson is sworn in as prime minister.
In the next five years, his two minority governments will bring in Medicare, a new flag, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans & the world's first points-based immigration system.
#PierrePoilievre says he's going to "ax the #tax" on #gasoline, to lower the price at the pump. What he doesn't say is that his #oil-industry friends will raise the resulting price, pocketing even MORE #profit. Nice, huh?
Elsewhere in the #NationalPost, I read "It was perhaps the ultimate example of the old adage that foreign policy in Canada is 100 per cent for domestic consumption."
If anyone has doubts about the Nazi links of the 14th Waffen SS I was directed to a very thorough academic article on the subject, written not too long ago.
It was founded by anti-semites who were proud of their previous donations of materiel, money, and workers for the Nazis and wished to provide more direct military support.
Recruits received weekly Nazi ideological training at Dachau. They swore oaths of obedience to Hitler. It is clear they participated in war crimes.
"There is no overt indication that the unit in any way was
dedicated to Ukrainian statehood, let alone independence. The volunteers
committed themselves to a German victory, the New European Order, and
to Adolf Hitler personally."
"The division faithfully served Adolf Hitler, the unit’s journal dispersed antiSemitic propaganda until the very last days of the war."
There is discussion of the limitations of the Canadian Deschênes Commission and the screening of members of the unit on immigration to Canada.
"Before the Second World War, Fergus’ grandfather swapped identities with his older brother in order to join the Royal Air Force and leave the British protectorate of Montserrat, in the Caribbean." Probably an interesting story there; what did his grandfather do with the RAF?
Margaret Atwood on the Political Landscape of Canada 🇨🇦🗳️ Explore Atwood's insights into why Canada's multi-party system lessens the danger of extreme polarization seen in other nations. Learn from her analysis of the diverse political spectrum and its impact on Canadian governance. For more of Atwood's thought-provoking views, watch the full interview: https://youtu.be/UjXMGTbd0DU#HandmaidsTale#canpol#canadianpolitics#MargaretAtwood@JaniceSelbie
"During the 2015 election, the Liberals promised to end a Canada Post program, which was then underway, converting addresses from door-to-door home delivery to community mailboxes." A bad — but politically popular — decision of the Trudeau ministry.
For more radical change, @acoyne proposed many years ago that we give #CanadaPost to the postal union and let them find solutions.
It's always interesting when someone whose politics you think you know supports something unexpected: the NRA member who opposes capital punishment, the socialist who favours free trade, the pro-life feminist. How often are beliefs only found in a set because of a historical coalition, not any deeper principle? Do you hold any beliefs at variance with your political in-group?
@bluGill@laimis
I think some useful lessons can be drawn from the Canadian experience with immigration policy.
Immigrants can integrate well into their new home, and even high levels of immigration can enjoy wide public support, but the necessary precondition is that immigration must be in accordance with a system established by law. If the public feels immigration is mostly uncontrolled, then they turn against it.
Imagine if Republicans actually got on board with this awesome idea instead of painting it as the destruction of America like they undoubtedly will. Conservatives have lost their way and their minds, truly. https://www.threads.net/@potus/post/C607StBrwUy
@dmacphee The headline is misleading. It doesn't surprise me that the Fraser Institute, the Montreal Economic Institute or the Macdonald Laurier Institute say foolish things about #ClimateChange, but environmental issues are a very small part of what they do. It's like describing U of T as a place to play soccer.
As for @acoyne personally, he believes climate change is real and that humans are responsible. He's told the public we should have a #CarbonTax for 20 years or more.
"Menzies said the fundamental problem with the CBC is that it’s not so much a public broadcaster as it is a publicly funded commercial broadcaster that is competing with private news organizations for eyeballs and advertising dollars."
Here's my plan for the #CBC in the age of streaming. Keep #RadioCanada as is. Keep the news. #Telefilm becomes the home for funding new video; the #NFB produces videos in house and CBC TV becomes the distributer.
#CBCRadio as is; #RadioCanada as is; CBC News as is [0]; #CBC TV as a repertory broadcaster, more like #PBS; CBC Internet as a repository of Canadian taxpayer-subsidised videos.
No more direct competition with private networks for viewers and advertising; no more US game shows; no more CBC Sports; no quest to create a new hit show that also vaunts the Canadian identity.
[0] Maybe a few minutes on the hour every hour on CBC TV, similar to CBC Radio?
I supported the #TransMountainPipelineExtension project in principle [0], but not at any cost. For this reason, it was always unwise for the government to be main funder of the project, let alone the sponsor. $34B is a huge amount of money; will the economic benefit of the project come close?
[0] The world does need to act against #ClimateChange, but fossil fuels are so widespread and fungible that unilaterally cutting supply is ineffectual -- we need to reduce demand.
"In February 1849, the Rebellion Losses bill formally turned up in the House of Assembly, then located in Montreal, the capital being a moving target in those days, alternating between French and English cities. The debate on compensation was, on the surface, about the money. Really, it was about anglophone prejudices and fears, about losing power, about having to live in a world that was making less sense."
I wish we could take the cameras out of the House of Commons. It was bad enough when politicians were playing for a clip on the evening news; now they're angling for a clip they can share on social media.
Parliament would work better if the real audience speakers were addressing were the other MPs in the House.
@jerome Sure, #PierrePoilievre shouldn't have called the PM a wacko, and he should have withdrawn the remark once the Speaker asked him to do so. It's a lowering of the discourse, unworthy of any MP, let alone the leader of the opposition.
But let's acknowledge that debate in the House of Commons has been deteriorating for sixty years at least. It's not so much a matter of individuals, there's a structural problem. I think the underlying cause is that they play to the cameras.
Mr. Clark and PM Trudeau had learned their parliamentary craft before cameras came in and the point became to gain a 30 second clip on the evening news.
I'm not saying that parliamentary debate in Canada was some Socratic ideal in the past, but it really was better.