Worth Reading – July 18, 2013

Featured this week in my Tuesday piece, Andrew Coyne’s take on the cabinet shuffle. 

I’m a monarchist, and I enjoyed this defence of the Queen of Canada in the Ottawa Citizen. I particularly appreciated the part emphasizing patriotism over nationalism. 

From the Huffington Post, what it takes to start your own country. 

Martin Regg Cohn writes that the Ontario NDP may have played fast and loose with their own rules during the nomination contest in Scarborough-Guildwood. 

Toronto’s City Council has made the idea of a Scarborough subway a distraction from a more reasonable LRT proposal. Conservative members of City Council blasted the approach as irresponsible. 

From the Globe and Mail, the shuffle in the federal cabinet will only worsen relations between the government and the backbench Conservative MPs. 

Again, Martin Regg Cohn writes about how the Scarborough subway conversation is a mirror image of the gas plant issue. Parties are making irresponsible promises in the interests of winning by-elections. 

Andrew Coyne has a bit of fun with the revealed “enemies list” of the Conservative government. 

Though I’ve never been there, Singapore is one of my favourite countries in the world. From New Geography, Joel Kotkin writes about the challenges facing Singapore going into an uncertain future. 

This is an amazing piece from the Toronto Star. Some riding associations in Canada are incredibly cash-rich and Elections Canada has no way to audit these electoral riding associations. The Star reports that EDAs hold about $30 million in tax-payer subsidized funds.