He thought his job was to be a talking head pundit.
Freelance journalist. Author. Nigellavangelist. Pedant about civic literacy and Star Wars/Trek. 🇨🇦🏳️🌈
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He thought his job was to be a talking head pundit.
And a very hearty good riddance to Giroux.
Stop calling for citizens assemblies. They are easily manipulated and used to launder the accountability for things governments find politically difficult, by the virtue that they are wholly unaccountable themselves. You want to make change? Organise politically. Do the hard work.
Good column from @justinling.ca. Carney saying that appeasement is being smart is a failure all around.
We simply do not hold premiers to account in this country. All attention and blame gets directed to the federal government regardless. A big chunk of this is the media's fault, but opposition parties, federally and provincially, also own a share of this problem because they go along with it.
ICYMI, my Loonie Politics column: Canada needs a real digital sovereignty strategy #cdnpoli
So, Alberta wants to charge data centres a surtax for connecting to the electricity grid, but will waive it if they partner with a new gas-burning facility? Of all the dumb things that Danielle Smith is doing... thelogic.co/news/alberta...
Did I not warn you before you moved?
Because the American ethos that sick days are only for show has seeped into our collective consciousness.
New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. This week I look at some of the problematic elements of the omnibus border bill. #cdnpoli
Oooof.
For the evening crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Canada needs a real digital sovereignty strategy #cdnpoli
She was convinced Carney wasn't going to be so bad for progressives, and this is her punishment for it.
From Patty Hajdu's Labour Day message.
City council has nothing but contempt for people who use transit.
We must cut our way to prosperity. It is the only option. We have tried literally nothing else and it hasn't worked... yes, the tax cut strategy hasn't been brilliant but what other option do we have?
For the holiday Monday crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Canada needs a real digital sovereignty strategy #cdnpoli
Sunday dinner was @nigella.bsky.social’s tomato curry with coconut rice, and it was very delicious.
"Labor." You've changed, man.
Absolutely amazing.
I'm not ignoring C-2. It just didn't fit into this particular column.
For the Sunday crowd, my YouTube episode where @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social and I discuss why Canada should think twice before signing an EV deal with China #cdnpoli
For the Sunday crowd, my weekend Loonie Politics column: Canada needs a real digital sovereignty strategy #cdnpoli
Great conversation between @anneapplebaum.bsky.social and @mariaressa.bsky.social on declining democracy, surveillance capitalism, and creating avenues for journalism to survive.
Once again, there is a bill in the Senate that would do the same thing in Canada, and it very nearly passed in the last Parliament because the NDP teamed up with the Conservatives the Commons. It needs to be voted down in the Senate this time before it can head to the Commons.
For the late/west coast crowd, my weekend Loonie Politics column on why this government needs to stand up to the tech bros and seriously build digital sovereignty, which is more than just locally-sourced data centres for digital asbestos #cdnpoli
Federally, yes. Provincially, and in Alberta especially, they are less independent and more vulnerable to persuasion by governments.
This week's video roundup is now posted for C$7+ subscribers—your curated selection of the only good #cdnpoli interviews of the week. I watched the politics shows so you don't have to. www.patreon.com/posts/video-...
New weekend column from me at Loonie Politics: Canada needs a real digital sovereignty strategy #cdnpoli
JJ Trek is on the TV at the gym, and I’m not that mad about it.
For the Saturday crowd, my latest YouTube episode, where @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social and I discuss the calls to sign an EV deal with China to lift the canola tariffs #cdnpoli
Dear Americans, welcome to the thrilling game of ‘Did this dictator die or just disappear for a day?’ We’ve been playing it with Putin and Lukashenko for decades. Enjoy the suspense.
I did too.
You make ONE fun post about someone recognizing you for an absurd satirical character you play on YouTube and suddenly you're being compared to Hitler's wife, so I think I've earned the right to tell you all to check out my Pierre Poilievre's Personal Assistant videos! youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Your 1,623,647th reminder that appeasing Trump not only doesn't work, it makes things worse.
I get that this week's #StrangeNewWorlds may not be everyone's cup of tea, but man, watching some of the most self-righteous, gatekeeping fanboys just *melt down* over it is quite something.
Can confirm that I have had to tell people in my replies "It's a parody."
Tale as old as time...
I can pretty much guarantee that the minister will step in, and lo, the remaining books on this list will pretty much entirely be ones with queer and trans content, which was where they started off this moral panic.
🤢🤢🤢
But Carney handed him one of the safest ridings in Toronto (a city he hasn't lived in for probably 15 years) with no nomination contest, and then created a bullshit ministry for him, because they're friends. But tell me again how Trudeau's Cabinet was full of nothing but "DEI hires."
This was what he considered to be "good television" as opposed to responsible political journalism (which is partly why we're in the mess we're in now). And you can see that he's clearly taking the very same approach to being a Minister of the Crown.
I have to say, I feel for the panicky backtracking from his comms staff in the story, and it reminds me of his time as a political show host. Instead of accountability journalism, he would spend his time winding up panellists so that they would fight (while he sat back with a shit-eating grin).
STRAIGHT. TO. JAIL.
ICYMI, my Loonie Politics column: Danielle Smith wants to gerrymander her next election #cdnpoli
It's not a rookie mistake. He was (allegedly) a journalist and should know how to do proper research on his own. The problem is that he's a hype man, and has guzzled all of the hype the tech bros have thrown at him. He has drunk all of the Kool-Aid.
For the morning crowd, my latest YouTube episode, where @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social and I talk about the dangers of signing an EV deal with China as a way to get past the canola tariffs #cdnpoli
Going to disagree that just making it free will stop the death spiral. You need reliability before people can be enticed to trust it again, and it doesn't have that. It's no good as a service if it can't get you where you need to be on time, regardless of what you're paying for it.
It's true. All of it.
Roundup post: Alberta's book bans take shape #cdnpoli
What good is fare-free transit if it's useless?
Score another one for the minister of digital asbestos.
A warning I often repeat for those working with attacker manifestos, like the one in Minnesota: resist the temptation to seize on one element that aligns with your own political or policy concern and elevate it as the only motive. Don't strip-mine manifestos to suit your current political project.
Truth. Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
For the late/west coast crowd, my latest YouTube episode, where @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social and I talk about why we shouldn't rush to make an EV deal with China in order to alleviate canola tariffs #cdnpoli
No, they're mostly just afraid of reprisals.
So @cdnpress.bsky.social won't call out the litany of lies and bullshit by Poilievre, and will merely both-sides it, but it puts out a major fact-check on *this* claim? Honest to Hermes, you guys...
What the actual fuck, National Post?
When you drive away your ridership with unreliable service, they tend to stay away. This should not be rocket science, and yet...
Aside from the fact that this headline is cringey AF, THE PBO IS NOT A WATCHDOG! Stop calling him that! Read his legislated mandate. Honest to Hermes, you guys. You're just indulging his worst instincts.
For the evening crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Danielle Smith wants to gerrymander her next election #cdnpoli
I am generally a fan of remote work but uh
The rot is within. Canada is not immune to the disease of right-wing authoritarianism and extremism.
Now in wide release, my latest YouTube episode, where @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social and I talk about the trade-offs of making an EV deal with China #cdnpoli
First day of production! #StarWars
For the morning crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Danielle Smith wants to gerrymander her next election #cdnpoli
They did during COVID for healthcare. Which is not education.
The federal government doesn't pay for education. That's solely a provincial issue.
Roundup post: Trying to make Churchill happen. (It's not going to happen) #cdnpoli
Which is why this isn't a new phenomenon.
This whole thread is worth your time to understand a bit of the complexities of current supply chains and how firms are trying (but maybe failing) to make sensible decisions in the face of insensible policy. Also, all of this is without touching China and international dumping. 1/2
For the late/west coast crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Danielle Smith wants to gerrymander her next election #cdnpoli
Usual voices as in the legacy media and their pundits, who have made "Canada is the laughing stock of NATO" to be the narrative they adhere to.
There is genuine mismanagement, and then there is Ford underfunding school boards and then blaming the trustees for not balancing their books (on the backs of special needs children primarily), and he doesn't differentiate between the two while he centralises authority over education.
Two of my favourites, Paul Wells and @anneapplebaum.bsky.social, in conversation.
For the evening crowd, my Loonie Politics column on how Danielle Smith is hoping to gerrymander the next Alberta election if she can get her own way (which differs from how Americans gerrymander) #cdnpoli
For fuck sakes. TALK TO A FUCKING ENERGY ECONOMIST ABOUT LNG. Your "business case" laugh lines are bloody ignorant. #PnPCBC
This is a good rebuke of digital asbestos.
Because the point was to make them.
Some twelve years ago, I had a dinner party for a friend who had never seen "Star Trek II," so we watched "Space Seed" and then the film. I made lemon and grapefruit marshmallows for dessert, to look like TOS food cubes. They were fun! A *giant* pain in the ass to make. But fun to eat.
Do legislatures abdicate their power by enacting Henry VIII clauses? Observers say just because something is not constitutionally prohibited does not mean it’s a good thing. @journodale.bsky.social has more on that. www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...
I’m pretty sure that most young Canadians aren’t lining up to do things like farm labour. (This is why one shouldn’t generalise so broadly).
ICYMI, my Loonie Politics Quick Take on the false narratives being spun around Poilievre's by-election win #cdnpoli
ICYMI, my @LooniePolitics column: Canada's drought crisis is a sign we need more climate action, fast #cdnpoli
New column from me at Loonie Politics: Danielle Smith wants to gerrymander her next election #cdnpoli
Roundup post: Carney hits Berlin and Riga #cdnpoli
For the late/west coast crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Canada's drought crisis a sign we need more climate action, fast #cdnpoli
I see the National Post is having another normal one...
Can't be too careful. Some kid might catch gay from reading it in a book.
Once again, no Canadian company bid on those ships. None.
The political right is obsessed with "woke politics" dictating what can or can't be said. Meanwhile, they're implementing Orwellian and costly bullshit like this.
Good to see comments in here from @smsaideman.bsky.social about Canada punching above its weight in Latvia, which is not the message we hear from the usual voices in this country. #cdnpoli
For the evening crowd, my Loonie Politics Quick Take on the narratives that are emerging about Poilievre's by-election win that aren't actually true #cdnpoli
For the evening crowd, my Loonie Politics column: Canada's drought crisis a sign we need more climate action, fast #cdnpoli
Could a single CBC fill-in host talk to an energy economist (like @aleach.ca) about what "no business case" means for LNG? Because they obviously don't have a clue. FFS #PnPCBC
