Photo credit: eldeeem via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA One of the primary roles of any government, under any political system, is to allocate resources. Government regulates industry, controls public lands and sets tax rates to determine how big the “pie” is going to be and then decides how much of the pie various individuals and…
Pride & Prejudice: Angry white voter edition
Photo credit: DonkeyHotey via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA Today on Twitter, Juliana Pache said “White people think pro-blackness is anti-white because pro-whiteness is rooted in racism & is synonymous with white supremacy & violence.” White people think pro-blackness is anti-white because pro-whiteness is rooted in racism & is synonymous with white supremacy & violence. —…
Keep democracy in our schools
Among Stephen Harper’s really bad ideas in the new budget is Bill C35. It would, among other things, remove funding for the mock election program in schools. Turnout in the last Canadian federal election was 61% and knowledge of current events and civic participation are flagging in general. We need more civic education in our classrooms,…
Who Should Sit on the Iron Throne According to the Cast of Game of Thrones?
As part of that big Vanity Fair interview I mentioned a few days ago, members of the cast of Game of Thrones were asked who should, ultimately, sit on the Iron Throne. Some members of the cast chose the people you would expect them to but there were also some surprises. It appears that, if…
Elections offer a chance to improve government transparency and accountability
It is a good time to be a political junkie. I’m a dual (US/Canadian) citizen and the next three years will feature almost constant elections. 2014 will bring local elections here in Oshawa, Ontario as well as Congressional elections in the US. 2015 will bring federal elections in Canada and 2016 will bring the US…