Monday Evening Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Janyce McGregor's article on the perils of Senate reform is well worth a read in general. But let's particularly highlight an issue I've raised before - if one which is no less glaring in the absence of any reform:

So why not just abolish the Senate? Indeed, that's the position of other premiers, including Ontario's Dalton McGuinty, and the NDP at both the federal and provincial levels.

The NDP's preference for abolition over reform is another reason Simon Fraser's Heard is uncertain about the prospects for the voluntary elections framework in the current bill.

New Democrats hold power in Nova Scotia and Manitoba, and are serious challengers for government in B.C. in the coming months. The party might be seen as contradicting itself to run candidates to serve in a chamber it believes should be abolished.

"If they maintain this position, then several provinces with a strong NDP presence will not be properly represented," Heard fears.

- Aalya Ahmad and Geoff Bickerton discuss the toxic mix of management, government, paid PR and media which all served to ensure the least fair outcome possible in Canada Post's CBA negotiations.

- Verda Petry points out just a few of the people who have reason to figure that Saskatchewan's current track won't take them anywhere worth going:

No mention of the Health Sciences Association, who have been without a contract for over two years, the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation, the CUPE Local of educational assistants, the Saskatchewan Cancer Society workers, the Crop Insurers Group, SIAST instructors and support staff. Government interference in free collective bargaining and wage offers below the cost of living create acute distress and anger.

The minimum wage is so low that at full employment a worker doesn't meet the low income cut-off for poverty. All this at a time when government revenue has exceeded expectations by $1 billion. Add to this the federal abuse of postal workers, farmers threatened with the loss of the Canadian Wheat Board, and you have a plethora of workers, their families, and citizens who depend on these workers for services, for whom Saskatchewan is not "on track".

- And for those wondering what comes next in the corporatist arsenal after massive handouts to the rich are paired with "but look how many people we took off the tax rolls!", Orrin Hatch is leading the Republican Party toward the inevitable next step.