Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Nycole Turmel sums up what Canadians should rightly expect from their government - but figure never to get from the Harper Cons:

Canadian families aren't looking for finger-pointing. They're not looking to shift the blame. Quite simply, they are looking for action.

Action on job creation. Not more of Mr. Harper's failed corporate giveaways to the most profitable corporations. Handed over with no guarantee that even a single job would be created.

Action to make their retirement more secure. Not Mr. Harper's half-baked schemes to encourage families to invest even more of their money in a tumbling stock market.

Action to build a sustainable future with sustainable jobs. Not a massive Keystone pipeline project that would see Canadian oil and Canadian jobs shipped south.

Leadership to promote labour stability in tough times. Not Mr. Harper's unbalanced and unnecessary labour interference. His approach will lead to increased labour insecurity by taking away the incentives for all sides to sit down and negotiate in good faith.

- Just in time for the Occupy rallies this weekend, Jim Stanford points out that Canada isn't lacking for its own billionaires sitting on wealth grossly out of proportion with the rest of the country: 61 individuals who between them own twice as much net wealth as 50% of Canada's population. And Roland Martin rightly makes the case for the Occupy movement to focus on morality rather than partisanship - though it's of course worth keeping in mind the need to provide political incentives to bring about the change the movement wants to see.

- Doug Saunders notes that the seemingly daunting trillion-dollar figure needed to start stabilizing Europe and rebuilding the U.S. economy could actually be collected relatively quickly if the countries pleading poverty could agree on global tax enforcement.

- Dan Gardner runs into a Con spokesflack defending the party's dumb-on-crime legislation with talking points which are patently false on the face of the bill. Which should come as a surprise to precisely nobody.

- Stephen Maher comments on the need for the Cons to move past their state of denial when it comes to Tony Clement's Muskoka manipulations.

- Finally, all the best to Mertensville NDP candidate Catlin Hogan as he recovers from an accident. But surely the party knows that rather than risking a negative metaphor, the proper way to treat such a development is to cover it up until the end of the campaign?

Saskatoon Northwest - Catlin Hogan Seeking NDP Nomination

One more nomination note which I haven't yet blogged: Catlin Hogan, who ran a blog of his own for a time last year, is seeking the NDP's nomination for Saskatoon Northwest.

Based on the 2007 results (which saw a 23-point victory for Serge LeClerc), the seat might not seem to be a prime target. But it was actually home to extremely close races in each of the previous three elections, with candidates from three different parties emerging victorious. And whoever else joins in the race for the nomination, Catlin's early start in the riding should help maximize the chances that the NDP can flip the seat once again.