Worth Reading – January 16, 2014

Welcome to Worth Reading. Here are a few articles that caught my attention this week.

Justin Ling wrote in his blog about the current state of the federal parties. It is a dim assessment. Perhaps the most entertaining is his dissection of the government as being deep in Governing Derangement Syndrome. 

This was mentioned in Ling’s piece, a Conservative MP is raising money for the Conservative Party by campaigning against a policy her government passed. There’s outrageous and then there’s outrageous.

This is a great piece in the Globe and Mail about Tom Mulcair and sets up the year nicely as one where he must prove himself if he wants to form government. The article highlights the challenges he is facing and his personal backstory.

Eric Grenier of 308 Blog wrote a piece about what the current House of Commons might look like if the right never united. Interesting think-piece. 

Martin Regg Cohn writing in the Toronto Star discusses the two by-elections in Thornhill and Niagara Falls and their possible implications for the next provincial election. 

TVO’s The Agenda has been running a bit of a series on term limits. Rad Dockery originally had this guest piece in favour of the idea. After reading and commenting on the piece I was invited by a producer to write a response, which is available here. The next day a post from Professor Andrew Sancton went up, which I think is the best of the three. I’ll admit to being a little jealous.

Andrew Coyne in the National Post points out that we have come to expect pathetically little from our politicians. Pfft. No duh.

China is building a high-speed train to Singapore. Assuming the country doesn’t blow up, I presume China will bestride Asia like the United States did Latin America.  

The Canadian Supreme Court is tied in knots over acontroversial appointment by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. 

CBC explores the topic of suicide in small First Nationscommunities and the lasting impact it has. It is a heartbreaking story.

Worth Watching

Game designer Jonathan Blow is a bit of a controversial figure. His assessment of the funding models of video games in this video and what it means to the future of the medium is dead-on, in my opinion.

The Agenda discussed the importance of history and why we are failing to teach it properly. It was a great program and I think it highlighted some real shortcomings of current historiography and the difficulty it creates in teaching history.