I feel we’re not that different you and I, at least I hope not. We’re both here, so there must be something that unites us. And even if it is difficult to pinpoint what precisely brought us here, perhaps that’s only an indication of just how grave the situation truly is. A uniting force we can’t yet properly define is braiding together diverse yet inter-related interests into a solid bond. And yet, all I can see for the moment are individual fibres, weak, limp, useless by themselves. I’ve been reflecting. Haven’t come up with much – nothing but an endless series of questions whose answers elude me…
Author: Taylor Noakes
An Ironic Coup: Omnibus Bill Uniting the Opposition
If there’s one thing I love, its getting caught off-guard and surprised, especially when it comes to Canadian politics, which I generally find infuriating, pedantic and riddled with pseudo-scandals. The events of the past couple weeks, instigated by the Québec justice minister and subsequently supported by the Premiers of Ontario and British Columbia with regards to the Tory ‘omnibus crime bill’…
Institutionalized Graft Part I
Let me get this straight. Tories do not favour so-called socialist state-economic planning??? That said, we’re in the midst of a global economic depression and Canada must find ways to stimulate its own economy in order to survive. Ergo, the federal government must set an economic policy in place that allows core industries to continue operations while further providing stimulus to at-risk industries. As it so happens, the Tories have decided…
State Economic Planning for Conservatives: Drop the Ball on the Military After the Election
The ruling Tories have dropped the ball in the one domain they repeatedly claim to be exclusively their own supporting the Canadian military. Let me be more specific. Tories typically talk a good game around election time about how they, and in their minds they alone, support the Canadian Forces. Both Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney began their terms in office promising sweeping reforms, new equipment procurement plans, increases to personnel levels and a general ‘re-investment’ in ‘our men and women in uniform’…
On mergers and other idiotic ideas…
There’s been talk of union, of merger, between the Liberal Party of Canada and the federal New Democrats now that a grand iconoclast has passed into the great hereafter. Perhaps it will be developed into a kind of ‘unite the left’ initiative, much like the successful ‘unite the right’ campaign of the late-1990s. In fact, if there is serious consideration of a merger between the Grits and NDP at the federal level, there’s little doubt in my mind that it will be subsequently marketed specifically as a united alternative to Stephen Harper and the ruling Conservatives…
Sleeping with the Elephant: Ending our dependence on the U.S. before it rolls over…
About twenty-five years ago Canada was ruled by a charismatic and media-savvy Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. He was a man hand-picked for his ability to unite a somewhat reluctant progressive Conservative base in Québec with Western ‘provincialists’ and stand as a distinct yet casual alternative to the staunchly intellectual federalism of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. More or less exactly twenty years ago the sheen of the go-go eighties was gone, an economic recession was in full swing on both sides of the 49th and Mulroney, like his much-maligned American counterpart George H.W. Bush, was embroiled in scandal and generally poor approval ratings…
Parc Oxygène: The Small Cause & The Cost of Community
Have you ever seen a really small rally or demonstration? The kind where you instinctively ask yourself whether those gathered may require the services of a new communications director? Or feel compelled to determine exactly which crackpot idea would lead to this small congregation? “What’s so ‘special’ about your special-interest group,” you may ask yourself, for shits and giggles…
Victory Over the Sun: From Harper to Horton to Ford, is Platonic Montreal the way out?
Have you considered the Tory Omnibus Crime Bill? It’s not exactly light bedtime reading, but it’s worth knowing about. It is above and beyond all else a testament to absurdity. It is absurd yet delivered in such a fashion so as to seem sensible. It is irrational, illogical and yet is designed to seem appropriate. It succeeds because the intended audience is often so incredibly uncritical, of their actions inasmuch as those of government, that they will believe known falsehoods simply because it takes less mental effort than to formulate even a basic critical response…
The Enemy Within II: A Waco End-Game Scenario
I’ve been fascinated by the Siege at Waco and the Branch Davidians since I was eight years old and watched the tragic events unfold nearly-live on CNN in 1993. Admittedly, I was not as aware of the grave implications of the raid, stand-off and siege back then as I am today. Waco, in my eyes, is a catastrophe so epic it deserves to stay fresh in the minds of any concerned citizen living in a modern democratic nation. I think it would be too glib to call it an isolated event, and even if the threat from doomsday cults is generally a bit of a rarity, the lessons from the Waco Siege have broad implications, especially in regards to the responsibilities of modern media and the potential for State intervention therein…
The Enemy Within: How our media and politicians fed the Norwegian spree shooter…
Did you know there’s a war going on? One you haven’t heard of? It’s not a terribly well organized war. Not too many people are dying though this is changing, fast. It’s not very well reported the established media has been slow at coming to terms with what’s actually transpiring here. They are blinded by their own complacency, and this war is partly their responsibility. Yet they, much like the rest of society, continue to look elsewhere…