Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Tim Harper writes about Tom Mulcair's success in building the NDP up as the leading alternative to the Cons for Canadian voters:

Two-thirds of his questions since becoming leader have dealt with the economy as he attempts to build the case that his party can be trusted, for the first time, with the keys to the treasury in 2015 while chipping away at the Conservative brand as the stolid overseers of the public purse.

“They love being in power,” he says of the Conservatives, “(but) they hate governing. They don’t take the time, they don’t follow the rules, they are disdainful of the public administration, the civil service, they mock them, they don’t listen to them and they wind up making huge mistakes like the F-35.”
...
 “I’m going to run the next campaign, visor-up, straight on about sustainable development, about the obligation for any government to look at the environmental, economic and social impact of every decision they make,” he says.

To do otherwise, he says, is to saddle the next generation, already looking at larger deficits and meagre pensions, with the cost of environmental cleanups.

It is the 18-to-25-year-old voter pool he is targeting. He sent his young crew of MPs to university campuses right after the last election and he continues to reach out to the 65 per cent of that age group that did not vote in the last election.

It may be the same pool in which a Justin Trudeau-led Liberal party will be fishing, but right now, that is not a concern for the opposition leader.

“I believe passionately Canadians will follow us down that path,” Mulcair says.

- Linda McQuaig points out that while we may not quite have the same free-for-all as the U.S., there's plenty of need for discussion about gun regulation in Canada - particularly when it comes to assault weapons.

- Dave Coles discusses how the Saskatchewan Party's new employment legislation takes aim at public-sector janitorial and food service workers in particular. But the Harper Cons look to be well ahead in the "pick on the most vulnerable" sweepstakes after taking aim at seasonal migrant workers who need access to parental benefits.

- Finally, shorter Kevin Milligan on Canada's choices in trying to expand retirement security:

The proven track record of the CPP in providing a secure retirement for a minimal cost only makes me all the more doubtful that we should choose any option other than "funnel money to banksters".