Worth Reading – May 9, 2013

Featured in my post this past Tuesday, Martin Regg Cohn in the Toronto Star points out how the most recent Ontario Liberal budget is something the ONDP can be proud of. 

Thomas Walkom in the Toronto Star talks about the Ontario budget as well. Walkom asks the perennial (and basically unnecessary) question, does politics make for good policy in regards to the budget? 

Martin Regg Cohn  again (sorry, he’s one of my favourite columnists at the moment) writes about the latest Ontario budget, and his reporting is that the story isn’t really who got what to support the budget, but the dire state the province’s economy finds itself in. 

This is a provocative piece from the Huffington Post. Tom Kott asks, is Justin Trudeau (LPC – Papineau, QC) a Conservative? 

As a historian I find this Orwellian practice terrifying, the Conservatives are reviewing Canadian history content. Their focus seems to be to highlight Canada’s military past.

Good news out of Toronto, the City Council has manoeuvred around Mayor Rob Ford and will hold a discussion on taxes to support new transit development. 

From Canadian Election Atlas we have the latest breakdown on the upcoming British Columbia election on trends and patterns.

This is a troubling bit of news reported both in the Toronto Star and Brampton Guardian. Over the last week or so Mayor Susan Fennell has been distancing herself from the Metrolinx Big Move and the proposed funding solutions. Recently she commented on the Hurontario-Main LRT, a proposed light rail line that will united Port Credit and Downtown Brampton and be the first light rail infrastructure in Peel Region. Quoted in this piece are leaders from Brampton City Council, the Mayors of Mississauga and Oakville strongly criticizing Mayor Fennell for this sudden change of heart. This to me represents a failure of leadership on behalf of Mayor Fennell and is deeply disappointing.

From Thomas Walkom again, he proposes a formal ONDP-OLP coalition to block the Tories. Walkon suggests that very little divides the NDP and Liberals so they should make an arrangement to stabilize government and make advance their mutual interests. 

Wilf Day writes in his blog about how regional representation works in Scotland and how it could apply to us in Canada.