Bargain Basement Citizenship and the Decline of Democracy
We ought to be outraged. Just about every day our media provides a new account of the decline of our democracy: the inadequacies of our electoral system and allegations of electoral fraud; the high-handed treatment of our Parliament through inappropriate prorogations and overuse of omnibus legislation; a government ever more authoritarian and opaque, resistant to evidence and reason, and … Read more
Going, Going, Gone: Dismantling the Progressive State
![Pyne, William Henry; Combe, William (1904) [1808] "An Auction " in The Microcosm of London or London in Miniature (Volume I ed.) London: Methuen and Company](http://afhimelfarb.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/christies_colour.jpg?w=440&h=240&crop=1)
Now that some time has passed since the federal budget it might be useful to step back and assess what it says about where the government is taking us. Reaction has been pretty muted. The “centrist punditry” generally see this as an incremental budget, business as usual, “balanced” and “mature”. For our Globe editorialists, for … Read more
A Bad Day: What Now?
C10, the omnibus crime bill, passed third reading and is now over to the Senate for what is supposed to be sober second thought. The vote could only have been a depressing anticlimax for the many Canadians who were fighting to stop or amend this legislation. And the implacable inevitability of its passage must surely … Read more
The Inequality Trap: A Meaner Canada
“Inequality is corrosive. It rots societies from within. The impact of material differences takes a while to show up but in due course competition for status and goods increases; people find a growing sense of superiority (or inferiority) based on their possessions; prejudice toward those on the lower rungs of the social ladder hardens; crime … Read more
Canada’s War on Crime
Anything but benign With the parliamentary session coming to a close and summer getting ready to obliterate any residual interest in politics, this is pretty much our last chance before the fall to have a serious look at where our government proposes to take us over the next four years. We have seen the Speech … Read more
What Happens To Us When We Turn Ten?
The air is being filled with post-mortems, lessons learned from this extraordinary result, the Conservative majority, the reversal of fortunes, for now at least, of the NDP and Liberals, the disappearance of the Bloc and Quebecers’ decision to opt for a progressive, federalist party. Now is probably too soon for meaningful reflection. The Anybody But … Read more
Red Tory: A New Lament For A Nation
Phillip Blond, the main architect of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s “big society”, is coming to Canada this week. The timing couldn’t be better as our political parties get set to offer up their competing versions of what ails us and how we might go forward together. Blond is gaining a lot of attention with … Read more
Taking Back Our Democracy: Welcome to Leadnow.ca
This post has been published in The Mark News as “The Democracy We Deserve” As we watch events unfold in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, as the media chronicle acts of extraordinary courage in the face of grotesque brutality, I expect many of us – inspired, hopeful, uncertain — are led to reflect on things here at home. … Read more
