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Socialism
Jason Kenney Calls it Socialist Propaganda, but Mouseland has Abiding Relevance in Canadian Politics
Last week, Alberta United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Jason Kenney took great exception to a children’s story session. Why, you ask? Because Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley chose to read kids the story of Mouseland, which was originally told by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s. The story of Mouseland described a society where mice formed the majority of the population, and yet consistently elected governments comprised of cats. Those cats passed laws that benefitted them, often to the detriment of the mice majority.
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Globalization
Review of the Renegotiated NAFTA: Benefits and Drawbacks to Canada
One can’t help wondering what Tommy Douglas and the CCF-NDP of a previous era would do at a time such as this. In all likelihood, they might assess that because of the elimination of chapter 11 and the energy proportionality rule, this is a somewhat better deal for Canada, but nevertheless, they would advocate that we give a six-month notice and simply get out of our current partial economic straitjacket. Is there any prospect of the NDP ever being revived in the way the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn suddenly became aware of its original socialist roots?
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Canadian Politics
Canada capitulates to Trump on trade with renegotiated NAFTA
The USMCA is being spun in Canada as a tweak to NAFTA. By the time the U.S. implementing legislation gets written up, even the trade policy specialists usually onside are going to be critical of much that is new. So far not one new positive element has been identified in the USMCA as a benefit for Canada. Pierre Trudeau called the original FTA with the U.S. “a monstrous swindle.” The new deal is that, plus a set of unnecessary capitulations to shut up Donald Trump on trade. It won’t.
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Environment
Climate change and corporate greed combine to destroy forests with fire and felling
The razing of millions of acres of forests by wildfires has been increasing in scale and intensity for the past few decades. This year has set new records for the number of trees and shrubs destroyed by fire – not just in the United States and Canada, but also in many other countries, including England, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Wildfires have been a yearly occurrence in the summer months for centuries. Triggered mainly by lightning, they were nature’s way of disposing of dead timber and providing fertile ground for new plant growth.
