Simon Tremblay-Pepin is a researcher at IRIS a Montreal-based left-wing think tank. From an outsider’s point of view, the last federal election may give the impression that a majority of Québécois(es) have converted to social democracy and asymmetrical federalism. This analysis aims to demonstrate the shortcomings of such an interpretation,…
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(as appeared in rabble.ca, July 14, 2011) From Wall Street to Iceland to Greece to Ireland, the world is lurching from one financial crisis to the next. The financial panic of 2008 has morphed into the era of financial crises. If you think you live in an oasis away from…
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Once again, in the middle of summer, the anti-government government has unleashed more anti-policy policy via a compliant Statistics Canada. Who needs data when you’ve got family values? The Harper team knows what you need. (Hint: tax cuts. Oops! Not for you sister, if you’re a single mom.) The Globe…
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Kudos to Iglika Ivanova for her effort to quantify the costs of poverty in British Columbia. Included in her analysis is a consideration of the relationship between crime and poverty. She correctly points out that poverty is not a cause of crime, but is rather a risk factor for crime….
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A month ago, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments volunteered to be directly sued by investors under the Agreement on Internal Trade. This quiet announcement from Brudenell, Prince Edward Island, seems to have gone almost unnoticed. But it is a huge step toward imposing the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility…
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It was news, not so much because of what was said, as who said it: The Conference Board of Canada released a report on rising inequality in Canada today, noting that despite the fact that Canadians are better off than a generation ago, the richest 20% in society are taking…
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Besides the carbon tax, one of the most important BC government climate action initiatives has been the adoption of Carbon Neutral Government. That is, count emissions from public buildings and travel, reduce them as much as possible and pay for carbon offsets to negate the rest. As of the 2010…
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Down south, the Obama administration is in a dangerous game of chicken with Republican congressional leaders, who are cynically holding the US economy hostage in order to impose a radical agenda of spending cuts. Obama has seemingly bought into the rhetoric of cutting debt, rather than focusing on the real…
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Any day now the BC government should be releasing the latest greenhouse gas data for the province, and we will see if any progress is being made towards a legislated 33% reduction in emissions by 2020 (relative to 2007 levels; data will be for 2009 and we know that emissions…
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It’s like a bad riddle: almost everyone thinks they belong to it, but few can define what it is. Politicians claim to champion it, but it’s increasingly difficult to determine what it actually wants. And, often, when we talk about it, we’re really only referring to part of it—the part…
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