Thursday, September 20, 2012

Worth Reading - September 20, 2012


Parliament resumed this week which resulted in two big discussions in media one, “Hey! Parliament is back!” and two, the carbon tax ‘debate’. Since I addressed both in this week’s Tuesday post I can devote some time to other topics.

Evan Solomon, CBC’s leading political journalist (or at least host) released an open letter to Premier Christy Clark and the British Columbia Liberals. The Liberals are planning to cancel the fall session and not sit until February. Correctly, in my opinion, Mr. Solomon slams Premier Clark for ignoring democracy. 

The headline says it all on this one. John Ivison argues that the NDP’s focus on the economy could reveal similarities between Prime Minister Harper and Mr. Mulcair. I don’t know if that argument holds any water, but it is an interesting idea.

In a weird blend of news from the week Don Lenihan comparesthe media reaction and history of the late Peter Lougheed to the unfortunate incident involving the paparazzi and the Duchess of Cambridge. Lenihan suggests that that a declining respect for public figures illustrates the contrast in treatment of these two people. Changes in media and society are the obvious macro-causes, but it’s an unusual contrast.

Dan Gardner illustrates the growing disconnect between facts and our politics. Perhaps worse, the disconnect between public policy and facts. Gardner holds on to the belief that we can measure policies, find the best one objectively and implement it. I applaud his optimism and hope.

This was a really interesting piece from Maclean’s. They did a profile of Tom Mulcair’s personal history. Frankly I did not know many of these details about his life. As a historian I really appreciated the author framing Mr. Mulcair within the context of Quebec’s political history, though I feel he relied on ethno-political cultures a bit much in his explanations.

Finally, Rick Mercer’s most recent rant in regards to the impending Omnibudget: Part Two. I’ll let the rant speak for itself.

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