melhurtig.ca

Mel on Radio Again

 

Please note that the wonderful CBC IDEAS programme on Mel, “Citizen Mel” will be rebroadcast   this Thursday and Friday at 9p.m. on CBC radio.

Jillian

“Let Them Eat Dirt.”

 

Senate reform? I say dump it and add seats by proportional representation to the House of Commons. Harper’s present plans will result in U.S.-style dysfunctional government with an undemocratic Senate blocking House of Commons legislation,  Severe, lengthy periods of legislative deadlock. Who needs it?  Mind you, the present 10 Senators each for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is ridiculous when 4 Western provinces with much larger populations have only 6 each. I say dump the place and get on with proper democratization of the House, including more representation by population and guaranteed Committee democracy.

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The NDP leadership race? I was leaning to Mulcair, but Duncan Cameron’s recent Rabble column supporting Peggy Nash made me take another look. You should read it.

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Well, just as we expected. After 4 more years of Harper the country will be difficult to recognize. Gone will be the Long Gun legislation, gone will be the Wheat Board, gone will  be a Commons Committee system that does important work, gone will be a meaningful Senate, gone will be many senior and respected Civil Servants who don’t bow low enough to the P.M. and the P.M.O.  Now we find Harper is cancelling the 34 year-old partnership with the important and valuable Canadian Environmental Network of over 600 environmental groups across Canada. The intention is clear: let’s not let those pinko environmental groups block Steve’s “let them eat dirt” attitude.

Lawrence Martin “Hurtig Lecture” A Great Success

The Hurtig Lecture at the University of Alberta was a great success.  It will be broadcast by CBC’s IDEAS programme soon.  I’ll let you know the details.  In the meantime, here is an article that you should find interesting.

http://media.news.ualberta.ca/NewsArticles/2011/10/HurtingLectureresonates.aspx

Chris Hedge’s “The World As It Is” / Disgraceful Child Poverty / Harper and Stupidity

 

Now available in Vintage paperback Chris Hedge’s excellent book Death of the Liberal Class. “An important book” by a Pulitzer Prize winner. Do try to read it.

Hedge’s new book is The World As It Is.  Good stuff!!

Did you read the Vancouver Sun article about the disgraceful level of child poverty in her school (Seymour elementary) Want to reach her? Lani Morden is the vice-principal and the author. Her e-mail address is lmorden@vsb.ba.ca.  Worth encouraging!

Here’s Stephen Harper recently in Edmonton, “..fundamentally Conservative values are Canadian values. We are beginning a new era of pre-eminence for those values.” Sure, that why 60% of Canadian voters have voted against you, Steve, in the last 3 federal elections. The man never was very good with numbers.

Finally there is increasing protest about the lack of transparency in corporate  political donations in the U.S. Mind you, it’s still very modest., but it does annoy many American shareholders.  About time.  The system is corrupt.  And Harper is moving us closer to U.S. standards again.

And now Harper is beginning to focus on the CBC. What an evil man! You are going to need to stand up to defy him in defence of the corporation.

By the way Ideas will broadcast Lawrence Martin’s Hurtig Lecture at the University of Alberta. Go to CBC.Ca/ Ideas for more details.  Martin’s talk will be about the decline  of democracy in Canada, same topic as one of the most important chapters in my next book (2012). 

About 30 years ago I gave a strong talk inVancouver about the stupidity of exporting raw logs. Ethan Baron tells us that more than 40% of trees logged on the B.C. coast were exported as raw logs – so much for the premier’s job strategy. Jobs where? In the U.S.?  In Japan? How truely dumb!  Oh well, we can always buy the logs back in the form of doors, particle board, furniture etc.