Sunday, November 25, 2012
A Speech From Which We All Could Learn
I suspect, however, I know how the right-wing would react to this:
From Platitude Central - Part 4
For part 4 in my examination of political platitudes that substitute for substantive policy pronouncements, I turn to the Ontario Liberal leadership race to replace Premier Dalton McGuinty, a race that thus far has been 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' I don't expect that to change in the foreseeable future.
My source for this latest installment, Questions for the would-be leaders, is yesterday's print edition of The Toronto Star. Thus far it has not appeared online, so I will simply excerpt some of the 'gems' from the answers given by the aspirants. In this post, I examine their answers to the first question,
In the aftermath of Bill 115, what would you do to improve relations with Ontario teachers?
Sandra Pupatello, considered a frontrunner along with Kathleen Wynne, had this to say:
...I intend to do that by sitting down with teachers' federations and maintaining an ongoing conversation. One thing I would like to discuss is whether the current model for negotiations is the right one for the times.
Sufficiently vague and innocuous as to be above criticism, save for its lack of substance?
Kathleen Wynne:
I will sit down with our education partners to strengthen the bargaining process at both the provincial and, importantly, the local levels.
Dare I ask what it means and how one accomplishes this rather nebulous goal?
Eric Hoskins:
...If I'm premier, I'm confident we can rebuild our relationships based on mutual respect.
'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished, Eric.
Gerard Kennedy, the Energizer Bunny of politics, has what actually constitutes a policy statement, but can't resist tossing in a platitude afterwards:
I will restore full bargaining rights and I will not use the powers in Bill 115 ... Collaboration with our teachers is the key to helping our students succeed.
Glenn Murray, whose dearth of important political experience is really no excuse for policy vacuity, offers this:
I would build and maintain the same good negotiating environment as when I was recently minister of training, colleges and universities.
Charles Sousa:
... It is my sincere intention to re-establish trust and goodwill with our teachers.
Harindar Takhar, the latest and last to enter the race:
... Maintaining a positive dialogue with our public-sector labour partners is essential.
There are two other questions posted in this Q&A. Should it appear online, I will provide a link in an update.
Oh, and for the record, inspired as I am by the 'vision' of these leadership hopefuls, I would like to take the opportunity to announce that I am for world peace, the elimination of poverty, and truth and justice for all.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Heather Mallick On Alberta and Tory Hysteria
Given its abundance of tar, I'm betting that some Harperites, along with a generous helping of Albertans (often one and the same) would like to apply a liberal dose of bitumen and feathers to columnist Heather Mallick in light of her column today.
Entitled Calgary byelection should rise above old quarrels, her piece skewers the sensitivity of souls that take such umbrage over comments offering criticism of the oil-rich province which, in my post yesterday I described as our version of Israel (criticize at your peril.)
Mallick offers, among many others, the following observation:
Albertans know perfectly well they haven’t had a premier worthy of their province since Peter Lougheed left office. Ontario had the same problem. Recall Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Frank Miller, Ed Stelmach, Mike Harris, Ernie Eves. What a roll call of sophisticates.
Her thesis is that the recently uttered and earthed criticisms of Alberta offered by David McGuinty and Justin Trudeau, respectively, are justified, and that, of course, the reaction of the Harperites is strictly political, given the closeness of the impending by-election in Calgary-Centre.
In proof, she offers the following:
Alberta, a famously lucky and beautiful province, mismanaged its oil and its tar and allowed itself to be bullied by multinationals for a handful of coins compared to what Norway, for example, a tiny country of five million people, demanded for its offshore oil. As Alberta caved, Norway grew stubborn.
That’s why Norway’s savings account will hit a trillion dollars this decade. Alberta has $15.9 billion in a piggy bank its mom broke open years ago. Will it even be doubled by 2020?
Mallick has much more to say, including an excoriation of the Liberals' grovelling apologies after McGuinty's 'misstep.' I hope you will take a few moments to savour the entire column.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Canada's Domestic Israeli State
I have purposely stayed out of the blogosphere discussion of the latest atrocities between Israel and Gaza, atrocities that both sides must bear responsibility for. I have done so simply because I don't feel I have anything new or startling to add to the discussion.
However, I have always been troubled by the reflexive and unwavering support accorded to Israel, no matter what actions it takes in response to attacks, even those involving 'collective punishment," something explicitly forbidden under the Geneva Conventions. No matter what, both the Harper regime and the U.S. President repeat that tired refrain about Israel's right to defend itself (as if that were ever in question). As politicians and commentators well know, to offer any overt criticism is to risk being labelled anti-Semitic.
However, it occurs to me amidst this politically-motivated hysteria that Canada has its own version of a sacred state beyond criticism. That would be the province of Alberta.
Being the repository of Conservative support, it is hardly surprising that Mr. Harper seeks political advantage while denouncing any criticism of his adopted province. To hear him speak would be to believe the sun rises and sets there, it is the sole key to Canada's economic future, and that anyone who proffers criticism is essentially an enemy of Canada unfit to hold political office.
Recall, for example, the outrage that was provoked when Thomas Mulcair raised the spectre of Dutch disease with the headlong extraction of tarsand oil in the holy province. The Harper regime's response was as swift as it was predictable.
And now Justin Trudeau, whose leadership potential I have grave doubts about, is being targeted by the right-wing for a comment he made two years ago. Dredged up by the always reliable champion of all things Canadian, Sun Media reports that he once said in a French-language interview the following:
“Canada isn’t doing well right now because it’s Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda.
Predictably, the Conservative propaganda machine was galvanized by such temerity:
“This is the worst kind of divisiveness, the worst kind of arrogance of the Liberal Party and it brings back for many Westerners the kind of arrogance of the national energy program which of course devastated the Western economy,” Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told reporters.
And so this silly dance goes on and on, affronting and alienating more and more from the political process. The only question is whether Canadians will continue to allow their thinking to be done for them by such patently dishonest and manipulative tactics.
P.S. If you want to see all the tut-tutting going on over Trudeau's remark at that national bastion of Harper appeasement, the CBC, check out the At Issue Panel on last night's National:
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Worried About That Burgeoning Waistline?
Resistance Is NOT Futile
In the various incarnations that the series Star Trek has enjoyed, The Next Generation was my favorite. Starring the well-known Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart, whose regal commands propelled The Enterprise into inter-stellar adventures each week, the series was both imaginative and in many ways prescient.
One of its most original creations was the Federation's ultimate nemesis, The Borg, defined in Wikipedia as
...a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones of the collective or the hive ... [who] take other species by force into the collective and connect them to "the hive mind"; the act is called assimilation and entails violence, abductions, and injections of cybernetic implants. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection".
The catchphrase of The Borg was, 'Resistance is futile.' It is a message that, in my deep political cynicism, I strongly believe is an integral agenda item of both the extreme right-wing in general, and the Harper regime in particular. By relentlessly promulgating such a message they are, amongst other things, discouraging democratic participation so as to achieve an unobstructed field for their polices of low levels of taxation, low levels of government regulation, and low, some would say non-existent, aspirations for a better society and world.
Every so often, however, something occurs to remind all of us of the things that are possible when we rise above those forces of manipulation. As outlined in today's Star, one such development occurred yesterday. In what is described as a David over Goliath victory, the people of Melancthon Township are celebrating the triumph of their activism over Highland Companies, which has now abandoned its efforts to build a mega-quarry that would have been the second-largest in North America and would have obliterated hundreds of acres of some of Ontario’s richest farmland.
To read how a coalition of citizens from various backgrounds accomplished this feat, click here.
Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, The Borg credo:
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