Thursday, January 24, 2013

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- There's plenty of reason for concern about the departure of some of the few independent officers who have successfully held the Cons to account at times - with departing environment commissioner Scott Vaughan serving as only the latest example.

- But the more important story is less the presence of watchdogs than that of effective regulators - and the fact that the Cons have limited environmental enforcement to sporadic letter-writing campaigns gives us plenty of reason for concern no matter who's in a position to point it out.

- Meanwhile, Luigi Zanasi offers up an actual proposal to deal with greenhouse gas emissions - which is particularly noteworthy as a response to the Cons' anti-environment spin since it involves up-front credits rather than costs for Canadians. But there is some reason for concern that a complex system would end up being more easily manipulated than one which focuses more directly on large emitters.

- Pat Atkinson writes about the success of community ownership of pasture land.

- Finally, Vaughn Palmer rightly approves of the B.C. NDP's proposal to eliminate publicly-funded political advertising.

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