Canada's real economic position

Contrast the whining of the CCCE and other business apologists with the actual views of businesses:

Canadian business remains optimistic about the state of the economy, reporting strong sales momentum and expecting inflation to remain under control...

The Bank of Canada's latest business survey reveals the strongest growth and highest degree of optimism is in Western Canada, where high prices for oil and gas are fuelling increased economic activity. The report notes that capacity restraints are more evident in the west than in the rest of the country, and pressures on production capacity are more pronounced in the primary, construction and transportation sectors.

So the biggest real economic problems now are:
- a need for added labour in the West, presumably leading to higher wages and standards of living in order to attract employees; and,
- a need to add capacity to meet demand, which will lead to added capital investment.

That's not a bad position to be in - no matter what Thomas D'Aquino tells you.

Inexplicable Nystrom-Bashing

It appears that some people are rather less happy than I am to know that Lorne Nystrom is running again.

My open question all those interested: why wouldn't the NDP want one of its long-time stalwarts taking another run at his seat?

Let's address some of the concerns about Nystrom:

Will he ever try his hand at something other than being an MP?
First, he's obviously managed to be a successful author and consultant when he's been out of office. Second...if he's a good MP (which I don't think is up for debate), why shouldn't he get back into the role which he plays best?

Will he just be seen as a tired old member of the NDP establishment? / The NDP in Sakatchewan badly needs RENEWAL and new young faces.
Sure, I'll buy that the NDP should be seeking some renewal, but that has to be balanced with some experience - and with Proctor not running again, Nystrom is the only Saskatchewan candidate who provides any experience in Parliament. The challengers have had a chance to build their bases and show what they can do, but institutional memory and name recognition do count in politics. We're trying to fight that very problem nationwide; we shouldn't avoid using the advantage of familiarity where we have it.

True he had tough competition, but well known politicians with a following just don't have tough competition for nominations. / Anybody who has been in politics for 30 years should be able to win on the first ballot.
Naturally the nomination meeting was going to be a relatively tough one: it's strong NDP territory (lost in the last election due mostly to a huge dip in provincial NDP popularity), and it looks like a couple of strong local candidates wanted to try out the riding where they have some support. That's called renewal. (See previous answer.)

Standingready, Shesniuk and Stringer will all get other chances - and the NDP will be better off if they can put their support bases into helping current candidates, including Nystrom. But just because more people are interested in a position doesn't mean that the NDP should toss its longtime stalwart out on his ear, or that Nystrom himself should start setting lesser goals than regaining his seat.

No child labour left behind

The Star has a great example of how the first world can't meaningfully change the third world simply by dictating policy.

The article focuses on child labour being used in the Ivory Coast's cocoa industry. Four years ago, U.S. pressure caused most cocoa producers to sign an agreement to develop an industrywide program to prevent children from participating in the most harmful labour in the industry. To date, all that has produced is a pilot program in one region, which the industry says meets the terms of the deal.

The problem is that hardly any funding was provided to actually facilitate the transition:

Some of the $2-million project fund was set aside to build schools and pay school fees, Bredou said. Farmers will have to hire adult manpower in place of their children. But officials say a major injection of aid will be needed to produce real change.

"The basis of this problem is poverty," said Amouan Assouan Acquah, who heads the national monitoring commission overseeing the Oume project. "It will cost money to expand this program, and who will pay for it?"

Surely the obvious answer would be some combination of (a) the U.S. government which decided to negotiate the deal, and/or (b) the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the industry group which signed onto the deal. Instead, these groups reap the benefit of improved public image in having reached the agreement, but pay essentially no cost...while the Ivory Coast is left to try to fund the social changes necessary for the agreement to work.

The right to bear fries

Paul Krugman rightly slams the junk food industry's efforts to lobby against healthier food:

The Center for Consumer Freedom, an advocacy group financed by Coca-Cola, Wendy's and Tyson Foods, among others, has a Fourth of July message for you: worrying about the rapid rise in American obesity is unpatriotic.

"Far too few Americans," declares the center's Web site, "remember that the Founding Fathers, authors of modern liberty, greatly enjoyed their food and drink. ... Now it seems that food liberty - just one of the many important areas of personal choice fought for by the original American patriots - is constantly under attack."

It sounds like a parody, but don't laugh. These people are blocking efforts to help America's children.

As important as it is to pay attention to schools, as discussed in the article, it's even more important to consider how pricing shapes adult preferences - a school meal or two per day won't have as much impact on a child's eating habits as the food consumed at home.

While Krugman notes that obesity is higher in poorer regions (rural, Southern, etc.), he notes only that this gives rise to charges of cultural elitism, without addressing the reasons for the split.

File this away as another component of the high cost of being poor. In urban areas, where all kinds of foods are imported in higher quantities, it's presumably easier to find healthier foods for a lower cost. In contrast, rural areas may have some locally-produced fruits and vegetables, but will face much higher costs for any of them that aren't as easy to import. Meanwhile, the relative ease of transporting junk food makes its cost more consistent across the board - and the relative cost lower in the areas where obesity is higher.

The decision is particularly difficult for the less well-off. For people who face a serious budget crunch, it's much easier to eat to get by with a diet of high-calorie, low-nutrient food than to try to buy more expensive meat and produce.

Preventing junk food from being promoted in schools is a start, but something more significant is needed to really stem the tide against obesity.

Another real difference

Next time anybody makes the claim that Canada is basically the same as the U.S., or worse that the only differences are in areas which reflect poorly on Canada, point that person toward this article (via My Blahg News):

New economic research is putting the boots to the long-cherished American notion that any child, regardless of parenthood and class, can rise to the top in the United States by dint of hard work and ambition...

Among rich countries studied, Corak said, Canada ranked with Denmark, Norway and Finland at the top of the pack in terms of intergenerational mobility. The U.S., the United Kingdom and France are the least mobile...

The good news story about Canada's standing has been buried by the more surprising findings vis-a-vis the U.S., Americans are more likely than they were three decades ago to end up in the class into which they were born.

There are warning signs here as well, particularly the lower standard of living enjoyed by recent immigrant families...but the starting point is something that we can already be proud of, and there's ample room to build even from our current leading position.

True supporters

While Blair, Brown and the rest make their pitch for debt relief, African aid and action on climate change at the G8, there's a countersummit involving many people who've been pushing the same ideas for years:

As the leaders of the world's richest countries prepare for this week's meeting at Gleneagles, delegates gathered in Edinburgh for the G8 Alternatives summit...

Speakers include Nigerian activist Ken Wiwa, Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who was recalled after complaining of human rights abuses, and ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter...

There were cheers from the audience at Edinburgh's Usher Hall when Respect MP George Galloway called on African countries to tear up their debts and declare "we have already paid".

Some of the rhetoric goes beyond what I'd agree with (in particular the WTO is probably easier to reform to accomplish positive ends than it is to abolish entirely), but we shouldn't forget those who have been trying to push in our current positive direction long before it was the consensus view - particularly when they still have important messages to send.

Audities

I suppose this will probably be Martin's next example of a successful step toward democratic reform:

A federal watchdog that's supposed to ensure the government follows the rules when it signs contracts for goods and services has itself been breaking those rules...

The latest improprieties are outlined in a newly released report into how Consulting and Audit Canada - the auditing service run by Public Works - tendered its own contracts...

The review found evidence of contract-splitting in half of the files studied...

The review - which included 102 additional contracts examined by the agency's own auditors - found numerous other problems, including date inconsistencies, inadequate bid evaluation reports, lack of security-clearance paperwork, and biased tendering.

Naturally, the usual strong action is being taken:

No disciplinary action has been taken against any employees, he said. However, procurement problems were raised "where warranted" during individual performance assessments.

Most impressively from the standpoint of sheer audacity, Public Works blocked the release of a draft version of the same report in March. From a political standpoint, that probably made sense at the time - but now that the truth is out, it's another compelling piece of evidence suggesting that the Martin government hasn't done a thing to encourage accountability.

Control or empowerment

Gordon Brown reminds us that Live 8 and the G8 summit won't solve Africa's problems on their own:

"It is not a week's work at the G8 that is going to determine the long-term future of Africa or the developing countries...It is a lifetime's work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves."

And what strategy has done nothing but fail in the past?

"For about 30 years, the strategy of the richest countries, that is us, was that if we had strong, sometimes autocratic, leaders in Africa then that might be the best way of getting the modernization necessary...That has led to Zimbabwe and (President Robert) Mugabe and all the problems we have got with people who ignore the wishes of their people."

Absolutely right. While some commentators would rather blame the victims in order to avoid our having to do anything now, we shouldn't forget that it was first-world-backed dictators who ran up huge debts in the first place. Forgiving those debts now is the least we should be doing to try to genuinely empower Third World citizens.

On tracking one's money

The latest on the use of reconstruction funds in Iraq:

British and American aid intended for Iraq's hard-pressed police service is being diverted to paramilitary commando units accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings...

The investigation revealed:

· A 'ghost' network of secret detention centres across the country, inaccessible to human rights organisations, where torture is taking place.

· Compelling evidence of widespread use of violent interrogation methods including hanging by the arms, burnings, beatings, the use of electric shocks and sexual abuse.

· Apparent co-operation between unofficial and official detention facilities, and evidence of extra-judicial executions by the police.

Good news, though: the UK "has raised this with the Iraqi government":

'We would expect them to publish the findings of any investigations, prosecute those found to have carried out any abuse, punish those found guilty regardless of rank or background, and take all steps to prevent any recurrence.'

Which surely means that change and accountability are the way. After all, it's not as if there's another occupying power which would be willing to back torture, right?

More fun with torture

And it gets worse:

Last year, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller said CIA interrogation techniques "violate all American anti-torture laws," and instructed FBI agents to step outside of the room when the CIA steps in.

Analysts say there are at least a score of unacknowledged facilities around the world. Among them, several in Afghanistan (one known as "the pit") and Iraq, in Pakistan, Jordan, in a restricted unit at Guantanamo, and one, they suspect, on Diego Garcia, where two navy prison ships ferry prisoners in and out.

And:

(R)endering means giving up control to the other country, says Pike, which in turn means only low-value suspects are transferred.

"The CIA keeps the high-level ones to themselves," he says. "And they work them over."

There's more worth reading in the Star's article, but this part alone is frightening enough. If nothing else, this should make for a particularly interesting line of questioning next time someone tries to claim the Bush administration is fighting torture. Anyone want to bet against Scott McClellan saying the reporter should ask the ghost detainees?

More health care progress

More good news on the health front:

The number of people waiting for surgeries in Saskatchewan continues to drop.

The list of patients on the surgical wait list in the province's seven largest health regions has fallen by more than 25-hundred people to just over 30-thousand from February 2004 to last March.

The problem is far from solved, but it's clear that we're headed in the right direction. That is, as long private actors don't come along to make the entire system more expensive for everybody.

In celebration

The weather may be spotty, but the entertainment will be great.

Happy Canada Day!

The return of the G7...

...only this time, it'll be the U.S. on the outside looking in:

Tony Blair is contemplating an unprecedented rift with the US over climate change at the G8 summit next week, which will lead to a final communique agreed by seven countries with President George Bush left out on a limb...

It would be the first time that the G8 has faced a "split" communique - and with the world's most powerful country in a minority of one.

Good on Blair and the rest of the G8 standing up to Bush's junk science. No matter how determined the Bush administration is not to live in reality, nothing is solved by the rest of the world lending any credence to biased contrarianism masquerading as a scientific viewpoint.

Controlling information

Contrary to its previous commitments, the U.S. is refusing to hand control over the Internet's root computers to ICANN.

The American argument is that any handover could lead to "uncertainty". But for everybody but the administration, the decision in fact leads to far more uncertainty than a changeover, particularly with the administration going to far to control information domestically.

The big question now is whether it's possible, and worth the effort, to rework the entire network to run off of a different international system. My take would be "yes" - better to go to a bit of expense now than have the world's main information source cut off for political reasons later.

Unbelievable

And to think some people think we need a right-wing alternative to this drivel.

I for one will be glad to help stamp out any "anti-American hysteria"...just as soon as Gibson's Fox News and the rest of the U.S. echo chamber get rid of their own anti-Democratic, anti-Canadian, anti-global and anti-reality hysteria. I'm not holding my breath.

Making progress

You know all those impossible-to-solve problems with the current health-care system? Turns out they're not so impossible to solve after all:

A year and a half after a doctor raised a red flag about long wait times at a Saskatoon emergency department, statistics show those wait times have dropped significantly...

Since July, 2004, RUH emergency has had two doctors to provide around-the-clock care, an increase in coverage of 33 per cent from the previous year. Meanwhile, the average wait time for emergent patients has gone down by 33 per cent from an average of 42 to 28 minutes in 2004-2005.

So when the system is properly funded, it starts working better. Who knew?

When analysts attack

Per the National Post, there's growing concern in "financial circles"that the upcoming G8 meeting will be "hijacked by the Africa agenda".

Of the two "political analysts" quoted, one takes the bizarre position that such an Africa focus would only be justified if there was a true Marshall plan in the making. I have to wonder how such a plan would be formulated without some serious discussions.

The other, reliably pushing the Cato Institute position, argues that since the high-interest development loans which are now being forgiven were themselves foreign aid, any foreign aid including debt relief will be ineffective. The debt from past attempts to help is crippling, therefore let's not relieve debt now. Instead, this analyst argues that the problem is Africa's lack of openness to business - while conveniently ignoring the fact that rich countries often do their utmost to prevent imports from African countries.

The underlying position of both analysts (at least according to the Post) is that Africa as a whole is too corrupt to merit any increase in aid. Of course, this argument conveniently neglects that tackling corruption is a precondition to aid under the current deal.

Normally if I was going to analyze something, I'd try to make sure I at least paid attention to readily-available facts and made coherent points. I suppose this is why I don't work for the Cato Institute.

Good stuff

Duncan Cameron takes on the CCCE.

Health care priorities

Call it a hunch, but health care would generally benefit if there was less of this going on:

Quebec and Ontario have been in a spirited competition over the (location of a Shriners) hospital but Charest said Wednesday he is appalled at Ontario's efforts...

(Ontario's promotional) video apparently makes a number of unsubstantiated claims, including assertions that the site of the proposed Montreal hospital is dangerous. The video apparently says the former rail yard was not properly decontaminated.

"That's false, that's a lie," said Charest, who was shown the ad by an Alberta delegate to the Shriners' meeting.

Sounds like typical political attack advertising making its way into the private sphere. But even in politics, normally a campaign has the good sense not to let candidates (or top spokespeople) become the most egregious attackers, lest they be seen negatively themselves.

My hope and expectation is that, like most particularly bad attack ads, this attempt will backfire. Whether or not it does, though, the more important lesson is that there's no good reason for provinces to be fighting over the hospital in the first place.

And that's that

It's official: the new case of BSE was in an American-born cow.

I look forward to R-CALF's upcoming injunction to close the border to Texas.

Making Guantanamo look good...

According to the AP, the UN's special expert on torture is examining allegations that the U.S. is maintaining "undeclared holding areas", possibly including navy ships in international waters.

If there's anything at all to this story, it's the most frightening human-rights news to come out of Bush's reign - and that takes some doing. While Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib were nothing short of appalling, and extraordinary rendering as a policy should never have happened, at least the results of those programs were relatively capable of monitoring.

But using navy ships which, due to their military purposes, presumably don't take kindly to surveillance and have the means to repel any attempt, while at the same time being able to move anywhere in the world at will? The only evidence available now is from people claiming to be detained on such ships, and we know how much the administration cares about the word of people it suspects (or suspected) of terrorist involvement. And barring serious leaks from within the military, there's really no way to substantiate the claim.

Of course, it's a pretty much an impossible claim to disprove too, so we'll likely never be sure whether anything has happened unless (a) it is true, and (b) someone leaks information to that effect. The best ammunition against an accusation like this would be enough credibility for the world to believe a denial. Let's just say that's not present on the facts.

Remembering what we have

For all the talk of our crumbling health-care system, consider the views of patients themselves:

(A Health Quality Council) survey found 94 per cent of patients reported receiving good, very good or excellent care overall in a Saskatchewan hospital.

I'm not quite sure how often 94% of people agree on anything, but this has to highlight the value of single-payer health care.

The survey does point out areas which need to be improved, including pain management and information, but these are relatively small issues in the bigger picture. And while there are waiting lists that need to be reduced, some strategic resource injections can fix those within the current system. We need to do more - but an awful lot of good is being done already.

The main argument for privatization is to ensure that individuals have the chance to pay for services to meet their needs. When such an overwhelming majority is already happy with the current system, there shouldn't be any great impetus for major structural change.

Update: The full story is now available.

Today's must-read

Timmy the G on Canada's ongoing deep integration.

Risk assessment

In case there's any doubt yet about the importance of global warming as an issue, here's something to think about. This statement was released today:

The group will call on leaders of the world's richest nations meeting in Scotland next week to slash carbon dioxide emissions, improve coastal defenses and strengthen buildings to dampen the impact of the predicted storms.

"Governments now have a chance to make rational choices for the future, before it is too late."

So who's the group involved? Greenpeace? The Sierra Club? The Suzuki Foundation? Not exactly:

The cost of cleaning up storm damage will balloon unless the world takes urgent action to cut harmful emissions warming the globe, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said on Wednesday...

Damage costs from the three most expensive types of storms -- hurricanes in the United States, typhoons in Japan and windstorms in Europe -- will rise to $27 billion in an average year by 2080 up from $16 billion today if carbon dioxide emissions double their current rate, ABI's report said.

The ABI holds about 94% of the domestic British insurance market - meaning that it presumably has tons of corporate clients along with individuals, and has a very strong stake in economic growth. In other words, if controlling climate change were really too expensive to be worth doing, the ABI should be the first organization pointing that out.

Instead the insurance industry, which by definition has the best understanding of the risks people face, now says definitively that the risks of not acting on climate change far exceed the risks of acting.

Even the most staunch anti-environmentalist should be willing to listen to that.

And it's done

C-38 has passed. Huzzah!

With the removal of what I presume is the last great immediate obstacle to equality for the GBL community (let me know if there are others we should be focussing on), where does the equality movement go from here? Here are a few ideas for issues that are already before Parliament.

One possibility would be seeking to add to the core group of rights available to all. For example, the NDP's Peter Stoffer has put forward a bill to enshrine a right to housing in the Bill of Rights. Of course, that sort of line of discussion can go in an entirely different direction: see for example Conservative Scott Reid's proposal to enshrine property rights instead.

Another possibility is the more explicit protection of rights which, in principle, should already be available. See Dipper Libby Davies' bill to outlaw racial profiling, or Liberal Lloyd St. Amand's bill to investigate the treatment of elderly Canadians.

Then there's the possibility of recognizing added groups who are so far left out of existing human rights legislation. The NDP's Bill Siksay has proposed protecting against discrimination based on gender identity, which sounds to me like a natural next step.

It's a great day for equality. But there's still more work to be done, and the taste of victory on SSM (after a Commons vote going the other way just five years ago) should only make us more eager to push further in the right direction.

As boondoggles go...

...the firearms registry may not have been such a bad one:

It says that 816 people — 767 males and 49 females — died of firearms-related injuries in Canada in 2002, the most recent year examined in the study. This represented 2.6 deaths per 100,000 population, down from 5.9 per 100,000 in 1979, it said.

Among males, the 2002 rate was 4.9 deaths per 100,000, down from 10.6 in 1979. Among females, it was 0.3, down from 1.2.

In a cross-border comparison for the year 2000, Statistics Canada says the risk of firearms death was more than three times as great for American males as for Canadian males and seven times as great for American females as for Canadian females.

Because more of the U.S. deaths were homicides (as opposed to suicides or accidental deaths), the U.S. rate of gun homicide was nearly eight times Canada's, the agency says.

Can the gun registry take much credit? The study is inconclusive. Was it worth the cost? That's up for debate.

But at the very least, we can say fairly definitively that Canada's gun policies continue to work far better than those south of the border.

Keeping the balance

Lest there be any doubt, governments should make sure that the money they're spending is going to the right place. But they shouldn't be going too far in keeping that money from getting anywhere either. A developing case in point:

Brent Daum says that since the misappropriation of over $1 million came to light in January, clients of AIDS Saskatoon who also receive assistance have faced increased scrutiny.

Social workers have been increasingly demanding of documentation -- from receipts to new reports from clients' doctors to verify they are too sick to work.

"They're making them jump through hoops 10 times more than what they did before to make sure that nobody is taking advantage of the system," he says.

And:

"It's basically resulting in people being unable to access some services because the requirements in terms of documentation may be too great or the length of time it takes to get approval is too long. And when people are in immediate need, time is obviously of the essence," says (the executive director of AIDS Saskatoon).

The NDP government does recognize the problem, and is working to find a way around the provincial auditor's recommendation that all expenditures be backed up by a receipt:

"In actual fact, the department is being asked to fulfil the requirements of the auditor to have appropriate documentation to approve payments. One of the things we're working through with the auditor is how we can have this not have an impact like that on the clients. There's no question social workers had more flexibility until the auditor's report which required that every single receipt be in the files...The department is moving in fact more to an income approach because just the cost of administering this receipt-gathering makes it very difficult to provide a decent level of service."

Who wants to bet that the receipt requirement itself was based on a perception that the program would run more efficiently and accountably if it funded only immediate expenses rather than providing block sums?

Just a friendly reminder that while accountability is important, there are good reasons why auditors aren't actually in charge, and why sometimes their recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt.

(Edit: typo.)

Research and development

In some cases, of course, business' interests do coincide with the greater good. Unfortunately, it appears that Martin is dropping the ball on one of those:

After presiding for nearly a decade over extraordinary growth in the budgets and ambitions of the agency that funds more of Canada's academic research projects than any other, Renaud said he would have liked to have served two more years, and admitted: "I'm worried, to be frank." For two budgets in a row, growth in federal investment in research and innovation has stalled. "It's as if universities have had enough. I kept being told by people all over Ottawa, 'Marc, don't expect the growth that you've seen for the last eight years for the next few years.' "

Now, is this all soft social science research that we should be eliminating in favour of a business and science orientation? Not so much:

A health sociologist from the Université de Montréal, Renaud has spent the last year and a half in consultations with university administrators and faculty with an eye toward overhauling SSHRC's mandate. He wants Canada's social-science and humanities researchers to be better connected -- with one another, with the outside world, with mainstream media outlets and with governments. He wants to keep pace with an explosion in research in fields where research involves tools far more exacting than the traditional humanities diet of late nights over dusty books.

"Don't forget, we cover the landscape," he says. "We always thought social science was soft stuff and people just needed their pens. And it turns out, it's not true." Now, longitudinal surveys -- immense databases that track information about large samples of people over long periods of time -- "allow us to compare what aging means in Greece and Italy and Canada, given different policies, the climate, the family structure," Renaud says. "Five years ago there were zero students doing their thesis on this. Now there's 400 in Canada."

The upshot? Renaud wants SSHRC's $240-million budget for research and graduate-student training to double over five years. It sounds extravagant until you realize that the budget is barely a quarter of those for either of the two granting councils for science.

Compared to a tax cut which would have relatively little impact on any given business, this would be an extremely sound investment. Unfortunately, it's one that Martin doesn't seem to want to make. The NDP should be all over this one.

Dog bites man

More shocking revelations from d'Aquino et al. - the CCCE wants both tax cuts and attention. My favourite part is this passage:

The CEOs want the national debate to switch to strategies for cutting excessive spending, taxation and regulations -- and away from endless partisan wrangling in Parliament.

As framing tactics go, this is an impressive one - as far as the CCCE is concerned, any discussion other than "how should we give more money to Thomas d'Aquino?" qualifies as "partisan wrangling".

With that said, I hope the Liberals are spineless enough to play along with the CCCE come campaign time. Nothing would be better for the NDP than to be the voice of good management while the Liberals and Conservatives compete to offer the largest possible corporate tax cuts, balanced budget and social programs be damned.

Variety show

An assortment of fun headlines from Reuters' politics page, focusing largely on the blatantly obvious which unfortunately isn't getting much play elsewhere...

- Halliburton's Iraq deals described as contract abuse (featuring Halliburton's brilliant "rehashing the election" defence);
- Experts say US complacent on nuclear terror threat; and, the ever-popular
- U.S. contradictory on foreign elections - critics.

Of course, Bushco is still trying to counter the facts with its usual mix of rose-coloured glasses and diverting attention away from the worst immediate issue:

Snow, selling social security bill, says US strong.

The truly sad part is that Snow can only manage two indicia to suggest the economy is doing well: more people working (without considering population growth), and a lack of inflation (when the Fed is already expected to raise interest rates on the basis that inflation will result otherwise). Please have fun comparing and contrasting.

NDP gain in the making

Good news for the NDP. Bad news for Andrew Scheer:

Lorne Nystrom is attempting another run at Parliament.

Nystrom has captured the NDP nomination in the riding of Regina-Qu'Appelle.

Nystrom's a longtime favourite of mine, he's exactly the kind of voice of experience the NDP needs, and he's well enough known to be a vital part of any NDP government-in-waiting.

Tax Obfuscation Day

I'm sure many have seen it already, thanks in no small part to Mike's great post. But for those who haven't, this McQuaig/Brooks piece is required reading.

On thinking through one's position

6 out of 17 inmates just released from Guantanamo say the Koran was desecrated. The Pentagon's response is to argue that such allegations are contained in Al Qaeda training manuals. Just one problem with that:

Tahir Ashrafi, a religious affairs adviser for Punjab province, said the 17 men had been cleared by Pakistani intelligence agencies after thorough interrogation and "have not been found to be involved in any kind of terrorist activity."

So take your pick:

(1) The Pentagon is right, which means that the U.S. decided to release active Al Qaeda members, then have its ally Pakistan lie about their background for no apparent reason.
(2) The Pentagon is making up excuses with no basis in reality.

I know where my money's going.

Who needs knowledge anyway?

Ontario's government decided to balance its budget by slashing library funding:

About $1.2 million has been cut by the Ministry of Culture from public library services, including the inter-library loan system...

Kathryn Goodhue, chair of the Administrators of Rural/Urban Public Libraries of Ontario, which represents 16 rural and remote libraries, said its members will suffer the most.

"We rely heavily on our ability to be able to borrow books from other library systems across the province," she said.

The beauty of a library system is that it enables anybody to have access to virtually any information. Cutting down on inter-library loans eliminates much of that ability. At rural libraries in particular, an individual's ability to get access to a book will be entirely dependent on that library's purchasing choices. In turn, those purchasing choices are limited by both the small audience and a small budget - likely leading the libraries to stick to well-known books rather than providing any base for specialized knowledge.

But isn't that knowledge also often available on the Internet? Sometimes yes, sometimes no - but either way that too is becoming less accessible, since $340,000 is being slashed from the computer budget for libraries.

At best this sort of decision is short-sighted; at worst it reflects complete contempt for the needs of rural areas in particular, and the value of information in general.

Head in the Sand

Ujjal Dosanjh:

I don't see a great rush to set up private health care, because we have a very recent experience. Forty-five years is not a long time in the life of a nation. There are people who still remember the dark days of private health care, where people had to sell their farms and sell their homes to care for their loved ones.

Of course, the problem here is that in the absence of government action it isn't the Canadian public at large which gets to choose whether or not a private system is set up - it's those who stand to benefit from it at the public's expense. And all indications are that privatization is happening while Dosanjh does nothing.

Bush: Duncan Hunter is un-American

Bush claims that the U.S. is fighting torture, and in the process manages to slam some of his strongest backers:

America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains.

The problem is that that's exactly what Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter pretended about Guantanamo detainees a couple of weeks ago:

The inmates at Guantanamo have never eaten better, they have never been treated better, they have never been more comfortable in their lives than in this situation.

And Hunter's not the only example of such wingnuttery - in fact some conservatives are putting together a Guantanamo cookbook in support of the administration, and claiming that the fact that detainees have put on weight means that they're being treated well. I'd hope that being denounced by their own president would lead to some views being reconsidered. But of course I have my doubts.

Reducing the high cost of being poor

The Canadian Press notes that payday loan services are just now getting real attention from governments:

The interest Sinclair has shelled out amounts to more than 1,000 per cent on an annualized basis.

The burgeoning short-term loan industry across Canada is largely unregulated, and the Criminal Code provision restricting loan rates to less than 60 per cent per year is rarely enforced.

Fees and penalties can be compounded and virtually unlimited.

The provinces and Ottawa are looking at new rules, and this fall ministers responsible for consumer affairs will draw up an action plan. Options include limiting penalties for late payments, slapping a new ceiling on interest rates and giving provinces more enforcement power.

Even the token "quote from a satisfied customer" is based on the idea that in the absence of other options, a person is better off paying an exorbitant interest rate than having to go through a pawn shop instead. The more important question left unasked is that of why there aren't some better options available.

One helpful solution noted by Judy Wasylycia-Leis is the creation of community-centred financial institutions:

In neighbourhoods like Winnipeg's north end, lax rules on banking services have allowed all major banks to simply pull up stakes and leave for more profitable pastures, paving the way for high interest payday lenders to enter.

My constituents are fighters, not victims, however, and are organizing through the Alternative Financial Services Coalition to provide access to non-profit financial services for their community.

While limits on the amount of interest charged on rollover loans and more strict enforcement of the usury provisions will help somewhat, the real solution lies in the creation and expansion of community lenders. Ideally, governments would provide backing to allow community lenders to function while taking small losses their issued loans. In turn, the lenders could both encourage local development, and keep more money in the hands of those who need it most.

Delaying the inevitable

The Cons plan to delay passage of C-38 as long as they can:

Jay Hill, the Conservative House leader in the Commons, told CTV Question Period on Sunday that “quite a few” of his members will want to have their say before the bill comes to a vote.

Mr. Hill wouldn't say exactly how many speakers he intends to put up, but he noted there were over 70 Tories on the list the last time the topic was debated in May.

Translation: We haven't yet come up with a cuddly, likeable Harper. Give us a couple more weeks and we'll see what we can do.

The more surprising part of the article is that both Valeri and Layton plan to avoid closure on the bill. For Valeri it makes a bit more sense, since presumably the anti-SSM Liberals would be glad to delay passage. For Layton, I know the inclination will be to avoid shutting down debate where possible - but does anybody genuinely believe that we haven't heard enough rhetoric about SSM?

(Edit: typo.)

The U.S. in Iraq: Proudly Negotiating With Terrorists

What Billmon said:

To salvage any ending short of total defeat in Iraq, the Cheney administration must act like those spineless, flip-flopping liberals. They have to negotiate with the terrorists, listening to their demands, trying to understand their grievances and goals -- shit, offering them therapy sessions for all I know. But at the same time, Bush also has to keep up the never-give-an-inch macho act, lest the silent majority finally grasp the dismal truth: Their sons and daughters must go on dying in the quagmire so the neocons can find a way out that doesn't involve losing too much face.

Go read the whole thing. As Billmon points out, the lesson here (which isn't news to some of us) is that by pushing the good-vs.-evil line all along, Bush painted himself into a corner which he now desperately needs to escape. The hope seems to be that internal U.S. bickering will overshadow Bush's duplicity. Needless to say, we shouldn't let that happen.

Diplomacy: not dead just yet

The U.S.' new ambassador to Canada is starting off his term with a great idea:

Keenly aware of his reputation for knowing little about Canada, a country he visited just once in the 1970s, Mr. Wilkins is steering clear for now.

“Listen — that's what I plan to do initially,” he said in a recent interview. “I plan to travel extensively and meet as many Canadians as possible. Then we'll formulate specific strategies.”...

“Everything I've learned just reinforces the fact that I'm honoured to be going to Canada,” said Mr. Wilkins, who was sworn in at the State Department last week. “The more I learn, the more I'm impressed with it.”

Not such a bad combination from the early returns - self-awareness, humility, and a willingness to listen. As long as Wilkins is operating along these lines, we should be more than willing to reciprocate.

Incarceration is on the march

Don't worry if most of Iraq isn't being rebuilt yet. In addition to the already-noted construction of permanent U.S. facilities going on in the Green Zone, there's another area of rapid expansion:

The two main U.S. Army-run prisons, Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, are operating near their maximum or "surge" emergency limits. As of Saturday, the two prisons together held 10,178 inmates, with 1,630 detainees awaiting processing in different Army divisional and brigade headquarters.

The Army is expanding both sites and working on the third major prison, near Sulaymaniya, which would house up to 2,000 prisoners; the additions will increase the total U.S. long-term detention capability to more than 16,000 prisoners.

Because of the added need for prison space, Abu Ghraib is still in use and will be for the foreseeable future. The timeline for ending its use has been pushed back from this spring to next winter, and it doesn't look like there's going to be any end to the increased numbers of prisoners anytime soon:

A Combined Review and Release Board...decides which prisoners can be released and which pose an immediate threat and must be detained. Rudisill, the Army spokesman, said the criteria include: the quality of the evidence against the prisoner; capabilities such as military training or electrical skills that could be put toward making bombs; suspected connections to insurgent cells; and "expressed philosophy."

Note that actual evidence is only a small component of the review criteria. More important is any real or perceived interest running against the occupying army. Needless to say, the Board errs on the side of leaving people to rot in jail, as 60% of all those reviewed are judged as "high risk".

But let's be fair - if there was some significant sovereign Iraqi demand for such incarceration, the U.S. at least shouldn't be on the hook for it. So what's the view among Iraqis?

The detentions are among the most controversial U.S. practices in Iraq, triggering daily demands for the release of most prisoners from Iraqi lawmakers, clerics and community leaders.

So, to review, the current prison system in Iraq is expensive, ineffective and unpopular, and growing by leaps and bounds. One more success story for the invasion.

Reopening the border

The U.S. has discovered another case of BSE. And Canadian ranchers are pointing out the obvious. Canada and the U.S. are now undisputably in the same boat internationally...so there's no reason at all for the U.S. to keep out Canadian cattle anymore.

Of course, don't try telling that to R-CALF. It's bad enough that R-CALF still refuses to acknowledge that the U.S. is no less a "BSE-affected country" than is Canada. But even worse, R-CALF is calling for increased BSE testing while implicitly criticizing the USDA for retesting cattle - including the one that just tested positive.

The Cowardly War

The Canadian Cynic on the U.S.' cowardice in the Iraq invasion.

Read it.

Non-investigative reporting

For the most part, I tend to be a fan of the Star, but here's some due criticism. This article deserves nothing but scorn - not because the data isn't somewhat interesting, but because the conclusions are twisted far beyond belief.

The premise is that a reporter, David Bruser, put on a Southern accent and pretended to be a Bush supporter to test reaction from Canadians.

Here's a fun little test. In each of the following pairs, see if you can spot which quote is which.

1. One quote is from a person surveyed by Bruser. One is from a prominent American political pundit.
(a) "Reconsider your views."
(b) "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

2. One quote is from a person surveyed by Bruser, speaking about American politics. One is from Canada's Blog of the Year speaking about Canada's government.
(a) "On the rather central issue of the country's medium-term survivability you have two naked parties complaining about each other's choice of clothes. Gee, what's not to trust?"
(b) "They boast. They have this and they have that. (If they spent less) time doing that, they'd just get their problems solved."

3. One is the percentage of people approached by Bruser who, in his view, "acted snotty" toward him. One is the percentage of Americans who approve of the use of torture.
(a) 23%
(b) 39%

4. One is Bruser's feared reaction from two people who cracked a joke at his expense. One is the actual result of the rendition of Maher Arar.
(a) "The screams of my fellow inmates filled my waking hours and remain with me to this day."
(b) "The way they carried on, I thought they were going to high-five each other."

Now somehow, out of this, Bruser's thesis is that he's proven the presence of "ugly anti-Americans" in Canada, and that we should all be ashamed.

From the above comparisons, let's make two things clear.

First, in both the actual American public discourse and Canada's view of its own politicians, Bruser's idea of "ugly" wouldn't even register as worthy of note.

Second, there are genuinely ugly aspects of current American policy which are supported by a large number of Americans. Granted, we shouldn't make unfair generalizations or forget the importance of the U.S. to ourselves and the world at large. At the same time, we also shouldn't be so desperate to be seen as polite as to be silent when America does wrong.

The real story

The CP highlights this:

In the wishful-thinking category, if we could each have a share of the net worth of Canada we could each bank $134,400.

Don't feel too bad if you're just a touch below this number. That includes all individual, corporate and governmental wealth. And it's an average rather than a median. Even the Canadian Press can tell that it's wishful thinking to think this reflects anything based in reality.

Untouched in any of the media stories that I saw, and buried in the middle of the original Statistics Canada report, is this:

The first quarter of 2005 was marked by the first negative savings by households in decades with the personal savings rate dropping to -0.6%.

The demand for consumer and mortgage credit was up from the previous quarter. With sustained low interest rates, the growth in total household debt continued to outpace the growth in personal disposable income. This resulted in a debt to income ratio of 107.3% in the first quarter, up from 105.8% in the fourth. However, the ratio of household debt to net worth slid to 17.9% in the quarter, as growth in net worth exceeded growth in debt.

This shouldn't be news to anybody: in terms of actual income to outflow individual Canadians are continuing their slide toward increased debt, but are coming away with small increases in wealth (I presume largely due to increased housing prices).

Meanwhile, governments aren't the only organizations reducing their debt-to-income ratio:

Since 2000, corporations have generated more funds from internal operations in most quarters than they required to finance their non-financial capital acquisitions. As a result of this profit-driven string of surpluses, the corporate sector has been a net lender to the rest of the economy and has also used these funds to restructure their balance sheets, largely through paying down debt.

For non-financial private corporations, the ratio of debt-to-equity (at book value) continued its downward trend, reaching a new low in the first quarter as it has done in each quarter over the last four years.

To sum up: for the past 12 years, the federal government has been steadily reducing both its debt and its debt-to-income ratios. Throughout the past four years, corporate Canada has been able to do the same.

Meanwhile, for consumers, debt is through the roof, while real wages would be falling if not for increased education.

Now tell me again which group should be benefitting most from the federal government's surplus?

Accountability

Now this is how to deal with renderings:

An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street two years ago and sending him to a prison in Egypt for questioning, Italian prosecutors and investigators said today...

The judge's action represents the first time that American operatives face prosecution by a foreign criminal justice system for carrying out the C.I.A.'s policy of "extraordinary rendition," the legal term for the agency's practice of seizing terror suspects in one country and delivering them to be detained in another, including countries that routinely engage in torture. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 100 terrorism suspects have been transferred by the United States to Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and other countries, where some former captives have said they were tortured.

Of course, in practice this likely only means that the affected agents will have to tread carefully in Italy itself - there's no chance the U.S. will voluntarily turn them over. (Unless Valerie Plame is somehow involved.)

But at the very least, this makes clear what the renderings are: kidnappings leading to torture, not legitimate law-enforcement activity.

All aboard the No Labour Rights Express

The Klein government takes a bold step into the 19th century:

Restaurant owners in Alberta are now able to hire children as young as 12 without first getting provincial approval as a result of what government officials call a "procedural change" in employment practices...

The change, which took effect June 3, means that employers in the restaurant and food services industry can now hire children between the ages of 12 and 14 for their establishments without first getting a provincial permit.

The rule was also changed without any legislative debate.

An Alberta Labour Federation spokesman rightly points out the reason for the change:

"Restaurants, particularly fast food joints, are having a hard time finding people willing to work for the wages and conditions they put them in," he said. "So rather than take a good look at their wages and working conditions, they've decided to expand the pool they can delve into."

Now, this isn't an entirely new policy - the major change is that now there's no provincial approval required for such employees. But as pointed out by the AFL, the effect is that the province will now have no idea where 12-year-olds are working, making it virtually impossible to enforce special labour standards for young employees.

And of course, by making it easier for restaurants to hire children, this change also makes it less likely that they'll hire adults who likely have a greater need for the job, but who are also more likely to stand up to an employer if working conditions so warrant.

Of course, nobody will claim this is a surprising move from Klein. If anything, the surprise is that the AFL thinks that lobbying might be able to change it.

It's not working! Let's do more of it!

You know it's a bad article on the economy when King Ralph is the relatively progressive voice. Goodale makes some effort to point out that reducing corporate income taxes won't instantly cure all that ails Canada:

And many of the government's other spending promises have a strong and direct impact on productivity, from spending on education and skills training to infrastructure and technology, he added.

"All of those things contribute to productivity growth as well as competitive taxes, as well as fiscal responsibility, as well as strengthening the economic union and reducing internal trade barriers."

Naturally, neither big business, nor the Senate, nor the Canadian Press wants to listen:

"We're in a decline . . . and the government, what is it doing? It isn't walking the talk," said Conservative Senator David Angus.

A flurry of reports in recent months has highlighted Canada's sluggish productivity record.

One of the most striking was a study by Don Drummond, TD Bank chief economist, which concluded that Canadians have seen almost no improvement in their living standards in the last 15 years and prospects don't look good for gains any time soon.

Now, I don't buy the premise that Canada's economy is doing poorly in the first place; over the last five years labour productivity has been the lone down side, while employment, education and economic growth have been at the top of the G8. And of course the quotes feature massive jumps in topics, ranging from labour productivity to standards of living to...well, we don't even get told where Angus thinks a decline is happening.

But if one accepts that Canada's current productivity and competitiveness are in decline, shouldn't the article at least mention that past massive tax cuts couldn't have done any good?

And it's done

No more election threats until at least this fall: C-48 has passed.

Not only that, but at the request of the Bloc, the Liberals have committed to a vote on C-38 before the sitting ends.

Of course, the Cons are up in arms about a "deal with the separatists", failing to notice that it's in fact a matter of every other party agreeing on the issue besides them. Which can only make them look all the worse in the public eye.

All in all, a great day for Canadians.

Causing Homelessness

According to a Street Health study, homelessness in Ontario can be directly traced to the switch to EI:

Shartal said 1996 changes to Employment Insurance made it much harder for workers to get short-term disability payments, while changes to Ontario's long-term support plan in 1997 resulted in delays of up to nine months in processing applications...

Street Health said its study of homeless people in Toronto found many had a place to live before a sudden illness or disability forced them off the job, and the unexpected loss of income meant they quickly had trouble paying the rent.

"We begin to see the slide to homelessness," Shartal said. ``Homelessness for people who are partially disabled, who are sick and who are working, has now moved from something that might happen to something that is very hard to avoid."

Ninety per cent of homeless people surveyed by Street Health had 10 to 20 years of work experience before they became sick and eventually lost everything.

Needless to say, this is a failure on many levels. The long-term damage is obvious: a greater need for expensive shelters, more health problems arising out of time on the street, less employable workers.

And what's the short-term cost of changing the system?

The study recommends a seamless support program be established to help sick workers pay rent and other basics, saying it would cost much less than the $18,000 to $25,000 a year it takes to house people in shelters...

"There'll be a savings of between $550,000 and $800,000 a year to the adult shelter system."

And what strong action is Ontario's current government taking? The minister responsible recognizes a gap, and is talking about reviewing the current system. Looks like the "providing for basics" idea is just another solution too sensible to receive any serious consideration.

Highlight of the day

Some good news on the energy-conservation front:

WLED technology is based on a diode that conducts electricity in one direction through various materials, like phosphorus, germanium, or arsenic, which light up as electrical current passes through them. Such diodes are inexpensive to make, exceptionally bright, and shine continuously for 30 or 40 years...

WLED lighting not only has a long life, but may help us curb our electricity use. Twenty-two percent of electricity use now goes to lighting, and in a recent issue of Science, Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim, two experts on LEDs, suggests this number could be cut in half by moving to solid-state lighting.

So far, these lights have mostly been installed on First Nations reserves which otherwise lacked proper lighting altogether since they weren't connected to electrical grids. That's how efficient this lighting is: it can run off the electrical charge present on a telephone line. And it's headed for use in the third world soon, in a project to ensure that every human has access to lighting - making this development doubly positive.

The right question

For those wondering whether the NDP was ignoring the possibility of asking questions on health care, the answer is a resounding "no":

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, my second question is on a completely different topic. It has to do with health care. The question is for the Deputy Prime Minister, also a former minister of health.

She may be aware that the doctor who successfully challenged the ban on private insurance in Quebec is now being feted by conservatives in America. He is probably being quietly feted by Conservatives here, but they are not as open about it. He has gone to the United States and he says:

I would like to make a team with American entrepreneurs and go to Canada and create a private parallel health-care system.

This is exactly the kind of thing the Prime Minister has said he is against. What is the government plan to do something about this before it happens?

Dosanjh decided to throw himself in front of the bus with a "we'll prevent it from happening, and we won't tell you how" non-answer. It goes without saying that the "inaction isn't an option" principle is one that the NDP should be following up on at every possible opportunity - kudos to Blaikie for making that point about as well as can be done.

Human Testing - Guantanamo and beyond

From the Star:

Medical records compiled by doctors caring for prisoners at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay are being tapped to design more effective interrogation techniques, says an explosive new report...

The report's authors...say that while Guantanamo veterans are ordered not to discuss what goes on there, making it difficult to know how, exactly, military intelligence personnel have used medical information for interrogation, they've been able to assemble part of the picture.

They suggest that interrogators at the camp, set up in 2001 to detain prisoners captured in Afghanistan and later Iraq, have had access to prisoners' medical records since early 2003.

That contradicts Pentagon statements that there is a separation between intelligence-gathering and patient care.

In fairness, at the very least the detainees at Guantanom are fed chicken for their trouble. That's more than one can say for the American public:

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), chairman of the subcommittee overseeing EPA spending, will likely oppose a provision in the House version of the agency's appropriations bill that bans the agency's use of data from pesticide testing on humans...

Nothing more to add, other than a brief shudder.

Warning: Troll feeding time

Anonymous, in the most profound post of the year, asks whether or not I can add. My suspicion is yes, but feel free to check my math. I assume that the Speaker votes against legislation on third reading to maintain the status quo; again, let me know if that's wrong.

Here are the current party standings in the House of Commons. If all Cons and BQ members show up, and two independents vote against C-48 (Kilgour seems like a lock and O'Brien has to be at least a maybe), that's the end of the story: 154 "nay" votes out of 308, the bill is defeated.

If, as is more likely, O'Brien votes for C-48, then there are 153 "nays" to 155 "ayes". If Cadman is still not healthy enough to vote, and Sarmite Bulte's travel plans fall apart again, then it's 153-153. Tie goes to the status quo, government falls.

Hence my agreement with Mike that for all the Cons' tough talk, they'll have members ready to avoid the vote at a moment's notice.

This must be a joke

CTV claims that the Conservatives haven't given up on bringing down the government and triggering an election this sitting:

"I expect we're going to have every member in our caucus here whenever the vote is," B.C. Conservative MP John Reynolds told CTV News on Wednesday. "Whether it's tomorrow or next week ... we will have every member here, and this government deserves to be defeated."

And sayeth Craig Oliver:

"We're back into brinkmanship again. It's unlikely, but it's not improbable, that the Liberal government could fall in the next vote...

"This is a serious attack on the government and it will come very quickly and we should be ready for it when it comes."

Now, I know that the Cons are always happy to pretend they have the most power possible, and trash-talking about bringing down the Liberal minority has been as close to power as they've come in well over a decade. But surely they can't honestly believe that an election now will lead to anything but a disastrous result for them, can they?

(And somewhere, a nagging voice says "of course they can...")

Speaking of keeping talented workers...

...Saskatchewan bumps up its minimum wage to $7.50 an hour. According to the Leader-Post:

Two more increases are planned that will eventually push the wage to $7.95 an hour by March 1, 2007.

Kudos to the NDP for passing this, and I'll give the Sask Party due credit for not reflexively condemning any change, contrary to their position last election campaign.

Tolerance and Economics

The Tyee has this interview with Richard Florida, an author who has a surprising answer to the third pillar in a successful economy:

What I say in my work is that there's this third T -- apart from Technology and Talent -- called Tolerance. The reason this third T is an important part of economic growth and economic advantage is because it attracts talented creative people from all races, ethnicities, income ranges, -- whether they're white, black, Hispanic, Latino, Asia, Indian, women, men, single, married, or gay. So places that are the most tolerant, the most diverse, the most, in words of the new book, "proactively inclusive" have an addition economical advantage...

It's really been our emphasis on being open -- providing economic opportunity, for sure, but being open to people, culturally and politically. My message is that this is really the core axis of economic competition. And my fear is -- I'll just be quite candid --that there's absolutely no awareness of this in Washington D.C. It's so terrifying.

This is a great point, and one that all progressives should be quick to pick up on. C-38 isn't merely a matter of conscience, nor merely a matter of human rights, though it's important on both of those levels as well. More importantly, it (and other similar measures) helps to define whether Canada is able to attract all of the best talent available - rather than merely that talent which the Conservatives are comfortable fully including in Canadian society.

And of course, note the stark contrast between Canada and the U.S., which can't even bear to let gays serve a vital role in its supposed war for survival. Could this be both (a) one of the truly defining differences between the two countries, and (b) one of the main reasons why Canada's economy is generally doing well while the U.S.' has been in the toilet ever since Bush took power?

Restoring faith in Parliament

Good news: according to the ethics commissioner, Gurmant Grewal's immigration scheme was merely a bad idea rather than corrupt.

The scary part is how well that decision fits the Cons' general means of pitching themselves - they don't mind having poor judgment, as long as they can claim there's a bit less corruption than on the Liberal side.

Choosing one's symbols

The Liberals, trying to decide who should represent their efforts at democratic reform, have made a couple of surprising choices.

First, an ethics commissioner so widely respected that both other national parties want him to resign for incompetence.

And second, a party-switching MP turned Minister for Democratic Renewal who, on my reading of Hansard, hasn't yet so much as answered a question in the House related to that file. (On EI and other human resources issues she's given plenty of "I don't know yet" and "Of course I don't think what I used to" answers. Personal reform, by all means. Liberal renewal, I'll grant. Democratic reform, let's not kid ourselves.

The other main change highlighted by the Liberals is a change in the whip structure on votes - but then it should also be obvious that there's a strong incentive to loosen party reins in a minority government setting in hope that opposition parties will do the same. We'll see how long the whips stay off if the Liberals get another majority, but I wouldn't expect it to last long.

And that's apparently Paul Martin's grand democratic achievement. Now think what could get done if there was a real reformer leading the charge.

Responsible consumer spending, or a lack thereof

April's spending numbers:

According to the latest survey by Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan consumers spent 6.9 per cent more on purchases in April than they did one year earlier...

The increased spending is due, in part, to the fact that incomes in the province are up by about 1.9 per cent after inflation...

Even allowing for other factors (low interest rates? better weather for renovations? a generally happy provincial outlook due to higher oil prices?), that's a disturbingly high jump based on not much more real wealth. And even worse, it looks like Saskatchewan was more restrained than other areas: the jump in spending was below the national average of 8.2%.

Just how sovereign are they?

A tip of the cap to Stageleft for noting that Iraq's new leaders want foreign troops out of the country:

Iraqi lawmakers from across the political spectrum called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from their country in a letter released to the media June 19...

Eighty-two Shiite, Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian and communist deputies made the call in a letter sent by Falah Hassan Shanshal of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the largest group in parliament, to speaker Hajem al-Hassani.

Nearly a third of the current Iraqi parliament signed the letter. It's of course far from unanimous, but certainly seems to reflect a good chunk of the country.

Meanwhile, all indications are that the U.S. plans on sticking around awhile:

The price of building materials has gone up unbelievably, in spite of the fact that major reconstruction has not yet begun. I assumed it was because so much of the concrete and other building materials was going to reinforce the restricted areas. A friend who recently got involved working with an Iraqi subcontractor who takes projects inside of the Green Zone explained that it was more than that. The Green Zone, he told us, is a city in itself. He came back awed, and more than a little bit upset. He talked of designs and plans being made for everything from the future US Embassy and the housing complex that will surround it, to restaurants, shops, fitness centers, gasoline stations, constant electricity and water- a virtual country inside of a country with its own rules, regulations and government. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Republic of the Green Zone, also known as the Green Republic...

The Green Zone is a source of consternation and aggravation for the typical Iraqi. It makes us anxious because it symbolises the heart of the occupation and if fortifications and barricades are any indicator- the occupation is going to be here for a long time.

Well, the WMD and terrorism excuses for invading have been long since disproven. I suppose that by refusing to allow for any degree of local freedom during at least the course of his term of office, Bush is aiming for the trifecta.

Post of the...day? week? lifetime?

Whether or not this is actually Rick Mercer, it's brilliant.

Nuclear Wasteland

I can almost hear "The Circle of Life" playing in the background. According to the Prairie Dog (scroll halfway down the page), Saskatchewan is being considered as a dumping ground for nuclear waste:

With Canada’s nuclear reactors creating enough radioactive waste over the years to fill a football field one meter deep, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is looking for a place to store the stuff.

Well, says a recent NWMO draft report, why not Saskatchewan? Not only is the province a source of uranium (maybe we can just put it back where it came from?), it’s also geologically stable: no fault lines for earthquakes or pressure points for volcanoes, which could cause the radioactive material to leak into the earth.

Sadly, this seems to be the best option anybody's put forward, despite some obvious drawbacks:

(T)rucking radioactive material across Canada looks like an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen...A truck crash, fire, or possible terrorist act would spew radioactive material into the air, rendering square miles of Canadian countryside—or cityside—unlivable.

Linda McQuaig makes largely the same points in discussing why new nuclear plants aren't the right answer to an impending energy crisis:

Right here in Ontario, the McGuinty cabinet, under pressure to make good on promises to close coal-fired electricity plants, is contemplating reviving its nuclear commitment...

(E)ven if we're unfazed by the prospect of a meltdown, a terrorist attack, a million-year waste problem and the mega-billion-dollar cost of new reactors, there's an added hitch: New reactors can't be built in time.

A reactor takes 15 years to build, notes energy consultant Ralph Torrie. Cutting corners on regulatory standards — hardly a great idea — could shave five years off that time, still leaving us five years short.

The amazing part is that just as the NWMO is finally coming around to dealing with the aftermath of previous nuclear construction, others are proudly ignoring the problems with those past projects. We can't undo the past damage; we can avoid causing even more of it now. No new nukes.

Famous firsts

It may not have happened before. It may never happen again.

Paul Martin refused to promise something - namely, added foreign aid in response to Live 8:

Martin responded in the House of Commons Tuesday by saying he is not prepared to make promises that the federal government can't keep.

"The problem with international public policy is that, too often, commitments are made on the grounds of photo ops and I will not do that," Martin said.

Of course, when it comes to domestic policy, photo ops on promises that might not be kept are just fine.

Who knew?

It turns out that urban life and rural life aren't that different.

Try telling that one to Saskatchewan voters.

Car-Free Sundays

Is this idea too good to be allowed to continue?

Last year, an initiative called Pedestrian Sundays saw several of Kensington's main thoroughfares blocked to traffic, with the city's blessing and more than $30,000 in funding from taxpayers.

Pedestrians took over the narrow streets, while musicians and street entertainers performed for free.

The problem this year? The initiative didn't receive any funding, even though it reduced its request to $12,000 - because suburban councillors grouped it with street festivals in their own districts which didn't receive funding.

Fortunately, there's a familiar name on council still pushing for funding:

Councillor Olivia Chow...argues that the whole project has been misunderstood by some of her fellow councillors.

Pedestrian Sundays shouldn't be looked at as a street festival, she argued in an interview.

Instead, the initiative is an example of how people can live, work and shop without cars in compact areas of the city like Kensington, Chow said. That means cleaner air and a healthier environment.

Note that the business community is split on this one, as the drive for more car-free days is being led by a restauranteur. An idea which seems at worst neutral for business, and which has obvious health, environmental and cultural benefits, is being rejected solely based on a small price tag. I'm sure suburban street festival organizers feel much better knowing that.

Differences in personality

Am I the only one who figures that put in the same situation, Pierre Trudeau would go out of his way to turn up in Geremia's church the following Sunday? Or, for that matter, the only one who'd like to see Martin do the same?

EDIT: Typo.

Happiness is...

...in the process of being quantified:

Hundreds of academics, farmers, environmentalists, business people, entertainers and health professionals are trying to figure just how to do that, and to convince others that it is just as an important indicator of a country's success as its economic well-being...

Colman and other delegates contend that a better way of determining a person's well-being and the well-being of their surroundings is by looking at several factors - environmental preservation, sustainable economic development, cultural promotion and good governance.

A fascinating initiative to be sure, and one that the NDP should be strongly supporting (while emphasizing that continued economic development is still a huge part of the total package). This is precisely the kind of index which, if widely reported and accepted, could start to put some kind of easily-understandable measure on the importance of progresive policies.

Of course there are problems in the project. Nice though it would be to put together an index on all these ideas, there's always the concern that the attendees themselves will miss other important issues. And the weighting of the actual factors must be close to impossible. But anywhere the discussion turns toward "which of good government, economic growth and environmental protection is most important, and how do we encourage all three?" rather than "how can we put this government out of its misery?", progress is being made.

Let them graze on crops

Gordon Campbell's post-election cabinet shuffle includes putting the responsibility for social housing under the ministry of Forests and Range. The precise duties of the Minister:

Forest stewardship and timber supply
Forest protection – pests and fire
Compliance and enforcement
Forest investment
Timber pricing and sales
BC Timber Sales
Grazing and range stewardship
Housing and homelessness policy

Apparently B.C.'s homeless should give up on ever seeing the luxury of Porta-Potties - instead they'll be sent out to the woods to fend for themselves. (It remains to be seen whether Rich Coleman, the Minister responsible, will classify the homeless as "pests" under his mandate.)

Nuclear insecurity

Of course, maybe Pakistan isn't the only state that needs to guard its nuclear secrets:

Sixteen illegal immigrants gained access last year to one of the most sensitive weapons sites in the country, according to a report issued Monday by the Department of Energy's inspector general...

The report further said there was "compelling" evidence that security tests have been manipulated since the mid-1980s...

Several sensitive activities take place at the Y-12 plant, including the warehousing of enriched uranium and the dismantlement and storage of weapons. The site was being tested to see if it could defend against potential security incidents.

Amazing though it is that workers without proper documentation had access to sensitive documents, the most remarkable part of this is the fudging of security tests over a 20-year period. You'd think at some point during that time, the site would have been more interested in knowing its actual capabilities than in looking good on a test.

Old story, new twist

It was fairly well-reported last year that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was responsible for selling nuclear technology to Libya and Iran. Because of Musharraf's support for the War on Terror, the U.S. was just fine with Khan receiving a pardon for his trouble.

Now it turns out that the damage may have gone further: blueprints for nuclear centrifuges have gone missing.

A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing.

"We know there were several sets of them prepared," said the official. "So who got those electronic drawings? We have only actually got to the one full set from Libya. So who got the rest, the copies?

"We have no evidence they were destroyed. One possibility is another client. We just don't know where they are."

And it gets worse:

It is now also clear that multiple components secretly made for Libya's $100m (£54.6m) centrifuge programme did not reach Libya and have gone missing.

"We are still missing something from the picture in terms of critical equipment, certain parts of centrifuges ... There is equipment missing important enough for us to search, an amount that makes us worried.

Keep in mind that the operative rationale for keeping Guantanamo open is that it's a source of "useful information...in the war on terror". Would it perhaps be useful to know just how many blueprints Khan sold, or where parts might have been shipped? And if so, why is the man who knows the answers entirely off the hook?

And speaking of intractable...

Stephen Harper is good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, he doesn't care if people don't like him:

Despite Conservative talk of changing tack with a summer-long charm offensive by the party’s leader, Stephen Harper says he’s not interested in an image makeover.

“I don’t intend to change myself,” Harper told Vancouver radio station CKNW during a nationally syndicated call-in show today.

“I am who I am.”

Indeed. And he is what he is, as well. Namely, unelectable. (Much to Warren Kinsella's chagrin.)

What common good?

Here's what happens when you get too many right-wing ideologues in one place:

Calgary's mayor says city residents must conserve water or the city will shut off the taps.

Dave Bronconnier is angry that water usage actually increased in Alberta's largest city after an appeal to cut back in the wake of weekend flooding...

The city has already been forced to ban outdoor water use and anyone caught watering their lawn, outdoor plants or washing off driveways could be fined up to $2,000. Water rationing is the next step.

Wonder if we can take a few lessons from this. For example, that voluntary individual compliance isn't generally a viable means of altering behaviour on environmental matters. Nah - it'll all be forgotten by the time the floods subside.

Consumer Debt

For all the talk about governments acting responsibly over the past decade and a half, the reality is that a lot of the debt has simply been passed along to consumers:

(B)allooning paper wealth combined with ultra-low borrowing costs are also inspiring Canadians to dig themselves deeper and deeper into debt, breaking records every year.

Debt as a percentage of an average household's disposable income hit 122.3 per cent last year, double the 61.1 per cent level in 1961.

The federal government has, of course, been going in the opposite direction:

Since its peak in 1995, Canada’s ratio of total government net financial liabilities to GDP is estimated to have been reduced by 38.2 percentage points to 31.1 per cent of GDP in 2004, which was again the lowest in the G-7.

Lest there be any doubt, I'm not advocating that the government try to increase its own debt at the same level as consumer debt. On the contrary, what would should be striving for is for consumers to live more within their means as well. Instead, what we see is this:

The "false economy" of surging house and stock values is certainly contributing to yet another hefty increase in the number of people getting into debt trouble, said Laurie Campbell, program manager of Credit Counselling Service of Toronto.

"There doesn't seem to be any limit to the amount of credit people can get, and they just keep borrowing and borrowing."

That borrowing is undoubtedly helping to drive the economy for the moment. But surely we know by now that the positive effect of added short-term economic growth isn't worth the long-term harm of a foreseeable market crash. I don't have all the answers to make sure that doesn't happen, but some public awareness of the problem seems like a start.