The Atlantic's Derek Thompson explains it in four terse sentences: Europe has Greece. We have Mississippi. Europe uses the term "permanent bailouts." We call it "Medicaid." And he illustrates the point with a map from the Economist: Thompson again: [T]he poorest states like Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia rely on ginormous transfers of federal taxes in the form of unemployment benefits and Medicaid. Like the United States, the euro zone is all on one currency. Unlike the United States, the euro zone collects a teensy share of total taxes at the EU level and has no legacy of permanent fiscal transfers from the...

26 June, 2012

Rule 1 for Copy Editors: Pay attention to the photo your slapping in next to that headline, and vice versa. A friend who logged more than a few nights on the rim writes: It's hell laying out a tabloid front, eh? Especially when half of it is sent to you from T.O. I note that Canada is becoming a world leader in random gruesome crimes. As you know, this is a leading indicator that the Harperite vision of Canada is progressing well. Note that this is the Winnipeg version of Metro, not the Halifax edition....

19 June, 2012

The ultra-conservative US Tea Party movement is taking a page from Stephen Harper's playbook: gutting the census. Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would shutter several Census Bureau projects and programs. Robert Groves is the Bureau's director: [Video link] My mother, a school board member in her tiny Maine town, had a bumper sticker that read, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." You might equally, if less pithily, say, "If you think the census is expensive, try not knowing what's happening to your country's population." Gathering statistical information about a country's demographics has been a hallmark...

13 May, 2012

As long as the Harper Government is hell bent on reforming Canada's environmental assessment process, a Contrarian friend thinks we could save a lot of time by making this the first step: ...

12 May, 2012

Here's another placemarker for an issue I've wanted to write about for some time. I have not read any details of the Harper Governments plan to rein in federal environmental assessments, but in principle, I believe such an exercise is long overdue. It is a dirty little secret of the environmental movement that federal environmental assessments are a massive scam. They take far too long. They cost far too much. They do not focus on important issues. Everyone in the system knows this, but no one complains, because almost everyone benefits. Engineering companies get tens of millions of dollars to carry out...

30 March, 2012

When the Dexter Government's throne speech revealed plans to decentralize a few hundred of the thousands of provincial government jobs in Halifax, AllNovaScotia.com put out a bulletin that read: Bulletin II: Gov't Jobs Leaving HRM I wrote a Halifax friend and asked if that shouldn't read: Gov't Jobs Move to Rural NS My friend shot back with: Gov't Pandering To Rural NS I think my friend was joking,* but you don't have to scratch the skin of a Haligonian very deeply to discover the view that everything—everything—belongs in the provincial capital, with the possible exception of the Peggy's Cove lighthouse and the Shambhala monastery at Red River. This will...

30 March, 2012

Contrarian readers know I have no affection for the Harper Government. There are, however, occasional advantages to having hard-assed right-wingers in unfettered control. The willingness to do obviously sensible but unpopular things—like getting rid of the penny—is one of them. The penny should have been killed decades ago. Taxpayers lose money on every one we mint. Consumers and storekeepers lose 492 million hours every year handling the all but worthless chips. (Yes, I made that number up, but it can't be far off.) But...

30 March, 2012

Contrarian reader Michael Colborne points out that NDP leader Tom Mulcair's boycott of CBC Radio's English service, if that's what it was, ended tonight with an interview on As It Happens. He sounds like a guy who can take on Harper successfully. To do that, he'd be wise to avoid peevish boycotts in future (and that's advice from someone who'd love to see him succeed)....

27 March, 2012

I'm glad Thomas Mulcair won the leadership of the NDP Saturday. He has the best shot at retaining at least some of the party's beachhead in Quebec. He's said to be tough and politically shrewd, both of which he'll need to be when dealing with the wily Stephen Harper. He clearly plans to edge the party toward the centre, ala Darrell Dexter and other successful NDP premiers, and that's a good tactic when facing a government of right wing ideologues. But I'm not without a few qualms, including Mulcair's reputation for carrying grudges, and his occasional bone-headed statements on foreign policy,...

27 March, 2012

I'm a little late with this, but it's worth noting for the record the contrast between the way the Liberal Party of Canada and the governing Harper Conservatives reacted to Thomas Mulcair's election as leader of the New Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition Saturday night. Rae issued the following statement: I want to offer my warm congratulations to Thomas Mulcair on winning the leadership contest in the New Democratic Party.  I know Mr. Mulcair well and look forward to working with him to ensure Parliament acts on behalf of all Canadians. I also want to congratulate the NDP for a successful...

27 March, 2012
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