Saturday Afternoon Links

For your weekend reading pleasure...

- Dr. Dawg rightly points out that a bill involving far more intrusions on civil liberties than anybody could possibly associate with the long gun registry managed to pass second reading with full Con and Lib support (to go with virtually no public attention).

- Rick Salutin notes that the rise of Rob Ford and other destructive right-wing ideologues has much to do with a serious expectation gap between progressive citizens and the leaders they've managed to elect:

(F)or most people, winning an election changes nothing; that’s when the fight should intensify. Something similar seemed to happen to Barack Obama when he became president, as if his hope was the same as his voters’.

This is partly due to our political system: We get to vote occasionally for leaders, then leave it all in their hands, leading to excessive reliance on “them,” and turning on them when things don’t gel. A political culture of blame and rage is the upshot, rather than shared responsibility and the will to keep going. What could change that? Something more ongoingly, truly democratic, perhaps.

- Meanwhile, James Travers is somewhat more hopeful that those attempting to manipulate citizens' frustration to further press against the public interest will soon face a backlash of its own:

Seasoned politicians recognize that dynamic and its threat to their survival; they just can’t change it much. So many leaders have broken so many promises that only the most naïve or quiescent voter still believes that parties steeped in tradition and hierarchy will act more honourably in the future than in the past.

Lashing out is a familiar and feel-good form of democratic justice: Voters have long used one party as a stick to beat sense into another. What’s changed is that a wider swath is now being cut by those fearful of what lies ahead for them and furious at politicians who are doing just fine while others suffer.

Some incumbents, including Conservatives here, hope to save themselves by aligning with the angry against the elites. Wish them well for they are again trying to play voters for fools and sooner or later will pay the ultimate political price.

- Stockwell Day nearly got away with a profoundly idiotic set of spin about continued tax slashing, claiming it would both pay for itself and eliminate any need for further stimulus. But Erin sets the record straight.

- And finally, Armine Yalnizyan reminds us that there's still plenty of time to fix the census.