A loud and clear NO to the neo-conservative austerity budget 2012

Children and politics

My local PC MLA, Dave Hancock, extensively features the pictures of children in his print materials (to be fair, he has no pictures at all on his website). It is true that Mr. Hancock is the Minister of Human Services (apparently, the other services this government provides are not human...), which does entail working with families and children, but I just wanted to put these questions out there:

• How ethical is it to use involve children in advocating for a particular political party, especially the PCs? 
• Does working in a capacity that has to do with children make it normal for a politician to use include the pictures of these children in campaign materials? 
• How different is this from putting a child's face into alcohol or cigarette advertising?

Let's talk, shall we?

Why become like Tony Blair when we can stay social democrats?

I'm getting really disturbed by the vision of now already dozens of political journalists, advisers and "pundits" claiming that the only way for Canada's New Democrats to move forward is to become a "Third Way" party of the Blair type, thus abandoning effectively their adherence to social democracy per se and becoming an amorphous "big orange tent" party somewhere in the interminable political center. Being actively involved in the executive of an NDP riding association, I have up to now tried to keep my distance from the leadership race, especially when it comes to anything close to an endorsement (or anti-endorsement) of any of the candidates. However, this recent mania of suddenly placing Tony Blair and the likes of him as the symbol and ideal for which to strive is truly upsetting. Just look at where the British Labour Party is now and also look at, say, the German SPD in terms of their stance on major current issues (not necessarily in terms of their declared ideological positions) to see that the so-called "Third Way" is the way into the political oblivion as far as progressive approaches to socio-economic problems are concerned.
We can definitely do better than that.

Disturbing name near similarities

I've been meaning to mention this for a while but other commitments have stopped me from logging in:

• The Assad regime massacre of the Baba Amr district of the city of Homs in 2011-2012 (exact number of casualties unknown, but the area formerly populated by around 100,000 people was found deserted by the Red Cross in early March 2012) really got me thinking of the Nazi massacre of over 100,000 people in Babi Yar, near Kiev, in 1941-1943.
• The same week as Vladimir Putin "won" the presidential "election" in Russia amid widespread fraud, the allegations of fraud in the Canadian federal election of 2011 surfaced, with the nickname Pierre Poutine reportedly used by the perpetrator(s) to make vote-suppressing phone calls throughout the country.

Here is hoping that the similarities end with the names.

Starting a collection of unnecessary quotes

Don't say that!

A collection of quotes without which the Canadian political discourse would have lost nothing. Suggestions for additions always welcome!

http://betterifnotsaid.blogspot.com/

Floor-crossing heart-switching mind-changers

John L. is my best friend
And I believe with all my heart
In this man's vision for our land.
I'm thrilled to be a part
Of positive change.


John L., you know, is dead.
I must confess: at heart
My views are not the ones he had
And I'm no more a part
Of positive change.

Happy holidays!

Many thanks to all the readers of the blog! I hope that all is well with you and yours this holiday season and would like to wish you all the best in 2012. Let it be a positive year, in spite of all the odds.

Best regards,
Artem

PUBLIC ROUND TABLE ON INCOME INEQUALITY: IS THERE A REMEDY?

Saturday February 11th from 2 to 4 pm at the Riverbend Library (Rabbit Hill Road and Terwillegar Drive)
Income inequality is a very old issue, but the problem is that it is only becoming worse. Since the 1970s, the top 10% of Canadians by personal wealth at least doubled their share of all wealth. In the same period, the income of most Canadians has remained practically the same, or even shrunk, leading to an increase in the level of poverty in our communities: 10% of all Canadians today live in poverty. This is not simply a statistic. This is the everyday reality for millions of people in our country. Do you have anything to say about this? Would you like to hear other people’s opinions on ways Canada can resolve the gap between the wealthy few and the struggling many? Please join us for our first Round Table of 2012!


Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/127077167403320/

Some thoughts on the Occupy movement, Minister Toews, the long gun registry debate and other issues

Looking back at the start of the Conservative majority and the news for the past week