Worth Reading - November 7, 2013

Polls and events in Ontario might mean an election is on the horizon. Tim Hudak (PCPO – Niagara West-Glanbrook) has attacked the ONDP, and it might mean a split in the opposition. 

David Akin, journalist with Sun News, writes in his blog about the media focus on the Liberals over the NDP. It is filtered through Brad Lavigne’s new book about the 2011 election. It definitely seems the case that the status quo of ignoring the NDP is strong.

The PMO is closing ranks around itself, so much so that it is not kicking out high profile members of its own party. Andrew Coyne suggests that these actions are creating more enemies. 

Hurray for our weak-mayor system! Even if Rob Ford hangs on as Toronto’s mayor the city council can contain him and govern the city. To be honest, it’s not as though they were following his leadership before.

My hometown of Brampton and neighbouring Mississauga has begun to confront serious budget constraints. I suspect we are seeing the fiscal issues the organization Strong Towns (http://www.strongtowns.org/) discusses, and the Ponzi scheme of growth.

Related to the above, a Globe and Mail article about the cost of sprawl. 

Emmet MacFarlane writes in the Globe and Mail that Rob Ford reveals a flaw in our democracy, the inability to impeach politicians. 

On a lighter note, the Washington Post writes about Ford in a satirical piece as though he was a politician in a banana republic, or developing nation.

Last week I shared something about the exceedingly generous compensation the mayor of Brampton gets. This week the Brampton Guardian breaks down the $800,000 spent by council. 

Brent Rathgeber (IND – Edmonton-St. Albert, AB) writes on his blog how the dismissal of the three Senators has been a terrible abuse of the rule of law. 

Ford, Wallin, Brazeau and Duffy: Satisfying the Mob

I am a pretty nerdy guy. This much is evident for regular readers of this blog. One of my favourite things to nerd-out on is history. Recently I have been reading about republicanism and the French Revolution. The French Revolution is definitely one of the more interesting chapters of human political history, in my opinion. One of the things that makes it interesting is the contrasts between it and the American Revolution which occurred short years before. One factor that existed in the French context that never materialized in the American was the importance of public opinion, commonly referred to as the mob.

Mob justice or the calls from the public for blood is as old as human society itself. I do not understand the anthropological/sociological reason why, but maliciousness and cruelty emerges from people when you put them in a group, disguise their individuality and confront them with controversy. Watching the fallout from Mayor Rob Ford’s revelations about drugs and alcohol to the world, literally, was paired against the discordant gleeful chirps, snarky comments and catcalls from the public galleries of radio, Facebook, Twitter and wherever else.

Anyone who reads what I have written about Rob Ford knows that I am no fan of the mayor of Canada’s largest city. I would never have voted for the man, nor have I supported him in office very often, but I take no pleasure in the public disgrace he now finds himself. I am embarrassed by Rob Ford as a person from the Greater Toronto Area. I think he makes my region, province and country look bad and that we deserve a substantially better caliber of mayor at city hall. I believe he should resign, but I cannot side with those that seem to take such heart in the man’s downfall, nor cheer while it happens.

When the news broke that Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau were being suspended from the Senate without pay I was in first in favour of the action. However, as time passed I realized they were being pushed out to cover up the abuses that they and their party masters had participated in. The revelation by Senator Duffy definitely reinforced this perspective. However, when the Conservative government in the Senate made this motion I saw a live poll on CBC that suggested that over 60% of viewers wanted to see them turfed out.

For those who transgress against us we want to see them suffer. Bring them to the public guillotine where there bright lights and cameras hum and let’s see a little humiliation and suffering to satiate our anger. As I suggested this isn’t a recent phenomenon. Bev Oda’s, former Conservative MP for Durham, $16 orange juice pales in comparison to millions misspent by Treasury Board Secretary Tony Clement (CPC – Parry Sound-Muskoka) in his own riding that was earmarked for border improvements. But the abstract is less likely to rile up a mob than the concrete.

Everyone I mentioned I believe should have resigned and then be quietly allowed to exit public life (or sit as an MP, depending on their error). It’s the public reaction and the call for blood that I find difficult to stomach. Mike Duffy has a documented heart condition and it is understandable why he hid behind it once the storm began. It is ironic that with the massive number of professional and citizen journalists, media outlets, Twitter and bloggers that our discourse seems only able to focus on one story at a time. Why is that? I suppose an answer might be found back in that mob in the streets of Paris; despite the many peering eyes there can only be one speaker and the mob answers with the din of a single voice.

What do these public witch hunts (which has uncovered witches) communicate about public life? What member of the business, academic, intellectual elite would look at the events of the past week and embrace the chaos and thrust themselves into it? The optics are terrible. Ford and his supporters believe the man never had a chance and he was hounded by the media, destined to fail. Can anyone expect a fair trial in the court of public opinion? Once a story breaks opinions solidified and politicians forced to deal with the consequences, even if they are ultimately vindicated.

French Revolutionaries soon learned that the mob hungers for blood and that there is no true end. I wonder now if we are struck in a mob fueled by scandal and we eagerly ferret out the next controversy until someone gives. It seems an unhealthy way to run a democracy or a government regardless of the mob’s satisfaction. 

Worth Reading - October 31, 2013

Happy Hallowe’en all! Hallowe’en is my favourite holiday on the calendar. I could go into detail extolling its virtues, but I have to write this in between dishing out candy.

I do not consider myself a teacher anymore. I work in education but I do not stand in front of children and run a classroom or impart wisdom. However, I still like reading about education and have opinions about what the system should be doing and look like. This article best described, I think, what I would like public education to look like. 

From poor Detroit, a forest is about to appear within it. A for-profit forest, strangely enough.

Toronto City Councillor Karen Stintz announces her intent to challenge Mayor Ford in the next election. 

This was a very interesting piece. Richard Reep suggests that the type of protests we have seen in the Middle East and urban conflict elsewhere in the world might be a new reaction to globalization he calls localism. He cited Marxist social analysis, so I was intrigued immediately.

Sad news from home, Brampton has a massive budget shortfall this year. Mayor Susan Fennell wants to make draconian cuts to transit to fill in the gap. City Councillors want her to start with her own budget.

The United Kingdom prorogues their parliament once a year, but it is used entirely differently than ours. 

Conservative support has dropped to the lowest point in years, suggesting that the Senate scandal is wearing down the Tories’ core support. 

If you need a synopsis of the Senate scandal Robert Fife does a good job here. It definitely helps that he initiated much of the reporting.

Premier Wynne of Ontario floats the idea of green transit bonds. If it meant better transit I could definitely imagine investing in them. Seems like a great way for passionate advocates to show support.

The city of Mississauga continues to lobby for its independence from the Region of Peel. 

Our Teflon Prime Minister?

There is a certain beautiful irony that the same week the Prime Minister Stephen Harper (CPC – Calgary Southwest, AB) revealed that his government had made significant progress towards a European trade deal that the Senate scandal reared its ugly head. Mr. Harper is in his seventh year as prime minister of Canada. The natural length that party leaders stay in power is about ten years, which means that like many politicians he is seeking to enshrine a lasting legacy.

According to Paul Well, reporter with Maclean’s Magazine and author of the new book about Stephen Harper, The Longer I’m Prime Minister, Mr. Harper wants to fundamentally change Canada. He has tried to make Canadians comfortable with the idea of a governing Conservative Party and stave off the return of the Liberals. Interestingly, if you look at Canada’s history you’d see long periods of Liberal governance punctuated by brief-to-decade-long stints of Conservatives/Progressive Conservatives. To many (especially Liberals) this is the natural order of things. Mr. Harper would like to permanently change that.

The Canadian-European Trade Agreement, if accepted, will be definitely one of the items Mr. Harper is credited for long after he leaves office. However, much like the last Conservative PM, his trade deal may well be passed but his party could be run off on a rail.

As every major news broadcast and newspaper is reporting, Senator Mike Duffy, Senator Pamela Wallin and Senator Patrick Brazeau are fighting tooth and nail against a motion in the Senate that would suspend them indefinitely without pay. In a last move of desperation they have, understandably, turned against their former masters in the Prime Minister’s Office and decided to attack. Unlike previous incidents where an errant MP had been kicked out, Mr. Duffy and the others are mired in scandal, and they have paperwork to pull down their former comrades.

This has been the news for over a week now. On Monday afternoon Senator Duffy publicly released documents that revealed that the Prime Minister misled the public/parliament about his knowledge and actions related to this scandal. Last week in my Worth Reading I cited an article my Chantal Hébert where she suggested the Harper leadership team is losing control of the caucus.

Now, this isn’t Great Britain or Australia and it is highly unlikely that Mr. Harper will be suddenly and unexpectedly removed from office, as Margaret Thatcher was. The next election is not expected until October of 2015, two years from today. Will the electorate’s rage simmer for that long? Will the Conservative’s popularity dip dangerously low?

Journalist David Akin tweeted this on Monday:

Perhaps bigger news in that Ipsos poll: Election today who do you vote for? #LPC 31 % #NDP 31 % #CPC 29 % #cdnpoli
— David Akin (@davidakin) October 29, 2013

These numbers are incredible and reveal for the first time since Stephen Harper became their leader that they have polled third. It seems possible that the reek of the scandal has turned off enough voters to at least send them temporarily into the arms of the NDP and the Liberals. This type of scandal badly hurts Conservatives among their base. The NDP’s consistent message to abolish the Senate may be gaining traction.

I am too cautious to believe that this is the end of Prime Minister Harper. The man has weather scandals before, serious ones that challenge his credibility as a leader. This one is clearly a shot closer to home and more dangerous, but it is unlikely without a caucus revolt to send him out. Caucus could revolt, but with not obvious heir(s) apparent the Conservative MPs likely fear fracturing their party. For Canadian political nerds, we certainly are living in interesting times.

Worth Reading – October 24, 2013

A collection of articles to stimulate the brain:

Developing sound approaches to cities is quite tricky. One of the big problems is the “one size fits all” idea. This article talks about why it is so hard to apply one city’s success to another.  

From the Kingston, The Whig (a paper never featured here before), apparently democratic engagement leads to a better sense of well-being. I can definitely appreciate why some of this might be true. Winning victories and feeling like you have input in the process is empowering and probably offers a sense of control.

Aaron Renn is one of my favourite urban bloggers to read, but I rarely feature his stuff because of the narrow context he often writes in. However, this week he had a post about how cities are ignoring the needs of those with the least to cultivate the upper-class of global urban residents in Chicago. Basically, the notion is that Chicago is taking public funds and putting them towards the well-off rather than supplying basic services to the disadvantaged.

The next two are about the developing Senate scandal.  From the National Post, Mike Duffy’s speech to the Senate revealing Stephen Harper’s (CPC – Calgary Southwest, AB) involvement in the cover-up. I hesitate to offer “the truth” about this story. I am heavily biased and think there’s a certain Shakespearean justice at play here.

Chantal Hebert of the Toronto Star says that the story here is more than just the Senate. The missteps of the Conservatives in the last few months illustrates that the Prime Minister is losing control of his party. I do not know if I buy that. Frankly it is a narrative that Mme. Hebert has been selling for over a year. If Stephen Harper’s party collapses around him history will bear her to be right, I’m sure.

It is with profound jealousy that residents of the troubled cities of Toronto and Vancouver must look at their peers in Alberta. Calgary and Edmonton elected new mayors of exceptional high quality in their local elections this week. 

I believe I have expressed my fondness for Myers Briggs earlier. I recognize its shortcomings, but I find the study of human personalities and temperaments fascinating. Researchers conducted personality tests and found certain types more common in certain geographic areas. 

Touching on one of the previous articles, this commenter says that Toronto needs more than an anti-Ford candidate, or a strong mayor like Naheed Nenshi (Calgary) or Don Iveson (Edmonton), but wholesale change in the political culture there. 

Journalists discussing the merit and usefulness of pundits and whether or not it has perpetuated lazy journalism. 

Premier Kathleen Wynne (OLP – Don Valley West) has convened 36 panels to discuss numerous issues confronting my home province. I like Premier Wynne, but I wish she would take some bold actions, such as on the transit file, and stop passing the buck for fear of losing her government.

The magnificent CGP Grey has a new YouTube video out explaining what is a country?

A tweet I came across today that I thought I’d share.

Did you know it takes a household income of approx. $110,045 to afford a home for $417,293? #MakeRentalHappen
— York Region (@YorkRegionGovt) October 23, 2013

Canada After Natural Resources

It has been a busy day in Canadian politics. It seemed big stories trumped each other one after another. The Alberta local elections, the suspension of the Senators, and then Senator Mike Duffy’s speech in the Senate this afternoon which kicked up a new firestorm. It made for a distracting day, that’s for sure.

It’s my policy not to discuss really recent news if I can resist. The scandals that continue to rock the Senate are too fresh for me to offer any meaningful insight. I do have a topic I want to write on though.

I had a conversation today with someone about the federal parties. I shared my preference and he shared his, and offered an explanation as to why. He cited the comments Tom Mulcair (NDP – Outremont, QC) made about the oil sands and proper pricing to include the pollution costs. The “Dutch disease” controversy, such as it was, gave this citizen a negative view of the NDP and he defended the West’s right to develop natural resources. Sadly for Ontario and Quebec he had the facts on his side that the natural resource sector was driving the Canadian economy.

The last point I couldn’t argue with. I have no intrinsic problem with the natural resources sector. Canada and her people should get whatever value we can out of our natural abundance. This is a particularly salient point here in the Northwest Territories. The entire economy of the NWT, as far as I can tell, is dependent upon the public sector and the natural resources industries. The shockingly obvious question is what happens to Canada when the market changes and these goods are no longer in such high demand, or, we run out. It’s as though our entire economy is predicated on very slow growing bubbles that no matter what we do are destined to pop.

It’s not as though we have not seen it before. Canada is littered with dead industry towns. The mine closed. The forestry moved on. The fishing quotas were imposed. The wells ran dry. I find it inexcusable that our entire economy should be driven towards industries that will ultimately cease to exist. I hate to sound like this type of lefty, but look at Europe, look at Japan. Japan has virtually no natural resources but has one of the world’s largest economies. Most of the European countries are also resource poor. Through a combination of manufacturing, and high services their economies are able to produce a very high standard of living. There is an asterisk there though, Norway has massive natural resource wealth from North Sea development.

I have not seen any obvious solutions. I am confident if there were any we would have heard them clearly articulated by now. It seems to me the big cities of Alberta have recognized that while the natural resources sector is very profitable it too may be fleeting. Therefore they have elected mayors who have promised to invest in their cities to improve the quality of life and turn natural resource wealth into a sustainable service and knowledge economy when it fades away.

In closing, I support the careful development of natural resources and stewarding them for the benefit of Canadians, but I would like to see some long-term thinking about what our country might look like when these resources are extinguished. Trying to predict and plan the economy is fraught with disaster, but more consideration for our ultimate destination is required at this juncture. We’re lucky that while our leaders in Ottawa preside over disaster some promising civic leaders are showing what can be.

Worth Reading – October 17, 2013

A few minutes ago I arrived back in Fort Smith from a brief trip to Yellowknife, the territory’s capital. I was there on a schedule so I did not get to do a lot of exploring, not to mention I was without a car so I traveled to most of my destinations by foot. Yellowknife is a city of about 20,000 people, which means roughly half of the people in NWT live there. The first thing that is apparent is that Yellowknife has a standard of living and quality of life very similar to cities in the south. The hotel I stayed at was beside a Tim Horton’s, a Mark’s Work Warehouse and a Wal-Mart. All the comforts of southern consumerism at my fingertips! I could have been in any small city in Ontario in the winter. It was -2 when I got off the plane. I also ate at a Vietnamese restaurant last night, which is not something I’m sure most readers from south of 60 think they can do here.

Here is a somewhat truncated list of what I thought was cool that I read this week.

I have been working on my own fiction this week, and it helps me to hear what other creative people are doing. Listening to a podcast someone mentioned this blog post. In it the author speculates what sort of minimum population you need to sustain modern life with all the amenities and services. It’s not at all scientific, but it is fascinating to think about the complexity and interconnectness of modern life.

In Tuesday’s post I referenced mega-projects and how the public is much more hesitant of ambitious government plans. The Atlantic Cities defends mega-projects here. 

Kady O’Malley, legendary Canadian politics tweeter/reporter, writes on some of the... issues with the Conservative response to a judge’s ruling on robocalls. 

This isn’t exactly timely, but it definitely is interesting. It is fascinating how different the political cultures of Quebec and English Canada are. The Charter of Values is a perfect encapsulation of this. Here is an explanation for how the Charter makes sense in Quebec. 

I’m not sure of the long-term impact of this, but on the face of it, I am very excited about the federal Tory’s plan to let Canadians pick and pay for individual channels. Let the revolution begin!

Jonathan Kay looks at the chaos in Washington D.C. and argues that perhaps it is a good thing so many backbenchers are spineless worms. Ok, that was strong... can’t say I want to edit it though...

In the crazy-Northern-story file, a man in the Yukon may have shot the largest moose EVER. 

This came to me courtesy of a friend on Facebook, ironically enough. It is about annoying Facebook statuses. Normally I wouldn’t post something like this, but increasingly I think a conversation will develop around social media/digital etiquette. Frankly, I cannot wait.