Stephen Kimber

Here’s a copy of an open letter from 85 Canadian economists on the current economic crisis and what Canada’s government should do about it. It was put together by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think tank: The deepening global financial crisis, the decline in world commodity prices, and the growing possibility of […]

How beside the point will the final days of the federal election campaign get? Consider the latest hiccup in a hurricane over a botched question-and-answer Thursday (October 9) involving local CTV anchor Steve Murphy and federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. During the taping of an interview with the Liberal leader, Murphy asked: “If you were […]

The question is no longer who wants to be prime minister, but why would anyone want the job. Consider: the global banking system is in massive meltdown, the stock market in frantic freefall; our short-term fiscal future seems unpredictable, perhaps unfathomable, even to those who make their living fathoming and predicting it. And don’t get […]

I take it back. This week’s federal leaders’ debates were far more interesting, informative and, yes, even entertaining than I’d expected. That was thanks, in no small measure, to the presence of Green Party leader Elizabeth May—thank you, Canadians!—who seized the opportunity to make it clear her party was about more than just the environment. […]

The Tyee, the British Columbia-based online publication, has a fascinating piece this week on the idea that a centre-left coalition could form Canada’s government after next week’s vote. Writes John Ryan, a retired University of Winnipeg professor: “If for once the Liberals and the NDP set aside partisan politics and acted in the interests of […]

I happened to be in Boston last weekend for a conference, which is how I ended up watching the first U.S. presidential debate Friday evening (September 26) on a big-as-my-house widescreen TV with several hundred of my new closest friends in the atrium of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. It was fascinating, […]

Still puzzling over how to cap carbon, or trade a tax, or emit a greenhouse gas, or… The Ecology Action Centre will host a primer entitled “CARBON JARGON: MAKING SENSE OF CAP & TRADE AND CARBON TAX” on Monday, October 6 at the Dal Law School (Room 105) from 6-7 pm. Meinhard Doelle, who teaches […]

Today’s (September 25) Globe and Mail: Number of A-Section news stories about the federal election: 5Number of stories about political strategy and who’s winning/losing: 5Number of stories about substantive issues: 0

Will Stephen Harper’s “a carbon tax is crazy economics; it’s crazy environmental policy” turn out to be the 2008 election’s version of “Zap! You’re frozen”? During the 1974 federal election campaign, earnest, awkward Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield—the Stephane Dion of his day—proposed a policy of wage and price controls to put a lid on […]