Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Miguel Xavier discusses the need for social democrats to stop limiting their goals to preserving the status quo, and instead make the case for transformative change of an unfair economic system. And Dale Smith comments on the need to build grassroots democracy as a necessary precondition to sustainable social and policy gains. 

- Patrick Lennox warns that the separatist movement being stoked by the UCP and the Sask Party represents a threat to Canada's national security. Matthew Mendelsohn writes about the changes Canada's public service needs to make to strengthen our defences against the U.S.' aggression, while Paris Marx highlights the need to ban X in particular as both a peddler of CSAM and a threat to democracy. And Paul Stewart points out how reliance on P3 schemes and outsourcing as a substitute for a dedicated civil service only makes the delivery of necessities more expensive and less effective. 

- IndustriALL examines how social dialogue mechanisms have led to improved wages and working conditions in Kyrgyzstan. 

- Finally, Laura Semenzato et al. study the effects of COVID-19 vaccines, and find a substantial reduction in COVID-related deaths without tradeoffs in all-cause mortality. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Lauren Sommer discusses how 2024 is shattering all records and expectations as the hottest year in the recorded history of the Earth. Freddy Brewster, Helen Santoro and Katya Schwenk discuss how the vast majority of anticipated flood damage to U.S. homes is now uninsured - as insurers recognize the dangers of a climate catastrophe with far more clarity than homeowners (particularly in Republican-dominated areas). Ted Hsuan Yun Chen at al. find that the actual occurrence of an extreme weather event tends to overcome the partisan tendency toward denialism. And R Eric Lewandowski et al. examine the factors (including direct exposure to extreme events) which affect distress and anxiety in young people. 

- Andrew Nikiforuk reports on Danielle Smith's latest attempt to restart the extraction of dirty coal in Alberta. And the Star's editorial board calls out Doug Ford for subsidizing even more traffic and sprawl (and eliminating transportation alternatives) as a supposed solution to existing traffic problems. 

- Marcy Wheeler writes about the importance of an assault on truth to Donald Trump's authoritarian project. And Jeb Lund writes about the importance of community-building to resist the abuses of the next Trump regime. 

- Simon Jager, Suresh Naidu and Benjamin Schoefer study the consistent pattern of collective bargaining reducing wage inequality for everybody - even as the exact causal mechanisms remain to be confirmed. And Anne Baldwin discusses why she and other Canada Post workers are angry and demoralized by the Libs' decision to order them back to work rather than allowing them to exercise their right to strike. 

- Finally, Mariana Mazzucato is rightly skeptical of the UK's model of public-private partnerships which serves to funnel profits to the private sector and risks to the public - while noting that any productive collaboration would include requirements to ensure investment produces a range of social benefits. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- William Hunter reports on a warning from scientists that the Arctic's sea ice may melt completely as soon as 2027. And David Spratt examines (PDF) the devastating implications if we continue along the path toward 3 degrees Celsius of global warming. But Robert Kopp et al. warn (PDF) of the dangers of oversimplifying complex climate effects into "tipping points" - particularly when they serve as an excuse for inaction. 

- Fieldnotes reports on the fossil fuel sector's role in installing Donald Trump back in power - as well as its plans once he retakes it. And Isaac Slevin et al. study the shadowy corporate forces at work trying to block offshore wind power projects - with "information subsidies" representing the most important pollution of the public discourse.  

- John Lorinc implores Ontario to learn from the ample evidence that public-private partnerships serve only to enrich the latter at the expense of the former - though of course for the Ford PCs, that's precisely the point. And Emma McIntosh reports on the first set of reports from Ontario's new Auditor General Shelley Spence, which include fully-anticipated findings that Ford is wasting billions of public dollars to enrich a few developer cronies. 

- Adam King discusses how the Trudeau Libs' failure to benefit the material conditions of workers has allowed the Cons' demagoguery to resonate far more than it should. 

- Finally, Alvin Finkel writes about the historical pattern of oppressors and popular revolt. Jason Sattler sets out a declaration of independence from the control of billionaires. And Nathan Robinson notes that the plutocrats in Trump's inner circle in particular are conspicuously unconstrained by reality and reason in seeking to seize ever more power for themselves. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Alexander Martin reports on new research showing the cognitive effects of a severe COVID case can be similar to the effect of twenty years of aging. Moira Wyton discusses how the premature elimination of public health protection systematically excludes high-risk and immunocompromised people from any "new normal". Erin Prater reports on the rapid spread of new Omicron variants across the U.S. And Marla Broadfoot reports on the potential for nasal spray vaccines to provide more effective immunity against new variants - which would represent far more of a reason for hope if people weren't being deliberately subjected to mass infection before they're available. 

- Zak Vescera reports on a survey showing massive levels of burnout and dissatisfaction among the physicians dealing with the fallout from the Moe government's neglect. And Alexander Quon reports that even the small number of tickets issued for violations of Saskatchewan's public health rules have been nearly as likely to lead to a withdrawal as to a conviction. 

- Oliver Milman weighs in on the likelihood that the consequences of a climate breakdown will include an increased risk of future pandemics. And Helena Horton and Adam Bychawski report on the less-than-surprising revelation that the fossil fuel industry continues to fund dishonest climate change deniers in order to keep its stream of profits flowing. 

- Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood offers his take on what's needed to ensure a just transition to a clean-energy economy in Canada. 

- Finally, Marjorie Griffin Cohen rightly criticizes the Libs' continued insistence on doing the bare minimum to strengthen Canada's desperately-strained social safety nets. And David Moscrop calls for the Libs to stop insisting that any development include a tithe to the corporate class through its financialized infrastructure bank. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Jonathan Howard writes that the recognition of higher COVID-19 risks in adults has been used as a means of misleadingly minimizing the risks of death and long-term effects in children. And Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz offers the receipts as to how the dangers of COVID itself are far more severe than any effect of public health measures intended to reduce its spread.

- Ahmed Mushfiq Moborak and Saad Moer recognize that we should be sending vaccines to the countries where they're most needed, rather than allowing them to expire in the midst of populations unwilling to receive them. And Sasa Petricic discusses how glaring failures in the face of the pandemic are leading to the unraveling of longstanding governance structures around the globe. 

- Liz Walker and Shanice Regis-Wilkins talk to Jim Stanford about the prospect of increasing the use of sectoral bargaining to increase the bargaining power of Canadian workers.

- John Woodside reports on the difference between the Libs and the NDP as to whether new infrastructure necessitated by a climate breakdown should primarily be built with public money for public benefit, or whether (as the Libs prefer) any planning is going to bake in private profit-taking.

- Finally, Paul Dechene discusses the downside of increased sprawl which seems to be under consideration by Regina's City Council. And Katelyn Duncan highlights how the Moe government has gone out of its way to make it difficult for Saskatchewan residents to mitigate some of the effects of car and truck-focused cities by switching to electric vehicles.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Adam Finn writes about the factors which have allowed for the rapid development of safe COVID-19 vaccines. 

- Helen Tang discusses the stress and frustration she's heard from the people she's had to reach as a contact tracer. Madeleine Cummings tells the stories of single parents navigating the pandemic. And Lisa Wolff and Terence Hamilton examine the support provided to families through Canada's pandemic relief - along with the need for structural change (including a national child care program) to lead our recovery efforts. 

- Robert Reich writes about the importance of an economy based on building up from the bottom, rather than hoping that wealth trickles down from the top. Dylan Penner warns against using the privatized Canada Infrastructure Bank for our post-COVID rebuilding. And Jill Mahoney reports on the lack of attention that's been paid to such basic infrastructure as school ventilation in the midst of a pandemic.

- Jim Elliott points out that contrary to the constant drumbeat of oil industry propaganda, there's plenty of public appetite for a transition to clean energy. Aaron Rutkoff writes that even the world's dirtiest carbon polluters are coming to terms with that reality. And Cheryl Katz highlights how large-scale battery storage is becoming a reality rather than a distant hope.

- Finally, Emily Chung argues against the current pattern of anti-repair design and planned obsolescence which makes our consumption far more harmful to the environment than it needs to be.

Friday Morning Links

 Assorted content to end your week.

- Joshua Schiffer highlights how the best response to COVID-19 for now involves the use of imperfect but easily-applied means of reducing its spread, rather than doing nothing until some perceived perfect answer is available. And Jessica Corbett reports on Oxfam's new study showing how the lack of policies to assist workers and reduce inequality left many countries completely unprepared to respond to a pandemic. 

-  Austan Goolsbee points out how the largest corporations are using the pandemic as an opportunity to further expand their monopolistic control. And Annie Lowrey writes that the increased wealth at the top is exactly why the Trump administration hasn't so much as recognized any economic problem with the increased precarity facing most of the U.S.

- Alex Hemingway weighs in on the benefits citizens receive from public vehicle insurance as the B.C. Libs try to undermine ICBC for good. And Christine Saulnier offers a reminder of the dangers of P3s in allowing corporate predators to raid the public purse based on the experiences of Newfoundland and Labrador.

- Sir David Attenborough discusses the need to rein in the excesses of capitalism in order to preserve a liveable environment. Reuters examines how thawing permafrost is just one of the byproducts of climate change which may ultimately accelerate a planetary breakdown. Fiona Harvey reports on new research showing how close much of the Amazon is to converting from a rainforest to a savannah - again with devastating effects which would reverberate around the globe.

- Meanwhile, Geoff Leo reports on the continued lack of study or remediation of the site of Regina's long-defunct Imperial Oil refinery.

- PressProgress examines the connections between spurious astroturf attacks on Sikh-Canadians, and fossil fuel-funded efforts to turn India into an increased export market. 

- Finally, Marc Lee discusses Vancouver's moves to encourage more dense housing development, while noting the need to ensure a city's revenue matches the need for more concentrated services. And Randy Burton calls out the backward thinking behind Rob Norris' attempts to torpedo the construction of a new Saskatoon central library.

Monday Morning Links

 Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- David MacDonald examines how millions of Canadians could suffer from being pushed off of the CERB onto EI - both in lost or reduced supports, or more onerous requirements to receive any relief. Kathleen Harris reports on the continuing lack of sufficient programs for people with disabilities. And Zak Vescera and Alex MacPherson follow up on the Moe government's choice to turn federal emergency benefits into a provincial cash cow, including by requiring existing benefit recipients to apply separately both for the CERB for renewed provincial programs.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board offers some suggestions to ensure the second wave of the coronavirus isn't as catastrophic as the first, while also warning against a complacent, wait-and-see approach to readily-foreseeable spikes in case numbers.

- Jasmine Ramze Rezaee, Carolyn Ferns, Abigail Doris and Janet Davis discuss the need for universal child care in Canada.

- The Star's editorial board makes the case for improving and expanding our public health care system, rather than limiting ourselves to defensive efforts to preserve what we have now. And Bob Hepburn calls out the greed behind the cynical effort to turn Charter rights into a cash cow for would-be corporate health providers.

- Finally, Andrew Leach traces the tens of billions of dollars Alberta has poured into the Sturgeon refinery - including through a familiar pattern of claiming to be transferring risk to the private sector while actually putting public money up at every turn to build a project which will produce corporate profit. Carl Meyer reports on the growing sense that the Trans-Mountain pipeline will likewise prove to be a money pit - making it all the more obvious that we'd be better off investing in clean energy now, rather than putting sustainable development on hold pending some future expectation of profit. And Mark Frauenfelder reports on BP's conclusion that half the identified oil reserves in the world will never be extracted.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Diane Peters discusses how everybody has a stake in the safe reopening of schools this fall. And Masks4Canada is tracking cases of school infection across Canada while Support our Students does the same for Alberta in particular - though Don Braid rightly questions why we need crowdsourcing to provide that information for want of open and effective public reporting.

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera reports on the Moe government's appalling stinginess with essential care workers in Saskatchewan who received less than half of the money trumpeted as a wage supplement.

- Andrew MacLeod reports on both the corporate push into British Columbia's primary health care system, and the shift toward private health care generally with the goal of diverting comparatively easy work from an increasingly strained public system. And Jason Warick reports on the audit showing over 200 separate problems with the Sask Party's P3 hospital in North Battleford - even as the Moe government continues to insist there's nothing wrong with a brand-new facility being unsafe and unsanitary.

- Michelle McQuigge reports on UNICEF's rankings showing Canada ranking toward the bottom of the world's wealthier countries in caring for children.

- Amy Harder writes about the climate feedback loops which make it all the more urgent to stop adding to our ongoing carbon pollution. And Keith Stewart points out the positive developments in investors electing not to fund further climate damage. But Mia Rabson reports that the Libs are once again breaking a promise to reduce Canada's methane emissions.

- Finally, Matthew Rosza looks at the latest research showing the connection between wealth and an inability to empathize with others.

On conflicts of interest

Just a couple of weeks ago, there was a flurry of speculation - and disapprobation - about the possibility that Mark Carney might pursue a political career after having been governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England.

And that criticism seemed somewhat overblown. While central bank independence is taken as an article of faith, there's no indication that Carney's past actions would have been affected at all by the potential for future political involvement. And the case for encouraging people with substantial knowledge and no current conflicts of interest to be able to participate in our democratic system to them seems stronger to me than the case for an effective lifetime ban on serving as a representative based on a past role in central banking.

But now, Carney appears set to wear two different hats instead: as a closely-connected advisor to the Prime Minister tasked with developing the government's economic plan, and as an employee of an investment firm which stands to rake in profits from artificially-privatized infrastructure.

Needless to say, that should represent a far more direct and worrisome conflict of interest than the prospect of retroactive influence on past regulatory actions. And it's telling that there's so much less outcry over a conflict pointed toward using public funds to enrich the capital-owning class, rather than one which would have resulted in accountability to the electorate. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Jeff Rubin writes that the hoarding of supplies over the course of the coronavirus pandemic has provided compelling evidence that globalization falls apart just when it's needed most. And Amir Attaran warns that the Libs' failure to recognize that reality may leave Canada years behind other developed countries in being able to deploy vaccines.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board writes that we're just entering a new phase of the fight against COVID-19. Apoorva Mandavelli reports on new research showing that live coronavirus can float through air. And Monica Gandhi highlights how cloth masks protect both the wearer and others by limiting the amount of the virus transmitted through any interaction.

- Sam Gindin discusses the importance of rooting organization in the working class in order to counter the power of both capital and institutional inertia.

- Doreen Nicoll warns about the effect of public-private partnerships which remove democratic control over water, turning it instead into purely a commodity. And Sarah Rieger reports on Nichole Robinson's swimming protest against Jason Kenney's plans to prioritize coal mining over clean drinking water in Alberta. 

- Finally, Martin Lukacs and Tim Groves expose how corporations and wealthy individuals have been militarizing Canadian police departments against citizen activism.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Simon Enoch studies how P3 projects result only in public money subsidizing private profits. And a new report from the Canadian Labour Congress warns about the dangerous consequences of privatizing public goods and services.

- Amanda Follett Hosgood examines how the authority of courts is being used to protect corporate interests at the expense of people's freedoms of speech and assembly. And Carol Linnitt exposes the predictable astroturfing behind the anti-environment Canada Action, which falsely claimed to be a "grassroots" organization while being funded by the oil industry.

- Richard Denniss and Matt Grudnoff study the effects of free child care as both a form of immediate stimulus, and a means for women to fully participate in a sustainable economy. But Bryce Covert highlights the risk that in its absence, women will be left behind in a transition to an environment of increased work from home.

- Robert Russo argues that a path to permanent residency is essential to protecting the rights of migrant farm workers.

- Finally, Seth Klein makes the case to ensure young people have opportunities to shape their future - including by being able to vote.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Heather Scoffield points out that the Trudeau Libs' definition of poverty (for the purposes of claiming credit for having reduced it) excludes many people facing extremely precarious financial circumstances. Sarah Boseley discusses how the UK Cons' gratuitous austerity has led to declining life expectancies among lower-income people. And Smokey Thomas slams the Ford PCs' use of a foreign corporation to try to take social assistance away from Ontarians.

- Alistair Steele writes that Ottawa's catastrophic choice to use a P3 to build the Confederation light rail line should offer important lessons for other governments looking at developing infrastructure.

- Imelda Dacones highlights how our climate breakdown is a public health crisis (among other dangers). And a group of B.C. health professionals calls for a moratorium on liquid natural gas pipelines due to their risks to health and the environment.

- Meanwhile, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood argues that the withdrawal of the Teck Frontier project should offer us an opportunity to begin a needed conversation about a transition away from fossil fuels. But Mike De Souza and Heather Yourex-West's report on the UCP's cover-up of a report on harms from the climate crisis should remind us not to expect a trace of honesty from Canada's petropoliticians.

- Finally, Graham Thomson points out that the obvious answer to Alberta's budget is to start raising revenue at least somewhat commensurate with the norm across Canada. But PressProgress notes that Jason Kenney has instead chosen to attack Alberta's most vulnerable citizens along with its public service.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Gabriel Winant reviews Matt Stoller's Goliath, and discusses in the process the importance of challenging the assumptions capitalism as a system rather than presuming that it can be rendered just merely by taking steps to break up immediate monopolies. And Alexandra Posadzki's reporting on threats from Rogers if the federal government tries to make access to networks more affordable only confirms the need for a national public alternative to the telecom oligopoly. 

- Meanwhile, John Clarke argues that after recognizing that housing is a right, we should take the necessary step of taking what's going unused for the benefit of the people whose needs aren't being met.

- Tom Spears reports on the failures of Ottawa's P3 LRT system - which has only make public transit as a whole less reliable for people who would otherwise use it.

- Shannon Gormley discusses the Libs' loose relationship with the rule of law where it conflicts with the interests of accumulated capital.

- Trevor Harrison laments the Kenney government's choice to mirror the Trump administration in its disdain for the truth. And Michael Coren questions Doug Ford's choice to provide payoffs to parents rather than resources for a viable public school system.

- Finally, Meghan Bell writes that any effort to improve mental health at a societal level will need to address the inequalities and stresses which undermine our well-being.

New column day

Here, on the Saskatchewan Party's dangerous focus on privatization and photo-ops rather than the public infrastructure the province needs.

For further reading...
- Alex MacPherson reported on both the Moe government's advance notice of the flaws in the roof of the new North Battleford hospital, and the continued use of panels from a provider whose products had already failed in the building's walls. And Scott Larson's report includes more details about the litany of problems with the building.
- Zak Vescera reported on the belated declaration that the Saskatchewan Health Authority is looking at addressing a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure deficit - a mere six months after the provincial auditor updated the state of disrepair in Saskatoon's facilities, which in turn came a year after the SHA itself started acknowledging the size of the backlog it's only now starting to address.
- CBC News reported on the limited use of the grossly-overpriced Regina bypass. And again, Sara Birrell highlighted how Saskatchewan has been harmed by the Sask Party's P3s.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Dion Rabouin offers a reminder that corporate tax giveaways don't do anything to help the economy beyond the interests of wealthy shareholders. And Nicole Aschoff discusses the importance of building a model for progressive globalism to counter the reach of international capital.

- Meanwhile, PressProgress notes that the Libs' Infrastructure Bank is siding squarely with the latter by looking to turn municipal water supplies into fodder for corporate operators.

- Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryn WuDunn write about the deaths of despair which are lowering American life expectancies.

- Andrew Nikiforuk observes that B.C. fracking is causing the earthquakes which have long been anticipated, creating massive and avoidable risks to the province's dam infrastructure.

- Finally, Greg Jericho calls out the attempt of Scott Morrison's government to claim credit for climate negligence and "reductions" which involve the continued accumulation of carbon pollution - a position which is of course all too familiar in the Canadian context.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- James Bradley writes about the range of responses to an increasingly threatening climate. And Emma Morris offers some suggestions as to how to become part of the solution to the climate crisis.

- Adrienne Buller discusses why the popular and necessary prospect of a Green New Deal didn't get anything approaching a fair hearing in the UK's general election. And Malcolm Turnbull writes that Australia's catastrophic bushfires should have provided the impetus for a transition - though part of the lesson to be taken from Scott Morrison's response is that we can't afford to have fossil fuel lackeys in power to obstruct vital progress.

- PressProgress rounds up a few of the Jason Kenney UCP's holiday disasters, while Scott Schmidt rightly criticizes the UCP's pattern of trying to point fingers at newly-declared enemies rather than answering even simple questions about its actions in government.

- Sara Birrell highlights just a few of the examples of how Saskatchewan has suffered as a result of P3 schemes.

- Finally, Birrell also discusses the clash of values underlying the Co-op refinery lockout. And Jim Keohane and David Colletto note that Canadians generally would prefer a far more secure pension system than is currently available to most.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Martin Lukacs writes that the Trudeau Libs' attempts to put a glossier face on politics as usual may be running into a less than compliant public:

Not just in Canada, but around the world we have seen the emergence of an airbrushed, focus-grouped avatar liberalism—“yuppie simulacrum of populist breakthrough,” in Perry Anderson’s words—to face the challenge from a democratic-socialist left and an ugly resurgent right. This model of politics was ground-tested by the Obama administration and is today exemplified in the “extreme centrism” of Trudeau, French President Emanuel Macron, and U.S. Democratic politicians like Pete Buttegieg and Beto O’Rourke. What these men all share in common is an effort to forge a new consensus that can salvage the failed yet still pervasive neoliberal governing logic that counts extreme inequality and climate breakdown as its most obvious consequences.

Alongside a continued support for privatization, deregulation, corporate tax cuts, and a slow withdrawal of the welfare state, these political figures have tinkered around the edges to give their conservative economic policies a patina of emancipatory progressivism. Trudeau offered reforms, like a means-tested Canada Child Benefit, more representation of women and racialized people in cabinet and the civil service, and incremental measures on climate change. But none of Trudeau’s actions have so far threatened the authority of corporate interests to set the political agenda.

In rare moments, Trudeau has been candid about his role as a diligent manager of the status quo. Describing his government’s early achievements in a late-2016 interview with the Guardian (U.K.), the prime minister said: “We’re actually able to approve pipelines at a time when everyone wants protection of the environment. We’re being able to show that we get people’s fears and there are constructive ways of allaying them—and not just ways to lash out and give a big kick to the system.”

While the brand of the messenger of this formula has evidently been damaged since then, the formula itself lives on.
...
If “radical centrism” of the kind offered by Trudeau is not helping this situation, the question is whether it will be the right-wing who seizes on popular insecurity and directs it toward scapegoats, or whether a resurgent left can channel it in a movement against vested interests.

There are some hopeful signs. Class politics have made a return to western countries, however haltingly in Canada. Polls show enormous popularity for wealth taxation and programs like a Green New Deal. While the NDP under Jagmeet Singh has stopped its slow slide to the centre, its ability to advocate in opposition for the vastly ambitious policies that Canadians are evidently hungry for has yet to be seen.

The moral clarity and passion shown by a new crop of young left-wing parliamentarians suggests one way forward. But ultimately what we need is a voice for a radically different vision for the country—a vision rooted in redistribution, solidarity, and equality. Nothing less will test the Liberal government’s continued success in capturing voters by saying progressive things they may not ever mean.

- And Canadians for Tax Fairness points out that we've already reached Corporate Tax Freedom Day, with Canadian businesses having made enough money in the first work week of the year to pay all they'll be asked to contribute to a functioning country.

- Geoff Davies writes about the failure of neoliberal economics in Australia. And Royson James highlights how the Eglinton Crosstown LRT serves as a prime example of the dangers of public-private partnerships.

- Nicola Davis reports on the connection between severe childhood deprivation and permanent harm to brain development.

- Finally, John Vidal laments the loss of a decade in taking meaningful action against a global climate breakdown. And while Amanda Cahill raises the possibility that the fossil fuel sector should foot the bill for this year's calamitous bushfires, Reuters reports that Australia's Liberal government is instead responding with continued denialism.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- PressProgress examines the damage Doug Ford wants to inflict on children in Ontario's education system. Fareed Khan calls out the right-wing politicians acting like spoiled children rather than responsible decision-makers. And Rick Smith discusses how to develop public policy to withstand the vandalism of today's conservatives:

(A) tangible connection to people’s daily lives is key.  Amongst their frenzy of repeal aimed at environmental policy and regulation, Doug Ford and his cronies have decided that the Greenbelt is untouchable.  One reason for this is doubtless that the Greenbelt is a physical place on the map, demarcated by numerous signs on the highway.  Ontarians have become accustomed to its presence and value it highly.  Similarly, in Alberta, Jason Kenney doesn’t dare attempt a full-blown repeal of the minimum wage, even if he hopes to chip away at it.

A second and related lesson is that policies that entrench rights in a universal manner are more enduring and far harder to undo. The Ford government doesn’t dare meddle with full-day kindergarten in the same way that it’s eliminating many other kinds of programmes. Why?  Because full-day kindergarten has become an integral part of our publicly-funded school system, available to all, and is now regarded by Ontario families as an essential service.

These lessons are every bit as applicable in a federal context.

Given the ease with which Ford eliminated Ontario’s partial, means-tested experiment with Pharmacare, the Trudeau Liberals would be doing Canadians a huge disservice to repeat this experience at the federal level.  The example of Medicare demonstrates better than anything the resilience of universal programs over small-scale reforms that are easily reversed after a single change of government.  We need universal Pharmacare now, not some piecemeal and underfunded half-measure.  In a recent Abacus poll for the Broadbent Institute, 78% of Canadians (and, interestingly, two-thirds of Conservative voters) support the federal government moving forward with universal, not partial, Pharmacare as a top priority.

With respect to climate change:  Carbon taxation, even when fully implemented, will be bickered over and — like all taxes, increased and decreased — by different governments over the next few decades.  Yes, we need to price carbon, but a massive green jobs creation program and rapid scale-up of permanent electric vehicle infrastructure would be impossible for even the most ardent climate-denier to demolish.

- Thera Kumar likewise calls for the Libs to follow through on a national pharmacare program - though it's worth noting they've been more slippery in any "promise" than Kumar implies. Aaron Carroll notes that even relatively small co-pay requirements can cause severe harm by preventing people from accessing needed medication. And Nicola Davis reports on the increase in childhood pneumonia under the UK Cons as a painful example of the price of social neglect.

- Grant Cameron reports on the CCPA's research showing that P3s only add to the price tag for infrastructure. And Ian Mulgrew reports on the progress of British Columbia's money laundering inquiry as a vivid example of a laissez-faire attitude run amok.

- Finally, Vaughn Palmer writes about the unexplained exploitation of B.C. consumers when it comes to gasoline prices. And David Leonhardt comments on the $5,000 annual cost to consumers arising from corporate consolidation in the U.S.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Rick Salutin writes that Canada's lack of accessible housing arises primarily as the result of general inequality. Derek Thompson notes that youth athletics are just one more sphere of activity in which concentrated wealth is driving out participation by people who don't have that advantage. And Michael Mendelson reports on Doug Ford's latest plan to remove what little support already exists for the people who need it most.

- Kevin Carmichael asks why our government isn't ensuring that digital giants pay their fair share to support a society which offers a source of massive profits. And David MacDonald and Chris Roberts examine how large corporations have stolen from their workers by deliberately underfunding pension plans while finding enough spare cash to pay out massive dividends.

- Gamechangers examines how Justin Trudeau's attempt to turn public works into a private profit centre included appeals to Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

- Finally, Chris Selley comments on the latest revelations about Trudeau's betrayal of progressive voters on electoral reform:

(W)e are asked to believe that this scholar of electoral reform, who felt quite strongly that proportional representation was “bad for Canada,” was convinced by his caucus to “leave the door open at least a crack for proportional representation” because he thought (per Wherry’s interviews) that he might be “willing to be convinced that (he was) wrong.”

There is no evidence he was, in fact, willing. Instead we are to believe that the committee of Trudeau’s MPs and those of other parties that Trudeau tasked to study and consult on this matter at great expense, and that ended up recommending PR, only to have then-democratic institutions minister Maryam Monsef dismiss their work as not what she asked for, only steeled his resolve against PR. We are to believe that Trudeau forgot to stump for ranked ballots even occasionally, once he became prime minister, because — per Katie Telford, now Trudeau’s chief of staff, to Wherry — “then we wouldn’t have been doing a lot of other things.”
...
Truly, the mind boggles. A keen student of electoral reform would have known the New Democrats would never accept ranked ballots because PR is party gospel, and ranked ballots are beside the point to PR and not in their electoral best interests. A keen student of electoral reform would have known the Conservatives would never accept ranked ballots because they believe quite strongly in the status quo, and because they are also not in their electoral best interests.

The honest person Justin Trudeau purports to be cannot claim good intentions in this situation and expect to get away with it. I cannot ever recall seeing such an implausibly ambitious plea for clemency for such a transparently cynical record. It says a lot that he would even attempt it.