Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Armine Yalnizyan highlights the fact that while the Cons fight for ever more inequality, even business groups are noting the risks of that direction:

That (the Conference Board of Canada and the International Monetary Fund) are worried should be a signal to Canada’s private sector leaders: pay attention to the compensation gap between your lowest paid worker and that of the CEO, because those differences may tell us a lot about the mess we’re in. After all, businesses rely on the rising purchasing power of the many, not the few, to deliver growth and profits.

But income inequality has grown more rapidly in Canada than in the U.S. lately, according to the Conference Board report. Among 32 OECD nations, Canada has gone from better-than-average to worse-than-average levels of inequality since the mid 1990s, slumping from 14th to 22nd place, despite a decade of robust economic growth and record levels of job creation. Meanwhile, 15 OECD nations -- including peers like Norway and the U.K. -- were reducing income inequality.

Its earlier report noted: “[H]igh inequality can diminish economic growth if it means that the country is not fully using the skills and capabilities of all its citizens or if it undermines social cohesion, leading to increased social tensions. Second, high inequality raises a moral question about fairness and social justice.”

The links between rising inequality, halting economic growth and increasing volatility are getting harder to ignore.

- Meanwhile, Erin Weir concisely sets out corporate Canada's cash hoarding over the past couple of decades - which thoroughly calls into question the theory that cutting corporate taxes will spur investments.

- Impolitical rightly points out the Cons' ridiculous witness list in attempting to conduct a committee show trial against the CBC - with the naming of Federal Court Justice Richard Boivin ranking as a particularly banana-republican tactic.

- Alison chronicles the trade-deal race to the bottom when it comes to ensuring that the benefits of resource development are enjoyed by the resource's owners. Which is to say that we may need to push Greg Selinger and his Manitoba NDP to change positions and stop the current spread of the TILMA.

- Finally, SGEU unveils a fairly brilliant take on the Wall government's plans for Saskatchewan:

You have a choice

Along with its platform, the NDP has also unveiled a slick video laying out the party's message concisely - both in terms of some key platform themes, and the overarching point that Canadians shouldn't listen to the attempts of the Cons and Libs to narrow their range of choices:

Worth watching

There was plenty of attention paid to one of Outremont NDP MP Thomas Mulcair's TV appearances this week. But there's another one which seems to me to reflect a far more important message that nicely highlights the difference between the Cons' economic dogma and the possibility of policies which pursue something more than the accumulation of easy money. So if you only have a minute for Mulcair's take, scroll ahead to 6:10 in the latter link - or take a look at a worthwhile critique of the Cons' F-35 purchase in the full panel discussion.

Tuesday Morning Links

- Don Pittis finds an important lesson in the PCS takeover reports, noting the importance of Crowns past and present in building wealth where it would otherwise have been siphoned off:

The huge value the market is placing on Potash Corp. reminds us that despite the current ideological tide against these kinds of entities, government corporations remain part of our economic tool chest.

Some fail but that is true of all endeavours. When they are successful, they can accumulate capital that may take years to show its value.

They can create new business when no one else is willing to invest. They can create wealth and power. And if you don't believe me, ask the Chinese. They have plenty of government-owned corporations that are said to want in on this bidding war as well.

- The Hill Times' report on the Cons' plan to set up their own committee system to bypass that less-easily-controlled one in Parliament manages to completely miss a rather important question: does anybody really think the problem with the Harper government is that it hasn't been insular enough? (And it's particularly odd that Marlene Jennings fails to raise the point in her response on behalf of the Libs.)

- Sheila Copps has the right response to immigrant-bashing from the Cons and their media division at QMI:

Historically, most Canadian national leaders have avoided the divisive tendencies that can infect all politicians. They usually are the ones calling for calm, asking the population to reach out to fellow world citizens in need.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has determined that fear and loathing is more effective than bridge building. He has been very successful, thus far, in convincing the rest of us that this boatload of people is truly nothing more than Tamil terrorists.

Had Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Pierre Trudeau followed that path, we would never have opened our hearts to 50,000 boat people.

This time, Canada won't be getting a United Nations award.

Instead, we mount the barricades to keep 492 war torn souls from finding peace. Is that really the new face of Canada?

- Don't worry about the fact that Environment Canada's weather service programs which would otherwise provide vital information about our environment are falling apart at the seams due to cutbacks after the Cons blew billions of dollars of "environmental" funding on the most wasteful programs on the planet. After all, surely we can all agree to a gut feeling that the wind is blowing however best suits the Cons.

(Update: Or maybe the Cons actually do care about accurate information when it's their Supreme Leader's safety at stake. It's just the rest of us who aren't important enough to merit the same consideration.)

- And finally, great work by the Rev. Paperboy, Alison and Pale in their updated status report on Canada Inc.:

Brilliant

John Campey and the Data Hounds hold a protest. Hilarity ensues.

Video of the day

Very nicely done:

A Very Special Midweek Musical Interlude

JimBobby - The Ballad of Fake Lake



And as a bonus...

Jennifer Smith - If I Had A Billion Dollars